published online ahead of print in 2024, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2023.00297.
In the chapter Other regions, subchapter Africa, an error occurred in the location, description and possible interpretation of a rock painting (the erroneous parts are italicized):
Hollmann, J. (1993) ‘Preliminary Report on the Koebee Rock Paintings, Western Cape Province, South Africa’, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 48(127), pp. 16–25.
Jeremy Hollman is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and has been studying rock art in South Africa for the last 30 years. This article describes rock paintings from fifty sites in the Koebee area of the western Cape, South Africa. Most of these paintings were drawn in red or white and depict representations of animals and people, including scenes of hunting, dancing, healing, or religious gathering. Of particular potential ethnomycological interest is the Bella Vista site in Ladybrand District of the Orange Free State. These images portray a group of men dancing in the style of the shamanic medicine dance of the San people. These figures bear various mushroom shapes on their heads, and in a few cases, wear inverted mushroom caps with birds (a classic symbol of shamanic flight) in place of the head. It is important to mention that although the shapes appear mushroom-like, the author does not mention any explicit fungal connections in the actual paper, and it is impossible to conclude anything definitive on the basis of visual resemblance alone.
After careful consideration, the authors agreed to correct and further clarify the text. Therefore this paragraph should read (the revised parts are in bold):
Jeremy Hollman is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and has been studying rock art in South Africa for the last 30 years. This article describes rock paintings from fifty sites in the Koebee area of the western Cape, South Africa. Most of these paintings were drawn in red or white and depict representations of animals and people, including scenes of hunting, dancing, healing, or religious gathering. Of particular potential ethnomycological interest is the image on Figure 5, portraying a group of men dancing in the style of the shamanic medicine dance of the San people. These figures bear various mushroom shapes on their heads, and depict healing practices observed among the !Kung. It is important to mention that although the shapes appear mushroom-like, the author does not mention any explicit fungal connections in the actual paper, and it is unwise to conclude anything about African mushroom rock art on the basis of visual resemblance alone, just like with the famous Tassili ‘mushroom shaman’ Matalem-Amazar (Akers et al., 2011).
We sincerely apologize for the mistake.
The Authors
