Border Cave is an archaeological site located in the western Lebombo Mountains in Kwazulu-Natal . The rock shelter has one of the longest archaeological records in southern Africa, which spans from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age .
121-515: The west-facing cave is located about 100 m below the crest of the Lebombo mountain range. The variable rates of weathering of the Lebombo's Jurassic rocks led to the cave's formation. Researchers have excavated at Border Cave since 1934. In chronological order, excavations occurred in 1934 ( Raymond Dart ), 1940 (W.E. Horton, non-scientific), 1941–1942 (Cooke, Malan and Wells), 1970–1975, and 1987 ( Peter Beaumont ). Lucinda Backwell and colleagues reopened
242-829: A PhD programme. See Medical education in South Africa . As its main teaching hospitals , the Faculty uses the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital , the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital , the Helen Joseph Hospital , the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital and Klerksdorp/Tshepong Hospital Complex. It also utilizes facilities throughout Gauteng, North West Province, and Mpumalanga. This Faculty
363-475: A date of 74,000 +/- 4,000 years BP. Beaumont analyzed the site's stratigraphy (consisting mostly of alternating Brown Sand and White Ash layers) and material culture (particularly the lithics) to a greater degree of detail than previous researchers. Beaumont suggested that four cultural layers at Border Cave existed, which included MSA 1 (Pietersberg), MSA 2b (Howiesons Poort), MSA 3 (post-Howiesons Poort) and ELSA (Early Later Stone Age). Lucinda Backwell's team from
484-551: A few "public-private" partnerships to offer online programmes, in return for a cut of generated revenue. In 2022, Wits celebrated their centenary. As part of the centenary, Wits has also sought to address funding for the ‘missing middle'. Who are 'too poor to be rich and too rich to be poor'. Wits received a large R150 million endowment from Wits alumnus Natie Kirsh , for deserving missing middle students. Student debt remains and 55 199 students (May 2024) owe Wits more than R3.5-billion in unpaid fees. The current coat of arms of
605-605: A greater abundance of retouch debris. Small platform bladelet cores and bipolar cores and flakes also occur in the MSA 3/post-HP layers. Border Cave's Middle Stone Age fauna were primarily mammals, though there are a few bird types represented in the assemblage. The most abundant mammals were hares and small-large bovids (i.e. grysbok, oribi, klipspringer, mountain reedbuck, impala, bushbuck, springbok, hartebeest, wildebeest). Other animals such as bushpig, warthog, chacma baboons, vervet monkeys, honey badges, and Burchell's zebra also occur in
726-490: A mass review were cancelled. Wits management did, however, initiate programmes to ameliorate some of the negative effects of Wits 2001. These included the implementation of early retirement and voluntary severance packages to minimise retrenchments. Additionally, many of the affected employees' children were studying at Wits at the time, and received bursaries as part of their parents' employment contracts with Wits. The university therefore continued to offer bursaries to them until
847-493: A meeting with the then-banned ANC in Lusaka , revealed that to many in the surrounding disadvantaged communities, there was a perception of Wits as an elitist institution dominated by white interests. A need was identified for further transformation of the university. However, instead of translating POW 's proposals into institutional plans for transformation, Wits reacted in a defensive manner and refused to even acknowledge many of
968-489: A mostly intact infant skeleton (BC3) at the site alongside some Conus shells. Peter Beaumont excavated the site between 1970 and 1975. Beaumont, Todd and Miller jointly excavated more material in 1987. During these excavations, Beaumont and colleagues excavated two areas in the North and South parts of the cave. They recovered enamel samples from a human mandible (specimen BC5) for electron spin resonance dating. The sample returned
1089-400: A policy called "Wits 2001" under which work deemed 'non-core' to the functioning of the university (such as cleaning and landscaping) was outsourced to external contractors; the university's academic departments were also restructured: the university's nine faculties were reduced to five, the university's 99 departments were merged into 40 schools, and courses that were deemed redundant following
1210-516: A precursor to modern African humans. Philip Rightmire on the other hand performed a discriminant analysis on BC1 (adult cranium), which revealed that Border Cave's human remains were similar to modern-day African populations. Researchers have criticized Rightmire for improperly using discriminant analysis and for considering BC1's relation only to African populations and not others. Other studies have reassessed BC1's similarities and differences with African and non-African populations, and suggest that BC1
1331-519: A response, in 1957, by Wits, the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and the University of Natal , who issued a joint statement entitled "The Open Universities in South Africa", committing themselves to the principles of university autonomy and academic freedom. In 1959, the apartheid government's Extension of University Education Act forced restricted registrations of black students for most of
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#17328553999321452-477: A scholarship to Ipswich Grammar School from 1906 to 1909. Dart considered becoming a medical missionary to China and wished to study medicine at the University of Sydney, but his father argued that he should accept the scholarship he won to the newly established University of Queensland and study science. He was a member of the first intake of students to the university in 1911 and studied geology under H.C. Richards and zoology, taking his BSc in 1913. Dart became
1573-635: A significant expansion programme in the 1980s. The Medical School was moved to new premises on York Street in Parktown on 30 August 1982. Additionally, in 1984 the university acquired the Milner Park showgrounds from the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society. These became West Campus, with the original campus becoming East Campus. In 1984, the Chamber of Mines building opened. A large walkway named
1694-505: A site in Milner Park, north-west of Braamfontein , to the new institution as its campus and construction began the same year, on 4 October. The first Chancellor of the new university was Prince Arthur of Connaught and the first Principal (a position that would be merged with that of Vice-Chancellor in 1948) was Professor Jan Hofmeyr . Hofmeyr set the tone of the university's subsequent opposition to apartheid when, during his inaugural address as Principal he declared, while discussing
1815-401: A total enrolment of 2,544 students in 1939, the university grew to 3,100 in 1945. This growth led to accommodation problems, which were temporarily resolved by the construction of wood and galvanised-iron huts in the centre of the campus (which remained in use until 1972). During World War II , Wits was involved in South Africa's war efforts. The Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research
1936-463: A wide range of research entities including 10 national Centres of Excellence. The university consists of five faculties: Commerce, Law and Management; Engineering and the Built Environment ; Health Sciences ; Humanities ; and Science . This Faculty currently offers various undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in accountancy , economics , management, and law. The faculty participates in
