"A nation's culture resides in the heart and
in the soul of its people"
African Proverb
Heritage Objects
A heritage object is defined as any moveable property of cultural significance which requires protection. This may include archaeological artefacts, palaeontological and rare geological specimens, meteorites and any other object which holds cultural significance.
A heritage object is defined as any moveable property of cultural significance which requires protection. This may include archaeological artefacts, palaeontological and rare geological specimens, meteorites and any other object which holds cultural significance.
Heritage Objects may be publicly and privately owned and could be found in homes, museums, churches, schools, government buildings and universities. Most objects are produced to serve a specific purpose: a chair for sitting on, a weapon for defence, an artwork that expresses creativity, or jewellery for personal adornment. Some are imbued with additional social and cultural meaning and, consequently, have a broader heritage value or significance for Namibia.
They become meaningful when we know how and why they were made, who used them and how they may the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in December 2003.have influenced, or been influenced by individuals and communities. Irrespective of whether these heritage objects are in public or private ownership, they form part of what is defined as the National Estate.
Combating Illicit Trafficking in Heritage Objects
Illicit trafficking refers to the illegal means by which heritage objects leave or enter Namibia. In order to combat illegal trafficking of Namibian heritage objects and to provide frameworks for appropriate action in the event of foreign heritage objects entering Namibia illegally, the following conventions are referred to:
The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in December 2003. The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Property.
International Police (Interpol) investigates heritage related crime which includes objects stolen from museums as well as illicit trafficking. Reports of thefts of objects in museums can be lodged on NAHRIS after the crime has been reported to the local police station and a case number is obtained. The public are urged to inform the NHC, report crimes on NAHRIS and/or to report heritage related crime to the police.
| Name | Region | BriefHistory | LegalStatus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meteorites (Gibeon Meteorites) | Khomas | Most extensive meteorite shower found in Namibia, estimated to have occurred over an area of 20,000 square meters, with its center around Gibeon, the crater of the Brukkaros. 100-150 specimens have been found, the first one in 1838 by Sir J.E. Alexander. 1911-1913, 37 specimens were brought to Windhoek by Dr P. Range, State Geologist. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 15.02.1950 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Hoba Meteorite | Otjozondjupa | Fell to earth less than 80 000 years ago and is between 190 and 410 million years old. First described by J.H. Brits in 1920. | Declared as a National Monument on 15.03.1955 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). Notice withdrawn on 04.05.1979 and an area of 25 by 25 m with the meteorite as centerpiece was declared on 30.04.1979 (Official Gazette 3948 No. 27, 1979). |
| Mukorob Rock | Karas | Collapsed in 1988. | Declared as a Natural Monument on 01.06.1955 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Grave of Jonker Afrikaner | Otjozondjupa | J. Afrikaner was the Kaptein of the Oorlam people such as his father was, from 1823 until his death. He brought the Nama and Oorlam to join forces in a state-like power structure. In 1835 he defeated the Herero and a hegemony of his leadership in southern and central Namibia was established, with Windhoek as its headquarter since 1840. He was the awarding authority for the construction of the roads to the Cape and to Walvis Bay. From 1860 on european competition and discontentment amongst his followers grew. He died on 18 August 1861 because of an inflammation when he was traveling north. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 16.01.1950 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Fort at Namutoni | Oshikoto | Erected as cattle-disease control post after the outbreak of the rinderpest in 1897 as part of a cordon drawn by the German colonial authority. It also can be regarded as the northern border of the colonial settlements and a control post for the supervision of trade with the Ovambo. The garrison consisted of an officer, a medical orderly and 2 troopers housed in reed huts. First Lieutnant Richard Volkmann from Outjo decided to set up a military post there. To improve the conditions, Dr Paul Jodtka, Chief Medical Officer, erected the first fort in 1903. During the time of service of First Lieutnant Count Wilhelm von Saurma-Jeltsch, from 1905 on, the actual fort was built. In 1906, the surrunding country was declared as a district. The military function ended in 1912 for economical reasons, and thereafter it served as a police station. The Fort was occupied by South African troops in 1915. the decision to use it for tourism purposes was made in 1950. Reconstruction as a monument was conducted since 1951 and set to open in 1957/58. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 15.02.1950 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Occurrence of fossilised trees (Petrified Forest) | Kunene | The trunks, dating back to the Permian Period 200-280 million years ago, were washed down prehistoric rivers and deposited in alluvial sands. In a diagenesis process under high pressure the sand turned into sandstone. The trunks silificated: a silicic acid solution went into the molecular structures of the wood and replaced the organic material over a long period of time. The product is called “wooden opal”. From 1945 the SWA administration made southern Kaokeland available for settlement. The farmers AJ and JH Oberholzer discovered the trunks on the farm Rooiberg, No. 517. It was recorded scientifically by Dr Charles L Champ and RG Rodin in 1951. | Proclaimed as a Relic on 01.03.1950 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Twyfelfontein Rock Paintings and Engravings | Kunene | The engravings have been known before WWI, discovered by R. Maack, but rediscovered when the area was opened up for farming after WWII. People who have been attracted by the small spring, stayed in the area for some 1,000 years. Viereck and Rudner (1957, p.24) associate the paintings with the Wilton people and the engravings with the Bergdama. | Declared as a Historical Monument on 15.08.1952 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). Declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 29.06.2007. |
