Foreman Bandama

Zimbabwe culture before Mapungubwe: new evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe.

Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe between CE1200 and 1220 is clouded in controversy. It is believed that the K2−Mapungubwe transitions crystallised class distinction and sacred leadership, thought to be the key elements of the Zimbabwe culture on Mapungubwe Hill long before they emerged anywhere else. From Mapungubwe (CE1220–1290), the Zimbabwe culture was expressed at Great Zimbabwe (CE1300–1450) and eventually Khami (CE1450–1820). However, new fieldwork at Mapela Hill, when coupled with a Bayesian chronology, offers tremendous fresh insights which refute this orthodoxy. Firstly, Mapela possesses enormous prestige stone-walled terraces whose initial construction date from the 11th century CE, almost two hundred years earlier than Mapungubwe. Secondly, the basal levels of the Mapela terraces and hilltop contain élite solid dhaka (adobe) floors associated with K2 pottery and glass beads. Thirdly, with a hilltop and flat area occupation since the 11th century CE, Mapela exhibits evidence of class distinction and sacred leadership earlier than K2 and Mapungubwe, the supposed propagators of the Zimbabwe culture. Fourthly, Mapungubwe material culture only appeared later in the Mapela sequence and therefore post-dates the earliest appearance of stone walling and dhaka floors at the site. Since stone walls, dhaka floors and class distinction are the essence of the Zimbabwe culture, their earlier appearance at Mapela suggests that Mapungubwe can no longer be regarded as the sole cradle of the Zimbabwe culture. This demands not just fresh ways of accounting for the rise of socio-political complexity in southern Africa, but also significant adjustments to existing models.

A Bayesian chronology for Great Zimbabwe: re-threading the sequence of a vandalised monument

Great Zimbabwe is one of the most iconic sites in southern Africa and indeed the world, but like so many famous monuments it has suffered from the attention of early excavators who have destroyed key categories of evidence. Chronology is crucial to understanding the development of the various elements of Great Zimbabwe and its relationship to other important regional centres such as Mapungubwe. A number of radiocarbon dates are available, however, and in this study they have been combined with the limited stratigraphic information and with datable imports to provide a Bayesian chronology of the site and its structures. Construction of the stone walls probably began at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century AD, reaching its peak in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although occupation continued up to at least the sixteenth and probably into the seventeenth century AD. These results indicate that occupation at Great Zimbabwe must have overlapped with that at Mapungubwe, and argue for a polycentric model of sociopolitical complexity in this region of southern Africa during that crucial formative period.

The archaeology and technology of metal production in the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

