Cedarburg Workshop - Part Two - Hollow Rock Shelter

Continuing with our Cedarberg Exploration...

On our way to Hollow Rock Shelter

Every morning during the conference the group ( of 30+ archaeologists) would first go out on a quick trip to visit a local archaeological site of some significance, we would then be back and covered in sweat by 11am to start the morning talks, followed by lunch followed by a nap - aka the afternoon talks- in almost 40°C heat it was nearly impossible to stay awake sometimes. We had an evening talk after dinner on only the first day. Thereafter time was our own.

View across the farm on which Traveller's Rest is located

I will pause here to say that all these pictures (except from the last day) are courtesy of my office mate Emily, who is just back from England. Emily was in the final hair-tearing-out stages of finishing her Masters when I arrived in Cape Town. She has now started a PhD in Cambridge but is back here for a few months collecting data and doing her field work in the Cedarburg, nice for some. I realised sitting at my computer on the day of departure (sending off funding applications) that I had forgotten my camera! When I moaned about this Emily kindly loaned me one of her brand new cameras that she had gotten specifically for field work. Without her this blog would be a lot shorter and more boring!

The entrance to Hollow Rock Shelter. Emily (okay half of Emily)
 is on the left taking a picture with her other camera.

Day 1 (Saturday) saw us take a short drive followed by something of a boulder-strewn scrambled up a mountain to an archaeological locality called Hollow Rock Shelter.

The shelter is hidden under one the big boulders
 on the top of the hill

Boulder scramble

Almost there!

 As you can see from the images the shelter is a hollow space below a massive boulder with several runnels and entrances.

Looking through the entrance into the shelter

 A person has to craw to enter the space and its only 2 m at its highest point.

Close quarters inside the shelter

 In the 'roof' slightly to one side is a natural chimney, below which charcoal remains from ancient fires were discovered during excavations. 

The chimney

Taking a picture of someone taking a picture, but it
gives you an idea of  the relative position of the
 chimney over the fire pit (area where charcoal was recovered).

Hollow Rock Shelter was first discovered in the early 1990's. It was excavated by Lars Larson, among others. Lars himself was there to tell us about the site along with John Parkington, the head of the UCT archaeology department, who also played a role in the discovery and analysis of this site.

Lars Larson

 Hollow Rock Shelter is a Middle Stone Age site dated to around 80 000 - 72 000 years before present.

Nick Conard, Emily and Jess admiring some
 lithics (stone tools) in the shelter

The shelter contains numerous  projectile points and bifaces (stone tools) from the Still Bay Industry (The middle stone age can be broken into a number of archaeological 'industries' defined on a mixture of stone tools and other artifacts. These industries represent both a transition in time as well as a general sophistication of artifacts). 

Stone tools found in the shelter (I may get killed for saying
 this but I still think they are dreadfully dull!)

Stone tools found inside the shelter were better made than stone tools that were found on the rocky apron outside the cave entrance and Lars suggested that this might be the result of a teaching area. That the 'master' would sit inside the shelter and the students would practice outside.

Lithics found scattered on the hill top

Exploring the area around the shelter, there are many stone tools from early man scattered all around the rocks here. It became a standing joke cos I would be checking out the view and kept sitting on artifacts not noticing they were there! (Who cares about stone tools anyway?).

Typical archaeologists looking at the ground!

Enthusiasts even found time for a little rock climbing.

Jason showing us how its done!

A willing pupil

In time we returned to camp to start the first day's talks. 
The morning's talks were given by the Tubingen (Germany) contingent lead by Nick Conard on sites like Geelbek, Anyskop and Hoedjiespunt.

Some members of the German group and Cuan (UCT with the hat)
who happened to be in the wrong photo at the wrong time!

After lunch was a series of extremely fascinating  talks on Diepkloof Rock Shelter (pictures of this to follow) and Elands Bay Cave. Which were presented by the French and the remaining German contingents. 

Nap Time - Watching presentations and then having discussion sessions
afterwards. It was fascinating but often hard to stay awake in the heat.

Here is Guillaume Porraz (eye candy) telling us about Diepkloof 

My other office mate Katharine then had a give an evening talk before we could all relax and take it easy.

