The Basotho people were always known for their innovative and creative range of indigenous crafts. Traditionally the women produced various forms of clay pottery, while the men cleverly plaited grass baskets and hats. These objects were marketed to foreign visitors in Maseru and elsewhere across the border in South Africa.
The National Museum has recently embarked on a long process of upgrading its Mammal exhibition halls. While we are excited about the prospects of the changes, this mission also presents us with an opportunity to reflect on the composition and layout of the existing mammal displays.
Groot Constantia, a vineyard which was founded in 1685, is the oldest wine brand established in South Africa. This historic enterprise has operated successfully for over three centuries in South Africa and it is well known internationally. The company has a strong identity; its logo depicts the iconic old colonial Cape Dutch gabled homestead, which is easily recognisable.
Crocodiles are fascinating and fearsome creatures, and along with sharks today they are at the top of the food chain in the Animal Kingdom. Adult crocs have almost no natural enemies, apart from humans. Crocodiles are some of Earth’s oldest inhabitants, descending about 94 million years ago from the non-avian reptiles—pseudosuchians—that appeared 248 million years ago.
Giovanni Battista Venturi was born in 1746 in Bibbiano, a small village in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Italy. At the age of 23, he was ordained as a Catholic priest and, in the same year, was appointed as a teacher of logic at the University of Reggio Emilia. In 1774, he moved to the University of Modena as a professor of geometry and philosophy. Over the next years, Venturi would also have success as a university-level mathematics instructor, a civil engineer, a politician, a statesman, a confidant of Napoleon I Bonaparte, and, in later years, as a renowned historian.