Heritage Cases

With this information an osteobiography of these individuals will be done, to assess who the person was? How did they live? And how did they die? A radiocarbon date and stable isotope analyses will allow for a better understanding of where these people fit in time and what if any relationship they may have had with others from the region. Through this study we hope to better understand these people and contribute additional information to our understanding of Khoesan history in South Africa. For each individual, we want to obtain a radiocarbon date. This is a reliable technique that will tell us when the individual lived and died, allowing us to better understand the person in their own context and time. Unfortunately, this method involves destruction of a small piece of bone (~2cm). To minimise destruction, we will target already broken bones where possible. If no bone is available, a single tooth may be used; again, loose teeth will be targeted. Studying the stable isotope composition of the remains will provide information on where these people lived and what kinds of foods they ate. As this type of information accumulates, we can discern patterns in past peoples’ use of the landscape, and possibly in their relationships with neighbouring communities. These measurements can be carried out on tiny sub-samples of bone and/or tooth used for the radiocarbon dates. For those individuals with both teeth and bone preserved, comparison of the two tissues will enable us to compare diets and place of residence in childhood and adulthood. We feel that this will add substantial value to the study, and we would like to pursue this approach where possible. The samples will be treated with the utmost respect. They will be packed carefully into small boxes for transport to the appropriate laboratory for analyses. The teeth used in stable isotope will be returned to the collection as soon as possible. From each of these individuals I request permission to take a small sample of bone (4 cm likely a piece of a rib) or a tooth if no rib is available to radio-carbon date (Beta analytical) and run stable isotope analyses (UCT Judith Sealy). We contacted !Xnuseb Melvin Arendse of the Kei Korana, Chief Tania Kleinhans-Cedras of the Irasa on August 22, 2019 and Leana Cloete of the San Council of South Africa August 23, 2019. The 30 days window has passed and no objections were raised.