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05 June 2018 Photo Supplied
Digging up truth South Africa was way different to what you thought
Archaeological excavations in the Wonderwerk Cave, north of Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

Research fellow Dr Lloyd Rossouw from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently published an article in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal with Dr Michaela Ecker from the University of Toronto as lead author, and Dr James Brink, research fellow at the UFS Centre for Environmental Management. The findings described in “The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan-Acheulean in southern Africa” provides the first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa by applying a combination of methods for environmental reconstruction at Wonderwerk Cave, which have yielded multiple evidence of early human occupation dating back almost two million years ago.

Where water once was
The Wonderwerk Cave is found north of the Kuruman hills (situated in Northern Cape) a 140m long tube with a low ceiling. The surroundings are harsh. Semi-arid conditions allow for the survival of only hardy bushes, trees, and grasses. But during the Early Pleistocene, stepping out of the Wonderwerk Cave you would have been greeted by a completely different site, the researchers found. Using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on the teeth of herbivores (Dr Ecker), fossil faunal abundance (Dr Brink), as well as the analysis of microscopic plant silica remains (phytoliths) excavated from fossil soils inside the cave (Dr Rossouw), the results show that ancient environments in the central interior of southern Africa were significantly wetter and housed a plant community unlike any other in the modern African savanna. 

What difference does it make?
While East African research shows increasing aridity and the spread of summer-rainfall grasslands more than a million years ago, the results from this study indicate an interesting twist. During the same period, shifts in rainfall seasonality allowed for alternating summer and winter-rainfall grass occurrences coupled with prolonged wetlands, that remained major components of Early Pleistocene (more or less the period between one and two million years ago) environments in the central interior of southern Africa. That means our human ancestors were also living and evolving in environments other than the generally accepted open, arid grassland model.

News Archive

About 4 000 UFS students to graduate
2010-05-03

 The University of the Free State’s (UFS) autumn graduation and diploma ceremonies will once again be held in the Arena on the South Campus (formerly known as the Vista Campus) this year.
This arrangement has been made because this year’s graduation ceremonies coincide with the examinations for which the Callie Human Centre on the Main Campus will be used.

The various graduation ceremonies will take place on 18, 19, 20 and 21 May 2010.

A total of 2 775 degrees, 833 diplomas and certificates, 40 doctorates and two honorary doctorates will be conferred.

The full programme is as follows:

  • Tuesday, 18 May 2010:

    - From 08:30, a total of 488 degrees and eight doctorates will be awarded to students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, including 3-year B.Sc. degree.
    -At 14:30 on the same day 285 degrees and five doctorates will be awarded to students in the Agricultural and Building Sciences, still in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, including 4-year B.Sc. degree. An honorary doctoral degree will be awarded to Dr Ben Ngubane, the current SABC Board Chairperson.
     
  • Wednesday, 19 May 2010:

    - From 08:30, 293 B.Com. and B.Com. Honours students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences will graduate.
    - At 14:30, 477 students in BML, B.Admin., B.Pub., B.Acc. and related Honours degrees and all Master’s and Doctoral degrees in this faculty will graduate. An honorary doctoral degree will also be awarded to the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan.
     
  • Thursday, 20 May 2010:

    - A total of 345 degrees and 12 doctorates will be awarded to students in the Faculties of Health Sciences, Law and Theology at 08:30.
    - At 14:30, 349 degrees and two doctoral students in the Faculty of Education will receive their degrees.
     
  • Friday, 21 May 2010:

    - From 08:30, 581 degrees and 10 doctorates will be awarded to students in the Faculty of the Humanities.
    - At 14:30 on the same day, 833 diplomas and certificates will be awarded to students from all of the university’s faculties.

Academic dress must be booked at fimt@ufs.ac.za before Tuesday, 18 May 2010 and can be collected from Monday, 3 May to Monday, 17 May between 08:00 and 16:00 at the Robe Storeroom in Rector’s Avenue (opposite Armentum Residence).

Please note that academic dress will not be available on the South Campus.

Furthermore, the graduation and diploma ceremonies at the Qwaqwa Campus will take place on Saturday, 8 May 2010, at 10:00 where 187 degrees, two doctorates and 63 diplomas will be conferred.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
3 May 2010
 

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