Cape Town – Rethink tourism this Heritage Month by immersing yourself in the experience of humanity's earliest use of symbolism, art, and technology at the Cradle of Human Culture.
Serving as evidence of how the first inhabitants began to innovate socially, behaviourally, and culturally along the province's coastlines, with the use of ornately decorated ostrich eggs and seashell beads, to carefully crafted bone tools and well executed rock art, the site allows you to journey back in time to trace the origins and development of human culture over the past 100 000 years, and uncover the mysteries of what it means to be human.
As a Western Cape Government initiative, marketed by Wesgro, the Cradle of Human Culture sites encircles a vast area such as Diepkloof Rock Shelter on the Cape West Coast, Blombos Cave near Stilbaai and Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay.
West Coast Fossil Park director Pippa Haarhoff said that as Heritage month holds great significance, exploring the Cradle of Human Culture will contribute to sustaining the establishments along the sites and provide continued employment.
“Three important archaeological sites reveal how our ancestors started to innovate as the Cradle of Human Culture is a journey through the Western Cape and consists of key archaeological sites and two routes. The Artists Journey and the Coastal Journey. With the initiative being a journey through the province, it benefits the Western Cape in terms of packaging the destination. Another benefit is the increase in spend will both sustain the many establishments along the sites and provide continued employment to the vast workforce in the hospitality sector,” said Haarhoff.
From human origins to contemporary San life experiences at !Khwa ttu, which sits within a historical and archaeological landscape along the West Coast, Michael Daiber who is the General Manager at !Khwa ttu said that there are archaeological sites that are near !Khwa ttu, such as Yzerfontein, that plays a key role in the story of human origins.
“Our historical exhibitions draw particular attention to the longevity of San history and its links to human origins, issues of colonial genocide and discrimination against San.
At the heart of our heritage centre lies recognition that to really understand San lifeways, we must move away from traditional, colonising museum approaches toward new and innovative curation strategies. It is our aim to remind visitors that there are different, yet ultimately familiar, ways of being in the world,” said Daiber.