This video is absolutely captivating! The researchers' lifetime work in archaeology, botany, and beyond beautifully reveals where we come from, where we’ve been, and where we’re heading as humans. It’s amazing to see how our history intertwines with the natural world, shaping our future. Truly inspiring work-thank you for sharing!
Incredible, accurate, consise and powerful. Congratulations on this short documentary, I hope it gets the exposure it diserves! Hopefully soon we will find a way to start restoring this larger ecosystem of which only a tiny fraction is left. Makes me so sad to see the hundreds of thousands of hectares of Canola and Wheat fields in its place.
Hello Laura. I agree with you about the absence of a diversity of identities in our film. However, the people in the film are the authentic voices of the research and they provide a diversity of perspectives on the evolution of our species on the Cape south coast. Including subjects unfamiliar with the research underpinning the film, would have betrayed its purpose.
Great video. How how does this link up with/relate to the situation on the West Coast where there are middens, high numbers of edible plants with corms etc and numerous sites with rock art paintings
Hello Penny. The west coast does, indeed, have wonderful palaeoarchives. Interestingly, the abundance of edible geophytes is no higher there than on the south coast during spring but the south coast, with its bimodal rainfall, also has many apparent (to foragers) edibles during autumn, which meant that foragers could potentially not have to move away from their camps during the dry times, and head for the mountains where edible geophytes are more available during the dry times. Also, the palaeoarchives of the Middle Stone Age reflecting human modernity are not as old on the west coast as they are on the south coast (100 000 vs 160 000 years).
Thanks Richard, you certainly have made a good case for the emergence of behavourly advanced people on the southern coast. A veritable "Garden of Eden" where I would imagine the glacial climate there would have been milder than on the West Coast area. The artworks of Maggie Newman are fabulous and bring the whole scenario to life wonderfully.
Wonderful!!! Thank you!
This video is absolutely captivating! The researchers' lifetime work in archaeology, botany, and beyond beautifully reveals where we come from, where we’ve been, and where we’re heading as humans. It’s amazing to see how our history intertwines with the natural world, shaping our future. Truly inspiring work-thank you for sharing!
Incredible, accurate, consise and powerful. Congratulations on this short documentary, I hope it gets the exposure it diserves!
Hopefully soon we will find a way to start restoring this larger ecosystem of which only a tiny fraction is left. Makes me so sad to see the hundreds of thousands of hectares of Canola and Wheat fields in its place.
This is so incredible! What a place. Such a missed opportunity to not have a diversity of voices and people represented though!
Hello Laura. I agree with you about the absence of a diversity of identities in our film. However, the people in the film are the authentic voices of the research and they provide a diversity of perspectives on the evolution of our species on the Cape south coast. Including subjects unfamiliar with the research underpinning the film, would have betrayed its purpose.
Great video. How how does this link up with/relate to the situation on the West Coast where there are middens, high numbers of edible plants with corms etc and numerous sites with rock art paintings
Hello Penny. The west coast does, indeed, have wonderful palaeoarchives. Interestingly, the abundance of edible geophytes is no higher there than on the south coast during spring but the south coast, with its bimodal rainfall, also has many apparent (to foragers) edibles during autumn, which meant that foragers could potentially not have to move away from their camps during the dry times, and head for the mountains where edible geophytes are more available during the dry times. Also, the palaeoarchives of the Middle Stone Age reflecting human modernity are not as old on the west coast as they are on the south coast (100 000 vs 160 000 years).
Thanks Richard, you certainly have made a good case for the emergence of behavourly advanced people on the southern coast. A veritable "Garden of Eden" where I would imagine the glacial climate there would have been milder than on the West Coast area.
The artworks of Maggie Newman are fabulous and bring the whole scenario to life wonderfully.
P