Abstract
FROM time to time news is received of the discovery in South Africa of a new and previously unknown culture, presumed to be the work of a vanished race. More often than not the finds are associated with stone-work or the evidence of metal-working. The latest discovery to be reported (Times, March 13) comes from the northern Transvaal, where Mr. D. S. van der Merwe, assistant registrar of mining titles on the Rand, has discovered sacrificial graves of an entirely new type, a sacrificial altar, approached by ceremonial causeways and by staircases, an irrigation system of enormous extent, together with the remnants of a large dam. There is also a copper tool, which is said to be an authentic mining implement. These finds are ascribed to a vanished race, and on account of the diminutive size of the stairways, it is suggested that its members were pygmies. The collections have been placed at the disposal of the Ethnological Department of the University of the Witwatersrand and are said to be regarded by the Department as very important. As Mr. van der Merwe is a layman in ethnological matters, the verdict of experts in the cultures of the natives of South Africa will be awaited with interest. As a rule, unfortunately, previous claims to the discovery of new cultures and vanished races have not survived their impartial scrutiny.
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Vanished Races in South Africa. Nature 131, 392–393 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131392d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131392d0