SiteRecordings

Mike Moon's original report (1986): This site is situated in very sandy soil with riverine forest cover. The area is extensively damaged by a sand borrow to obtain a very fine sand for the construction of Inanda Dam. For the purpose of this report, I divided the site into two parts, namely A and B. Site A: this consists of a number of small dongas running down from the side of the road into the sand borrow (see photo and drawing). In the side of one of the dongas, I found a pot 25 cm from the surface. Together with a large number of sherds from a bowl. I sieved the area around the find but did not come up with any charcoal or any more pottery. A few sherds occurred in and on the dongas on either side of the pot. These were not collected. Site B: is also in a donga at the side of the road, a 100 m from site A (see drawing and photo). Here I found a small broken pot plus a number of other sherds. Just under the main concentration of pottery I found 5 or 6 marula seeds and a few pieces of broken granite. A small amount of pottery could be seen in and around the dongas on either side of site B. Site C: fine, sandy cream-coloured soil. Pottery dump (or remains of pit) at least 1 m below original surface. Finds - portion of medium sized pot, portion of a bowl, other sherds mainly undecorated, lumps of sandstone packed around sides and below pottery, few pieces of snuffbox shale. The pottery was very weathered, one large piece of pottery treated on inside surface with Ponal wood glue. Whitelaw & Moon report (1996): Moon originally found remains of 3 pits on the river side of the road. At least one may be Mzonjani phase. Pits labelled Sites A, B, C. Whitelaw walked over the site in 1987 and collected artefacts (Ceramics and grindstones from the bulldozed surface. Material occurred in two main areas. One sherd collected by Whitelaw appears to match a sherd Moon recorded from Pit B. Whitelaw's two artefact occurrences therefore possibly are derived from Pits A & B. In the 1990s, the sand-winning operation moved to upslope side of the road, some distance up the hillside. Bulldozers exposed large quantities of material - mainly Msuluzi, but also some Ntshekane sherds. Features on this part of site (2930DB 48 EXT) include middens, pits, burials, dumps of smelting debris, buried pot etc. 2930DB 48 EXT was mapped by Whitelaw and Moon in February 1996 (survey readings attached). Moon provided detailed notes of each feature/artefact mapped (attached). Moon, Whitelaw and Yeadon also excavated an Msuluzi burial in December 1995 (Accession No. 96/2). May 1996: See postion number 43 on sketch map showing postions of finds. It is part of a fairly large LIA site that overlaid a much larger EIA site to which the sketch map refers. Further evidence of this LIA site was uncovered a few metres above postion 1 in the form of 2 lower grindstones, and about 30 metres below postion number 29 a dumping of LIA pottery with large pieces of bone was uncovered. Artefacts found at postion number 43 were glass beads, old bottles, upper and lower grindstones, a mealie cob still with corn attached, pieces of stoneware jars, old iron nails and pottery sherds. Some of these items were collected including the mealie cob which has been vacuum packed. Judging by the pieces of old bottles, this site could date back to the early 1900.