Archaeology students doing what we do best
(thats me on the right)

The adventures didnt end there though. Having retired early the night before I was now ready to stay up late talking rubbish (archaeology). The person I was sharing a chalet with (who will remain nameless in case she ever discovers this blog) went to bed earlier than me. When I eventually got back to my chalet it was to find that she had, for reasons that I will never be able to fathom, locked the door to the chalet - I was now locked out. This is a problem. So I start pounding on the door. After a good long while there is finally stirring from inside. This person snaps open the door, glares at me and proceeds to explain to me very angrily that she was sleeping (as in, how dare I wake her up!). I am thinking No-sh*t-Sherlock I would never have guessed that! Having said her piece she then stalks off back to bed, leaving me still standing on the doorstep. In her defense I dont think she was even properly awake, but what an attitude! Fortunately I was merry enough at this point to think all this rather funny. She apparently did not, as she continued to sulk with me for the rest of the trip apparently over waking her up in the middle of the night! When it was her own fault! Sigh some people! Soo all in all a great first day!
To be continued...

Cedarburg Workshop Part One - Pakhuis Pass.

Hi All
Last weekend's workshop was such a good trip that it has taken me till after this weekend to get over it!
I am going to split-up my reminiscence of the trip into a few blog posts, if only not to bore you into tears! here is the first part.

No, on a serious(-ish) note it was a great trip and I am glad I went on it. So we departed on Friday the 1 Nov and headed north up the west coast (some 40 km or so inland thereof) into the Cedarburg Mountains.

We traveled through a number of small towns, Citrusdal (named that for the local produce) and on to Clanwilliam before climbing the Pakhuis Pass - which is beautiful. Before finally arriving at a small resort in the mountains called Traveller's Rest. All the pictures shown here are views going over the pass and were taken on my phone.

We arrived at Traveller's Rest in time to get settled in and have a few drinks before dinner (the food was rather good). We were staying in small and somewhat rustic chalets some distance from the eating and conference location. It was amazing how quiet it was. I was knackered after a long week and killed out early.

Although it was something of a challenge trying to find my chalet by starlight that evening, as we had not though to leave any lights on and there is no light pollution (or cell phone reception) out there! It did mean seeing some of the most beautiful starry skies I have seen in a long time. Wish we had taken more time to enjoy the stars, but all us city slickers didnt think of that!

The workshop was attended by archaeologists (Both VIP's and UIP [Unimportant persons]) from all around the globe including South Africa; Borbeaux, France; Tubigen, Germany; Canda; America and Sweden.

Happy Halloween!

Its Halloween!!! And what a hellish week it has been!

Found this picture here: http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Wicked_Witch_of_the_West

Unfortunately the 1st of November seems to have some magical significance in the Cosmos as in the next 12 hours I have to get about one hundred things done, this blog not being one of them!
Two out of three funding opportunities that I am applying for (for next year) have to be submitted tomorrow. Writing funding applications is a laborious, difficult and above all long process and getting the application document plus a encyclopedia's worth of supporting documents submitted in both hard and digital copies by the deadline is always a stressful matter. Now double that panic as there are two of them due at the same time. So my desk (and the inside of my head) are looking a little chaotic of late!

This document will be unrecognizable by the time I am done with it!

My desk with papers spread everywhere

So the fates decided that I was clearly not working hard enough. On Tuesday I get a message from the co-authors of a paper we submitted for publication. I should just pause here to say that my first ever paper has been accepted for publication with minor changes and that if we complete these changes and submit by (you guessed it) 1 November it will be published in the last volume of the year! YaY!! One of the things that needed changing was the figures (pictures of the fossils described in the paper). They have taken new pictures of the fossils and so now I need to reconstruct the figures (I had assumed that the person taking the new pics was going to do this so it caught me by surprise). Well its now 9 pm on Thursday evening and I have reconstructed nothing. Fortunately (I heard this morning) the editor of the journal has given us an extension until Wednesday. Shooh!


And on top of all this I am going away this weekend and have done no packing or sorting out for that either! This trip is a archaeological workshop in the Cedarberg mountains. We will be seeing and discussing many talks of varying subjects and visiting several important archaeological sites. I will tell you more next week. All I can say is that after this week I need the break!

And this is just a taster to show that I have not been up sitting on my butt complaining but have been beading

Testing out new techniques

Centurion Craft Show 2013!!!

Another great Centurion Craft Show is behind us and a lot of fun was had by all!!
The show was a great success with many visitors taking in all the interesting crafts on display!

I arrived late on Thursday evening and had a lot of fun setting up our tables. My show stand is really starting to take shape nicely nowadays (if I say so myself)! These some pictures of our tables which were set up in a 'L-shape'.

And some closeups of the jewellery on the table.

There were many other great crafts there.
On one side of us was Johan and his crew from Fire and Glass with their lampworked glass beads

Johan always draws a crowd!

