Melville Koppies is a nature reserve and a
Johannesburg City Heritage Site in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. The word 'koppie' means small hill.
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
artefacts can still be found at the site.
Visitors can walk or hike in the Koppies, and tours are offered.
Neighbouring it is the
Johannesburg Botanical Garden
The Johannesburg Botanical Garden is located in the suburb of Emmarentia in Johannesburg, South Africa. The gardens grew out of a large rose garden that was established in 1964 (becoming known locally as the "Rose Garden") and subsequently expand ...
.
History
In 1963 Revil Mason, excavating at the Koppies, found an Iron Age furnace for smelting iron ore, either in a bowl or sunken furnace with carbon dating of charcoal found at varies levels at the site shows it would have been in use at various times between 1060AD and 1580AD.
Another more modern Iron Age furnace was found on the northern slopes dating to the 18th/19th centuries.
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See also
* Melville, Johannesburg
External links
* http://www.mk.org.za/
* https://joburgheritage.org.za/index.html
References
{{Greater Johannesburg, natural
Tourist attractions in Johannesburg
Archaeological sites in South Africa
Archaeological sites of Southern Africa
Gauteng Parks
Protected areas of South Africa