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Visiting Scholar from the University of Toronto, Canada

Courtneay Ms. Hopper measuring the internal diameter of an ostrich eggshell bead.

Courtneay Hopper, a doctoral candidate from the University of Toronto, is currently working at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum documenting ostrich eggshell beads from several Later Stone Age and Iron Age sites in the museum’s collections. Each bead is measured and suitable beads are selected to be sent off for isotopic analysis. This work will be used to look at interaction and social networks in the past.

Ms. Hopper’s PhD studies focus on understanding the social shifts related to long-standing interactions between hunter-gatherers and herders. Currently, she works in the Namaqualand Coastal Desert of northwestern South Africa where these social and economic interactions have left a particularly complex archaeological picture. To better understand how these interactions can be interpreted in the archaeological record, she combines biochemical (stable isotopes, organic residue, ZooMS), zooarchaeological, and ethnohistoric analyses.

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Visiting Researchers from the University of Johannesburg

In early June the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Human Sciences Department, welcomed University of Johannesburg (UJ) researchers, Professor Marlize Lombard, Dr. Matt Caruana, and Dr. Matt Lotter. The team, from UJ’s Palaeo-Research Institute (P-RI), visited the museum for a week to measure the spear and arrow collections. Their analysis forms part of a larger project implementing a tip cross-sectional area (TCSA) analysis to understand early hunting weapons and projectile technologies. By measuring the lengths, widths, and thicknesses of shafts and tips, they hope to develop a better understanding of the various weapon delivery systems (i.e., darts, javelins, thrusting spears) and accumulate data on standardized weapon morphologies.

UJ Team Professor Marlize Lombard, Dr. Matt Caruana and Dr. Matt Lotter.

Dr. Caruana measuring the thickness of one of the spear points.

Dr. Lotter measuring the shaft length of the spear.

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The KwaZulu-Natal Museum presents Night at the Museum. So much to see including live snake shows!

Loads of activities: archaeological excavation, invertebrate identification, San Hunter-Gatherer display, specimen dissection, interactive scientific games.

Warm snacks, coffee and popcorn are on sale!

Date: Friday, 15 July 2022

Time: 6 pm - 8 pm

Tickets: R50 per person (Available through Webtickets only)

Address: 237 Jabu Ndlovu Street, Pietermaritzburg

Purchase tickets: https://tinyurl.com/mry24y2h

#kznmuseum #pietermaritzburg #events #webtickets #whatson #whattodo #nightatthemuseum

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Archaeoacoustic project in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park

Recently, Dr Ghilraen Laue, Human Sciences Department, Kwazulu-Natal Museum, joined the ERC Artsoundscapes project for collaborative fieldwork in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park. The Artsoundscapes project, based at the University of Barcelona in Spain, aims to investigate the relationship between the acoustic properties of shelters and the placement of rock art by the image-makers.

Acoustics 1 Neemias Santos da Rosa, Diego Moreno Iglesias, Raphael Mnikahti, Richard Duma, CJ Hung, Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Ghilraen Laue

The fieldwork team included Professor Margarita Díaz-Andreu, principal investigator on the project, Dr Neemias Santos da Rosa, Post-doctoral researcher and Mr Diego Moreno Iglesias, engineer and research assistant from the University of Barcelona, Mr CJ Hung, MSc student from the University of the Witwatersrand, and Mr Raphael Mnikahti, rock art guide, and Mr Richard Duma, community elder, both from the local Thendele Village. Over a period of three weeks, the team visited 50 rock painting sites in the Kamberg and Giant’s Castle areas of the Drakensberg and carried out acoustic tests at 32 of these sites.

Acoustics 2 Setting up the recording equipment at a site in the Kamberg area.

Acoustics 3 One of the many amazing sites at which acoustic tests were made.

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