Nyame Akuma Issue 002

8/10/2019 Nyame Akuma Issue 002

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nyame-akuma-issue-002 1/18

NYAME

KUM

No.

2

A NEWSLETTER OF AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGY A p r i l 1973

Edited by

P .L .

Shi nni e and iss ue d from t h e Department of Archaeology,

t he Un iver sity of Calgary, Calgary, Albe rta, T2N 1 ~ 4 anada.

The f i r s t number o f Nyame kuma

w a s

wel l r ece ived and o f t he very

few comments on t i t l e and format of t h e Newslett er none were unfavo urable.

There have al so been no comments of t he chr on olo gic al and geo gra ph ica l

coverage of the publ ic at io n, so

I

assume those

I

h ave s e t a r e a ccep t ab l e

f a r th e t ime being. There w i l l b e an o pp o r tu n i ty t o d i s cu s s t h i s

a t

t h e

Dallas meeting.

T h e l a t e s t

information about the Dal las meet ing i s given on the

fol lowing page read ers w i l l not ge t much advance warning from t h i s , but

th e f i r s t l e t t e r (a l though th e date s have now been changed) was inclu ded

i n Nyame Akwna No. 1 an d t h e l a t e r o n e

i s

made ava i lab le here l a r ge l y f o r

record purposes.

I t

had been my i n t en t i o n , f o ll o win g t h e d ec i s i o n t ak en a t U rbana, t o

p u b l i s h ab s t r ac t s o f a l l t h e p ap er s g iven a t t h e con fe rence t h e r e i n A p r i l

1971. In th e event only fou r were rece ived (t h re e from Southern Methodist

un iv er si ty ) and th es e appeared i n Nyame kuma No. 1

I

hope tha t

I w i l l

have rat he r more success i n obtaining ma ter ia l f rom th e Dal las meet ing.

I n Nyame Akwna No. 3 ( t o be p ub li sh ed on 1s t October 1973)

I

hope t o

include an i t em g iv ing de ta i l s o f how permit s t o c a r ry on f i e l d work i n

Afr ican countr ies a re obtained and from what a ut ho r i t i es .

I

have already

co ll ec te d some information but

am

sho rt of f a c t s on co unt rie s of Francophone

Afr ica , i f anybody can help I would be grateful .

With regard t o my comment i n t h e e d i t o r i a l n ot es t o Nyame Akuma No. 1

th at th e Univers i ty of Ghana was th e f i r s t Univers i ty i n sub-Saharan Afr i ca

t o have a Department of Archaeology,

Mrs

Deacon of t h e Uni ver sit y of Cape

Town po in ts out t h a t h er Un ive rsi ty e st ab li sh ed a Department of Archaeo ogy

in 1 93 3 and was t h e r e f o r e t h e f i r s t .

I am

obviously wrong and what

I

should

have said

w a s

t h a t t h e U n iv er s it y o f Ghana was t h e f i r s t t o o f f e r co ur s es

fo r Afric ans i n a Department of Archaeology.

At ten t ion i s

es pe ci al ly drawn t o th e announcement on page 3 of a

conference t o be held a t t he Un ivers i ty of Calgary f rom 23rd t o 25th

November 1973.

P.L.

Shinn ie



SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT

O

ANTFIROP

D A L L A S E X A

SECOND NOTICE

or the

SECOND MEETING

OF

AF RI CA NS T ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Dear Colleague,

Since the first notice was sent o ut some n ~o nt lls go, additional information has bccomc available and sligh

fications have be en made t o th e original plans.

Owing to th e ov erwl~elm ingly avorable response to the idea of a second meeting, an application was made

Wenner-Gren Fou nda tion for partial subsidy of th e air fares of the participants. However

a)

I t is uncertain th at Wenner-Gren will, in fact, suppo rt th e conference, a lthou gh we do 11ave reasons fo

guarded optimism

b

Even

if awarded, t he subsidy will not be aclequatc to co ver round -trip air fares for all participan ts, sinc

ponses to o ur initial letter continue d t o arrivc long aftcr our budg et was estimated. Furtliermore, the

meetings in 1971 were not supported for the full m o u n t requested. Consequently, under the best of

stances available fund s will be inadequate and wc will have t o m ake som e unwelcome, arbitrary, an d u

siastic decisions as to how best to divide the availilblc su pp ort ;

c)

Th e Wenner-Gren decision will be made late , possibly only a few weeks befo re ou r act ua l mecling d

Consequently, we suggcst the following

(1) Tha t you re-double your efforts to t ap other sources of t ravel money, and

(2) Th at y ou give us you r reactions as how best to proceed in allocating the fulids tha t

do becom e available.

In order t o help participants pct travcl funds from their rcspcctive institutions, the datcs of th e Second Mc

Africanist Archneologists have been changed t o April 14 through 16 1973 This ovcrlaps with the inccting of

,A~ncrici?n ssociation o f Physical Anthropolog ists, also bcing held in Dallas. In ad dition , it will perm it par tici

thc

AAPA

to attend the symposium on Early

Man

in East Africa , to be hcld all day S aturd ay, April 14.

Southern Methodist University,

s

hosting institution, will bc subsidizing a restricted nun~ber f local expe

essentially food a nd d rink o n several occasions, t o help mellow th e spirit of aus terity which Sc icncc (capital S

appears to be fraught w ith in recent ycars.

You r suggestions will be greatly apprec iated. We look fow artl to getting tog ether in Dallas in April, on e wa

another.

Sincerely

~ n t h o n ~

.

Marks Karl Butz er

S.

M .

U. Univ. of Chicago

.

1 . S.

pIcuscl

ill ill 111c ~ i c ~ ~ t i o ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ i r ci d serldir back us soon u 3 p w ih l e . W c iculize tlrtrt uiiorlic~r

/.

qlso .s~i i r~t ,y lurf i,511 l ~ l s r h , et wz

10

rrccd o Arxrw w11uf i:r roolits see?- who is ~ U

to o j j c r - j w p ~ w ,tc

t'ncls:

Qucstion~lnirc

h i l ; ; ~

of SMU

List of llotcls

Mceting Scl~ ct l i~ le



CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

~ T HNNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

For th e pas t f i ve year s t he Univer s i ty o f Calgary Archaeolog ica l

Associat ion has been hos t ing annual conferences on se le ct ed themes de al i ng

with th e archaeology of North America. This yea r we ar e attempti ng a

completely new or ientat ion.

