Makarius Peter Itambu

This proposed collaborative study (with the local community) proposes to document and interpret the rock art from Kere, Siuyu, and Ughaugha villages in the Singida region of Central Tanzania. The cupule rock art features, gongs and associated paintings are rare in Africa and have only been reported from the Kalahari Desert and Kinderdam sites. Astoundingly, during my field excursion in July 2020 to explore avenues for postdoctoral study, I noted series of cupule features and gongs that are well known to the locals but unknown to the scientific community. Questions that remain unanswered are: who made these features and for what purposes, what do the features mean to the local people; how many similar features are there and how widespread (spatial distribution) are they especially in the Singida region? Answering these questions will result in better understanding of creative works ingeniously displayed in the rock shelters of Singida, Tanzania.