Mapungubwe. Thomas Huffmann
THOMAS N HUFFMAN
MAPUNGUBWE
ANCIENT AFRICAN CIVILISATION ON THE LIMPOPO
Please remember that without an official permit visitors, including archaeologists, are not allowed to remove artefacts from any site within the basin.
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
2001
South Africa
ISBN 1-86814-408-9
ISBN 978-1-86814-408-2 (Print)
ISBN 978-1-86814-649-9 (PDF)
ISBN 978-1-77614-300-9 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-1-77614-301-6 (MOBI)
Copyright © 2005 Thomas N Huffman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Cover by Limeblue, Johannesburg, South Africa
Text design by Orchard Publishing, Cape Town,
South Africa
Printed and bound by Creda Communications
Cape Town, South Africa
CONTENTS
OCCUPATION OF THE SHASHE-LIMPOPO BASIN
Chief’s residential area
Burials
Copper and iron working
Ivory and glass beads
Court, kraal and midden
Commoners
Agriculture
Rainmaking
Ethnicity
Social changes
Southern terrace
Court officials
Occupation area
Approaches
First king
Stonewalling
First town
Second king
Royal wives
Royal cemetery
Golden rhinos
Gold working
First state
Internal trade and contacts
External trade
Commoners
Climatic change
Icon and Khami occupations
Origins of the Venda
Venda occupation
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to John Calabrese, McEdward Murimbika, Alex Schoeman, Jeannette Smith and Marilee Wood for the use of their research results. Lance Gewer of Icon Productions made available Lance Penny’s artist impressions of Mapungubwe on pages 32, 33 and 40. Johan Delannoie created the impression of K2 on page 18 and the drawing of Mapungubwe on the cover. Bob Cnoops photographed these reconstructions as well as the artefacts on pages 11, 20, 21, 48 and 49. Wendy Voorvelt prepared the maps. Marilee Wood provided the photograph of the beads on page 21. The Mapungubwe Archives, University of Pretoria, kindly supplied the photographs on pages 19, 34, 39, 47 and 53, and gave their permission to use the material on pages 35, 36 and 47 from the edited volume on Mapungubwe by Fouche 1937. The figure on page 38 comes from Gardner 1963. The National Culture History Museum Pretoria gave permission to use the photograph on page 11. The aerial photograph on page 31 is courtesy of the Trigonometrical Survey of South Africa. Finally, I am grateful to the various organizations that have supported our research in the Mapungubwe area, in particular De Beers, the Mellon Foundation, the Indigenous Knowledge Systems of the National Research Foundation, SANParks and the University of the Witwatersrand.
Location of the Mapungubwe Park and important sites
OCCUPATION OF THE SHASHE-LIMPOPO BASIN
List of the important places and events in their chronological order.