The 6t h Annual Conference schedule d f o r November 23rd t o 25t h 1973

w i l l have as t s theme:

A

SYMPOSIUM ON CANADIAN ARCHAEOLOGY ABROAD

When planning t h i s conferenc e

t

was f e l t th a t we d id no t have the

r e s ou r ces t o h o s t a w or ld w id e i n t e r n a t i o n a l co n fe r en ce. We f e l t t h a t t h e

geographi cal boundaries had t o be l im it ed i n some manner and we decide d

t o r e s t r i c t t h e con fe rence t o t h o s e a r ea s where C anadian a r ch aeo lo g i s t s a r e

pre sen t ly oper at ing . However we want research ers of a l l na t i o na l i t i es who

ar e in te re s t ed i n Europe both Eas t and West th e Mediter ranean ar ea Near

Eas t Af r ica and La t in America t o pa r t i c ip a t e .

Although li mi te d geog raph ical ly we hope t h i s conference w i l l cu t

acro ss normal academic boundaries . Stud ents of His tor y Cl as si cs and

Anthropology a r e a l l i n v i t e d t o p a r t i c i p a t e .

A t

t h i s s t age o f our p lann ing we would l i k e t o hear f rom ind iv idua ls

in t e re s te d i n ch a i r in g a symposium or i n p resen t ing a paper .

Formal cal ls

fo r papers w i l l b e i s su e d i n t h e s p ri n g and e a r l y f a l l . P l e a s e b r i n g t h i s

conference t o th e at te n ti on of your coll eagu es and st ud en ts and LET US

HAVE YOUR SUGGESTIONS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and address them t o :

John

H

Robertson

Department of Archaeology

Univ ersit y of Calgary

CALGARY Al be rt a T2N 1 ~ 4

Canada



OTHER NEWSLETTERS

The following other Newsletters known to me may be of interest:

Underground West Africa, this is edited by Dr.

B.O.

Swartz from

the Department of Anthropology, Ball State College, Muncie, Indiana, USA.

It is concerned with archaeology in West Africa.

Tanzania Zamani, this is not strictly a publication (as wrongly

stated in Nyame Akuma No. 1, 16 but a privately distributed newsheet.

It deals with the archaeology and history of Tanzania and enquiries

co~icerning t should be addressed to the Historical Association of Tanzania,

Box

35032,

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Meroitic Newsletter, this deals primarily with questions of the

decipherment of the Meroitic language, but also carries some material on

Meroitic archaeology in general. Alternate numbers are published by

Dr. B.G. Trigger, Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal

110, Quebec, Canada, and Professor

J.

Leclant, 77 rue Georges Lardennois,

F-75019 Paris, France. No. 11 has just appeared, published from France,

with the following contents:

Meroitisches und Barya-Verb. W. Schenkel

L'Amphore de Tubuscutu. J. Desanges

Inscriptions Mgroitiques dans les collections Britanniques.

D. Meeks

L1enr6gistrement des textes mgroitiques. J. Leclant.

Enquiries should

be

addressed to either editor.

Newsletter of the South African Association of Archaeologists, No.

2

has just appeared.

It lists 21 current research projects in South Africa,

gives a number of news items, and a list of recent publications on South

African Archaeology. One of the news items, from Mr. Inskeep, tells of the

existence of the African Archaeologists Anonymous group composed of people

in Britain. Those interested should contact

Mr.

Inskeep at the Pitt-Rivers

Museum, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP, England. The Newsletter is issued by:

Mrs. J. Deacon, Archaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch,

Cape, South Africa.





NEWS ITEMS

Professor Philip Smith of the University of Montreal writes:

"I continue to analyze and prepare for final publication the

materials from the Late Palaeolithic sites I investigated on the Kom Ombo

Plain in Upper Egypt in 1962-1963.

In the meantime the complete

descriptive report on the large collection of faunal materials (vertebrate)

collected at Kom Ombo was recently published by Dr. C.S. Churcher of the

University of Toronto Department of Zoology, under the title "Late

Pleistocene vertebrates from archaeological sites

in the Plain of Kom Ombo,

Upper Egypt", Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Contribution No.

82,

1972, pp. 172,

10.00.

A shorter report emphasizing the possibility of

seasonal occupation of some of the archaeological sites at Kom Ombo was

published by C.S. Churcher and P.E.L. Smith in 1972, "Kom Ombo: preliminary

report on the fauna of Late Paleolithic sites in Upper Egypt", Science,

Vol. 177, pp. 259-61. I

am

completing a chapter "The Late Palaeolithic and

Epipalaeolithic of Northern Africa1' for the forthcoming Cambridge History

of Africa (~ol. :

Prehistory, edited by J.D. lark , to appear,

optimistically,

in 1975; and a paper delivered at the Wenner-Gren Burg

Wartenstein symposium in 1972 on the origin of African plant domesticates,

I'Early food production in northern Africa as seen from southwestern Asia"

will be published with the other papers of this meeting when Jack Harlan

settles on a publisher."

Dr. Fekri Hassan (southern Methodist University,

all as

is completing

a study on the Final Palaeolithic assemblages from the Dishna Plain, Upper

Egypt (disser.

.

The assemblages are related to the Isnan industry (complex

"G"), which dates between ca. 12,000 and 10,000 B.C. and is associated with

the utilization of grain.

A study on the Sebilian industry and another on

the population dynamics in the Nile Valley during the Late Palaeolithic are

prepared for publication.

Dr. A.J. Arkell is compiling a 'Prehistory of the Nile Valley1 to be

published (in ~erman) s part of the Handbuch der Orientalistik to be edited

by Professor

B.

Spuler of Hamburg.

East Africa

British Institute in Eastern Africa

Mr.

Chittick, the Director, reports:

' The main effort of the Institute during the past months has been

devoted to large-scale excavations at Aksum, in northern Ethiopia, under

the Director, Neville Chittick.

