Sunday, October 24, 2021: Dr. Michael Chazan, University of Toronto: Wonderwerk Cave: Archaeology at the Edge of the Kalahari

Sunday October 24, 2021 at 3pm    Archaeological Society of America – Joukowsky Lecture

Dr. Michael Chazan, University of Toronto

Wonderwerk Cave: Archaeology at the Edge of the Kalahari

The town of Kuruman or Ga-Sagonyana is at the edge of the Kalahari in the Northern Cape Province.  The archaeology of this region is an extraordinarily rich record of human presence over a period of two million years.  The lecturer will present the experience of working in this fascinating part of the world and the results of research at the site of Wonderwerk Cave where he co-directs a project that has documented the earliest known evidence of cave occupation by human ancestors.  This talk will give a sense of what it is like to do archaeology in a society experiencing dramatic social change, as South Africa experiences the transformation from apartheid.  At the same time the current state of research—what we have learned and what we are still struggling to understand—will be presented for Wonderwerk and also for the neighboring sites of Kathu Pan and Canteen Kopje.

Recording of the lecture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/172lmwwXjGb73ulgOVh8HgMD7ru1Xlpur/view?usp=sharing