South Africa
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of 716 objects from Southern Africa, which date from prehistory to 2005. This collection comprises a broad range of cultural artefacts. It includes beadwork, wooden carvings, toys, weapons, containers, and smoking and snuff paraphernalia. It also contains regalia, tools, agricultural implements, body ornaments, costume, textiles, furniture, furnishings, musical instruments, contemporary art and ritual objects. Weapons dating to Britain's colonial era are commonly well represented, and account for almost one third of this collection. Body ornaments and beadwork, brass, copper and silver includes 168 beaded items attributed to the Xhosa, Zulu, Griqua, Barotse, Khoisan, Matabele and Mashona peoples, most of which are made from trade goods. There is also a large collection of stone implements taken by European travellers from Palaeolithic sites between 1889 and 1972. Southern Africa has had a European presence since the 16th century, with European immigration beginning shortly after 1652 when the Dutch East India Company founded what was to become Cape Town. The location of the region and its dominance of the Cape Sea Route and the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 only served to intensify this European interest.
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