This work has becn mainly directed towards

finding out more about the nature and date of the famous stelae, some of



which can now be shown t o th e ce rt ai nl y, and most probably , of th e Ch ri st i an

Aksumite period.

A

unique monument, with large subterranean chambers, i s i n

th e course of excava t ion a t t he t ime of wr i t i ng .

Fur ther excavat ions

a t

Aksum, and poss ib ly anothe r s i t e o f t he pe r iod , a r e envi saged f o r fu tu re

yea rs .

M r

Richard Wilding, Research Fe l low of th e I n s t i tu te , has cont inued

wi th hi s s tudy of th e po t te ry of t h e Kenya coas t .

He p la ns l a t e r t h i s y e ar

t o ca r ry ou t surveys and excava t ions a t Dondo and She Ja fa r i , bo th s i t e s i n

t h e Lamu region of nor thern Kenya, and t o conduct an a rc haeo logic a l survey

of t h e Mundane

H i l l s

t h e l a t t e r i n p a r t i c u l a r c on ne ct io n w i th t h e i n t e r e s t i n g

remnant Cu shi t i c hunt ing peoples of t h e regio n.

M r Patrick Pender-Cudlip i s c ont inu ing h i s h i s t o r i c a l s t udy o f t he

Iramba people of ce n tr al Tanzania.

M r

Robert Soper res igned h i s pos t of Ass is tant Di rec tor i n th e summer

of 1972 i n o rde r t o t ake up

a

pos t a t t h e Unive rs i t y o f Ibadan. H i s

successor

w i l l

be M r David Phillipson, who i s expected t o cont inue wi th work

on th e ea r ly I ron Age i n Eas te rn Afr ica .

Kenya

Mr. Bower of Lake Fo res t College hopes t h i s summer t o spend about s i x

weeks i n Nai robi and Pre t or ia extending a proje c t h i n i t i a t e d i n 1 97 1 an

a t t r ib u te a na ly sis of Oldowan and Lower Acheulean to o ls . The 1971 stud y, a

p i lo t p ro j ec t , was conf ined t o choppe rs ; t h e re s u l t s were encouraging, bu t

they must remain very ten ta t i ve pending s im i la r ana lyses of

a

wider range of

to o l c l a s se s . This summer he hopes t o co l l e c t a t t r i b u t e da t a on a t l e a s t one

or two addi t i ona l c l a s se s of forma l t o o l s e .g . l i gh t -du ty sc r ape rs ) and

perhaps a l so on f lak es .

Tanzania

D r . S u tt on w r i t e s t h a t r a t h e r t ha n r e p o r t i n d e t a i l on t h e l a t e s t war;;

i n Tanzania he pre fe rs t o r e f e r rea der s t o Tanzania Zamani and Azania which

a r e t he approp r i a t e p l aces fo r publ i ca t i on of t h i s i n forma tion .

He adds

th a t he has been cont inuing work on th e abandoned f i e l ds and i r r i g a t io n

sys tems of Engaruka and re la te d s i t e s . He a l s o wr i tes t h a t a meet ing of

Tanzanian a rchaeolog i s t s was rece n t ly he ld t o revi ew the pre s en t s t a t e o f t h e

s ub j e c t i n t he c oun t ry .

A s

a r e s u l t a Stan ding Committee f o r Archaeology i n

Tanzania was s e t up co nsi st in g of:

A.A.

Mturi, Conserva tor of An t iq ui t ies

F.T. Masao, Cu rat or of t h e Na tio na l Museum

D r . J . G . Sutto n, Un ivers i ty of Dar s Salaam



M r Sassoon, t he Conservator of Ant iqu i t ie s , w i l l be leaving Uganda

a t t h e end of Ju ly .

He sends th e fol lowing rep or t :

"The l a t e

E J

Wayland f i r s t came t o Uganda i n 1919 a s D irec tor of

th e Geologi cal Survey , bu t on h i s geo log i ca l f i e ld t r i p s he managed t o l ook

beyond th e rocks and ga ther a gre a t dea l of a rchaeologica l informat ion. He

w a s a pr o l i f i c w r i t e r and produced more t han t h i r t y pub l i ca t i on s on

archa eolo gical sub jec ts . Some of h i s not io ns, such as the Kafuan pebble

c u l t u r e an d t h e M N Horizon a t Nsongezi, have fa i l ed t o s a t i s f y modern

schola r s , but h i s work and st i mul at in g ide as have formed a wide ba si s f o r

l a t e r a r c h a eo l o gi c al r e s e a rc h .

I t w a s j u s t ha l f a cen tury a f t e r Wayland's

a r r i v a l i n Uganda t h a t t h e f i r s t published an nual repo rt of t h e Department

cf An t iq ui t i es was wri t t en . 1) This repor t conta ined a

l i s t

of a l l known

archaeologica l in ves t iga t io ns i n Uganda, wi th loca t i on s of s i t e s , names of

inv es t i ga to rs , da t e s o f work and de t a i l s of pu b l i ca t i ons .

This re po r t was,

i n i t s way, a land-mark and th e prese nt a r t i c l e

w i l l

r ep ea t l i t t l e o f t h e

informa tion con ta ined i n t h a t pub l i ca t i on .

Uganda

i s

not as r ic h i n rock pa int in gs a s nearby Tanzania , but Nyero

i s an important s i t e a t which th er e have been rec ent developments. Some s i x

m et re s a bo ve t h e g round i n t h i s r o ck s h e l t e r t h e r e a r e g r ou ps o f r e d l i n e s

which previous ly have been regarded as too decayed t o be inte rp re t ed . (2 )

But a f r esh eye (not th a t of th e wr i te r looking fo r photographic recor ds ,

rea l i s ed t h a t t he se l i n e s added up t o a f r i ez e o f zebra s . They a r e pa in t ed

i n a na tu ra l i s t i c and de t a i l ed s ty le and make more than a bow i n th e

d i rec t i on of pe rspec t i ve .

Think ing about t h e l o g i s t i c s o f pa in t i ng 6m above t he g round ( t h i s time

i t

as th e wr i t er ) l e d t o an examinat ion of th e immense bou lder, weighing

20,000 t o ns and more, which i s i n f r o n t of t h e s h e l t e r .

