Positioning the Cape : a spatial engraving of a shifting frontier

In June this year I read an article entitled Eve's footprints safe in museum (Cape Times 24.6.98). The footprints had just been removed from the shore of the Langebaan lagoon. The footprints, imprinted in stone, have been dated to 117 000 years. The media use of the name Eve is an example of how theoretical possibility can become popular fact. The prints became exposed when the stone happened to crack and slide off along the strata that held the prints. Exposed to the elements and to a public who want to have their photograph taken standing where Eve once stood, the soft sandstone which held such a transient impression began to deteriorate rapidly. An article earlier in the year reported on the debate around the future of the prints. The geologist David Roberts, who discovered the prints, wanted them removed as soon as possible while Dr. Janette Deacon from the National Monuments Council was reported to have said, "We should rather see it preserved at the site as moving it would destroy a lot of its meaning. A museum display could never recreate the atmosphere of that scene" (Cape Times 14.1.98).

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Michaelis School of Fine Art

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Bull, Katherine Gay

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Skotnes, Pippa
• Payne, Malcolm

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12744

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12744