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Boskop Village, Nature Reserve and Dam- near Potchefstroom

Boskop Dam and Nature Reserve is located in the Mooi River Valley 20 km North of the Town of Potchefstroom a short distance from the R501 Carletonville Road and 30 km from the N14 Ventersdorp/Krugersdorp Road on the Rysmierbult turnoff.

Boskop Dam is set on 3000 Hectares of rolling grasslands and serves as an important recreational destination for the many communities who are within, close proximity. The Reserve is noted for Outdoor Recreation – apart from angling, opportunities for camping, yachting, canoeing, birding and game viewing are also offered.

Boskop Primary school was established in 1920. The School started off as a small Farm School. In those early school days, the learners would come to School on foot or in donkey carts, in wagons and even on horseback. During Harvest Time many learners would stay at Home when crops had to be picked. Today there are 1500 learners.

A human fossil remnant consisting of a portion of a skull dome was unearthed in 1913, by laborers on a Farm near the Village of Boskop. The specimen consisted of the greater part of the frontal and parietal bones and a small portion of the occipital. Excavations at the site a Year later disclosed a nearly complete temporal bone, most of the body of the left side of a poorly preserved mandible (with a second molar), and a number of fragments of limb bones. No animal or cultural remains were found in direct association except for a single unusual stone artifact. No geological age can be assigned to the skull. This discovery of a more primitive human race in Homo Rhodesiensis has served to redirect attention to the part which Africa still has to play in elucidating the wider questions of human origins and human migrations.

Geolocation
-26° 32' 13.2", 27° 3' 50.4"
References
https://www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/boskop-dam-nature-reserve https://www.boskop.co.za/ https://www.nature.com/articles/112623a0 "Preliminary note on the ancient human skull remains from the Transvaal.” Trans. of the Roy. Soc. of S.A. Vol. vi. Pt. I. 1917.
Further Reading
https://www.places.co.za/html/boskopdam.html http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/homo_rhodesiensis.php https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/18/where-did-other-human-species-go-vanished-ancestors-homo-sapiens-neanderthals-denisovans https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boskop-skull

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