2057-661: Is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg , South Africa . The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley , it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation. The university has an enrollment of 40,259 students as of 2018, of which approximately 20 percent live on campus in
2178-631: Is a nearly complete mandible that researchers dated to 74,000 +/- 5,000 years BP with ESR. Researchers lost BC6 (humerus), BC7 (proximal ulna) and BC8a and BC8b (two metatarsals), and lack adequate provenance information to accurately date these remains. Border Cave preserves botanical remains dating back to ~227,000 years BP, which are older than those of previous findings in southern Africa (i.e. grass bedding from Sibudu Cave dating to 77,000 years BP). The oldest plant remains are grass beds from layers dating to 227,000-179,000 years BP . Panicoideae grasses, occasional sedges and dicotyledenous leaves make up
2299-1060: Is based in the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus, which houses the faculty office and the Engineering Library. The School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering are located in the Hillman and Richard Ward Buildings on the East Campus respectively. This Faculty is based on the Wits Health Sciences Campus in Parktown. It consists of the Schools of: Anatomical Sciences; Clinical Medicine ; Oral Health Sciences; Pathology ; Public Health ; Physiology ; and Therapeutic Sciences. It offers degrees in medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy, i.a. It also runs graduate entry medical and physiotherapy programmes, and offers masters training (science, medicine and dentistry) and
2420-509: Is based in the Faculty of Humanities and aims to build capacity to meet the challenges of diverse societies, especially in post-apartheid South Africa through interdisciplinary postgraduate education and research. Wits University is the home to 28 South African Research Chairs and six DST-NRF Centres of Excellence. There are just more than 423 NRF rated researchers, of whom 28 are 'international leading scholars' in their research fields, or so called A-rated researchers. The university also has
2541-925: Is based in the South West Engineering Building on East Campus and consists of the schools of Social Sciences, Literature and Language Studies, Human and Community Development, Arts, and Education . The Faculty is based in the Mathematical Sciences Building within the Wits Science Stadium on Braamfontein Campus West and consists of the schools of Animal , Plant and Environmental Sciences ; Chemistry ; Physics ; Molecular and Cell Biology ; Geography , Archaeology and Environmental Studies; Geosciences ; Mathematics ; Statistics and Actuarial Science and School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics . The University of
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#17328553999322662-655: Is based – along with an open book superimposed upon a cogwheel, representing knowledge and industry. The silver wavy bars on the lower section of the shield represent the Vaal and Limpopo rivers which form the northern and southern borders of the Witwatersrand gold fields. Above the shield is the head of a Kudu , an antelope typical of the Witwatersrand and the university's mascot. The university's motto, " Scientia et Labore ", meaning "Through Knowledge and Work" in Latin , appears just below
2783-500: Is dissimilar from modern African humans as well as from modern non-African groups. The most recent analysis of Border Cave's human remains suggests that BC1 possesses a similar cranial vault morphology to anatomically modern humans, and has bony labyrinth features that are similar to other hominins (i.e. Homo erectus ), as well as to modern humans, but unlike those of Neanderthals. One anthropological question concerns whether ethnographic models are appropriate for making inferences about
2904-522: Is divided into five academic campuses, the main administrative campus is East Campus . Across the De Villiers Graaff Motorway lies West Campus . The two are joined by a brick-paved walkway across the highway called the Amic Deck. East and West Campus effectively form a single campus, bordered by Empire Road to the north, Jan Smuts Avenue to the east, Jorrissen Street and Enoch Sontonga Road to
3025-586: Is enough to claim that humans were the main individuals who brought these materials back to the site. From 170 to 60 kya, beige, brown and grey land snail shell fragments also appear in the Middle Stone Age sequence (i.e. Metachatina kraussi – brown lipped agate snail). Experiments show that land snail shell color changes in response to heat application, and have led researchers to believe that Border Cave occupants cooked and ate land snails. The presence of heated shell fragments and absence of any modifications on
3146-525: Is home to David Webster Hall (female), Barnato Hall and West Campus Village (both mixed). Wits has three more academic campuses, all located in Parktown . Wits Education Campus (WEC) houses the school of education, within the Faculty of Humanities. WEC boasts three female residences, forming the Highfield cluster, namely Girton, Medhurst and Reith Hall. East of WEC (across York Road), lies Wits Medical Campus which
3267-564: Is run by the university's Performing Arts Administration (PAA). Prior to the opening of the Wits Theatre, the Wits Schools of Dramatic Art and Music had been staging productions in a building on campus called the Nunnery, a former convent. The Nunnery has been retained as a teaching venue. The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS) was established in 2014 at the University of Witwatersrand. It
3388-713: Is the administration and academic centre of the Faculty of Health Sciences. West of WEC (across Victoria Avenue) lies the Wits Management Campus, with the Wits Business School. Within the Wits Management Campus are the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall (male residence) and the mixed Parktown Village. There are centres that are not academic although referred to by the university as campuses. These are Graduate Lodge, Campus Lodge, South Court and Braamfontein Centre; all in
3509-676: Is whether Border Cave's organic ELSA artifacts represent the evolution of a San hunter-gatherer culture in southern Africa during the Pleistocene. Francesco d'Errico and colleagues propose that the similarities between Border Cave's ELSA organic tools and contemporary San tools indicate the evolution of a Pleistocene San adaptation ~44,000–42,000 years BP. In particular, they propose that Border Cave's bone points, digging sticks, bone awls, poison residues, and shell beads are roughly indistinguishable from those of modern San hunter-gatherers, and suggest that Border Cave inhabitants may have used these tools in
3630-577: The Higher Education Act (Act No. 101 of 1997) and in the Statute of the University of the Witwatersrand, the university is governed by Council . The Chancellor of the university is the ceremonial head of the university who, in the name of the university, confers all degrees. The positions of Principal and Vice-Chancellor are merged, with the Vice-Chancellor responsible for the day-to-day running of