.......................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS .............................................................................. 1 1.1: INTRODUCTION & SCOPE OF STUDY ..................................................................................... 1 1.2: DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS ....................................................................................................... 5 1.2.1: INNOVATION ............................................................................................................................. 5 1.2.2: INTERACTION ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.2.3: SPECIALISATION ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.2.4: TRADE ......................................................................................................................................... 8 1.3: AREA OF STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 9 1.4: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 10 1.5: THESIS ORGANISATION .......................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER TWO: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE ARCHAEOLOGY &METALLURGY OF THE SOUTHERN WATERBERG? ................................................................................................ 14 2.1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 14 2.2: THE IRON AGE & CULTURE HISTORICAL SEQUENCES ................................................... 14 2.3: PRE-COLINIAL MINING: WINNING THE ORES FROM THE HOST ROCKS ..................... 17 2.4: SMELTING TECHNOLOGIES: WINNING THE METALS FROM THE ORES ..................... 24 2.5: ALLOYING: BRONZE PRODUCTION .................................................................................... .26 2.6: SMITHING, FABRICATION & CASTING ................................................................................ 27 2.7: METAL CONSUMPTION & DISTRIBUTION .......................................................................... 30 2.8: DATING & CHRONOLOGY....................................................................................................... 31 2.9: SUMMARY.................................................................. ....................................34 CHAPTER THREE: ETHNO-HISTORIES OF TRADE IN SOUTHERN AFRICADURING THE SECOND MILLENIUM AD .................................................................................................................... 35 3.1: INTRODUCTION........................ ........... ............................................................35 3.2: A BRIEF BACKGROUND ON LONG-DISTANCE TRADE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA... .... .36 3.3: ETHNO-HISTORIES OF TRADE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA .................. ........... ............39 3.3.1: THE TSONGA CASE STUDY............................................. ........... .......................41 Un ive rsi ty of Ca pe To wn vii | P a g e 3.3.2: THE SHONA CASE STUDY............................................. ........... .......................47 3.4: SUMMARY........................................................................... ........... ...............51 CHAPTER FOUR: THE BIO-PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE SOUTHERN WATERBERG ......... ...52 4.1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................. ........... ..52 4.2: GEOLOGY........................................................................... ........... ................54 4.3: TOPOGRAPHY.................................................................. ........... ...................57 4.4: DRAINAGE........................................................................ .......... ..................58 4.5: SOILS................................................................................. ........... ................58 4.6: VEGETATION COVER......................................................... ........... ..................59 4.7: CLIMATE........................................................................... ........... .................60 4.8: SUMMARY: OPPORTUNITIES & CONSTRAINTS..................... ............ ....................60 CHAPTER FIVE: FIELD METHODS & DATA COLLECTION............ ... ...........................62 5.1: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. ........... ......62 5.2: DESKTOP SURVEYS.............................................................................. ........... 62 5.3: FINDING SITES: SAMPLING & SURVEY STRATEGIES.......................................... ...63 5.4: DIGGING SITES: EXCAVATION STRATEGIES.............................. ........... ...............69 5.4.1: RHENOSTERKLOOF 1: SITE DESCRIPTION & EXCAVATIONS...... ........... ..............70 5.4.2: RHENOSTERKLOOF 2: SITE DESCRIPTION & EXCAVATIONS......... ........... ...........80 5.4.3: RHENOSTERKLOOF 3: SITE DESCRIPTION & EXCAVATIONS............ ........... ........82 5.4.4: TEMBI 1: SITE DESCRIPTION & EXCAVATIONS.............................. ........... .........86 5.5: RADIOCARBON DATING OF SITES................................................... ........... .......91 5.6: SUMMARY.................................................................................... ........... ......92 CHAPTER SIX: LABORATORY METHODS: PRINCIPLES & PROTOCOLS...... .. ..............93 6.1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................... ........... ........93 6.2: MATERIAL CULTURE & GROUP IDENTITY.............................. ........... ..................93 6.3: ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES.......................................... ............ ................96 6.3.1: CERAMIC TYPOLOGY...................................................... ............ ...................96 6.3.2: BEAD TYPOLOGY..................................................................... ............. ..........97 6.4: WHEN THE ARCHAEOLOGY MEETS METALLURGY: THIN-SECTION PETROGRAPHY OF CRUCIBLES & DECORATED SHERDS................................................................... ........98 6.5: ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL APPROACHES.............................. ............ ................99 6.5.1: BULK CHEMICAL ANALYSIS BY WD-XRF........................... .......... ....................103 6.5.2: MICROSTRUCTURE ANALYSIS BY OM.............................. .......... .....................104 Un ive rsi ty of Ca pe To wn viii | P a g e 6.5.3: MICROSTRUCTURE & CHEMICAL ANALYSIS BY SEM-EDS...... .......... ..................105 6.6: SUMMARY........................................................................ ........... .................106 CHAPTER SEVEN: ANALYTICAL RESULTS: CERAMICS & OTHER NONMETALLURGICAL FINDS......................................................... .............................107 7.1: INTRODUCTION......................................................... ........... ........................107 7.2: BEAD TYPOLOGY...................................................... ........... .........................109 7.2.1: GLASS BEADS: RHENOSTERKLOOF 1........................ .......... ...........................109 7.2.2: SHELL BEADS: RHENOSTERKLOOF 1.............................. ........... .....................111 7.2.3: SHELL BEADS: TEMBI 1................................................ .......... ......................114 7.2.4: BONE BEADS: RHENOSTERKLOOF 1................................. .......... .....................115 7.3: CERAMIC TYPOLOGY...................................................... .......... .....................116 7.3.1: RHENOSTERKLOOF 1......................................................... .......... ...............117 7.3.2: RHENOSTERKLOOF 2........................................................ .......... ...................121 7.3.3: RHENOSTERKLOOF 3...................................................... .......... ..................121 7.3.4: RHENOSTERKLOOF 4-8.................................................... ........... ..................124 7.3.5: TEMBI 1......................................................................... ........... ..................126 7.4: COMPARING CERAMIC TECHNOLOGICAL STYLES BETWEENCRUCIBLE SHERDS & DECORATED EILAND CERAMICS.................................... ............................... .............129 7.5: SUMMARY..................................................................... ........... ....................131 CHAPTER EIGHT: ARCHAEOMETALLURGICALSTUDIES............ . ...........................133 8.1: INTRODUCTION.................................................................. .......... ................133 8.2: BRONZE PRODUCTION...................................................... .......... ..................134 8.3: COPPER PRODUCTION...................................................... .......... ...................140 8.4: TIN PRODUCTION........................................................ .......... ..................

