Sharon Hammond
The mangled skeleton of a young woman who died 1 500 years ago could settle a 20-year argument about when the practice of bartering cattle for women first started in southern Africa.
The woman’s remains were discovered outside Nelspruit, in Mpumalanga, after bulldozers excavating a site for the Lowveld’s first large-scale shopping mall uncovered her grave and unceremoniously crushed her legs and pelvis.
Wits University archaeologist, Professor Tom Huffman, says the two cattle kraals between which she was found buried has the archaeological fraternity excited.
“The fact that these kraals were found in the centre of the settlement indicates that the community used the central cattle pattern, used by people who practised lobola,” explains Huffman.
He says the find could resolve a debate about whether cattle were important to East African society beyond 1 000 years ago. “We’ve known cattle were important in society 1 000 years ago because cattle bones are abundant at sites dating to that time, but there are few bones from the early Iron Age period.”
The Nelspruit settlement housed about 300 early Iron Age villagers in 500AD. The earthworks revealed a cross-section of seven food pits lined with cattle dung, the two cattle kraals between which the woman was buried, and several unbroken, decorated pots, hoes, spears and knives.
Huffman said the fact that the woman was buried in the centre of the settlement indicated she had high status, either as a chief’s daughter or headman’s wife.
Concerned about having disturbed her grave, Mpumalanga government officials have undertaken to slaughter a cow to appease the ancestors.
“We have a belief that if we interfere with those sleeping, there could be catastrophe, such as hailstorms blowing the legislature’s roof off, so we have to appease the spiritual forces by spilling blood,” says director of arts and culture David Mkhatshwa.
The university will be the custodian of the materials found, which will be returned to the province once a provincial museum is established, and no further excavations will take place, allowing the mall developers to continue construction.
The provincial government is considering erecting a plaque on the site and perhaps displaying some of the items in the legislature complex. – African Eye News Service