Heritage Cases

The preservation of the daga remains, grain bins, stone foundations, pits, and possibly cattle byres at the site of Emseni is unusual for the Early Iron Age of KwaZulu-Natal. Often, such archaeological features and remains are fragmented, deflated, or have eroded over time, limiting our understand and interpretations of domestic spaces and their relation to the spatial organisation during this period. The site of Emseni provides an opportunity to reconstruct the organisation of domestic spaces and their association with other features such as pits, kraals and middens. Emseni is an open-air site located on the farm Baviaans Krantz 1290 near Weenen in KwaZulu-Natal. The site of Emseni is an open-air site located on the original farm Baviaans Krantz near Weenen in KwaZulu-Natal. It is an Early Iron Age site dating from AD 550 to AD 800. This is based on surface scatters from both Msuluzi ceramics and Ndondodwane ceramic phases. In the early 1990s, Tim Maggs and D Green identified and reported on the site. They noted several buried features, which included pits that were rich in cultural material. The surface scatters also included heaps of slag and a pile of furnace walls visibly discarded in a pit. Other artefacts include a solid animal figurine, ceramics balls, tuyeres, and iron ore. Gavin Whitelaw revisited the site in 1996, where he further identified and reported grain bin remains, stone foundations, thick pieces of dagga with grass impressions and pits. Whitelaw also identified a piece of a ceramic mask that was part of a surface scatter associated with a possible midden. The preservation of the daga remains, grain bins, stone foundations, pits, and possibly cattle byres at the site of Emseni is unusual for the Early Iron Age of KwaZulu-Natal. Often, such archaeological features and remains are fragmented, deflated, or have eroded over time, limiting our understand and interpretations of domestic spaces and their relation to the spatial organisation during this period. The site of Emseni provides an opportunity to reconstruct the organisation of domestic spaces and their association with other features such as pits, kraals and middens. The site provides an avenue to test existing hypotheses on Early Iron Age settlement organisation, identify areas where specialised activities occurred, and understand interaction relations between people and their environment. The proposed project encompasses standard archaeological methods that will target residential features such as daga remains, houses/floors, granary foundations, pits, and central areas such as middens and animal byres. Due to the presence of both Msuluzi and Ndondodwane ceramics, it is unclear if the site represents a single long-term occupation or a series of multiple occupations between the fifth century and eighth century. The project will attempt to separate the occupation sequences by mapping all these features and their associated ceramic phases, allowing more detailed analysis and interpretation of the site, and permitting further investigations on the changes (if any) of the spatial organisation over time (Msuluzi and Ndondodwane). Based on ethnographic data and archaeological evidence, the central area is associated with male activities (see Loubser 1981; 1985). This is evident at the many Iron Age site, for example, at the site of KwaGandaganda, where fragments of ceramics sculptures and ivory fragments were recovered from central-middens and animal byres. These artefacts and the production of these crafts are traditionally associated with men and their space (Whitelaw 1994). Their presence in these archaeological contexts elucidates that a separation of male spaces and residential areas already existed during the Early Iron Age period. Craft production at these sites indicates that specialists were part of the early farming communities and possibly attached to different households. Besides craft production, other specialised skills may have involved hunting and processing wild animals, processing skins and bones, forging metals, and herding strategies and their connection to different households during the Msuluzi and Ndondodwane occupation periods. The goal is also to understand how the procurement of raw material such as eggshell, iron ore, ivory and other material transpired during these periods—allowing for better understanding and interpretation of how specialisation informs and relates to social status and ranking within these Early Iron Age settlements.