C l ea r ly , i n i t s

movement away from th e ro ck f a c e,

i t s upper ri dg e must once have been a

su i ta bl e pla t form from which t o work a t th ese high pa int ing s .

Along the

upper r id g e, now 10m from t h e rock f ac e,

it w a s fo und t h a t t h e r e a r e h a l f a

dozen miniatur e grin ding hol lows, such a s might wel l have been used f o r

gr inding red ochre ;

a s f ur th er evidence, the se grooves were a lmost a l l

t i l t e d away from th e hor iz onta l i n exac t ly th e way one would expec t i f they

had been made before t h e huge rock began t o s l i p down th e hi l l s i d e .

Unfortunately,

t h e r e i s no chance th a t measurement o f t h i s movement tod ay

might provide a t ime-scale as

i t

may have moved suddenl y a t

f i r s t

A t

a th i r d Nyero s i t e , one km n o r th of t h e main s i t e , t h e r e i s an

unusua l ly i n t r i c a t e and wel l-execut ed s e t o f whi t e concen t r ic c i r c l e s , a round

which ar e rad ia l l y a rranged s igmoid l in es and ladde r- l ike forms.

I t appears

t h a t t h e r e a r e modern p a r a l l e l s f o r t h i s d e si g n i n t h e n o rt h - ea s te r n c o r ne r

of Zai re , where a modern a r t i s t , us ing th e same pa t te rn on the wal l of a

house, was a bl e t o say what th e desig n meant.

The concen t r ic c i rc l e s a re

th e sun, th e ladder-forms ar e th e moon, and th e sigmoid l i n e s a re t h e moon's

f e e t . Why? Because "th e moon walks wi th t h e ra i n and so must have fe et "

( 3 )

P.Prican fa rmers a r e we ll aware of t h e co nnec tion between r a i n and t h e new moon

which st reng thens t he theo ry th a t many of t h e "geometric" rock pai nt in gs

around Lake Victoria are connected with rain-making.



West Ni le c on tai ns anot her l i n k between north -eas tern Zai re and Uganda.

Van Noten has alr ead y published a la rg e number of t h e haematite c e l t s or

ground stone to ol s found i n th e Uele basi n.

4 ) A s a r e s u l t o f t h e i n t e r e s t

taken by

D r .

Ted

W i l l i a m s ,

a

mission docto r l i vi ng near Arua,

t

i s now

apparent tha t t he Uel ian extends i n t o West Ni le Di st r i c t .

A

dozen ce l t s

have been col le ct ed , mostly made of spe cula r haemati te. I n ad di t io n,

a

hoard was examined near Arua

-

evident ly a d isused shr ine

-

which contained

two dozen ce l t s and a dozen bored sto ne s. The very compact hae ma tit e

i s

obviously

a

good mate r i a l fo r ce l t s , bu t the re could be o ther r easons fo r

us ing th i s h igh g rade i ro n o re .

Iron smelt ing i s a long-winded proc ess,

requ ir ing seve ral people t o work together ;

i f a man j u s t wanted one o r two

axes he might

f i n d i t eas i e r t o shape and g r i n d t h e i r o n o r e i n s t ea d o f

smelt ing i t

And as a by-product he would have a sup ply of powdered

hsemat i te for use as red ochre .

Karamoja

i s

l i ke ly t o be one o f th e most in t e res t in g a rchaeo log ica l

areas i n Uganda, i n th e future ; a cer ta in type of po ts which ar e heavi ly

and most pr ec is el y grooved from top t o bottom were evide ntly i n use a l l

over the region a t some period,

and i t

w a s

someth ing o f a su r pr i s e to th e

w r i t e r t o f i n d i d e n t i c a l

sherds lyin g on the s urfac e of th e Omo Beds i n

southern Ethiopia; e v id e nt ly th e r e i s

a

continuum from Napak t o t h e Omo

River

-

and perhaps beyond.

Eastern Karamoja i s a l so

a

hunting ground for

rock pain t ings.

These were f i r s t re po rt ed from Magosi, but now a f u r t h e r

hal f dozen s i t e s ar e known. None of thes e i s exac tly spe cta cul ar , but

fu tu re ex plo rat ion may show t h a t Karamoja i s an important a re a f o r rock-

pa in t ings .

In the Kampala area, Buloba

H i l l

was recorde d by Posnanslqr a s a dimple-

based/Urewe ware s i t e . 5 )

Examination of th e abundant pot ter y on th i s h i l l

shows tha t t her e a re f iv e di f fe re nt types of decorat ion ( though none

i s

of

dimple-based type).

These types o f po t t e ry a re en t i r e l y d i f f e ren t from

modern Buganda po tt er y which i s always d eco rated w ith

a

co a r se g r a s s r o u l e t t e .

The Buloba,

or more accurately Kiwumu

H i l l

t y pes i n cl u de p a r a l l e l l i n e and

wavey shallow combing, f in e ro ul et t i ng , deeply scored p a ra l l e l l i n e s and th e

po tt er y known var iou sly a s pie-crust or boudine ware, but more re ce nt ly

named Chobi ware by Soper. 6 )

Survey of a number of h i l l tops which, l i k e

Buloba-Kiwumu, over look t h e swamp-river Mayanja Kato from t h e no rt h e a s t ,

has shown t h a t t he se p ot te ry groups ar e common on most of t h e dominant L l l l s .

Often th e sherds a r e la rg e and bur ied some lOcm below th e gr as s cover of t h e

h i l l .

No asso ciat ed mate rial has been found th a t might provide a d at e, but

l imi te d excavat ions

e r p

t o tak e plece soon.

The p r e sen t p i c t u r e o f h i l l t o p

occupation s i t e s overlooking

a

major papyrus r i ve r suggests s t ro ngly th a t

t h i s was a h i s t o r i c a l f r o n t i e r , b ut u n t i l some i n d i ca ti o n of t h e d a t e i s

obtained

t

would be ra sh t o sug ges t what people s might have been invo lved .

In 1968, t h e Tervuren Museum, Belgium, ca rr ie d out exca vati ons on t h e

is la n ds of Buvuma and Bugaia, a t Munyama Cave and Nak is it o r e spe ct iv e ly .

