Excavations at Twickenham Road, Lusaka

SUMMARY

Small-scale excavations at a site beside Twickenham Road in the eastern suburbs of Lusaka, Zambia, have yielded traces of a succession of five cultural stages ranging from the Late Stone Age to the nineteenth century A.D. A sparse and undated Late Stone Age occupation is succeeded by an Early Iron Age (Kapwirimbwe group) settlement with evidence of a highly developed ceramic tradition and for iron-working. Copper first appears in a second Early Iron Age phase. The introduction of the later Iron Age is marked by a pronounced change in the pottery style and by the appearance of goods obtained through contact with coastal trade. A human burial with filed teeth probably belongs to this phase. The final occupation of the site is of recent type and probably dates from the nineteenth century.

The radiocarbon dates from Twickenham Road are an internally inconsistent series, but it is suggested that the change from Early Iron Age to later Iron Age may have taken place around the tenth century A.D.

The Twickenham Road site provides a framework for the Iron Age sequence of the Lusaka area but more work is needed to elaborate the outline here proposed and to elucidate the chronology.