The rock art of Kakapel Shelter, western Kenya

Abstract

Osaga Odak first described the Kakapel rock art of western Kenya in 1977. His sketch concentrated on the site’s main central panel, capturing only the clearer images and he categorised the images present into humans, animals, artefacts and non-representational designs, proposing a sequence of two styles painted by two different groups. Odak further argued that Kakapel’s paintings were drawn before the arrival in the region of the Kalenjin, placing them before the reach of oral history and thereby making it impossible to ascribe an authorship or age to them. Fieldwork in 2011 was undertaken to answer Odak’s call for further research at the site. This paper presents the first millimetre-accurate redrawing of the main panel at Kakapel and places the site within the broader context of eastern African rock art to propose an age and authorship for the different painted traditions represented there. It thus builds on and extends current understandings of the rock art sequence of eastern Africa.