Fancy drinking Coke from a hollow ostrich egg? Or eating your lunch in a tortoise shell? That is how stone age dwellers would have done it.
Fancy drinking Coke from a hollow ostrich egg? Or eating your lunch in a tortoise shell? That is how stone age dwellers would have done it.
Twenty learners from Kuyasa Special School picked up interesting facts like these at “The Life of the Archaeologist”, a Heritage Month talk at the Albany Museum on Tuesday.
They discovered that archaeologists love getting dirty, digging holes and lying on a rock like a dassie after a
hard day’s work.
Although the learners didn’t get a chance to get dirty themselves, they were introduced to the what, where and why of archaeology through images of Egyptian pyramids and San rock art, as well as artefacts like hand axes and blades.
But what if learners themselves come across cultuArchaeology curator Celeste Booth suggested that they should be researched rather than sold.
But 19-year-old Unathi Njono decided that if he were a maritime archaeologist who found gold in a shipwreck, he would sell it.
Although the talk lacked interactivity, the references to Indiana Jones and dating (“not as in going on a date!”) kept the learners engaged and extracted a few giggles. Do any of them want to become archaeologists? Not 16-year old Sheraldine Koesnel, who said she prefers to be clean.But her friend Elistine Snyman was more enthusiastic.
“It’s nice to be dirty,” she said.ral objects Heritage Month talk on ArchaeologyFocus Week is the first of a series of Heritage Month activities for school learners hosted by the Albany Museum through to October. Other programmes include African belief systems, traditional doll-making and trips to local historical sites.