3751-499: The Late Pleistocene . These communities include miombo savanna woodland (heavily wooded environment, ~250,000–100,000 years BP), Zululand Thornveld (predominantly grasses, ~100,000–50,000 years BP), Mopane, and Lowveld/arid Lowveld (savanna woodland type environment, ~50,000–24,000 years BP). Annual rainfall was at least 25–100% higher during the miombo savanna woodland period than today, but less than 10% of rainfall occurred during
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3872-759: The South African School of Mines and Technology , while the Pretoria campus remained the Transvaal University College until 1930 when it became the University of Pretoria . In 1920, the school was renamed the University College, Johannesburg . Finally, on 1 March 1922, the University College, Johannesburg, was granted full university status after being incorporated as the University of the Witwatersrand. The Johannesburg municipality donated
3993-752: The Stormberg basalts and Ecca shales). Rhyolites , feldspar and quartz are common to the Border Cave region. Current annual rainfall is approximately 820 millimetres (32 in) at the town Ingwavuma , which is roughly 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Border Cave. The cave resides in a biodiversity hotspot called the Maputoland Center of Endemism, which has abundant riverine and lowveld vegetation. The specific vegetation zones that occur near Border Cave include Lebombo Summit Sourveld, and Northern and Southern Lebombo Bushveld. Vegetation surveys indicate that
4114-505: The University College, London , he reluctantly took up the position of Professor at the newly established department of anatomy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg , South Africa in 1922, after encouragement from Elliot Smith and Sir Arthur Keith. In 1924, Dart discovered the first Australopithecus africanus fossil, an extinct hominin closely related to humans. His colleague, Professor Robert Burns Young from
4235-583: The University of the Witswatersrand reopened the site in 2015 and are currently excavating more deposits. These current excavations have focused on redefining the excavation grid and determining precise proveniences of artifacts larger than 2 cm using a total station . The team is also trying to update faunal and lithic analyses of Border Cave's newly excavated material. Researchers have used electron spin resonance and radiocarbon dating to date Border Cave's oldest deposits to 227,000 +/- 11,000 years BP and
4356-559: The apartheid era; despite this, several notable black leaders graduated from the university. Wits protested strongly and continued to maintain a firm and consistent stand in opposition to apartheid. This marked the beginning of a period of conflict with the apartheid regime, which also coincided with a period of massive growth for the university. It was desegregated once again, prior to the abolition of apartheid, in 1990. Several of apartheid's most provocative critics, of either European or African descent, were one-time students and graduates of
4477-407: The international academic boycott of South Africa and the role of academics in the anti-apartheid struggle led to increasing division within the university. University management was increasingly seen as isolated and out of touch, and began to be referred to by the metonym "the eleventh floor", referring to the eleventh floor of Senate House where top management at Wits is located. Nonetheless,
4598-772: The 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of Australopithecus africanus , an extinct hominin closely related to humans, at Taung in the North of South Africa in the Northwest province. Raymond Dart was born in Toowong , a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland , Australia, the fifth of nine children and son of a farmer and tradesman. His birth occurred during the 1893 flood , which filled his parents' home and shop in Toowong. The family moved alternately between their country property near Laidley and their shop in Toowong. The young Dart attended Toowong State School, Blenheim State School and earned
4719-536: The 1950s and has since grown substantially. In 1972 the Gertrude Posel Gallery was established on the ground floor of Senate House on East Campus. It was joined in 1992 by the Studio Gallery which formed the "lower gallery" reserved for the display of African art. The galleries' collections grew steadily, with the Studio Gallery becoming renowned for having one of the best collections of African beadwork in
4840-622: The Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), an organisation founded by Glenn Doman that treats brain injured children. Dart's son, Galen, had suffered motor damage during birth in 1941. Dart spent much of the next twenty years working with the IAHP. University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ( / v ə t ˈ v ɑː t ə s r ɑː n t / ), commonly known as Wits University or Wits ,
4961-403: The Amic Deck was constructed across the De Villiers Graaff Motorway which bisects the campus, linking East Campus with West Campus. The 1980s also witnessed a period of heightened opposition to apartheid, as the university struggled to maintain its autonomy in the face of attacks from the apartheid state. Wits looked anew to the "Open Universities" statement of 1957, to which the University of
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5082-587: The Australian Army in England and France during the last year of World War I . Following the war, he took up a position as a senior demonstrator at the University College, London in 1920 at the behest of Grafton Elliot Smith , famed anatomist, anthropologist and fellow Australian. This was followed by a year on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis . Returning to England and work at
5203-677: The Buxton Limeworks, had sent Dart two crates of fossils from the small town of Taung in the North West Province of South Africa . Upon seeing the fossils, Dart immediately recognised one as being an early human because its brain dimensions were too large for a baboon or chimpanzee. Blasting had exposed a breccia -filled cave and the child's skull had come to light together with several fossilised monkeys and hyraxes. M. de Bruyn had noticed their unusual nature in November 1924 and informed
5324-662: The ELSA. In particular, chalcedony, milky quartz and crystal quartz become more prominent in the assemblage, and rhyolite becomes less so. Other lithics include small, unretouched tools, some of which have traces of resin (possibly from Podocarpaceae plants). Bored stones also occur at the site, which some presume to have been digging stick weights. Ostrich eggshell and marine beads , which some suggest as evidence of ornamentation amongst Later Stone Age hunter-gatherer groups, occur in Border Cave's ELSA sequence. Marine beads were of Nassarius kraussianus, Conus ebraeus , and Conus bairstowi ,
5445-527: The Ernest Oppenheimer Hall of Residence and Savernake, the new residence of the Vice-Chancellor (replacing Hofmeyr House on the main campus) were both established, also in Parktown. That same year, the Medical School's new clinical departments were opened. During the course of the 1960s, Wits acquired a limestone cave renowned for its archaeological material located at Sterkfontein . A farm next to Sterkfontein named Swartkrans rich in archaeological material
5566-446: The HP layers. The MSA 3/post-HP layers had very few backed pieces, and instead had more prepared cores . Paloma de la Pena and colleagues later analyzed lithics from the same layers at Border Cave. A majority of these lithic raw materials were rhyolite or basalt, though quartz, chalcedony, agate and chert also occur within this assemblage. Backed pieces occur in the HP layers, but are absent in