Ores Sources, Smelters and Archaeometallurgy: Exploring Iron Age Metal Production in the Southern Waterberg, South Africa

The Southern Waterberg in Limpopo Province is archaeologically rich, especially when it comes to evidence of pre-colonial mining and metal working. Geologically, the area hosts important mineral resources such as copper, tin and iron which were smelted by agriculturalists in the precolonial period. In this region however, tin seems to be the major attraction given that Rooiberg is still the only source of cassiterite in southern Africa to have provided evidence of mining before European colonization. This paper reports the results of archaeological and archaeometallurgical work which was carried out in order to reconstruct the technology of metalworking as well as the cultural interaction in the study area and beyond. The ceramic evidence shows that from the Eiland Phase (1000–1300 AD) onwards there was cross borrowing of characteristic decorative traits amongst extant groups that later on culminated in the creation of a new ceramic group known as Rooiberg. In terms of mining and metal working, XRF and SEM analyses, when coupled with optical microscopy, indicate the use of indigenous bloomery techniques that are widespread in pre-colonial southern Africa. Tin and bronze production was also represented and their production remains also pin down this metallurgy to particular sites and excludes the possibility of importing of finished tin and bronze objects into this area.

The mobility of memory: space/knowledge dynamics in rural potting workshops in Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT The relocation of ceramic craft activities to workshops creates new arenas for knowledge transmission and the acquisition of skills. But it may also cause tensions, due to the breakage or severance of ties to the spaces previously associated with craft learning. Exploring the interplay between the practice and knowledge of ceramic technology on the one hand and the spaces in which technology unfolds on the other, this article focuses on craft knowledge on the move in the Mopani District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Workshop collectives bring together and potentially fuse the various knowledges and skills of Tsonga-, Venda- and Sotho-speaking women. However, changes of workspace also imply moving from potters’ respective homestead spaces to open and shared spaces, occasionally furnished and equipped for industrial-like large-scale production. Significantly, various projects supporting local ceramic craftspeople have encouraged and initially funded the production of new forms of clay objects, entailing outside supplies of special clays and new equipment requiring electricity (e.g. potters’ wheels and kilns). Our study explores the range of problem-solving strategies employed after outside support and clay supply has ceased. Some collectives manage well while others struggle. Commonly, while returning to local clay sources for material is straightforward, it is more difficult to resume craftwork in homestead spaces where knowledge/skills once were acquired. A key aspect is ancestors’ continued roles in human/nonhuman interaction. Centring on space/knowledge tension in relation to craft mobility and always-unfolding processes of entangling/disentangling, our discussion has implications for how we understand the term material memory and relate it to material/immaterial heritage.

