Hopefield, Western Cape

Province

Hopefield is a small town in the municipality of Saldanha Bay, West Coast district, Western Cape Province in South Africa. It lies on the road R45, 120 kilometers north of Cape Town. 2011, the population was 6,460.

Main sources of income are the wheat and sheep farming, in addition to a small extent in the wildflower season ( August to October) of tourism. The average rainfall is 300 mm per year.

History

The city was founded in 1844 on the territory of the farm on the shores of Long Kuil Zoutrivier. The origin of the name Zoute Rivier in 1853 changed to the present name Hopefield, in honor of the two officials Field and Hope, who conducted the land survey for the city. Hopefield is the oldest city on the west coast of South Africa. Two of the farms on the outskirts are a national monument ( National heritage sites ) were reported.

Attractions

13 km outside the town is the village of Elandsfontein. There is a site with archaeological finds of international importance. Since the beginning of the excavations by Ronald Singer of the University of Cape Town in 1951 around 20,000 fossilized bones and 5,000 human artifacts of the early Stone Age ( 75000-150000 years old ) were found. These fossils show that this area was once a large, covered with lush vegetation, marsh, which attracted many animals. The fossils include about 200 different species.

The most significant discovery were fragments of the skull of a representative of the genus Homo. This discovery became known as Saldanha Man ​​( also: Hopefield Man). He was initially a similar age as a 1921 in the then Northern Rhodesia Broken Hill (now Kabwe in Zambia) discovered skull attributed, which is why he was also called first Homo rhodesiensis. Recent datings write him to a much higher age of about 500,000 years, and therefore assign it the Homo erectus to.