The Southern KZN History Society local history society recently docked at the iconic Fish on the River restaurant at Spiller’s Wharf in Port Shepstone for their annual year-end festivities.
The society enjoyed a busy time during 2023, with chairman Paddy Norman setting the tone for the year early on, giving an intriguing talk on pyramids, temples and ancient tombs.
April’s meeting continued in the theme of antiquity.
Donald Davies discussed Stone Age tools and the loss of irreplaceable information when modern building sites are ripped up willy-nilly.
This is often done without thought for what, or whom, might be buried beneath the soil, with the possibility that it could yield another piece of the intricate puzzle of the origins of humankind.
This fact remains a sore point with historians and palaeontologists alike as they continue to lobby the building industry to pay more attention when preparing a building site and to be more sensitive to the fact that there may well be irreplaceable artefacts buried beneath the soil.
The month of May was taken up with administrative tasks, which included voting in a new committee.
June included a talk on the Norwegian Settlers.
After much debate, it was decided to move the venue for the AGM from the Uvongo Tennis Club to the Maritime Museum in Port Shepstone where curator, Phumzile Dlamini, has made members feel more than welcome.
August shone the spotlight upon authentic African beadwork, presented by the museum’s curator and new member, Phumzile.
Subsequent meetings have been an outing to view the wreck of the Nirvonia vessel in Pumula and a visit to the museum at Oribi Gorge.
The highlight of the year must surely have been been the presentation by Professor Mike Watkeys, who holds a BSc (Hons) at the University of Wales and a PhD at the Witwatersrand University.
He took members through a fascinating and intricate timeline of the varying stages of evolution.
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