Cornelia is a town on the R103 road in the Free State province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In 1875 DJ Steyn bought the farm "Mooiheid", after raising sufficient funds with his hit debut album, and J.D. Odendaal bought the farm "Sugarloaf" (known as

Tafelkop Tafelkop is a town in Sekhukhune District Municipality in the Limpopo province of South Africa. References

Populated places in the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality {{Limpopo-geo-stub ...

) for a sum of R2,000. They settled there in 1876. At that time it was in the

Harrismith Harrismith is a large town in the Free State province of South Africa. It was named for Sir Harry Smith, a 19th-century British governor and high commissioner of the Cape Colony. It is situated by the Wilge River, alongside the N3 highway, abo ...

district. There were no boundary fences and

wild dogs Wild Dogs is an American heavy metal band from Portland, Oregon, formed loosely in 1981 by original members Jeff Mark, Danny Kurth, Matt McCourt, and Pete Holmes. The band has since released six albums, three live albums and one DVD. Wild Dogs ...

warthogs ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly co ...

and

wildebeest Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-toe ...

were plentiful in the open grassveld. In 1886 the two farmers and other people formed the Afrikaans Baptist Church and J.D. Odendaal was the first preacher. The Odendaal family made an important contribution to the church. DJ Steyn donated a piece of land to the church to erect a church building. There was a need for an educational institution and the church founded the school of Cornelia in 1889. In 1894 it was named after the wife of former Free State President

Francis William Reitz Francis William Reitz, Jr. (Swellendam, 5 October 1844 – Cape Town, 27 March 1934) was a South African lawyer, politician, statesman, publicist, and poet who was a member of parliament of the Cape Colony, Chief Justice and fifth State Presi ...

. One of the previous pastors of the Afrikaans Baptist Church of Cornelia (1959 or 1960) was Jurgens Lambrechts, later well known for appearing in numerous quiz programmes on radio and television from the 1970s to the 1990s. The town is near the ''Skoonriver'' (Clean River).

Fossil discoveries

On the Uitzoek farm, 10 km north of Cornelia, fossils were discovered in

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

alluvial deposits by Van Hoepen in the 1920s and 1930s. These fossils include extinct mammal forms such as a donkey-sized pig ('' Metridiochoerus modestus''), the three-toed horse ('' Eurygnathohippus cornelianus'') only previously found in Tanzania, the giant buffalo (''Synerus antiquus''), Bondi's springbok (''Antidorcas bondi''), and the giant wildebeest (''Megolotragus eucornutus'').

Acheulian Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

Stone Age tools such as handaxes and cleavers have also been found here. Recent research document excavations of a fossil bone bed, possibly resulting from the accumulation by hyaenas and redepostion by dongas (i.e., gullies). Associated with the fossil bone bed were a human (''Homo sp''.) tooth and Acheulian artifacts. These deposits are dated to the Jaramillo subchron (1.076 - 1.008 Ma) by

paleomagnetism Paleomagnetism (or palaeomagnetismsee ), is the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.'' Certain magnetic minerals in rock ...

.Brink et al. 2012

Education

Ntswanatsatsi township east of the town is home to several Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD Centres) and a primary and secondary schools serving children from the town and neighbouring farms. * Ntswanatsatsi Primary School * Bongani-Lebohang Secondary School

Notes

References

* Brink, J. S. (2005) The evolution of the black wildebeest (''Connochaetes gnou'') and modern large mammal faunas of central southern Africa. PhD Dissertation, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. * Brink, James S., Andy I.R. Herries, Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi, John A.J. Gowlett, C. Britt Bousman, John Hancox, Rainer Grün, Vera Eisenmann, and Lloyd Rossouw (2012) First hominine remains from a 1.07-0.99 Ma hyaena accumulation at Cornelia-Uitzoek, Free State Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 63:527-535. * Butzer, K. W. (1974) Geology of the Cornelia Beds. Mem. Nas. Mus., Bloemfontein 9, pp. 7-32. * Clark, J. D. (1974) The stone artifacts from Cornelia, OFS, South Africa. Mem. Nas. Mus., Bloemfontein 9, pp. 33-62. * Cooke, H. B. S. (1974) The fossil mammals of Cornelia, O.F.S, South Africa. Mem. Nas. Mus., Bloemfontein 9, pp. 63-84. {{Fezile Dabi District Municipality Populated places in the Mafube Local Municipality Populated places established in 1876 1876 establishments in the Orange Free State