5687-581: The Limeworks manager, Mr. A.E. Spiers. As Dart was not part of the scientific establishment, and because Raymond found the fossil in Africa, and not Europe or Asia, where the establishment supposed man's origins, his findings were initially dismissed. Dart's closest ally was Robert Broom whose discoveries of further Australopithecines (as well as Wilfrid Le Gros Clark 's support) eventually vindicated Dart, so much so that in 1947 Sir Arthur Keith said "...Dart
5808-495: The MSA 3/post-HP layers. Other retouched tools such as notched pieces, and denticulates occur in the MSA 3/post-HP layers, though in lesser quantities. The MSA 3/post-HP layers contain mostly unretouched triangular points. Lithic analysis suggests that hunter-gatherers used both Levallois and discoidal reduction techniques to produce these points. These points' morphologies (particularly the discoidal ones) are very different from one another, which has led some to believe that there
5929-598: The MSA/LSA transition occurred. The MSA/LSA transition occurred at different times throughout Africa ~30,000–60,000 years BP. There is debate regarding when the MSA/LSA transition first occurred in southern Africa. Border Cave's technological transition occurs ~44,000–42,000 years BP, which is to date one of the oldest instances of the MSA/LSA transition in southern Africa. Paola Villa and colleagues suggest that Border Cave's shift from post-Howiesons Poort technology (blades and retouched points) to bipolar flakes and bladelets indicate
6050-753: The Multimedia Library, and the Education and Training department as well as the Electronic Classroom. The William Cullen Library contains the Africana collection, specialising in social, political and economic history. It also contains the Early and Fine Printed Books collection, which includes the Incunabula (books printed before 1501). Finally, it also contains a collection of Government Publications and journals in
6171-556: The Sterkfontein and Swartkrans sites in the 1960s, both of which were rich in fossil remains of early hominids . In 1999, the area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as the Cradle of Humankind . As a World Heritage Site, responsibility for the site shifted from the university to the government of Gauteng Province , with the provincial government becoming the designated management authority responsible for developing and protecting
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#17328553999326292-678: The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1936 and they had two children. Dart died in Johannesburg in 1988. The Institute for the Study of Man in Africa was established in 1956 at Witwatersrand in his honour by Phillip Tobias . In 1964 the Raymond Dart Memorial Lecture was inaugurated at the Institute. Dart was director of the School of Anatomy at the University of
6413-560: The Western Cape now also added its voice. As the apartheid government attempted, through the threat of financial sanctions, to bring Wits under firmer control, protest escalated culminating in the General Assembly of 28 October 1987, at which the university reiterated its commitment to the values underlying the "Open Universities" statement. University management itself came under increasing grassroots pressure to implement change within
6534-582: The WitsPlus programme, a part-time programme for students, and is based in the Commerce, Law and Management Building on West Campus. This Faculty is made up of 7 schools being: Architecture & Planning , Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering , Civil & Environmental Engineering , Construction Economics & Management , Electrical & Information Engineering (EIE) , Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering and Mining Engineering . The faculty
6655-525: The Witwatersrand , Johannesburg until 1958. There he worked with Tobias, who continued his work in the study of the Cradle of Humankind and other paleoanthropological sites. In 1959, an autobiographical account of Dart's discoveries, Adventures with the Missing Link , was published (with Dennis Craig as co-author). In the book he acknowledges the crucial role played by his first female student and demonstrator, Josephine Salmons. She brought to his attention
6776-727: The Witwatersrand Library Service consists of two main libraries, the Warteinweiler and William Cullen libraries on East Campus and twelve branch libraries. The Wartenweiler Library primarily serves the Faculty of Humanities. It also contains the Library Administration, Library Computer Services and Technical Services departments as well as the Short Loan collection, the Reference collection, Inter-library Loans department,
6897-408: The Witwatersrand is dedicated to the acquisition, advancement and imparting of knowledge through the pursuit of truth in free and open debate, in the undertaking of research, in scholarly discourse and in balanced, dispassionate teaching. We reject any external interference designed to diminish our freedom to attain these ends. We record our solemn protest against the intention of the Government, through
7018-420: The appropriateness of ethnographic analogy in interpreting the archaeological record. Border Cave is located at 27°01′19″S, 31°59′24″E within the Kwazulu region. The site is near the Eswatini/South Africa border at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level (masl). The mouth of the cave faces west over the Eswatini lowveld biome. The Jozini Rock Formation's Jurassic age rocks (182.1 +/- 2.9 million years old) are
7139-716: The archaeological record. In particular, there has been disagreement on whether analyzing modern hunter-gatherer behavior is appropriate for understanding prehistoric hunter-gatherer behavior. One particular example of this is the Kalahari Debate , in which researchers disagreed whether present-day Kalahari San hunter-gatherers have lifeways reminiscent of prehistoric hunter-gatherers or not. Richard Borshay Lee and Irven DeVore believed that San hunter-gatherers have remained in isolation from non-hunter-gatherer groups (and thus have lifeways reminiscent of prehistoric hunter-gatherers), while Edwin Wilmsen and James Denbow suggested that sustained contact with pastoralists and other groups refute
7260-474: The architecture of reptilian brains. He was able to identify a primordial neocortex, the oldest structure that can be considered as a neocortex, in a reptile. He identified a distinction between the cytoarchitecture in an area that split it into a para-hippocampal and a para-pyriform region. Dart married Dora Tyree, a medical student from Virginia, U.S., in 1921 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S., and they divorced in 1934. He married Marjorie Frew, head librarian at
7381-529: The assemblage. At least three currently extinct species are also present in the faunal assemblage (one of which is Bond's springbok). Even more recently excavated faunal material from the MSA layers is heavily fragmented, likely due to taphonomic damage. Faunal analysis suggests that hunter-gatherers transported the whole small animal carcasses back to the site, but only parts of larger animals back. Border Cave's faunal remains also do not show evidence of carnivore tooth marks. Some researchers suggest that this evidence