No Big Brother Here: Heterarchy, Shona Political Succession and the Relationship between Great Zimbabwe and Khami, Southern Africa

In southern Africa, there has been a long-standing but unsubstantiated assumption that the site of Khami evolved out of Great Zimbabwes demise around ad 1450. The study of local ceramics from the two sites indicate that the respective ceramic traditions are clearly different across the entire sequence, pointing towards different cultural affiliations in their origins. Furthermore, there are tangible typological differences between and within their related dry-stone architecture. Finally, absolute and relative chronologies of the two sites suggest that Khami flourished as a major centre from the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century, long before Great Zimbabwes decline. Great Zimbabwe also continued to be occupied into the late seventeenth and perhaps eighteenth centuries, after the decline of Khami. Consequently, the combined significance of these observations contradicts the parent-offspring relationship implied in traditional frameworks. Instead, as chronologically overlapping entities, the relationship between Khami and Great Zimbabwe, was heterarchical. However, within the individual polities, malleable hierarchies of control and situational heterarchies were a common feature. This is in tune with historically documented political relations in related pre-colonial southern Zambezian states, and motivates for contextual approaches to imagining power relations in pre-colonial African contexts.

Elites and commoners at Great Zimbabwe: archaeological and ethnographic insights on social power

Archaeological indicators of inequality at major historic centres of power have long been poorly understood. This paper is the first to address the archaeology of class and inequality at Great Zimbabwe (AD 1000–1700) from an African-centred viewpoint. Data from new excavations, combined with insights from Shona philosophy, practice and ethnography, suggest that the categories of ‘elite’ and ‘commoner’ were situational and transient, and that they require a more robust theorisation than that currently adopted for the site. The results provide a valuable study for the comparative archaeology of ancient cities, differing in many ways from established interpretive frameworks in global archaeology.

What was the population of Great Zimbabwe (CE1000 – 1800)?

The World Heritage Site of Great Zimbabwe is one of the most iconic and largest archaeological settlements in Africa. It was the hub of direct and indirect trade which internally connected various areas of southern Africa, and externally linked them with East Africa and the Near and Far East. Archaeologists believe that at its peak, Great Zimbabwe had a fully urban population of 20,000 people concentrated in approximately 2.9 square kilometres (40 percent of 720 ha). This translates to a population density of 6,897, which is comparable with that of some of the most populous regions of the world in the 21st century. Here, we combine archaeological, ethnographic and historical evidence with ecological and statistical modelling to demonstrate that the total population estimate for the site’s nearly 800-year occupational duration (CE1000–1800), after factoring in generational succession, is unlikely to have exceeded 10,000 people. This conclusion is strongly firmed up by the absence of megamiddens at the site, the chronological differences between several key areas of the settlement traditionally assumed to be coeval, and the historically documented low populations recorded for the sub-continent between CE1600 and 1950.

A technological and anthropological study of iron production in Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigates the technology and sociology of indigenous iron production in Venda, northern South Africa, within a framework of ethnographies, historical documents and archaeometallurgical analyses. Investigations revealed that indigenous iron production in the study area, like elsewhere in southern Africa, was based on the direct process in which high-grade iron ores were reduced to metallic iron in charcoal fuelled low-shaft furnaces. The technology exploited at the sites under study used high-grade haematite and magnetite ores, which were extracted from open shaft mines within the vicinity of the smelting precincts. Although new furnace types appeared in the mid-second millennium AD, evidence suggests that the technology of iron smelting was relatively stable during the Early (AD 200-900) and Late (AD 1000 to 1900) Iron Ages. Iron smelting in this area was accompanied by rituals and taboos that connected the smelters to the living and the dead. A comparative study of such rituals and taboos with those invested in other categories of practice, such as male initiation, identified notable similarities and differences. This indicates that material culture production and use broadcast ideas and beliefs applicable to both technical and quotidian practices.