Students learn about archaeology

July 29, 2010

Dr. Britt Bousman, on left, with students and American Corner staff

Thirty Grade 10 students from Tsoseletso High School learned more about archaeology and scientific investigations on July 29, when Dr. Britt Bousman of Texas State University gave a lecture in the American Corner at the Bloemfontein Public Library. The U.S. Consulate General in Johannesburg established an American Corner there in 2007, in partnership with the library.

Dr. Bousman compared modern archaeological methods to those used by a crime lab, but with one important difference – the “crime scenes” archaeologists investigate are millions of years old! He told the students how the fossils and stone tools he and his team of international researchers find at the Florisbad Quaternary Research Center reveal much about our ancestors and the challenges they faced in the Middle - and Early Late Stone Ages.  Several students expressed an interest in pursuing archaeology as a career in the question and answer period.