You are welcome to join us for a Storeroom Talk at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg at 10.30 am on Wednesday 10 May 2023. The address is 237 Jabu Ndlovu Street, Pietermaritzburg.
SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
KWAZULU-NATAL BRANCH
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Jojosi Donga 1: An open-air knapping site of the Middle Stone Age revisited
Gunther Möller
University of Tübingen
In 1991, archaeologists Aron Mazel and Mike Moon, with geologist Greg Botha, excavated at Jojosi near Nquthu in KwaZulu-Natal. Jojosi is marked by severe donga erosion, which has revealed in-situ knapping horizons with abundant stone artifacts. These seemed to represent episodes of flaked stone artifact production. Aron did not pursue the project and the material has remained stored in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum archive since the excavation. Gunther will show actual artifacts from Mazel’s excavation, showing how exceptional the preservation is at Jojosi, and discuss insights we can gain from them into the technology and raw-material use of hunter-gatherer groups in the region in the distant past. His work and new fieldwork at Jojosi opens doors to extending Middle Stone Age research in KwaZulu-Natal from rock shelters to open-air sites.
Please contact Ghilraen Laue (glaue@nmsa.org.za) if you would like to attend. Seating in the storeroom is limited.