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Controlled excavations
in rockshelters along Bumbusi ridge in Hwange National Park have
recovered abundant materials
from Later Stone Age occupations dating to
the late Holocene. Tens of thousands of lithics have been found
in stratified sediments. Also found were
ostrich eggshell beads in all stages of
manufacture, plentiful animal bones and
other organics such as nutshells and seeds,
and
charcoal and ash features. Late Iron Age ceramics are also
present but generally limited to
near-surface contexts.
Ongoing analysis of
the excavated material, coupled with
paleoenvironmental studies currently
underway, will add to our understanding of
LSA lifeways immediately before the
appearance of the earliest farming
communities in the region. The goal is to
understand how and when the transition from
hunting-gathering to agropastoralism
occurred just south of the Zambezi River.
Another objective of the research is the complete
recording of the hundreds of unique
prehistoric engravings, drawings, and
paintings in the rockshelters.
Photo above:
A 1-meter unit in Impala Rockshelter; photos
to right (from top to bottom): spoor
engravings in Ngabaa Rockshelter, OES beads
from Bumbuzi Cave National Monument, a
python in mopane, and the upper part of a
profile of a test excavation in the Dete
vlei. |
