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Programme 2011
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Note Branch phone number: 072 669 3972, or phone Pamela Küstner on 012 365 3508
Click here for Western Cape Branch events
Trans-Vaal Branch: Confirmed Events
10-11 Sept:
Exploring the Balfour area.
Outing with Anna Batchelor-Steyn and
Alkis Doucakis
15 Sept:
A Working Life: Dorothea Frances Bleek.
Lecture by Jill Weintroub
6 Oct:
The Origin and Development of Art: A Neural Approach.
Lecture by Dr Helen Anderson
22 October:
ANNUAL SCHOOL of the Trans-Vaal Branch: "Archaeology and History on the Landscape".
17 Nov:
Painting Postures: Body Symbolism in San rock art.
Lecture by Leanne George
20 Nov:
Smuts House tour and year-end lunch.
Tour led by a Smuts House guide
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Exploring the hills of the Suikerbosrand around Balfour
Anna Batchelor-Steyn and Alkis Doucakis
Date:
Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September 2011
Meet:
Members R435 Non-members R485 (includes D,B&B at Mondoro and lunch at Welgelegen)
Bring:
Packed lunch for Saturday, water, sunhat, sunblock, sturdy shoes, 4x4 if possible
Bookings:
Essential. Phone Anita Arnott 011 795 4056
After condensing into the 4x4 vehicles available, we will explore a variety of cultural sites in the Balfour area. We will see where the Voortrekker leader Gert Maritz laagered on his trek to the Suikerbosrand and we will visit sites of early settler life. Later we will explore lesser known Late Iron Age stone-walled structures before returning to Mondoro in time for dinner. We sleep there, dinner, bed & breakfast accommodation has been reserved.
On Sunday morning after breakfast, the owners of Mondoro have offered us the use of their game-drive vehicle to visit stone-walled features in the nearby valleys. At 11:00 we will move on to explore the architectural features of the Herbert Baker-designed Welgelegen Manor, home of the Mostert family of Balfour, and now an up-market boutique hotel. We will enjoy a light finger lunch at Welgelegen before returning home.
Directions: Take the N3 south and turn off at Exit 59 / Heidelberg (south) and Standerton. Turn left onto the R23 and drive for 13.5 km looking out for the MONDORO sign. Turn right to reach Mondoro.
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A Working Life: The Rock Art and Linguistic Researches of Dorothea Frances Bleek, 1873 to 1948
Jill Weintroub
Date:
Thursday 15 September at 20:00
Venue:
The auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown
Charge: Members free; Non-members R30
This talk looks at Dorothea Bleek's lifetime project to study the people she called "bushmen" and to map their cultures, lifestyles and languages onto the landscapes of southern Africa. Richly illustrated by photographic images and other materials, the talk explores many of her research trips and details her developing research practices in the field. It also examines her interpretations of rock art which she based in part on her intimate knowledge of the texts which her father Wilhelm Bleek had produced, together with Lucy Lloyd.
Jill Weintroub is affiliated to the UCT Centre for Curating the Archive directed by Professor Pippa Skotnes. She has spent almost a decade immersed in the archival study of the Bleek Lloyd Collection leading to her Doctoral dissertation on the biography and scholarship of Dorothea Bleek (UWC 2011). She has written an illustrated book describing one of Dorothea Bleek's early trips through the South African landscape.
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The Origin and Development of Art: A Neural Approach
Dr Helen Anderson
Date:
Thursday 6 October at 20:00
Venue:
The auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown
Charge: Members free; Non-members R30
The past decade has seen a significant shift of emphasis in our understanding of when humans first become an art-making species. Discoveries of abstract markings and personal ornamentation from Middle Stone Age Africa indicate that humans were engaged in producing artefacts of a symbolic nature up to 100,000 years ago. This paper will discuss the earliest evidence for art in the archaeological record and consider it in terms of a new approach, that of neuroscience. Understanding the ways in which environment and experience affect neural networks, especially in terms of the visual brain, may contribute to an understanding of the earliest artistic manifestations and why particular items may have acquired symbolic status.
Dr Helen Anderson has recently joined the Rock Art Research Institute as Research Officer in the Origins of Art. She graduated from the University of East Anglia in the UK, with a background in Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History. Her thesis took a neuro-archaeological approach to the origin and development of art.
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ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY ON THE LANDSCAPE: The interaction of South Africa's people in the last 500 years
ANNUAL SCHOOL 2011
Date:
Saturday 22 October 2011
Time:
09:00 to 17:00
Venue:
Delta Environment Centre, Delta Park, Road No. 3, Victory Park, Johannesburg
Click here for a brochure with the programme and all the details.
Click here for a registration form you can submit electronically.
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Painting postures: body symbolism in San rock art of the south eastern Drakensberg
Leanne George
Date:
Thursday 17 November at 20:00
Venue:
The auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown
Charge: Members free; Non-members R30
Any introduction to southern African rock art study includes an explanation of a number of classic dance postures and the importance of the ritual trance dance in the interpretation of the art. David Lewis-Williams conducted a great deal of his pioneering work on body postures in San paintings in the south-eastern Drakensberg. Certain movements and postures of the body held great significance during the actual trance dance, and are equally significant in understanding the rock art. Although researchers are aware of the role of the ethnography and references to the ritual trance dance in the interpretation of San authored rock art, we are not clear on the symbolic meaning of some of these recurring postures. This lecture explores symbolic meanings of and motivations behind specific recurring pointing postures in the paintings of Barkly East and Maclear Districts, and the complex processes of using and exchanging supernatural potency.
Leanne George completed an Honours degree in Archaeology at the University of Pretoria in 2009 and is currently an MSc (Archaeology) candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to this, she studied Zoology and English Literature, and has dabbled in journalism.
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Excursion to Smuts House and year-end lunch
Smuts house guides
Date:
Sunday 20 November
Meeting time:
10:30 for tour at 11:00
Meet at:
Entrance to Smuts House Museum, Irene
Charge:
Members R95 Non-members R145
Includes:
Museum entrance, parking, guided tour and a set cooked meal with fruit juice. (Wine and drinks not included).
Booking is essential:
Phone Anita Arnott at 011 795 4056
General Jan Smuts was a prominent South African and Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. His home has been preserved as a museum, with much of the original furnishings and the impressive library still intact. There will be an informative 45 minute tour of the house in the company of a Smuts house guide, from 11:00 to 11:45. Lunch will be a set cooked meal served at 12:00 and is included in the excursion price. There is a cash-bar facility and we may take our own wine, there will be no corking fee.
Directions: From JHB, take the N1 highway towards Pietersburg. Near Centurion, come off at exit 130 (Botha Ave) soon after the John Voster drive exit. At the off-ramp robot, turn RIGHT towards Irene. Follow the railway line along Botha Ave becoming Main Road until you see some shops on LHS. At the 4-way stop, turn LEFT, pass under the railway line then turn RIGHT at the Smuts House sign. Follow the road for 1.8 km to the entrance of Smuts Farm.
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