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#17328553999327502-647: The bedding. The grass beds are located near the rear of the cave. The burnt charcoal within the grass bedding and alternating stratigraphic layers of brown sand and white ash represent multiple burning events over time. Burn marks on Border Cave's grass bedding tend to only occur near the edges, rather than throughout the beds, which may indicate that these edges may have accidentally been burned. In total, there are 48 bedding layers. There are also Hypoxis rhizomes within Border Cave's hearths, which has led some to suggest that Border Cave's inhabitants cooked plants for food. Regular burning occurred by 170,000 years BP according to
7623-440: The behavioral changes that occur from the MSA-LSA and typically use technological changes to determine the date of the transition. MSA sites preserve tools such as prepared cores, retouched and unretouched points, and retouched tools such as denticulates and scrapers . LSA sites, on the other hand, primarily tend to contain bipolar bladelet technologies. Researchers have tracked these technological shifts over time to determine when
7744-408: The changes as "improving the financial sustainability of Wits, taking pressure off management and students, and allowing for better academic and support facilities and services". Along with "Igoli 2002" in Johannesburg, Wits 2001 was one of the policies implemented in the early 2000s which resulted in the formation of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). In 2001, the Johannesburg College of Education
7865-424: The city district of Braamfontein and all mixed gender. Furthermore, there is the Wits Junction (mixed) and the Knockando Halls of Residence (a male residence located on the grounds of a Parktown mansion called Northwards ) in Parktown, and the mixed Esselen Street Residence in Hillbrow. The University of the Witwatersrand houses two provincial heritage sites and two heritage objects . The Great Hall (technically
7986-463: The claim that Border Cave represents a true origin locality for the MSA/LSA transition, and instead propose that shows an independent event of cultural and behavioral change. The debate as to whether Border Cave is the origin point for the MSA-LSA transition still remains unresolved. Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist , best known for his involvement in
8107-614: The completion of the degrees for which they were then enrolled, as well as offering bursaries to the children of affected employees who matriculated in 2000. Wits 2001 attracted widespread criticism from the workers and staff affected, as well as from students and other staff. The arguments behind the restructuring were criticised as badly reasoned, and the policy itself was criticised as being regressive and neoliberal . The then-vice-chancellor, Professor Colin Bundy , said in defence of Wits 2001 that "[t]his fundamental reorganisation of both academic activities and support services will equip
8228-499: The cranial vault is similar in shape to anatomically modern humans, but also shares some traits in the bony labyrinth with fossil hominins such as Homo erectus (which are also found in modern humans but not in Neanderthals). BC2 is a partial mandible from W.E. Horton's excavation. The provenance and date for this individual remain unknown. BC3 is a nearly complete infant skeleton that Cooke and colleagues found in 1941. Cooke and colleagues found perforated Conus bairstowi shells with
8349-414: The criticisms that had been raised. Within the university community the perception was different—it was felt that Wits was on the right track. The contradiction between internal and external perceptions would increasingly undermine the unity of the university community, as progressive elements on campus began to take more radical positions in opposition to apartheid. Internal debates about, among other things,
8470-399: The end be vindicated. A number of his theories, including that of the killer ape , have been refuted. However, some of his ideas retain support. His work was clearly influenced by the mentors he worked with in his early career, in particular Grafton Elliot Smith. Dart proposed the idea of dual evolutionary origins of the neocortex. During his research in the 1930s in Africa, he studied
8591-464: The existence of a fossilised baboon skull at the house of Edwin Gilbert Izod , director of the Northern Lime Company and proprietor of a quarry in Taung. The skull was kept as an ornament on the mantlepiece above the fireplace at his home. In bringing the skull to show Dart, she set in motion a chain of events that led to the discovery of the "child skull of Taung". At the age of 73, Dart began dividing his time between South Africa and The Institutes for
8712-731: The façade of the Robert Sobukwe Building, formerly known as Central Block, in which the Great Hall is located), and the Dias Cross housed in the William Cullen Library are both provincial heritage sites . They were formerly national monuments, until 1 April 2000 when the National Monuments Council was replaced by a new system which made former national monuments the responsibility of provincial governments following
8833-401: The first student to graduate with honours from the University of Queensland in 1914 and took his MSc with honours from UQ in 1916. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney taking his MB and M.Surgery in 1917, and conducting his residency at St Andrews College, University of Sydney. He was awarded his M.D. from the University of Sydney in 1927. Dart served as a captain and medic in
8954-401: The infant, which likely came from the eastern Cape coast. Carbon-14 dating of the shell returned an age of ~ 33,570 +/- 120 years BP. Some suggest that the infant burial represents one of the earliest southern African examples of burial ornamentation. BC4 is an Iron Age skeleton with a missing skull. Researchers dated BC4 to 340 ± 45 years BP and 480 ± 45 years BP using radiocarbon dating. BC5
9075-540: The instruction of students, and as a public amenity. Plans for a new building to house the projector were first drawn up in 1958, and construction began in 1959. The planetarium finally opened on 12 October 1960. The Johannesburg Planetarium is often consulted by the media, and the public, in order to explain unusual occurrences in the skies over South Africa. In 2010, the Johannesburg Planetarium celebrated its golden jubilee. The museum's collection started in
9196-557: The last of which is endemic to the Eastern Cape coast. The Conus shells were in close association with an infant burial (BC3), which have led to speculation that these shells were ornaments. Border Cave is one of the only southern African archaeological sites (another is Klasies River Caves ) that contains human remains dating to the MSA. A particular debate surrounding these remains relates to whether they belong to anatomically modern Homo sapiens or not. This debate has implications for
9317-534: The main plants common to Border Cave include Androstachys johnsonii , Acacia spp., Combretum spp., Olea europaea subsp. africana, Canthium spp ., Dichrostachys cinerea, Diospyros dichrophylla, Eretia rigida, Euclea divinorum, Euphorbia tirucalli, Maytenus spp ., Eragrostis, Spirostachys africana, Strychnos henningsii and Vitex wilmsii. Rodent and insectivore remains (primarily from Angoni vlei rat, pygmy mouse, and least dwarf shrew) suggest that Border Cave vegetation communities changed multiple times during
9438-516: The main types that make up the cave. The main rivers near Border Cave include Usuthu, Ngwavuma , and Pongolo Rivers , which all flow from West to East. They all cut through the mountains and flow over horizontal beds of faulted rock. These rivers converge into Delagoa Bay . These rivers also erode certain areas of the Lebombo Mountains and cause differential weathering amongst the Karro rocks (i.e.