Apart from th es e two excavated s i t e s , 37 oth er s i t e s on Buvuma and 10 othe r

s i t e s on Bugaia were loca ted. Nenquin, i n a prel iminary re po rt ,

7 )

says

tha t on a t l ea s t 30 of these s i t e s mate r i a l be long ing to th e Sangoan indus t ry

predominates.

L.S.A. m ate r i a l was found i n Tonge Cave and Munyama Cave;

radiocarbon dat es f or th e l a t t e r cover a period from about 13,000 B.C. t o

8,000

B.C.

Two Urewe p o t t e ry s i t e s were found on Buvuma and examples of bo th

Entebbe ware and Kantsyore ware were identified.



From this brief survey, it can be seen that Uganda has plenty to

offer to archaeologists;

and it is to be hoped that universities and

other institutions may feel encouraged to come and work on the task of

uncovering Uganda s past.

Applications for permission to excavate should

be addressed to:

Conservator of Antiquities

Ministry of Culture and Comm. Devt.

P.O. BOX 7136

KAMPALA, Uganda

References

1)

Annual Report of the Monuments Section for the year 1969. Government

Printer, Entebbe, 1971.

2) Posnansky, M., and Nelson, C.M. Rock Paintings and Excavations at

Nyero, Uganda.

Azania, 111. 1968,

147-166

(Fig.

3)

(3) Scohy, A. Ekibondo

. .

ou les murs veulent parler. Brousse, 1951,

17-34.

(4)

Noten, F. van. The Uelian:

Tervuren, 1968.

(5) Posnansw,

M.

Dimple-Based

(6)

Soper, R. Iron Age sites in

Uganda.

(7

Nenquin,

J.

Archaeological

a culture with a neolithic aspect.

Pottery from Uganda.

, 1961, 168.

Chobi Sector, Murchison Falls National Park,

Prospections on the Islands of Buvuma and

Bugaia, Lake Victoria Nyanza (~ganda)

Proceedin~s f the Prehistoric

Society for 1971, Vol. XXXVII, 381-418.

Ghana

News from the Museum is:

1. Field work: The Assistant Keepers (~thnography), en Pole and

Barbara Priddy, are continuing their surveys of modern iron-smelting and

pottery-making respectively, with results which might be useful to

archaeologists, economic historians etc.

2. Movements of people:

a new Assistant Keeper, Francis Boakye Duah,

has returned from studies in Germany to take up his appointment. Mr. J.

Myles has been appointed Curator of the Museum.

Ivory Coast

Monsieur Pollet has been appointed as archaeologist in this country.

No further information is yet available.

Mauretania

S Robert is continuing his excavations at Tegdaoust.



Professor Thurstan Shaw recently carried out a short archaeological

reconnaissance of the Niger Delta in company with Dr. E.J. Alagoa (historian

of the area, University of ~agos) nd

Mr.

Frederick Anozie (~unior esearch

Fellow in Archaeology, University of

bada an .

As far as is known, this is

the first time that any archaeological work has been done in the area of the

Niger Delta.

The reconnaissance was entirely carried out by water transport.

As a result of this preliminary work it is planned that

Mr.

Anozie should

excavate one or two test pits at four sites. From this it is hoped to gain

an idea of the stratigraphy available and of the time depth involved;

there

should be opportunities for obtaining radiocarbon dates both from charcoal

and from shell, and thermoluminescent dates from pottery, to cross-check

ag~inst ach other.

An

interesting problem is to ascertain when this highly

specialised environment was first colonised by a human population.

Department of Archaeology,

University of Ibadan:

The staff of the Department was augmented at the beginning of the year

with the arrival of Mr Robert Soper, formerly Deputy Director, British

Institute of History and Archaeology in East Africa, to take up a post as

Senior Lecturer; and by

Mr.

David Calvocoressi, formerly of the Department

of Archaeology, University of Ghana, to take up a post as Lecturer. It is

anticipated that during the course of the year

Mr.

Bassey Wai Ogosu will take

up a post as Lecturer, after completing his work for a Ph at the University

of California, Berkeley.

The Department is now completing work on its Experimental Archaeological

Reserve, situated in the ground of the International Institute of Tropical

Agriculture.

It is hoped to publish details of this later.

The Departmeqt will be conducting a training excavation during the

Easter vacation for second year students of Archaeology at the site of Old

Oyo. The excavation will be conducted by

Mr.

Robert Soper, assisted by

Mr.

Frederick Anozie.

The University has given a grant to the Department s Palynologist, Dr.

M.A. Sowunmi, to carry out pollen analyses of quaternary deposits in order

to study climatic and vegetational changes during this period.

In connection

with this programme,

a coring tool has been purchased fir obtaining samples

from swamps and lake-beds.

Professor Thurstan Shaw will be on study leave from April to December

1973; hie address will be 37 Hawthorne Road, Stapleford, Cambridge CB2 5DU,

U.K.,

tel. Shelford

2283,

but he cannot promise to answer letters.

Rhodesia

The National Museums and Monuments have now combined their operations.

Mr.

Cooke assumed the office of Curator of Monuments, and T.N. Huffman from

America, N.J. Walker, ex Inskeep s School, Cape Town, and M.A. Bordini from

South America are active in archaeological matters.



South Afr ica

M r

R . J .

Mason,Head of t h e Department o f Archaeology

a t

t h e U n i ve r si t y

of th e Wi twate r srand , r e por t s th a t t has been financed by the South

African Human Sciences Research Council t o i nv es ti ga te Ir on Age se tt l em ent

i n t h e T ran sv aal . The P r o j ec t s t a r t e d i n 1 9 71 and t o d a t e t h e ex cava t i on

of s i t e s a t O l i fa n ts po o rt

ust ten burg

Platb erg (Klerksdorp) Badfontein

(~y den bur g) , nd Harmony ( ~ r a v e l o t t e ) , ave been comple ted. E thno log ica l

inves t iga t ions r e leva n t t o th e s i t e s a r e under way. What s b e l ie v e d t o b e

one of t h e f i r s t r e l a t i v e ly co mp le te h o r i zo n t a l ex po su re s of l a r g e s t o n e-

walled se tt l eme nt s i t e s i n Sub-Saharan A fri ca has been completed. The

discovery of

s i x

v i l l a g e s i t e s wi th ou t s t o n e

w a l l s

a d j ac e n t t o t h e s t on e -

w a ll ed s e t t l em en t s i t e s and p re su mably d a t i n g t o an e a r l i e r p e r i o d i s

announced. Readers ar e re fe rr ed t o th e jour nal , Current Anthropology1,

where a progress repor t i s i n p r e ss .

