Pop Culture References of Wizard101: Zafaria – Old Duvai Silvermane

Old Duvai Silvermane – The Olduvai Gorge
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Old_Duvai_Silvermane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olduvai_Gorge

Old Duvai Silvermane is the Athames and Wands Vendor in Zafaria. He is located in the west area of Baobab Market. His shop is called “Silvermane’s Showroom.”

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation. The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and Louis Leakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned. The site is registered as one of the National Historic Sites of Tanzania.

The gorge takes its name from the Maasai word oldupai which means “the place of the wild sisal” as the East African wild sisal (Sansevieria ehrenbergii) grows abundantly throughout the gorge area. Twenty-five kilometers downstream of Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek, the gorge cuts into Pleistocene lake bed sediments up to a depth of 90 m. A side gorge, originating from Lemagrut Mountain, joins the main gorge 8 km from the mouth. This side gorge follows the shoreline of a prehistoric lake, rich in fossils and early hominin sites. Periodic flows of volcanic ash from Olmoti and Kerimasi helped to ensure preservation of the fossils in the gorge.

The current list of all the (known) Zafaria references are located here.

Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references, I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.

Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages.

Old Duvai Silvermane image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.

Olduvai photo and map are borrowed from Wikipedia. They are shared under the Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 license.

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