9559-419: The most recent dating efforts date BC3 to ~ 33,570 +/- 120 years BP and BC5 to 74,000 +/- 5,000 years BP. Comparative analyses of Border Cave's human remains and those of other modern humans have also contributed to the debate on whether Border Cave's remains belong to anatomically modern Homo sapiens . Herta De Villiers' analysis of BC3 (infant skeleton) body dimensions suggests that the human remains represent
9680-459: The nature of a university and its desired function in a democracy, that universities "should know no distinctions of class, wealth, race or creed". True to Hofmeyr's words, from the outset Wits was an open university with a policy of non-discrimination on racial or any other grounds. Initially, there were six faculties—Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law and Commerce—37 departments, 73 academic staff, and approximately 1,000 students. In 1923,
9801-632: The occurrence of the MSA-LSA transition. This has led Paola Villa and colleagues to believe that Border Cave shows the earliest evidence for the MSA-LSA transition in southern Africa. Researchers have questioned whether technological changes began at Border Cave and then later spread to other archaeological sites. Since LSA technology does not occur prior to ~27,000 years BP in localities surrounding Border Cave (i.e. Sibebe in Eswatini, Niassa in Mozambique), some dispute
9922-685: The passage of the National Heritage Resources Act . The heritage objects are Jan Smuts ' study, housed in Jan Smuts House, and the Paul Loewenstein Collection of rock art. All of the university's national heritage sites and objects are located on East Campus. The University of the Witwatersrand is home to the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER), founded in 2001 by Deborah Posel . Wits acquired
10043-625: The phytolith record. Other phytolith remains include Chloridoideae and Pooideae grasses. Raymond Dart uncovered "Middle Stone Age" lithics in his preliminary excavations of Border Cave, though he did not formally analyze them. Peter Beaumont performed one of the first comprehensive lithic analyses of Border Cave's material, and he recognized two distinct stone tool industries for Border Cave's MSA layers: Howiesons Poort (HP) (from layers dating 81–65 kya) and MSA 3/post-Howiesons Poort (post-HP) (from layers dating 64–44 kya). Beaumont found many punched blades, backed pieces and triangular retouched pieces in
10164-428: The process. However, he displaced these artifacts and remains from their original context and left his excavated sediment at the site (what some researchers call "Horton's Pit"). Cooke and colleagues re-excavated Horton's sediment during 1941–1942 and recovered the human remains. These remains included a partial adult cranium and other human remains fragments (individuals BC1 and BC2). Cooke and colleagues also discovered
10285-445: The remains from four of those individuals (BC 6, BC 7, BC8a, and BC8b). Researchers have used electron spin resonance (ESR) to directly date some of these remains. BC1 is an incomplete cranium that W.E. Horton found during his 1940 excavation. BC1's ages remains uncertain, though ESR returned dates of 77,000 +/- 2,000 years BP and 161,000 +/- 10,000 to 144,000 +/- 11,000 years BP. Amelie Beaudet and colleagues' analysis of BC1 states that
10406-611: The restoration of our autonomy. The 1970s saw the construction of Jubilee Hall and the Wartenweiler Library, as well as the opening of the Tandem Accelerator; the first, and to date only, nuclear facility at a South African university. In 1976, Lawson's Corner in Braamfontein was acquired and renamed University Corner. Senate House, the university's main administrative building, was completed in 1977. The university underwent
10527-700: The same ways as modern San populations. However, Pargeter and colleagues dispute these claims on the basis that these tools are not uniquely 'San', and occur in the toolkits of other hunter-gatherers as well (i.e. the Mbuti , Inuit , Chumash ). Secondarily, Pargeter and colleagues suggest that the function of the Border Cave tools is speculative (i.e. people may have used pointed bones as awls, needles, or projectile points), and that Border Cave's occupants may not have used tools in similar ways to modern San hunter-gatherers. Pargeter and colleagues also suggest that simply referring to archaeological populations as 'San' oversimplifies
10648-525: The school was moved to Johannesburg and renamed the Transvaal Technical Institute . The school's name changed yet again in 1906 to Transvaal University College . In 1908, a new campus of the Transvaal University College was established in Pretoria . The Johannesburg and Pretoria campuses separated on 17 May 1910, each becoming a separate institution. The Johannesburg campus was reincorporated as
10769-746: The shells have led researchers to suggest that Border Cave inhabitants primarily cooked land snails and did not use them for tool manufacture. Border Cave experienced generally very little change in faunal composition from the MSA to the LSA. However, Border Cave occupants made organic artifacts dating to 44,000–42,000 years BP during the ELSA. These artifacts include notched bones, wooden digging sticks, and pointed bones (some of which have ochre ) made from warthog, bushpig and baboon. The functions of these tools remain speculative. Francesco d'Errico and colleagues in particular interpret pointed bone tools to be awls and bone points, and suggest that an incised baboon fibula from
10890-406: The shield. The university's coat of arms evolved from the badge of the South African School of Mines. This badge consisted of a diamond with a shield superimposed upon it. A prospector's pick and a sledge hammer overlaid with broken ore and a mill appeared on the shield. The South African School of Mine's motto was the same as the university's current one, and surrounded the shield. As set out in
11011-462: The site an important location for studying prehistoric hunter-gatherer behavior and the causes and timing of the Middle to Later Stone Age transition. The site's human remains have led to debates on the timing of modern human origins in southern Africa. Some of the cave's other artifacts (i.e. bone points) have also played into researchers' debates on the origins of hunter-gatherer cultural adaptations and
11132-460: The site in 2015, and are currently excavating and analyzing more archaeological materials. Researchers have used a combination of carbon-14 dating , amino acid racemisation, luminescence, and electron spin resonance to date the site's oldest deposits to ~250,000 years before present. Border Cave's remains include human remains, lithics , bone tools, botanical remains (i.e. grass bedding) and animal bones. Border Cave's long occupational sequence makes