Other i tems are:

Ir on Age Research i n t h e Western Transvaal

During 1971/1972, four wel l preserved I ro n Age vi l l ag es ra di o carbon

da ted between c.

A.D.

1200 and

A.D.

1500 were discove red on th e farm

Oli fan tsp oor t near Rustenburg. The four s i t e s provided new infor mati on on

settl emen t s i ze , sett l emen t pa tt er n , Ir on Age food economy, and Ir on Age

s t r u c tu r e s d u r in g t h e p e r io d A.D. 1200 A.D. 1500.

The la r ge s t su r face a r ea o f I ron Age se t t l eme nt fo r the per iod

A.D.

1600

t o 1800, ye t exposed i n South Afr ic a , was excavated a t an adjoi ning s tone

wal led se t t l ement i de n t i f i e d as 20/71 . 88 wel l p reserved hu t f l oo rs were

exposed, pro vid ing new info rmat ion on Ir on Age bui ld in g methods.

A

team of

8 s p ec i a l i s t s i s a t work on t h e an a ly s i s o f m a te r i a l s ex cava t ed .

I n

September, 1972,

1 4

papers concerning p re h is to r ic s e t t l ement i n Sou th Af r ica

were p resen ted a t a conference The l a s t 2 ,000 year s i n Sou th Af r i ca , he ld

a t th e Univers i ty of t he Witwatersrand.

Ir o n Age Research

i n t he Eas te rn T ransvaal

1

Escarpment s i t e s near Lydenburg where la rg e extended vi ll a ge s with

s tone wal l a g r ic u l tu ra l t e r rac es and homestead enc losures have

been found.

An

excavated s i t e on the farm Badfontein gave a d a t e

of

A.D. 1680

90 RL 205) as soc ia ted wi th po t t e ry o f Ped i type .

2. Lowveld si t e s , so uth of Tzaneen: a sa l t making s i t e has been

excavat ed, a soapston e bowl fa ct or y surveyed and a copper mine

surveyed and excavated.

A t

t h e l a s t s i t e a l i n e of 25 s h a f t s and

v en t i l a t i o n s h a f t s h a s been d i sco ve r ed and t h r ee s i n g l e t u y e r e

copper smelting furnaces excavated. One of th e sh a ft s has been

opened (~ a nu ar y 973) and p i t p rops

s t l l

i n s i t u o bs er ve d.

A

paper on th e two s i t e s was presented a t a conference i n Johannesburg

in September, 1972.

I am cu rr en tl y conducting a survey of I ron Age s i t e s i n th e Transvaal

1,owveld and adjacent re gions . So fa r , th e survey has covered th e d i s t r i c t s

of

Mica and Gravelotte

( i n the immediate v i ci n i t y of Phalaborwa) and has

a l s o s t a r te d in th e Lou is T r ichard t a rea (which s Venda t r i b a l t e r r i t o r y ) .

We have been most for tun ate t o 0 h t ~ i n e s e ~ r c h ermits t ,o work i n th e t;riF,aJ.



territories of the Sotho, Venda, and Shagane nations and will use the

occasion to record oral histories and do basic ethnographic recording in

addition to archaeological surveying. We have also been granted permission

to work in Mocambique, which is a source of considerable joy to us.

Preliminary work will start in Mocambique soon, but it is obviously a vast,

unexplored region which can keep many fieldworkers busy for a long time.

I have been appointed to the Chair of Archaeology, University of Cape

Town, as of February 1974 and will therefore be operating from a base closer

to y fieldwork.

I would be interested to hear from other archaeologists

who wish to work in South Africa and/or Mocambique for the purpose of joint

ventures. There is an awful lot of work to be done in this region, and very

few people to cover the ground.

Sudan

Dr. Ahmed Hakem,

Head of the Department of Archaeology, University of

Khartoum, reports as follows:

In the Research field the Department is, carrying out investigation and

archaeological survey in the area between Wadi Seydna and Shaheinab.

Preliminary work shows extensive and intensive occupation during various

periods Neolithic to Mahdia times.

Dr. Ahmed M. Ali Hakem is leading the

project with mainly students participation.

Another project is that of

Darfur which is again directed by Dr. Hakem assisted by Mrs. Haaland, this

will be on Early food production and the Iron Age.

A

preliminary expedition

was carried out in July 1972 and showed promising results. Finally, the

Meroe Excavation which was running since

966

led by Prof. P.L. Shinnie is

now being planned as a joint project between the Universities of Calgary and

Khartoum.

Mrs. Haaland is reviewing the Neolithic of the Central Sudan and is in

contact with Dr.

L, Krzyzaniak, the leader of the Polish Expedition at Kadaro,

and Professor Puglisi of the Italian Expedition at Geili.

Dr. Ali Hakem is

reviewing the Iron Age in the Sudan in relation with his main work on the

Meroitic Culture.

The Department is also offering facilities for Berkeley

Expedition to Gezira led by Prof.

J.

Desmond Clark. Contacts have been made

also with Prof. Helmut Ziegert of Hamburg University working at Gebel Mara,

with the University of Geneva Expedition led by M. Charles Bonnet, Prof. J.

Vercoutter of the Frexh Expedition to the Island of Sai, and

M.

Vila of the

Antiquities Service Survey Team in Batn a1 Haggar.

In spite of the small size of the Department in comparison with its

commitment to graduate students,

80

in all, several publication proj cts

either have been completed or are near completion.

Mrs. Haalandls ajor work

on the Neolithic Culture of Sudanese Nubia has been in the Press since last

year as Vol.

I11 of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition's reports.

