The Department of Archaeology at the National Museum, Bloemfontein, is involved in several projects aimed at reconstructing the behaviour and biology of past human populations, from the start of the archaeological record in the Pliocene period up into the ethnographic present of southern Africa.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines traditional medicine (TM) as “the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses” (WHO 2008).
Archaeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through their material remains obtained through systematic excavation and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains. Archaeologists have long studied diseases in past populations through various evidence such as settlement layout, burials, funerary remains, and human (including hominid) skeletal remains. In this way they gain insight into the ideal environments for a pandemic to get a foothold and the strategies that earlier societies adopted to deal with it.
The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the National Museum, Bloemfontein, participates in several projects focused on reconstructing the behaviour and biology of early humans, from the inception of the archaeological record in the Early Pleistocene up to the ethnographic present of southern Africa.
The West Coast Fossil Park, established in 1998, is home to a very special fossil locality, Langebaanweg. Langebaanweg is dated as 5 million years old and is the only site in South Africa to produce animal remains of this age. The site is world famous for the incredible diversity and density of fossils found at the site.