11253-401: The site is a number-keeping device. One of the notched sticks contains poison residues composed of ricinoleic and ricinelaidic acids, and d'Errico and colleagues assume this item to be a poison applicator. Border Cave's lithic assemblage features comparatively more bipolar knapped pieces and fewer blades than the MSA (precisely the MSA 3/Post-HP layers). Raw material changes also occurred during
11374-725: The site. The university hosts at least fourteen museums. These include the Adler Museum of Medicine, the Palaeontology Museum and the only Geology Museum in Gauteng Province. The displays include a vast spectra not limited to the Taung skull, various dinosaur fossils and butterflies . The Roberts-Pager Collection of Khoisan rock art copies is located in the Van Riet Lowe building on East Campus. The Johannesburg Planetarium
11495-553: The site. It is aided by the South African Heritage Resources Agency, which has also declared the area a national heritage site. The university's archaeology and palaeontology departments, within the School of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science, continue to play a leading part in excavations of the site; and Wits retains ownership of Sterkfontein's intellectual rights. Professor Lee Berger discovered Australopithecus sediba (2010) and Homo naledi (2015) at
11616-509: The south and Annet Road to the west. The historic East Campus is primarily the home of the faculties of Science and Humanities, as well as the University Council, Senate and management. West Campus houses the faculties of Engineering and the Built Environment, and Commerce, Law and Management. East Campus is home to four residences, namely Men's Res (male), Sunnyside (female), International House (mixed) and Jubilee Hall (female). West Campus
11737-443: The threat of financial sanctions, to force the University to become the agent of Government policy in disciplining its members. We protest against the invasion of the legitimate authority of the University. We protest against the proposed stifling of legitimate dissent. In the interests of all in this land, and in the knowledge of the justice of our cause, we dedicate ourselves to unremitting opposition to these intended restraints and to
11858-556: The timing of modern Homo sapiens' evolution in southern Africa. A large part of the uncertainty stems from the fact that the provenance of some of the human remains is still unknown. The dating of Border Cave's human remains has played a role in this debate. Researchers originally dated BC3 and BC 5 to the MSA, but others have questioned the age of these remains due to variance in Infrared Splitting Factors and nitrogen levels in Border Cave's animal and human remains. However,
11979-522: The university and accountable to Council. Council is responsible for the selection of all Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Deans of Faculty. The responsibility for regulating all teaching, research and academic functions of the university falls on Senate . Additionally, the interests of the university's students are represented by the Students' Representative Council (SRC), which also selects representatives to Senate and Council. The university
12100-610: The university began moving into the new campus, slowly vacating its former premises on Ellof Street for the first completed building in Milner Park: the Botany and Zoology Block. In 1925, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII ) officially opened Central Block (which includes the Great Hall). The university's first library, housed at the time in what was meant to be a temporary construction,
12221-491: The university community in general continued to uphold its opposition to apartheid and its commitment to university autonomy and academic freedom. The remainder of the 1980s saw numerous protests on campus, which often ended with police invasions of the university. In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released, the students of Men's Res, on East Campus, unofficially renamed the lawn outside their residence "Mandela Square". On 25 February 2000, university management began implementing
12342-597: The university for the challenges of higher education in the 21st Century". Management issued a statement on 30 May 2000 responding to criticism of Wits 2001 from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU), the largest trade union among Wits employees, in which it defended Wits 2001 as constituting the "outsourcing [of] contracts for certain non-core functions, rather than any shift in ownership relations or governance" contra NEHAWU's claims that it constituted privatisation . Management further defended
12463-527: The university was cut, with funds originally meant for Wits often being channelled to the more conservative Afrikaans universities instead. Nonetheless, in the words of Clive Chipkin, the "university environment was filled with deep contradictions", and the university community was by no means wholly united in opposition to apartheid. This stemmed from the Wits Council being dominated by "highly conservative members representing mining and financial interests", and
12584-453: The university was designed by Professor G. E. Pearse, and edited by Professor W. D. Howie to correct heraldic inaccuracies, before being accepted by the State Herald of South Africa in 1972. The design of the coat of arms incorporates a gold background in the upper section of the shield to represent the Witwatersrand gold fields – on which the mining industry that gave rise to the university
12705-564: The university's 17 residences. 63 percent of the university's total enrollment is for undergraduate study, with 35 percent being postgraduate and the remaining 2 percent being Occasional Students. The university was founded in Kimberley in 1896 as the South African School of Mines . It is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation, after the University of Cape Town (founded in 1829), and Stellenbosch University (founded in 1866). Eight years later, in 1904,
12826-535: The university. As the university continued to grow (from a mere 6,275 students in 1963, to 10,600 in 1975, to over 16,400 by 1985), the expansion of the university's campus became imperative. In 1964, the medical library and administrative offices of the Faculty of Medicine moved to Esselen Street, in the Hillbrow district of Johannesburg. In 1968, the Graduate School of Business was opened in Parktown . A year later,
12947-520: The university. A Wits-initiated research project, Perspectives of Wits ( POW ), published in 1986, revealed a surprising disconnect between the perceptions disadvantaged communities had of Wits and the image Wits had been attempting to convey of itself as a progressive opponent of apartheid. POW , which had involved interviews with members of organisations among disadvantaged communities in the PWV area, international academics, students and staff at Wits, and even