Dr. Ali

Hakem's article on the Meroitic Settlement of the Butana appeared in Man,

Settlement, and urbanism , other articles include The City of Meroe and the

W t h of Napata, a new perspective in Meroitic Archaeology , Some Major

Aspects of Ccltures in Ancient Sudan , while the following are nearly complete

A Chapter on Political, economic social, and spiritual organizations of Nubia

during Meroitic times is scheduled for March 1973 for the General History of



Africa of the UNESCO Publication. Volume I of General History of the Sudan

sponsored by the Sudan National Council for Research will be completed by

the end of this year. Finally,

an

article on Meroitic Architecture is

being prepared for the Paris Conference on Meroitic Studies to be held in

July 1973 while S s thesis on Meroitic Architecture is being prepared

for publication.

Mr. J. Robertson of the University of Calgary supplies the following

note:

From June 1972 until March 1973, was .field assistant on Professor

Shinnie's excavations at the ancient city of Meroe in the Sudan. Prior to

this, all y experience was in North American archaeology, It immediately

struck me that cities have a tremendous amount of anthropological potential.

The essential uniqueness of cities is that composite groups interact on a

number of levels besides kinship. It

is within the matrix of the city that

complex society developed and grew.

Upon returning to Canada, I have been

working on an excavation model which will tap this rich anthropological

source in cities.

For the coming field season, hope to start

my

PhD thesis. Under the

direction of Professor Shinnie,

and with the cooperation of Dr. Abed Ali Hakem

of the University of Khartoum, I plan to survey northern Darfur.

The main

emphasis of this research will be on the relations of settled

communities

with surrounding areas such as west Africa and the Nile Valley. I hope to

be in the Sudan from June through August 1973.

As a result of the International Colloquium on Nubian studies held in

Warsaw from 19th 23rd June 1972 on the occasion of the opening of a new

department in the National Museum to exhibit the frescoes from the Faras

cathedral, a Society for Nubian Studies was formed. Professor K. Michalowski,

of Warsaw, was elected president, and Dr. E. Dinkler, of Heidelberg, secretary.

Joseph

0

Vogel, Keeper of Prehistory, Livingstone Museum, Livingstone,

Zambia, writes: I recently completed excavations at an Early Iron Age site

in the upper Zambezi valley in western Zambia. The site at Sioma (16038'

south; 23O32' east) produced a large collection of obviously Early Iron Age

pottery, but of a hitherto unknown group. The pottery is decorated with

hatched b;nds, parallel grooving, false-relief-chevron, thin-wavy-line

stamping and a stamp producing patterns of fine false-relief-chevrons.

One

spearhead, a number of tuyzres and a quantity of smelting debris were also

found. Radiocarbon dates from Sioma are awaited.

Earlier,

I completed a survey of Early Iron Age sites on the edge of

the Maramba valley in southern Zambia with an excavation at the site named

Musya (17O42' south; 25'52' east). We found three components an Early Iron

Age village possibly related to the Dambwa assemblage; a Kalomo tradition

site of the Sekute phase and an Early-Tonga site of the mid-second millennium.



A present, I am completing the publication of the third of our Zambia

Museum Papers series volumes on the archaeology of the Victoria Falls

region, entitled: Simbusenga: The Archaeology of the Intermediate Period

of the Southern Zambian Iron Age .

Miss Karla Savage, University of California, Berkeley, is in Zambia

analysing Daniels1 L.S.A. material from Kamusongolwa and mine from

Chambabulele and preparing an excavation at Mumbwa as part of her doctoral

thesis.

INQUA Researches in-.Africa outh of the Equator

Two Inqua commissions have been active in southern Africa on projects

which combine archaeology with geology and other disciplines.

Reports are

being prepared for the congress to be held in New Zealand next December.

For the Shorelines Commission,

0

Davies has sent to press the last of

his four reports on pleistocene shorelines in South Africa, and special

studies are being carried out by A. Tankard and A.J. Carrington in the Western

Cape.

The 60-metre shoreline is the earliest yielding hand-axes, while

higher beach-gravels occasionally have atypical pebble-tools.

Faunal studies

indicate warmer water in the West Cape in and before the 30-metre shoreline

= probably the Holstein interglacial), and an interesting warm-water fauna

in estuaries of the South and West Cape belonging to the 18 and metre

shorelines = probably the two peaks of em . P. Giresse is directing

research at Pointe Noire on the Flandrian transgression, with a number of

isotopic dates.

This follows his work in Gaboon, where he found considerable

subsidence during the Holocene similar to that established by Allen off the

Niger delta. R. Battistini has been mapping the late quaternary shorelines

and dune-formations in Madagascar.

The Sub-commission on African Stratigraphy was revived in

1971

by P.

Biberson, and representatives have been appointed for nearly every African

state, to present reports on quaternary formations, in order to assess a

programme of field-research for the next Inqua inter-congress period.

Bibersonls ork has largely been in Morocco, where archaeological remains have

always been carefully studied in relation to geological formations.

He

published in Quaternaria 13 a set of reports, to be used as models in other

parts of the continent, in which due weight was given to prehistorical

industries, fauna and isotopic dates. Work has been initiated in soutern

Africa, and some of the reports will

contain much detail on archaeology in

relation to soil-stratigraphy for instance, talus-accumulation in which a

regular sequence from Late Acheulian to Late Stone Age occurs; and coastal

dunes in Natal, where differently coloured sands are interstratified with

industries from the Sangoan to the later iron-age.

University of Ghent, Bel~ium

For several years, a course in African prehistory has been offered in

the University Ghent;

this is up till now the only university in Belgium

where this subject is being taught.



Several students are preparing a thhe de licence in this particular

field. This usually takes the form of a 150-300 page typewritten dissertation

on a well-defined subject, complete with drawings, photographs, maps, etc.

The

prepared

1.

2

3.

4.

following dissertations have recently been submitted, or are being

now

M.J.

De Meulemeester, on the ethnohistory and archaeology of the

Jukun, central Benue region, Nigeria. This is a doctoral thesis

based upon fieldwork and archival research.

Excavations were

carried out at Kororofa

1969-1970)

nd at several other sites

in the area Pindiga Katsena Ala, Kona Abinsi 1970-1971).