On the other side were representatives of the Pretoria weavers guild
The wooden thing in the front of the picture  is a transportable spinning wheel. The foot pedals rotate the wheel and the spindle is positioned just in front of the users knees. This one folds up flat and has a carry bag! How cool?

And here you see a card loom that is used to make bands and similar narrow pieces. Looms like this one have been recovered from archaeological digs from as far back as 850AD!

Or how about this baby?

Megan was there with her teddy bears (Tin Soldiers)

And there she is hard at work on a teddy bear

These bears were brought in by someone hoping to sell their collection. I absolutely love the musketeer beer and had to really argue with myself about buying. Although if I ever find a pattern for making this bear...

And this is Marietha who has been doing Srilankan Applique for 30 years.

Here we have pewter work.

This is creative knitting. My mother has been doing classes in this for about a year (I think) and the things she has maid are amazing!

Of course it wouldnt be the Centurion Craft Show without quilting and there some amazing quilts on display!

Im already looking forward to next years show! See you all there!!

Sense of humor failure

Boy can that little, innocent furry brown cockroach can get under my skin some days!
To give this story some context I must first explain that last week the little monster rolled in fresh, stinky poo of the human variety (which, believe you me is extra smelly - proof that we are more disgusting than animals!). Thus I had to give him a bath the instant we got home that night which is a pain in the bum. First I have to climb into the shower, then I have to manhandle him into the shower, scrub him up and then clean the WHOLE bathroom afterwards, which requires a mop and bucket to remove all the splashed water. I was particularly annoyed cos I actually want to send him to the parlor for a trim, so now that has to wait.

Well last night, as I am loading the varmit (good word that) into the car I smell that smell. So I grab his head and before I have even gotten my face near his back to give it the sniff test I had confirmation, he has done it again!

Well my sense of humor did not so much fail as have a complete meltdown! I was tired, I was hungry and now I was absolutely furious!

The problem with being mad at a dog is that shouting doesnt help. They have no clue what you are going on about and simply give you the thousand-yard stare. So I resorted to that ultimate female fall back The Cold-Shoulder, combined with the women's nuclear weapon The Silent Treatment! From the moment we got home I didnt talk to him, make eye contact anything! It wasnt long before he had slunk off to his bed looking miserable.

It should probably be said in his defense that he still had no idea why I was so mad, but he did know who I was mad with!

About half an hour (or 1 episode of the Big Bang Theory) and a snack later my sense of humor decided to make a reappearance and I was now ready to deal with the problem. So I start by giving him the sniff test, only to discover that there is no smell on his back - what I am smelling is his breath! Ok thats disgusting enough on its own but it means that I dont have to wash the little monster and that I have been punishing him for nothing!

So morel of the story: Im a bi***and my dog is an angel. Although if (when) he does this again Im buying him doggie breath mints (if such things exist!).

I know I owe you some feed back on the show, everytime I have sat down to do a post on it I either forgot my hardrive (with the photos) or the internet wasnt working, but I promise its coming!

Bead Kits - Sneak Peak!

Hi All

The Centurion Craft Show starts tomorrow and there is still so much to do!

I wanted to show you a quick sneak peak at my new beading tutorials.

First there is a cocktail ring I made with a polymer clay flower, patterned ultrasuede and some beading around the edge. Its a very simple tutorial and is quick to make. The kit is available in green, red, blue and purple.

Flower cocktail ring

I made this beaded ring with the turquoise many months ago and it has caught the eye of many people! So I knuckled down and wrong it up, admittedly I had to remake the ring in order to get the directions right! It takes me at least two hours to make but its great to have a ready made ring at the end that fits! This kit is also available in an assortment of colours.

Notice the addition of the new logo in the images?

Crown ring kits

In this last project I wanted to create a project that could be used to teach a novice some basic skills for bead embroidery. I will be using this project to teach workshops during the show so I wanted something that could be finished in an hour or two. I intend to create more small simple bead embroidery projects focusing on different techniques. This kit is also packed with a selection of colours.

Although as I sit writing this I have suddenly realised that while I packed enough beads for both earrings in the kits I have only cut and packed enough backing and foundation material for one! Ooops! Oh well I needed to go to the bead shop to get thread and needles for the kits anyway, it was a lucky save!

Bead embroidery earrings kit

The kits have clear (I hope) instructions with diagrams (which I toiled over for hours) and enough beads, findings, needle and thread to complete the project. The only thing not provided is scissors, glue, beading mat and similar.

So come visit us at the Centurion Craft Show, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, to pick up a beading kit and check out many other cool crafts!

Love Jet