Lydenburg Museum

Description

The Lydenburg Museum, established in 1972, is a small museum located in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga. This museum focuses on the cultural, historical, archaeological, and ethnographic (Pedi) history of the area and is best known for its replicas of the Lydenburg Heads.

The main exhibit at the museum is the Lydenburg Heads – 7 intricately carved ceramic heads that date back to the early Iron Age, around 490AD. These heads were found on a farm in 1957 by a 10 year old child (Ludwig von Bezing) playing on his father’s farm. This little boy then went on to develop a keen interest in archaeology, returning to the farm in his adult years to discover the rest of the pieces. The real heads are kept at the National Museum in Cape Town, but replicas are held at Lydenburg Musuem. Other features include several Pedi, Ndebele, and Afrikaner cultural items, the famous Long Tom Cannons that were used in the Anglo-Boer war, early gold mining and military history exhibits, and a distillery where visitors can taste the potent traditional Afrikaner brew, mampoer.

The museum used to be based in the heart of the town but was moved to its current location at the Gustav Klingbiel Nature Reserve in 1990. Due to its current location, visitors can now enjoy a combined visit to the museum as well as game viewing in the reserves to see a variety of indigenous antelope, small mammals, and birds. The museum is involved in educational programmes for schools and offers various excursions in and around the town.