Recent papers on this work are:

Op zoek naar het verleden van Nigeria. Spiegel Historiael, 7,6

1972, 324-333. (~.~enquinnd J. De ~eulemeester).

Voorlopig bericht over twee seizoenen protohistorisch onderzoek

in get gebied van de Midden-Benue ( ~ i ~ e r i a )

Africa-Tervuren

XVIII 3/4, 1972, 123-132. (J. Nenquin and

J.

De Meulemeester).

M.M.

Celis. Gepolijst archaeologisch stenen materiaal uit de

Demokratische Republiek Zaire (met uitsluiting van het Uele

gebied)

This is a study of the polished axes, adzes and other relevant

finds from Zaire, the Uele region excluded.

3-volume manuscript:

text: 111 pp.; finds from Ubangi, Lower Zaire, Kasai, Shaba,

Ituri. Morphological analysis. gazetteer: 304 pp. illustrations:

XXX plates and 5 maps.

It is perhaps useful to mention here that the so-called Uele

neolithic has earlier been studied by F. Van Noten, when a student

at Ghene. This dissertation has been published as: The Uelian .

Annalen; menseli

j

e wet enschappen no 6k. Kon Museum Midden-Afrika

Tervuren.

1968.

pp. 154, fig.

49,

pl. X.

Miss A. H6rin. Studie van een verzameling ceramiek uit de Bushimaie

vallei, in het Kon. Museum voor Centraal Afrika. A description of

the ceramic material collected in 1939 by M.M. Bequaert in six caves

in the Bushimaie valley, Zaire. Morphological analysis, typology and

essay in chronology. Comparison with similar pottery from the same

area.

M.J. Valcke. Het Late Steentijd materiaal uit de Munyama grot

(Uganda).

Report on the microlithic industry found in the Munyama

Cave (~uvuma sland, ~ganda) excavated in 1968 by J. Nenquin and

J. Van Noten. Typological analysis, environmental reconstruction,

chronology. Papers on this site include:

F. Van Noten: Excavations at Munyama Cave. Antiquity, 1971, XLV

NO. 177, 56-50.

J.

Nenquin: Archaeological prospections on the Islands of Buvwna

and Bugaia, Lake Victoria Nyanza (Uganda) Proceedings Prehistoric

Society, 1971, XXXVII 381-418. Material from other sites

examined during the 1968 campaign is being studied by the author of

this note.



5 M J Vandenhoute. De vro eg- his tori sch e kerk- begra afplaa ts t e

Mbanza Mbata Kia Madiadia (~eder-zaire).

Reconst ruct ion of the

necropol is asso ciated wi th th e ear ly Chr is t i an church a t Mbanza

Mbata (~ o w e r a i re xamined and p a r t ia l l y 1 ex cav a t ed ea r l i e r

by sev eral workers . Descr ip tion of th e mat er ia l (po t te ry ,

i mp or ted r e l i g i o u s o b j ec t s , e t c . ) ; an a l y s i s o f t h e h i s t o r i c a l

impor tance o f the s i t e .

Apar t from the se di f fe ren t sub jec ts , th e archaeological depar tment of

Ghent Universi ty a ls o helped i n organizing th e s ect ion on Afr ican prehis tory

i n the exh ib i t ion Demysti f ica ti e en l e t t e rkunde in Af rika , he ld a t th e

uni ver si ty i n 1972 ( i n charge: Professor

D r

M Van Spaandonck).

Last ly , Professor D r J de Heinze lin ( ch a i r o f ~a la eo n t o lo gy

reg ula r ly col lab orates wi th the work done i n th e Omo val ley .

H i s l a t e s t

co nt ri bu ti on : Omo Research Ex ped itio n 1967-1971 . Afric a-Te rvuren, 197 2,

XVIII

314 67-74.

Universi ty of C ali forn ia, Santa Barbara

Brian Fagan contin ues t o labou r over th e Daima bones and a s e r i e s of

mound s i t e re p o rt s from so uth ern Zambia.

He pl an s t o complete most of

t h i s work during a Guggenheim Fellowship i n e ar ly 1973. A short volume on

Afr ica i n th e Iro n Age, co-authored with Roland Oli ver f o r Cambridge Univ ers ity

Press w i l l go t o p ress a t t he end of t he year .

Michael Bisson has now ret ur ne d from fieldwor k i n Zambia and co nt ri bu te s

a shor t repor t t o th is ne wslet ter . We hope t o admit another I ron Age graduate

stude nt t o UCSB fo r th e coming f a l l .



West African Journal of Archaeology

Professor Thurstan Shaw has

supplied lists of contents for the two

forthcoming numbers of this journal:

Volume 3, 1973:

York: Excavations at New Buipe

Wai-Ogosu: Was there a Sangoan industry in West Africa?

Aumassip:

Nouveau cas de stratification arch6ologique dans le

Sahara Septentrionale.

Mauny: Datation au carbone 14 d amas artificiels de coquillages

des lagunes de Basse CGte dlIvoire

Olsson: Radiocarbon dating of Ivory Coast Shell Mounds

Rubin: Bronzes of the Middle Benue

Shaw: Trade and the Tsoede bronzes

Walker: Cajote

-

a Franco-African word for a tobacco pipe?

Volume

4

1974:

Rahtz, P.A. and Colin Flight: A Quern Factory near Kintampo, Ghana

Smith, Andrew B.: Preliminary Report of Excavations at Karkarichinkat,

Mali, 1972

Swartz,

B.K.

Jnr.: A Stratified Succession of Stone Age Assemblages

at Hohoe, Ghana

Marliac, A.: Prospection Arch6ologique au Cameroun Septentrianale

Eyo, Ekpo: Excavations at Odo-Ogbe Street and Lafogido,

Ife,

Nigeria.

Garlake, Peter: Excavations at Obalara s Land, Ife, Nigeria

Mathewson,

R.

Duncan: Pottery from the Chuluwasi and Jimasangi River

Sites, Northern Ghana

Rubin, Arnold: Regalia in Biu Division, North-Eastern State, Nigeria

Notes and News

Reviews

The annual subscription costs

11

(united Kingdom £4.50) and orders

through normal book-selling channels or with Oxford University Press,

P.M.B. 5142, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Documents

Nyame Akuma Issue 002