The De Hoop Collection and CapeNature recently launched an ‘Origins of Early Southern Sapiens Behaviour’ exhibition in collaboration with the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), and the University of Bergen in Norway.

The exhibition, located at the De Hoop Nature Reserve, highlights the southern Cape coastline’s archaeological heritage and rich marine environment and showcases the unique discoveries that have been made at the archaeological sites – Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter and Klasies River occupied by early Homo sapiens between 120 000 and 50 000 years ago.

The exhibition is a culmination of a lifelong passion and commitment to documenting human origins and indigenous wisdom by Craig Foster (Co-Founder of the Sea Change Project, the producers of the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning documentary, My Octopus Teacher) and decades of archaeological research in the southern Cape by SapienCE scientists.

The De Hoop Collection exhibition has been curated by Foster and archaeologist Petro Keene and will be managed and maintained for an initial three-year period by the De Hoop Collection team.

“The exhibition at De Hoop Collection will offer visitors and learners to the De Hoop Nature Reserve the opportunity to enhance their cultural experiences of South Africa. The ‘We Are All One’ message features strongly throughout the exhibition, pointing to the clear genetic evidence that all Homo sapiens, people like us, have their origins in Africa,” said William Stephens, Founder of The De Hoop Collection

The Origins of Early Southern Sapiens Behaviour exhibition opened on January 18.