New at ORI Library: A future for archaeology

Archaeology has been at the forefront of moving towards a greater engagement with the non-academic world, often in an extremely practical and direct way, eg. in disputes involving about the repatriation of human burials. Such disputes have been central to the recognition that previously marginalized groups have rights in their own past that are important for their future. This book looks at some of the most important events where a role for an archaeology concerned with the past in the present first emerged and look forward to the practical and theoretical issues now central to a socially engaged discipline and shaping its future. This book is published in honor of Professor Peter Ucko, who has played an unparalleled role in promoting awareness of the core issues in this volume among archaeologists.The book is now available in the ORI Library.

Rock art sites of Botswana

According to Dr. Alec Campbell, eminent world authority on African rock art, there are more than 120 rock art sites scattered around Botswana. This rich artistic heritage is protected by law in Botswana. Tsodilo Hills, which is Botswana's pre-eminent rockart destination has its paintings drawn using fingers, depicting different species of giraffe, rhino, elephant eland and cattle. Other rock art sites include the Gubatshaa Hills in the Chobe National Park, Bushmen paintings of the North east, Matsieng's foot print and Manyana Village paintings.

New Project :Wennegren Foundation Research Awards

One of ORI’s researchers, Dr. Susan Keitumetse, an archaeologist and cultural heritage specialist has been named as one of the recipients of the Wennegren Foundation Research award. The project will sponsor one (1) MPhil student at UB and the purchase of archaeological field equipment such as total station and GPsetc. The project, titled “Historical archaeology of marginal landscapes between Kgalakgadi Desert & Limpopo Dry Valleys”, will be carried out in the collaboration with Dr. Zoe Crossland (Co-Applicant), University of Columbia , and Ms Joyce Maphanyane (Co-PI), Environmental Science Dept, UB main campus. In brief the project is a component of the broader Cultural Heritage Programme being developed by Dr Keitumetse at ORI. The project looks at archaeological material and ethnographic evidence from the sparsely populated eco-tone between the Kgalagadi desert and the rich subsidiary valleys of the Limpopo river (Popularly referred to as ‘marginal spaces’) in order to explore the social, economic, and political interactions of the 19th century Botswana. The focus of the study will shift from the hilltop settlements and nucleated towns that have been the object of most research and focus on cattle-post areas to explore patterns of mobility, migration and social contact at a time of political change. This project is carried out in a circuit that will start in Central Botswana (Mosolotshane area) through Boteti area and finally Ngamiland following documented historical Tswana migration to North-West Botswana. The end product will be used by government stakeholders such as local communities, Botswana Tourism Organisation, Botswana National Museum, etc, to develop a tourism product needed to diversify Botswana tourism. We would like congratulate Dr Susan Keitumetse and her team on this achievement and flying the ORI flag high.

New at HOORC's Library: The archaelogy of dry lands

The Archaelogy of drylands by Graeme Barker and David Gilbertson descibes the archaelogy of different kinds of drylands found in various parts of the world, different periods of the past and different kinds of societies. The book also examines the complexities involved in their interactions with each other, given the way in which changing political agendas have tended to demonise or sentimentalise them. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

New staff member at HOORC

Dr. Sorcha Diskin has joined HOORC, from the XRD laboratory main campus. She has worked extensively in Scotland and has spent the last two years on main campus running the XRD laboratory. Her research interests include :sedimentary geochemistry, detrial heavy minerals and clay mineralogy. Currently, she is involved in a number of research projects with the Geology Department of UB, and their study involves looking at the Karoo succession in Botswana as well as geological applications in archaelogy.She holds a Phd in Geochemistry from Oxford Brookes University . Welcome Dr. Diskin!

Climate change in the Kalahari

Oxford University's School of Geography and the Environment's David Thomas and Sallie Burrough are presenting their research at the Botswana National Museum in Gaborone at 1800 h. on December 9th. The presentation, What Does the Future Hold? Mega-lakes, Mega-droughts and 200,000 Years of Environmental Extremes in the Kalahari Desert will look at
archaeological evidence that indicates how early human occupation of the Kalahari may have been related to extreme environmental changes. In HOORC's Library you can find A brain for all seasons : human evolution and abrupt climate change by William H. Calvin.