| Waterberg Plateau | Otjozondjupa | Erosion relic of the Karoo Sequence. The San were the first inhabitants. They were joined by Damara and the Herero in the mid 19th century. Charles Andersson and Francis Galton arrived there in 1851 as the first Europeans. Dr Karl Hugo Hahn established a Rhenish Mission station in 1873 that was destroyed in 1880 in the Nama-Herero-War and rebuilt in 1891 (ruins remaining). The battle of the Germans against the Herero took place in August 1904 and was won by the Germans on the 11th. They established a military station and later, in 1910, a police station there. The house was used as a rest house from 1955 and as a guest house until 1966. Abandoned until its restauration in 1980. In the 1970s game were relocated in the park that formerly occurred here. | Declared as a National Monument on 15.06.1956 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Farm Verbrandeberg (Burnt Mountain) | Kunene | Outcome of volcanic activities 120 million years ago. | Declared as a National Monument on 15.09.1956 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Quiver Tree Forest | Karas | The quiver tree species was first discovered by the South African settler Simon van der Stel in 1685. | Declared as a Natural Monument on 01.06.1955 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Prayer Mounds | Khomas | The Herero call these sites ombindi and used the site to make a detour around it in a spirit of veneration. For the Nama, the mounds are the graves of the demigod Haiseb, who always rose from death again. The stone heaps could also be seen as border posts. | Declared as a National Monument on 01.09.1955 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Paula’s Cave | Erongo | A site where rock paintings are found. Some groups of red-haired people, partly with arrows, are depicted besides animals like elephant and rhinoceros. Also singular figures can be seen, a pregnant woman and flute-players. | Proclaimed as a Relic on 01.03.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Waterfalls | Khomas | A lookout post protected this water hole. | Proclaimed as a Relic on 01.03.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Look-Out Post | Khomas | The post is part of a series of fortifications erected by the Germans around Windhoek in 1893 against possible attacks by the Witbooi-Nama. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 01.03.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Cottage at Rusplaas (Dorsland Trekker Cottage) | Kunene | Built near a spring in 1878 by Mr van der Merve: a Dorsland Trekker, farmer and church elder. It served as a provisional base for two years for the Boers. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 01.03.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Cottage of Captain Josef Frederiks | Karas | Built in 1883 as one of the oldest stone buildings by an European and occupied by Kaptein Josef Frederiks, leader of the Nama of Bethanië and Randsdaal (“Conference Chamber”) of the Bethanië Nama Council, from 1883 to 1893 when he died. His wife stayed there. His successor Paul Frederiks lived in a wattle-and-daub hut nearby. The house served as a “House of Parliament” and the agreement from 1883 that made Lüderitz and the surrounding land (radius of 8 km) be owned by Angra Pequeña was signed by Heinrich Vogelsang, the represantative of the trader FAE Lüderitz, here. On 28 Oct 1884, a meeting was held in the Raadsaal of the house. The German Consul-General Dr Gustav Nachtigal signed the first “Schutzvertrag” (protection treaty) between the people of Namibia and the Germans with the Nama Council. In 1906 the house was confiscated by the Witboois. Until the 1970s it was let to different people and decayed. | Declared as a National Monument on 15.06.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Baobab Tree at Keibib | Otjozondjupa | At the stage of its proclamation it was the biggest of its kind that was known. | Declared as a National Monument on 02.06.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Footprints of Dinosaurs | Otjozondjupa | First reported by Von Huene in 1925. The tracks are “formed from wind-deposited sand which irregular rains redistributed. The animals left their tracks on the shores of ancient lakes, or in rain-soaked sand. Through the ages this sand, with the tracks, was gradually covered by layers of sediment, and hardened into stone. Erosion has subsequently exposed the tracks.” | Declared as a National Monument on 01.08.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Fish River Canyon | Karas | National Park since 1968. Since 2003 connected to the Richtersfeld National Park in South Africa (e.g. with a ferry at Sendlingsdrift). | Declared as a National Monument on 01.08.1962 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| “Martin Luther” Steam Locomotive | Erongo | The street locomotive arrived in Walvis Bay in 1896, manufactured by the Fowler Company in California, USA, and was imported from Germany to carry weighloads of freight from Swakopmund to Heigamkab. The exhausting transport from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund took three months. Only a small number of profitable trips have been carried out with the railway. When the Swakop River flooded the line finally, the locomotive was left where it stood and decayed. After restoration in 2003, a protective building was erected. | Declared as a National Monument on 21.03.1975 by the National Monuments Council of South Africa (NMC, National Monuments Act 1969, No. 28). |
| Powder Magazine | Erongo | Between 1860 and 1870 Otjimbingwe was attacked by Jan Jonker Afrikaner’s men. In 1867 one was succesfully replaced by Dr Carl Hugo Hahn and Fr. Green from the Rhenish Missionary Trade Company. Fearing retaliation, the entire Herero-speaking community left the settlement. Lacking their protection, the Europeans erected the Powder Magazine in 1872 as a store room for ammunition, weapons and food. It was used successfully as a fortification in several attacks. | Proclaimed as a Historical Monument on 03.10.1950 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |
| Phillipp’s Cave | Erongo | Named after the former owner of the farm, E. Phillipp. Most popular rock art until 1977. Some artefacts were found and dated 3,368+/-200BP. | Proclaimed as a Relic on 01.02.1951 by the Historical Monuments Commission for South West Africa (HMC). |