Annual General Meeting followed by the 36th Oliver Davies Memorial Lecture
By:
Natalie Swanepoel
Date:
Sat, 12/04/2025 - 10:30
Venue:
Phansi Museum
Branch:
KwaZulu-Natal
AGM starts at 10:30, lecture starts at about 11:00
All KZN Branch Members are welcome to join us for the Annual General Meeting of the KwaZulu-Natal Branch of the South African Archaeological Society at 10.30 am on Saturday 12 April 2025 at the Phansi Museum, 500 Esther Roberts Road, Glenwood, Durban
Please see the draft agenda below and send any additions to Gavin by the 4th of April.
Please also submit nominations (or self-nominations) to join the KZN ArcSoc Branch committee. Jen Gregory is stepping down but the following have indicated their willingness to continue serving on the committee: Robbie Cameron (as Treasurer), Ghilraen Laue, Gavin Whitelaw (as Secretary), Jeremy Hollmann, Justine Wintjes.
The meeting will be followed by the 36th Oliver Davies Memorial Lecture, starting at about 11.00 am and given by Dr Natalie Swanepoel of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of South Africa, Pretoria. Her topic is:
Towards an Archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa's Cloth Cultures: Sources, Tools and Contexts
About the Lecture
During the second millennium AD, cloth became an important artefact and trade commodity in many parts of Africa but textiles and other cloth-type materials are rarely preserved in the African archaeological record. Material evidence pertaining to this important and central part of life in sub-Saharan Africa is thus scant. The paucity of evidence should not, however, prevent us from investigating this aspect of the past. I argue that one issue hampering this endeavour is that archaeologists know relatively little about cloth production in general or how it might be archaeologically visible in ways other than preserved textiles. In order to address this gap in our knowledge base, I am taking an approach that seeks to aggregate data and observations from a wide variety of different sources including: preserved textiles, textile tools, historical documents, ethnography, craft studies and experimentation. In this talk, I will discuss some of the results of this work with reference to the cloth cultures of West and South-Eastern Africa.
About the Lecture
During the second millennium AD, cloth became an important artefact and trade commodity in many parts of Africa but textiles and other cloth-type materials are rarely preserved in the African archaeological record. Material evidence pertaining to this important and central part of life in sub-Saharan Africa is thus scant. The paucity of evidence should not, however, prevent us from investigating this aspect of the past. I argue that one issue hampering this endeavour is that archaeologists know relatively little about cloth production in general or how it might be archaeologically visible in ways other than preserved textiles. In order to address this gap in our knowledge base, I am taking an approach that seeks to aggregate data and observations from a wide variety of different sources including: preserved textiles, textile tools, historical documents, ethnography, craft studies and experimentation. In this talk, I will discuss some of the results of this work with reference to the cloth cultures of West and South-Eastern Africa.
Image credit: “Wolof woman spinning cotton” - Senegal, 1843 (by P.-D. Boilat) http://www.senegal-online.com/francais/galeries
Draft Agenda of the 2025 Annual General Meeting of the KwaZulu-Natal Branch of the South African Archaeological Society
To be held at 10.30 am on Saturday 12 April 2025 at the Phansi Museum, Durban
- Welcome
- Apologies
- Minutes of the 2024 AGM for approval
- Matters arising from the minutes
- Chairperson’s report on 2024 (Ghilraen Laue)
- Treasurer’s report on 2024 (Robbie Cameron)
- Investments (Ghilraen Laue)
- Report-back on meetings (Jeremy Hollmann)
- Election of committee for 2025
- The following have indicated their willingness to serve on the committee:
- Robbie Cameron (as Treasurer), Ghilraen Laue, Gavin Whitelaw (as Secretary), Jeremy Hollmann, Justine Wintjes
- The following have indicated their willingness to serve on the committee:
- Any other business
For all queries, please contact Gavin Whitelaw (gwhitelaw@nmsa.org.za) or Ghilraen Laue (glaue@nmsa.org.za), or you may contact secretary@archaeology.org.za.