Announcing the new rock art collaboration between the French Institute of Southern Africa and the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg.

Wonders of Rock Art - Lascaux Cave and Africa exhibition

In a first for Africa, the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg, in collaboration with the Embassy of France in Pretoria and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), is bringing a replica of the world-famous Lascaux cave paintings and the cave itself to South Africa.

This exact reproduction of more than 2,000 figures painted on the walls of the cave in Dordogne, southwestern France, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage with humanity's earliest impulse for creative expression.

New rock art collaboration between the French Institute of Southern Africa & the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg https://t.co/p1RgWqyUNd #RockArt #archaeology #Lascaux #Africa pic.twitter.com/sYyykGz9fj

— Bradshaw Foundation (@BradshawFND) May 14, 2018

In dialogue with the Lascaux paintings will be The Dawn of Art, the African room of the exhibition, curated by Origins Centre Museum, the Rock Art Research Institute (Wits University) and IFAS-Recherche in partnership with the Department of Archaeology of UCT. It will include original pieces and photographs of Southern African rock art, original artifacts dated ca. 80,000 - 40,000 BP, as well as replicas. These various artifacts, recently discovered or studied, have profoundly revised our knowledge of the origins of graphic expression.

17 May to 1 October 2018

Rock Art and Symbolic Expression: A Southern Africa - France Dialogue

Public lecture series

At this state of research, Southern Africa can be considered as the cradle of art and symbolism, as the earliest evidence of graphic expression have been found in South African archaeological sites, dated about 80,000 - 100,000 years ago. On the one hand, thousands of rock art sites have been mapped in Southern Africa, on the other hand, rock art in France is among the oldest and the richest in the world (Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, 36,0000 BP ; Lascaux, 17,000 BP). This series of public lectures aims to offer a dialogue between Southern African and French rock art heritage and to discuss the origins of symbolic expression at the dawn of modern mankind.

Join us on May 15th to listen to Camille Bourdier about Lascaux (Origins Centre), May 16th to talk with Ancila Nhamo of Zimbabwean rock art and the Matobart project (Sci-Bono Discovery Centre) and May 23th with our special guest David Lewis-Williams (Sci-Bono Discovery Centre).

For further info and to RSVP, email: comm.research@ifas.org.za

Geological and Geomorphological Research at the Cradle of Humankind - Sterkfontein Caves

Joint seminar IFAS-Research - University of Pretoria

Laurent Bruxelles (Inrap | CNRS), currently based at IFAS-Research, will talk about recent research in the Cradle of Humankind from the geological point of view. Do not miss it!

23 May 2018 - 14:30
Department of Geology, Mineral Sciences Bldg., Lombaard Hall, Univ. of Pretoria

The Empire of the Digital | Views from South Asia and East Africa

International conference | IFRA-Nairobi (Kenya)

This conference will discuss social issues raised by the spread of digital technologies in the Global South, focusing especially upon East Africa, South Asia and their inter-regional links. It aims to gather a community of researchers from social sciences who would be willing to address collectively the issue of digital change in an intercontinental perspective (both comparative and multi-sited), based on research upon South-Asia, East-Africa and their relations. Keith Breckenbridge from WISER (Wits University) is the special guest from South Africa, supported by IFAS-Research.

21-23 May 2018
IFRA-Nairobi, Laikipia Road, Nairobi, Kenya

View the full posting online:

https://mailchi.mp/ifas.org.za/ifas-research-seminar-exploring-the-role-of-geo-technologies-in-urban-governance-and-planning-1388309?e=f973d51a37