The Raymond A. Dart of Modern Cadaveric Human Skeletons

The R.A. Dart Collection is the largest human skeletal collection within Africa and comprises an approximate total number of 3000 documented skeletons. These skeletal remains have associated recorded demographics (i.e. age, sex and population affinity), most of which are of South African descent. The collection caters to a wide variety of disciplines such as forensic anthropology, population biology, human variation, dentistry, medicine, clinical anatomy, forensic pathology and palaeoanthropology. The inception of the collection dates back to the early twentieth century and to this date, is constantly being supplemented with human skeletal remains on an annual basis, predominantly derived from the School’s Body Donation Programme. For more information on the history and composition of the collection please refer to the attached publication. On a final note, a special thanks and acknowledgement is dedicated to the body donors who have unselfishly contributed their remains for the propagation of research and science.

Access to the collection is strictly controlled and all research proposals are screened and reviewed by the School’s Collections committee prior to granting approval. To access the collection please complete the R.A. Dart Collection of modern human skeletons application form 2018 and provide a brief but comprehensive proposal, please refer to the proposal guidelines document for assistance. In addition, please read through the Intellectual Property Agreement 2018 and if you are comfortable with the agreement please sign the document with the inclusion of a witness signature. Please direct all of the application documentation to the curator of the collection.

Curator contact details:

Dr Brendon Billings
Email: brendon.billings@wits.ac.za
Phone: 011 717 2057

Photo courtesy of Dr Joshua Davimes