150 years of Archaeology in SA: HJ Deacon discovering the past

A Lady’s Tale She says - driving Landrovers, smoking cigars and making discoveries is what attracted her to archaeology. Now an eminent historical archaeologist she rarely gets a lift in a Landrover, does not smoke but does make discoveries. Her discoveries are ‘small things forgotten’ like porcelain fragments and clay pipe stems but they tell an intriguing story of Colonial times. That is what archaeology is about. It is her efforts and the efforts of many others that contribute to 150 years of progress in South African archaeology. These slides are some benchmarks of that progress

Benchmark 1: Recognition of ancient artefacts 1858 T H Bowker collected stone artefacts from the Fish River area. Deeply Buried=Old Victorian collectors find stone artefacts abundance. Curiosity about stone artefacts drives the development of archaeology.

Benchmark 2: Bushman Implements All finds attributed to the Bushmen/San recognised as the ancient inhabitants Beginnings of interest in San ethnography and linguistics Archaeology recognised as a field of study-1870 by Langham-Dale. First prehistories written – search for explanations

Benchmark 3: Antiquity of Man c.1905 Peringuey recognises Acheulian artefacts in the vineyards as being like those in France that were considered most ancient Acheulian artefacts

Benchmark 4: Early Researchers c Many were museum based scientists and undertook excavations, built up collections and published their findings. Some were motivated by the search for fossil human ancestors like the Neanderthals of Europe. John Hewitt – Director of Albany Museum Zoologist and authority on reptiles and amphibians did archaeological fieldwork in his vacations. He excavated the type sites of Wilton and Howiesons Poort and other sites. He struggled to keep his museum functioning.

Benchmark 5: First Professional Archaeologist Appointed 1923 to sort out the museum collections Publishes ‘The Stone Age Cultures of SA’ with C van Riet Lowe in 1929 Clarence van Riet Lowe

Goodwin’s 3 Age scheme with additions and dates A framework for South African archaeology

Benchmark 6: Another major Goodwin contribution 1945 Founding the South African Archaeological Society and editing the Bulletin a journalist at heart - building a basis for the growth of archaeology

Benchmark 7: Discovery of Australopithecus Dart-Taung child 1926 Broom-1936 Sterkfontein & Swartkrans Showed the chimpanzee-sized pre-human ancestors evolved in Africa Dart, Broom, Abbe Breuil, vRLowe

‘Cradle of Humankind’ Ron Clark at Sterkfontein CK ‘Bob’ Brain at Swartkrans Predation Hypothesis

Benchmark 8: True Humans – Modern Ancestors ‘..not only were people …some years ago anatomically modern but they were also behaviorally modern’ (HJD 1989) In the 1980s the Out-of-Africa Hypothesis and the study of the emergence of modern humans created new interest in Stone Age archaeology and in particular Goodwin’s Middle Stone Age. Klasies River Sibudu Blombos modern and cannibals Sibudu HP segment with ochre

Dating: Science in Archaeology Relative dating: a is older than b on style, stratigraphy, etc Chronometric dating: ages in years Radiocarbon Revolution – dating the last years First radiocarbon dated site in SA was Matjes River (1950s) giving ages as old as 11,000 years – much older than expected. Now it is routinely used. Other methods developed like OSL dating CSIR Laboratory Pretoria Benchmark 9: Lack of precise chronologies held up advancement

John Vogel Dating and stable isotopes Cango stalagmite Inside Cango

Rock Art Early travellers in the 1700s and 1800s report and copy paintings – now more than paintings known Rock Art is to archaeology as birding is to zoology: it popularises and informs on the subject. Zimri rock shelter, Cederberg Benchmark 10:

Pat Vinnicombe David Lewis-Williams Interpreting Rock Art People of the Eland 1976 Vinnicombe Believing and Seeing 1981 Lewis-Williams beyond the narrative explanations Rock art is religious and shamanistic Oldest Most Famous Seminal publications

Rock Art interpretations have drawn on San Ethnography Records compiled by Bleek and Lloyd in 19 th century from the Breakwater /Xam San prisoners Materials compiled by anthropologists from contemporary San societies. These materials also contribute to Later Stone Age studies

Benchmark 11: Who were the Khoekhoen/Hottentots? Frank Schweitzer recovers two thousand year old sheep bones from Die Kelders showing Khoekhoe herders to be archaeologically visible This links to historical records at the Cape in Van Riebeeck’s time 1970 There are still people living in matjes huts, farming small stock and speaking a click language in Namaqualand.

Mapungubwe, precursor to Zimbabwe, first excavated in the 1930s MAPUNGUBWE WORLD HERITAGE SITE Benchmark 12: Dispersal of Early Farmers Term Iron Age, adopted in 1952, focuses on ‘Bantu Genesis’ Traces the history of traditional farming settlement in South Africa and the roots of modern social formations Example

Zhizo/K2/Mapungubwe sites

Main access to Mapungubwe Hill was via this narrow cleft Mapungubwe period walling on the Southern Terrace

Trade beads, “garden roller” beads and moulds Fragments of Chinese celadon from the Sung Dynasty ( AD) next to a whole celadon wine kettle from a museum

gold

From Mapungubwe they traded into the Indian Ocean trade network

SIGNIFICANCE OF MAPUNGUBWE The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape was the centre of the first kingdom in Southern Africa established by the cultural ancestors of the present-day Shona and Venda. It includes over 400 archaeological sites and the three successive capitals of Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe, occupied between AD 900 and This period laid the foundation for a new type of social organisation in southern Africa.

Achievements after 150 years More inclusive with many different areas of special interest in pre-Colonial and Colonial times Growing public and professional status Integral part of the education system Recognised component of national heritage Focus of tourist initiatives Increased funding and job opportunities (but mostly in the applied field of heritage impact assessment of development)

Some Aspirations and Needs Growth of organisations like the SA Archaeological Society Strengthening of heritage organisations involved in protection and curation of archaeological data, sites and collections. Attraction of nationally representative practitioners to the field. Planning for future growth