Public talks in South Africa

On the 5th of March 2020 SapienCE provided a morning of public talks in the coastal town of Still Bay, where we were the guests of the Hessequa Society of Archaeology. Still Bay is the nearest town to Blombos Cave, and local people feel a strong connection with the excavations there, making it an ideal location for the event. The first session, led by Prof. Christopher Henshilwood, aimed to keep local residents up to date on the ongoing research at Blombos. Dr Elizabeth Velliky presented her work on the use of symbols by ancient populations. Film maker Craig Foster closed the session discussing the Sea Change Project, ending with an impassioned plea to treat our oceans and their inhabitants better in the present-day. The second session was aimed at school-age learners who were bussed in from surrounding communities. Prof. Simon Armitage opened the session with an introduction to Middle Stone Age archaeology, after which two University of the Witwatersrand Masters candidates, Alexandra Pearson and Inèz Faul, presented their work. Alexandra explained how she became interested in studying animal bones, and then discussed what bones in archaeological sites tell us about the way our ancestors lived. Inèz explained how studying tiny marine organisms can help us to understand past environments and the influence that the environment had on human activity. There were 100 people attending the first session, while 170 attended the second session.