South African family history, genealogy, heritage and interesting places, past and present. All articles researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl. COPYRIGHT ANNE LEHMKUHL, no article can be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission. EMAIL ME
The Mapungubwe kingdom
In 2000, the then 23 year old Sian TILEY-NEL, author of Mapungubwe: South Africa's crown jewels, became the youngest curator of a South African museum - the Mapungubwe Museum in the Ou Lettere building, University of Pretoria. The museum covers the history of the first South African kingdom between 1220 and 1290. The people of the Mapungubwe kingdom mined gold, copper and iron in the Limpopo area. They created intricate jewellery from these minerals. Their skills as potters and sculpturers can also be seen. Archaeologists have dug up interesting finds since the first finds on 01 January 1933. In 1947, General Jan SMUTS proclaimed the area around Mapungubwe as the Dongola heritage area, but the following year, when the National Party came into power, it was one of the first proclamations they scrapped. In 2003 Mapungubwe was declared a world heritage site by Unesco and last September the Mapungubwe National Park was proclaimed.