So honoured and pleased to have contributed these illustrations to The Heritage Treasures of Toppieshoek, a new book by Vincent and Prof Jane Carruthers.
The book details the history and significance of two heritage sites at Toppieshoek, a property owned by Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) – two telescopes from the 1900s, operational from that time until 1978; and the archaeological remains of an Early Iron Age settlement, the earliest known African village in that region.
I was approached to illustrate some scenes of life at the Early Iron Age site. It was especially important to feature the people in a way that felt human and authentic, which would help readers resonate emotionally with what it must have been like to arrive in this place so many centuries ago.
Settler families arrive at Toppieshoek approx. two thousand years ago.
Men at the settlement smelting iron from ore deposits and forging it into tools.
Remains inside a clay pot for burial, alongside other precious items like beads and shells.
A busy snapshot of life at the settlement, including details like how huts would have been constructed, and grain stored.
These illustrations appear in the book itself and also on information boards at the site, which has been honoured with a blue plaque from the Magaliesberg Association for Culture & Heritage.
Pot burial illustration on information boards at the site.
Arrival and settlement illustrations on information boards at the site.
Iron smelting and forging illustrations on information boards at the site.
