Mtanye revisited: new insights into the Middle Iron Age of southern Zambezia

ABSTRACT

In southern Zambezia, the early second millennium AD witnessed socio-political transformations within local agropastoralist societies. Research continues to unearth evidence of multiple places that likely functioned as the centres of state-based polities. This paper reports on surveys and excavations undertaken at Mtanye, located about 50 km east of Gwanda in southwestern Zimbabwe and approximately 90 km north of the Shashi-Limpopo Confluence Area where Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe meet. Fieldwork identified local expressions of prestige such as stone walling, exotic items such as glass beads and evidence of long-term occupation with a successive layering and mix of K2, TK2 and Mapungubwe facies. Based on this evidence, it is therefore suggested that the similarities in material culture between Mapungubwe, Mtanye and other neighbouring sites like Mapela and Mananzve reflect social networks of shared ideas and practices rather than the existence of a single hegemonic state. Furthermore, the community at Mtanye deployed different strategies to survive and thrive in seemingly inhospitable drylands.

RÉSUMÉ

Dans le sud de la Zambèzie, le début du deuxième millénaire ap. J.-C. a vu des transformations sociopolitiques au sein des sociétés agropastorales locales. La recherche continue de mettre au jour des preuves de plusieurs endroits qui ont probablement fonctionné comme les centres de régimes politiques basés sur l'État. Cet article rend compte des enquêtes et des fouilles entreprises à Mtanye, situé à environ 50 km à l'est de Gwanda dans le sud-ouest du Zimbabwe et à environ 90 km au nord de la zone de confluence Shashi-Limpopo où le Botswana, l’Afrique du Sud et le Zimbabwe se rencontrent. Les résultats ont identifié des expressions locales de prestige telles que des murs en pierre, des objets exotiques tels que des perles de verre et des preuves d'occupation à long terme avec une stratification et un mélange successif de faciès K2, TK2 et Mapungubwe. Sur la base de ces preuves, il est donc suggéré que les similitudes dans la culture matérielle entre Mapungubwe, Mtanye et d'autres sites voisins tels que Mapela et Mananzve reflètent des réseaux sociaux d'idées et de pratiques partagées plutôt que l'existence d'un seul État hégémonique. De plus, la communauté de Mtanye a déployé différentes stratégies pour survivre et prospérer dans des terres arides apparemment inhospitalières.

KEYWORDS:

• Mtanye
• Middle Iron Age
• Leopard’s Kopje
• socio-political complexity
• adaptation
• southern Zambezia

Acknowledgments

We should like to acknowledge the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the University of Cape Town for funding this project. Special thanks go to the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe for providing the excavation permits that enabled fieldwork at Mtanye. We are also indebted to Chief Marupi, Mr Mulife Sidange and the entire communities of Mtanye and Selonga School who hosted and assisted us during our fieldwork. We should also like to thank our colleagues Foreman Bandama and Tawanda Mukwende, for their help with the excavation of the site. Finally, we should like to acknowledge as well the work of Kith Mkwanzi, who, along with Robert, analysed the fauna from Mtanye.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jordan R. Scholfield

Jordan Scholfield is a graduate of the University of Cape Town where he recently received a MSc. degree in archaeology. His research focuses on the formation of identities during the southern Africa Iron Age, networks of interaction, trade and exchange and frontiers.

Robert T. Nyamushosho

Robert Nyamushosho is Lecturer and Administrator of the African Heritage Hub and Research Centre at the University of Cape Town where he recently completed his Re-centring Afro-Asia Post-Doctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on the precolonial societies of southern Africa engaging with various themes that include human-environment interactions, early state formation, urbanism, ethnicity, crafting and everyday life, as well as the movement of material goods and people. To do this he uses a range of techniques drawn from archaeology, history and anthropology. Other interests include ethnoarchaeology and heritage entrepreneurship and presentation.

Cornelius T. Mushangwe

Cornelius Mushangwe is a graduate with an MPhil. in archaeology from the University of Cape Town. He is interested in understanding the impact of the environment on past human societies and how past environmental data can be used to interpret past, present and future lifeways. His research focuses on analysing plant remains and employing them as proxies for understanding past societies subsistence.

Shadreck Chirikure

Shadreck Chirikure is Edward Hall Professor of Archaeological Science and British Academy Global Professor in the School of Archaeology in Oxford. Previously, he was Professor of Archaeology in the University of Cape Town where he directed the Department of Archaeology’s Materials Laboratory.