13068-453: The variation between hunter-gatherer populations. As such, Pargeter and colleagues challenge Francesco d'Errico and colleagues for using modern San hunter-gatherers as direct ethnographic analogs to reconstruct the behaviors of Border Cave hunter-gatherers. A prominent point of discussion in the African prehistoric record concerns the timing of the MSA-LSA transition. Researchers are interested in
13189-570: The view that San populations have a pure hunter-gatherer way of life. The viewpoints of the Kalahari Debate have shaped the ways that researchers conduct archaeological research and interpret site findings (i.e. finding material evidence for pastoralist interactions with hunter-gatherers). These views have also influenced archaeological and ethnographic interpretations. One instance of this concerns researchers' interpretations of Border Cave's ELSA artifacts. A point of contention amongst archaeologists
13310-781: The winter. The replacement of miombo woodland by Zululand Thornveld would have likely meant a 20% to 30% increase in precipitation, and a change to Lowveld would have meant a 15% decrease in precipitation. In sum, mean annual rainfall would have decreased from 200% of present-day rainfall to 60% of present-day mean annual rainfall from the beginning to end of Border Cave's sequence. Raymond Dart directed preliminary excavations at Border Cave in 1934. He dug an exploratory trench east–west trench close to Border Cave's entrance. Although Dart found Middle Stone Age artifacts, he did not publish any of his findings. W.E. Horton dug at Border Cave in 1940, though only for agricultural purposes. Horton excavated for bat guano, and exposed artifacts and human remains in
13431-461: The world, and by 2002 it was decided that more space was needed. Thus, the Gertrude Posel Gallery and the Studio Gallery were closed. The ground floor of University Corner was selected as the site for the new Wits Art Museum, which now houses the collections after it was completed and launched in 2012. The Wits Theatre is a performing arts complex within the university, although it also caters for professional companies, dance studios and schools. It
13552-432: The youngest deposits to 41,100–24,000 years BP. Luminescence dates extend the oldest age of the site to ~250,000 years BP, though the rest of these luminescence dates roughly align with the electron spin resonance and radiocarbon dates. Researchers have documented anatomically modern human remains from nine different individuals at Border Cave (BC1, BC2, BC3, BC4, BC5, BC6, BC7, BC8a, and BC8b), though researchers have lost
13673-400: Was a lack of planning in lithic reduction strategies. Lucy Timbrell and colleagues hypothesize that the lack of retouch of the MSA 3/post-HP points may be due to low site occupation intensity, raw material abundance, point hafting requirements, or the sufficiency of unretouched tools in accomplishing tasks. This is in contrast with assemblages from other sites (i.e. Sibudu Cave ), which preserve
13794-544: Was compounded by the fact that the mining industry provided major financial support for the university. With a strongly entrenched "[c]olonial mentality" at Wits, along with "high capitalism, the new liberalism and communism of a South African kind, combined with entrenched white settler mores (particularly in the Engineering and Science faculties) ... the university ... was an arena of conflicting positions generally contained within polite academic conventions". The University of
13915-526: Was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Eve in 1931. Following this, an appeal was made to the public for £80,000 to pay for the construction of a new library, and the acquisition of books. This resulted in the fairly rapid construction of the William Cullen Library; opened in 1934. During this period, as the Great Depression hit South Africa, the university was faced with severe financial restrictions. Nonetheless, it continued to grow at an impressive rate. From
14036-596: Was incorporated into the university as Wits Education Campus under the national Department of Education 's plan to reform tertiary education in South Africa. In 2003, a student mall , called the Matrix, was opened in the Student Union Building on East Campus. In 2015 to 2016, the FeesMustFall movement and protests resulted in shut downs at Wits and other leading South African universities. In March 2021, one person
14157-549: Was killed at the Braamfontein campus after police fired rubber bullets at students protesting the university's decision to bar students owing more than 150,000 rand from registering for the new academic year. According to the university, it is owed over a billion rand from students over the last seven years and was at risk of financial unsustainability. One of the mechanisms used by Wits management to finance this debt, has been to outsource online education to for-profit online program management ( OPM ) companies. Wits has entered into
14278-533: Was placed under the Union of South Africa 's defence ministry, and was involved in important research into the use of radar . Additionally, an elite force of female soldiers was trained on the university's campus. In 1948 the National Party (NP) was voted into power by South Africa's white electorate, and apartheid ( Afrikaans for "separateness") policies started to become law. The racist separation policies sparked
14399-472: Was purchased in 1968, and excavation rights were obtained for archaeological and palaeontological purposes at Makapansgat, located in Limpopo Province . The 1960s also witnessed widespread protest against apartheid policies. This resulted in numerous police invasions of campus to break up peaceful protests, as well as the banning, deportation and detention of many students and staff. Government funding for
14520-827: Was right, and I was wrong". Keith made this statement referring to his dismissal and scepticism of Dart's analysis of the Taung Child as an early human ancestor; Keith thought that it was more likely to be an ape, yet later research by Broom confirmed Dart's theories. Dart's theories were also popularised by playwright, screenwriter, and science writer Robert Ardrey , first in an article published in The Reporter and reprinted in Science Digest , and later in Ardrey's influential four-book Nature of Man Series , which began in 1961 with African Genesis . Not all of Dart's theories would in
14641-570: Was the first full-sized planetarium in Africa and the second in the Southern Hemisphere . It was originally bought by the Johannesburg municipality to be set up as part of the celebration of the city's seventieth anniversary. After acquiring an old projector from the Hamburg Planetarium , which was modernised before being shipped to South Africa, the municipality sold the projector to the university for use as both an academic facility for
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