On July 16th, our team from the Archaeology and Design departments at the National Museum joined Emil Johan von Maltitz for a field visit to Mierfontein Farm near De Wetsdorp. Johan took us to a place he remembered from his youth—where he once uncovered parts of a skeleton of 𝑃𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑢𝑠, the extinct long-horned buffalo. These Ice Age giants had horn spans reaching up to 𝟑 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 from tip to tip!
To help visualise the scale of this incredible animal, we generated an AI image comparing its horn span to the height of an average modern human (see below). We’ve also included a photo of Abel holding a cast of 𝑃𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠 horns from Florisbad years ago. Interestingly, rock engravings found hundreds of kilometres south of this site 𝑚𝑎𝑦 depict 𝑃𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠 —and if so, these engravings could be more than 𝟏𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐥𝐝, as this species went extinct before the Holocene. However, as is the case with most rock art studies, this is very much open to interpretation..
Although the original 𝑃𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠 site at Mierfontein appears to have been eroded by decades of river activity, the visit was still interesting. We found 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬, along with fossil remains of several large, wildebeest-sized bovids. These discoveries could offer comparative material for understanding the faunal landscape of the 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐠𝐞 —the same time period represented at the iconic Florisbad site near Soutpan.
#FlorisbadQuaternaryResearch
#ArchaeologyInAction
#PrehistoricGiants
#HeritageInTheField
#FlorisianLandMammalAge
