Abstract
IN another column of this issue of NATURE (see p. 998) we publish an announcement of action taken by the Government of the Union of South Africa which “will play a part of great importance not only in the advancement of the study of the prehistory of the sub-continent, but also ultimately, it may be asserted with confidence, in the elucidation of the whole problem of the distribution and development in culture of early man. The joint geological and archaeological survey of certain sections of the Vaal and Riet River valleys, for which arrangements are being made by the Directors of the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Archaeology of the Union, will cover an area which in the view of local archaeologists, and indeed, as has been shown notably and convincingly by the exploratory work of Prof. C. van Riet Lowe, is of cardinal importance in the correlation of geological and archaeological data in South Africa and the determination of their relation to evidence of climatic variation. As the survey will occupy fully the services of two geologists and an archaeologist for at least eight months, the undertaking will be costly; but the expenditure is justified, even in present financial conditions, by the fact that this key area will be inundated when the dams now in course of erection across these rivers have been completed.
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Prehistoric Research in South Africa. Nature 136, 981 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136981a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136981a0