Poetry Reading Performance: CAVES

“Caves” is the result of the writer and poet Gabriele Tinti’s veneration for images.

He has composed a series of poems inspired by prehistoric art. The reading at the Origins Centre Museum comes within the writer’s overall project focusing on the masterpieces of the ancient world and prehistoric art. Over recent years this has involved some important actors (including Joe Mantegna, Robert Davi, Burt Young, Vincent Piazza, Franco Nero and Alessandro Haber).

Gabriele Tinti website.

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Lecture and Book Launch presented by Professor Lee Berger

Almost Human - Homo naledi

Found deep in an underground cave in South Africa, Homo naledi is the newest member of the human family tree.

Two short excavation periods recovered more than 1 500 remains of unprecedented quality and completeness. Professor Lee Berger will discuss how this extraordinary discovery was made and share details and information about the find and the fossils.

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Meet your inner Cannibal at Klasies River by Prof. Sarah Wurz

Prof. Sarah Wurz specialises in the Middle Stone Age, specifically lithic technology and African coastal adaptations.

She has been closely involved in the research at the Middle Stone Age site of Klasies River. She has undertaken detailed analyses of the South African Middle Stone Age lithic artefacts from Klasies River and has interpreted them in terms of the history of anatomical modern humans and the evolution of cognition.

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Public lecture by Prof. Bob Scholes

The Lay of the Land

How the interaction of climate, soils and policy cause some landscapes to degrade, and why it matters.

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Origins Centre Family Dig

Bring the whole family along for a fun-filled fossil dig at the Origins Centre.

Join us for a fun family day at Origins Centre!

Adults can explore the world class Origins Centre and James Kitching Gallery to learn about human origins, dinosaurs, and san rock art, while the kids dig for fossils, stone tools and other artefacts.
They will make prehistoric sculptures, solve puzzles and search for treasure. 

Cost: R100 per person taking part in the activities.

Bookings must be made through webtickets.

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Yebo Gogga 2016

Get up close and personal with all kinds of weird and wonderful animals at Yebo Gogga Yebo amaBlomo 2016.

The theme for the 2016 exhibition is: Move.

Life and movement are deeply and complexly interlinked. At the astronomical scale the movements of the earth and moon result in seasons, day and night and tides. Weather and climate are a result of air and water movement which at their simplest help to balance temperatures.

All living things have a greater or lesser need for movement of some kind. Even plants, which are usually not associated with movement, are dependent on movement. Seeds need to reach spaces where they can grow and where water, nutrients and light are available. The transfer of pollen from one individual plant to another ensures genetic diversity and can lead to adaptation and resistance to disease. Shoots grow upwards and roots downwards essentially moving towards needs for life.

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Yebo Gogga 2017

Get up close and personal with all kinds of weird and wonderful animals at Yebo Gogga 2017.

This year, the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences celebrates 100 years of biology research and teaching with this special edition of Yebo Gogga.

Dates: 10 – 14 May 2017
Time: 08:30 – 15:00 weekdays, 9:00 - 16:00 weekend 
Venue: Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building, East Campus, University of the Witwatersrand

The 2017 exhibition will be packed with things to see and do. There will be live plants and animals, plenty of bugs and beasts to see and possibly hold. We expect to have fossils, rocks, minerals and microscopes. There will be edible bugs, traditional spinach, and indigenous teas to taste.

Our time machine will take you back to the begining of what is now the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, and back in the history of various exhibitors. The characters, the discoveries the state of knowledge at various times will be presented. 

The talks on Satureday and Sunday offer something for everyone. Adventure, travel to remote places, facinating animals and serious trees.

• See more at: https://www.wits.ac.za/yebogogga/

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A celebration of plants at Origins

Chrissie Sievers, a senior lecturer in Archaeobotany will present this lecture

From poison to pleasure, the use of plants has permeated our lives since our earliest origins.

In southern Africa there is a particularly rich heritage of indigenous knowledge about plant uses and the Origins Gardens form a living museum of plants which cover a wide range of these uses. This talk will celebrate the plants in the gardens, especially those represented in the 2018 Calendar designed by students of the Greenside Design Center.

Chrissie Sievers is a senior lecturer in Archaeobotany (people and plants in the past) at Wits University. Her PhD was on the use of sedges as bedding in the Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently investigating plant remains from Border Cave and Bushman Rock Shelter where as yet unidentified corms and rhizomes (edible or poisonous?) were used in ancient times.

Tuesday, 21 November, 18:00 for 18:30 

Adults R65. Students R35

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