New issue of Botswana National Museum periodical

HOORC's Library recently received the first 2008 issue of The Zebra's Voice, quarterly publication of the Botswana National Museum. The issue commemorates the Museum's 40th anniversary and contains articles about the Adopt-a-Monument campaign, pre-development archaeology, revitalization of the Motswedi wa Ditso cultural heritage radio programme, and local community involvement in eco- and cultural tourism. You can request a copy from the National Museum or read it in HOORC's Library.

New in HOORC's Library: Envisioning landscape

Envisioning landscape : situations and standpoints in archaeology and heritage, Number 52 in the One World Archaeology series, brings together papers about the various ways landscape archaeology can be used to interpret heritage sites worldwide. HOORC cultural tourism specialist Dr. Susan Keitumetse, with Geoffrey Matlapeng and Leseka Monamo, has contributed Chapter Five: Cultural landscapes, communities and world heritage : in pursuit of the local in the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. You can find the book in HOORC's Library.

Environmental Change in the Kalahari workshop

Workshop participants on field trip to Lake Ngami


Fifty-six natural resources researchers from Africa, Europe and the United States met in Maun on March 3rd to 5th 2008 to discuss and plan for new multidisciplinary research in the Kalahari. The workshop, organized by HOORC, brought together people currently engaged in studying environmental change in Africa, with a specific focus on four topic areas: Monitoring for environmental change, Palaeo-environmental change in Africa, Environmental change and human well being and Transboundary range resource issues. A notable achievement of the workshop was a set of concept notes written for three key areas: Community involvement in monitoring bush encroachment, the use of GIS to study lake formation, and the use of silcretes and their origins in relation to stone tools. HOORC researcher Dr Philippa Huntsman-Mapila is coordinating the workshop's followup activities and you can find the workshop presentations on HOORC's website.

UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database

UNESCO’s new database of cultural heritage laws facilitates identification and retrieval of information about the national laws of its Member States that deal with cultural heritage -- whether movable, immovable, intangible, underwater or natural. The resource aims to protect cultural heritage as a whole by combating looting, theft, illegal export and import and illicit trafficking of cultural property as well as the degradation and all other forms of deterioration of the heritage. To further strengthen protection of cultural heritage, UNESCO is also stepping up its campaign for the ratification and implementation of conventions relating to protection of the cultural heritage, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (which entered into force on 20 April 2006) and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (which entered into force on 18 March 2007).

In HOORC’s Library, you can find Heritage resources law : protecting the archaeological and cultural environment by Sherry Hutt, Caroline M. Blanco and Ole Varmer, and Safeguarding of intangible heritage by HOORC researcher Dr. S.O. Keitumetse.

Tsodilo archaeology talk

Photo courtesy of Sheila Coulson

Associate Professor Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo's Department of Archaeology visited HOORC today and presented Early Symbolism and Ritual Behaviour: Evidence from a Middle Stone Age Site, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, the latest findings from the work of the joint project of the Archaeological Section, UB/Tromsø Collaborative Programme for San Research. Archaeological discoveries from the Rhino Cave site at Tsodilo Hills -- part of the Okavango Delta Ramsar site and a World Heritage Site -- provides strong evidence of ritual behaviour at least 70,000 years ago, predating such evidence found in Europe. According to Professor Coulson, these findings place Botswana firmly within the current debate about modern human behaviour. In HOORC's Library, you can find Ditswammung : the archaeology of Botswana by Paul Lane, Andrew Reid and Alinah Segobye.

Archaeological find at Tsodilo Hills

University of Oslo Associate Professor Sheila Coulson's archaeological team has reported new evidence of ancient ritual activity at a site in the Tsodilo Hills near the Okavango Panhandle. Coulson's team has been working with the University of Tromso - University of Botswana collaborative research programme that is studying the history and culture of the indigenous people of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa -- known as San, Basarwa, Bushmen, Khoesan, N/oakwe, or Kwe. In HOORC's Library, you can find Professor Coulson's 2000 report on archaeological fieldwork.