In 1917, German explorer Reinhard Maack discovered a group of rock paintings while surveying Brandberg Mountain in the northwestern Namibian desert. Forced to take shelter one night in a rocky outcropping, Maack awoke the next morning to find a wall of primitive rock paintings.

Believed to be 2,000 years old, the Brandberg paintings were drawn with charcoal, crushed sandstone, animal blood,…