“Apollo 11 Cave Stones”

“Apollo 11 Cave Stones”

• Huns Mountains of Namibia on the southwest coast of Africa

• Artist: Unknown

• Middle Stone Age (Paleolithic) (discovered in 1969 by a team led by German archaeologist W.E. Wendt) 

• Material: Charcoal, Quartzite slabs

Content: The Apollo 11 rock shelter overlooks a dry gorge, sitting twenty meters above what was once a river that ran along the valley floor. Blades, pointed flakes, and scrapers were found in raw materials not native to the region, signaling stone tool technology transported over long distances. Eggshells were used as containers for pigment/paint. White and red zig zags, two handprints, three geometric images, and traces of color. An unidentified animal form was drawn resembling a feline in appearance but with human hind legs of the animal are two slightly-curved horns likely belonging to an Oryx, a large grazing antelope. On the animal's underbelly, possibly the sexual organ of a Bovid.