VERLORENKLOOF LONG WEEKEND EXCURSION

Outing with historian Peter Delius, farm owner Eric Johnson and Verlorenkloof guide Joseph Mothupi, for a special weekend of discovery in the “Forgotten World: The Stone Walled Settlements of the Mpumalanga Escarpment”

 

Date:          15th (Friday)-17th (Monday) June 2018                  

Meet at:     Verlorenkloof

Details regarding the meeting time and programme details will be announced closer to the date. 

Booking is essential:  Booking opens Monday 19 March 2018. 

Contact Anne Raeburn; Email anner@mweb.co.za / tel. 083 455-4151

 

Verlorenkloof Estate is home to a rich archaeological legacy. It lies at the epicentre of an extensive complex of the remains of Late Iron Age stone structures stretching along the escarpment from Carolina to Ohrigstad. These structures include stone-walled homesteads, livestock pens, cattle tracks and terraces.

 

In oral histories recorded in the early twentieth century the area was known as Bokoni – the country of the Koni people. Bokoni society lasted for approximately 500 years, and underwent a series of transformations.

 

Verlorenkloof Estate has over 120 recorded archaeological sites. These include terraces and open-air stone-walled sites in use when the Bokoni economy focussed on intensive agricultural production.

 

Verlorenkloof Estate was developed by Eric and Heidi Johnson, whose family has owned and farmed property in the area since 1970. The Estate has been actively involved over the past 14 years in developing and researching its archaeological heritage. 

 

Peter Delius, formerly a Professor of History at the University of Witwatersrand, has published widely on the history of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. From 2005 to 2009 he led the Mpumalanga History and Heritage Project that gave rise to two books -  Mpumalanga; History and Heritage (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007) and (with M. Hay) Mpumalanga: An Illustrated History (Highveld Press 2009). During this research, he became intrigued by the stone-walled structures that cover the Mpumalanga Escarpment. This led to major research projects with Alex Schoeman and Tim Maggs, and to numerous publications of which the most comprehensive is ‘Forgotten World: The Stone-Walled Settlements of the Mpumalanga Escarpment’ (Wits University Press, 2014). This book has also been translated (2017) into Afrikaans and Sepedi. Peter Delius also co-produced and co-wrote the documentary ‘Forgotten World’ on the rise and fall of Bokoni.

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