Assessment of human skeletal remains from the Penhalonga district, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The Nyanga complex is situated in the Penhalonga district of Manicaland province in northern Zimbabwe. According to various archival and modern sources, six skeletons were discovered in this region in the 1930s and are supposedly curated in the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Archaeological Humans Remains at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In an attempt to locate these skeletons and associate them with the sites, archival records, skeletal and faunal analyses and radiocarbon dating were used to gain more information on the bioarchaeology of the region. Only three of the skeletons could be located in the Dart Collection, two of which could be reliably radiocarbon dated, one from the Hill of Paintings to before the beginning of the Nyanga complex, the other, from Mkondwe, to most probably contemporary with it. The latter shows evidence of dental modification similar to that seen in individuals recovered from the Monk’s Kop site, situated to the north of Zimbabwe. This study forms part of a larger attempt to bring context to skeletons housed in archaeological collections because of their value as sources of information on the past.

RÉSUMÉ

Le complexe de Nyanga se situe dans le district de Penhalonga, province de Manicaland, au nord du Zimbabwe. Selon diverses sources, à la fois modernes et d'archives, six squelettes furent découverts dans cette région dans les années 1930 et seraient conservés dans la collection Raymond A. Dart de restes humains archéologiques à l'Université du Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Afin de tenter de localiser ces squelettes et de les associer à leurs sites, un travail combinant les recherches archivales, des analyses squelettiques et fauniques, et des datations au radiocarbone a été accompli visant à obtenir davantage d'informations sur la bioarchéologie de la région. Seuls trois des squelettes ont pu être retrouvés dans la collection Dart, dont deux ont pu être datés au radiocarbone de manière fiable, l'un provenant de la Hill of Paintings, prédatant le début du complexe de Nyanga, et l'autre, issu de Mkondwe, lui étant très probablement contemporain. Ce dernier manifeste des indications de modifications dentaires semblables à celles observées chez des individus du site de Monk’s Kop, au nord du Zimbabwe. Cette étude s'inscrit dans le cadre du projet plus large de fournir un contexte aux squelettes hébergés dans les collections archéologiques, en raison de leur valeur comme sources d'informations sur le passé.

KEYWORDS:

• Nyanga complex
• Zimbabwe
• Later Iron Age
• Dart collection
• bioarchaeology

Acknowledgements

We should like to thank the curators of the Raymond A. Dart Collection for the opportunity to study the remains discussed in this paper. The photographs were taken by Dr T. Houlton, while some of the sketches were redrawn by Marinda Pretorius. We should also like to extend our gratitude to Mr R.H. van der Merwe for his assistance in creating the site map and to the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand for the use of their comparative faunal collection. Radiocarbon analysis was done at the iThemba laboratories, Johannesburg.

Notes on contributors

Maryna Steyn is a biological anthropologist who qualified as a medical doctor in 1983 and obtained a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994. She acts as a consultant for the South African Police Service and forensic pathologists on skeletonised human remains and also conducts research on human remains from archaeological contexts.

Anja Meyer is a bioarchaeologist currently employed as a lecturer in the School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. She is also the curator of the Raymond A. Dart Archaeological Human Remains Collection, housed in the university’s School of Anatomical Sciences. Her research focuses on southern African bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.