Canteen Kopje
Barkly West, Northern Cape
South Africa
Description of the Site
Canteen Kopje is a low rise outside the town of Barkly West in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.
Canteen Kopje is the country’s oldest dated archaeological site. Together with the heritage of communities still living in the area, it boasts a Stone Age history stretching back some 2.3 million years.
Diamonds were discovered there in 1869 and it became the first alluvial diamond diggings in South Africa.
Canteen Koppie has also produced an abundance of Acheulian Stone Age artefacts. These are present in both sedimentary facies suggesting that this splay deposit is at least Late Pliocene to Lower and Middle Pleistocene in age. Recent dating of the overlying sands indicates that these are at least 125 000 years old.
In 1948 the site was proclaimed a national monument.
The Threat
In March 2016, a private diamond mining company commenced Alluvial diamond mining / placer mining. in a sensitive area of the site without obtaining permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA).
The mining that was allowed to go ahead left a gaping hole in the middle of the site, with artefacts strewn across the damaged surface.
On the damage: “A hole of around 80 by 80 metres going down five to six metres was excavated in one single day,” said Professor David Morris of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley. According to Kathleen Kuman, Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand, important archaeological finds dating back 300 000 years contained in the sands have been ripped from their context. “Context and the dating of deposits in context are the primary ways in which archaeologists interpret the past through fine-tuned excavation,” she said.
Efforts to Save Canteen Kopje
Efforts to save it began after the mining company started mining in a sensitive area of the site without obtaining permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) in March 2016.
Advocates on behalf of the site said that the operation without permit of SAHRA is a direct contravention of the National Heritage Resources Act (NHRA) (Act 25 of 1999).
Big Team effort: McGregor Museum’s team was supported by researchers from University of the Witwatersrand’s Archaeological Department, Sol Plaatje University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Pennsylvania to save site.
The law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, acted for the Museum on a pro bono basis.
What else did they do?
The national and international archaeological fraternity rallied quickly and addressed letters to the Department of Arts and Culture and South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) calling for the mining to be stopped.
Sol Plaatje University and the University of the Witwatersrand added their voices, as did the South African San Council and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco). Media coverage started the day that mining commenced and spread rapidly via social media.
They have received letters of support from:
- Archaeological Institute of America
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Human Evolution
- Paleoanthropology Society
- Society of Africanist Archaeologists
- South African San Council
Additional Info
More info on current status: Saved for now! Key research and tourism can continue.
A final court order has been granted to the McGregor Museum in the Northern Cape High Court on April 19, 2016, that prevents unlawful mining operations on the National Heritage Site of Canteen Kopje.
Before it could be saved the mining company managed to destroy parts of the archeological site.
2016 was not the first time the site was under threat of course.
To watch: A second legal process is now underway where the Museum as well as Wits and Sol Plaatje Universities are requesting a review of the decisions made by the Department of Mineral Resources to grant a mining permit over a heritage site.
Who Should Be Held Accountable
Jackie M Wesi Mining (Pty) Ltd, a private diamond mining company.
The Department of Mineral Resources, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and the South African Police Services were co-respondents with the mining company but decided to abide by the decision of the High Court and to not oppose the Museum’s application for a final court order.
Quotes
This is a victory not just for Canteen Kopje. This interdict upholds the provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act and the procedures it requires. We came perilously close to a discrediting of authorities and laws which would have set a dangerous precedent for South African heritage as a whole.
Head of Archaeology at the McGregor Museum
The McGregor Museum, together with the University of the Witwatersrand and Sol Plaatje University have also launched a review of the decisions of the Department of Mineral Resources to grant a mining permit over the heritage site; and of the decision of Sahra to lift a cease works order over the site. That application is aimed at securing the protection of such cultural and historical sites into the future, and ensuring that administrative agencies abide by the legislative requirements to protect our heritage.
Director Norton Rose Fulbright who represented the Museum
This continued threat of mining and the activities of illegal miners over the years threaten to destroy both the ancient and more recent heritage of our country, along with the opportunity for our local students to further develop our knowledge of this important heritage.[…] For the sake of short-term financial gain in diamond mining, the long-term, more sustainable benefits to heritage tourism and to the archaeological research of much international importance are being jeopardised.
University of the Witwatersrand Archaeological Department
Mining an alluvial diamond deposit with low diamond yields at the expense of southern African heritage is unacceptable.
University of the Witwatersrand
(Worked on the Later Stone Age at Canteen Kopje and secretary of the Association of Southern African Archaeologists)
The tourism industry in this country is poised to help us preserve this unique heritage and work towards building its development. The Big Hole in Kimberley is only a half hour from Canteen Kopje, and both sites can be seen within a single day, if more tourism companies work toward this end.
University of the Witwatersrand
We hope that our fight over this case may be used to help strengthen the heritage laws in this country. While archaeo-tourism does not bring in the large profits that diamond mining does, it is a more sustainable solution for long-term employment in the tourism industry. And it protects our precious heritage.
University of the Witwatersrand
*Feature Photo Attribution: By 120 / V. Mourre, Inrap (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]