Music and sound-related archaeological artefacts from southern Africa from the last 10,000 years

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses archaeological evidence of sound- and music-related artefacts from the southern African archaeological record, from Later Stone Age, Iron Age and historic contexts. The artefacts described fall within two groups, aerophones and idiophones. They include a bullroarer, spinning disks, bone tubes that might have been used as flutes, a trumpet, whistles, bells and mbira keys. The artefacts are made of bone, clay and metal. Original research and information gained through a literature review are reported. Ethnographic sources were also consulted in order to attempt to provide a broader contextual background against which knowledge of the archaeological implements could be expanded. This research is one of the first reports on southern African sound- and music-related artefacts. It is not exhaustive, but is intended as the basis for further development through collaboration.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article présente les données relatives aux artefacts provenant des archives archéologiques d'Afrique australe qui sont liés au son et à la musique, issus de contextes datant du Late Stone Age, de l'âge du fer et des périodes historiques. Les artefacts décrits se répartissent en deux groupes, les aérophones et les idiophones. Ils comprennent un rhombe, des disques rotatifs, des tubes en os qui auraient pu être utilisés comme flûtes, une trompette, des sifflets, des cloches et des clés mbira. Les artefacts sont en os, en argile ou en métal. Des recherches originales et des informations obtenues par une revue de la littérature sont présentées. Les sources ethnographiques ont également été consultées dans le but de fournir un contexte contextuel pour élargir notre connaissance des objets archéologiques. Cette recherche représente l'un des premiers rapports sur les artefacts liés au son et à la musique en Afrique australe. Ce travail n'est pas exhaustif, mais est destiné à servir de fondation à un développement collaboratif ultérieur.

KEYWORDS:

• music
• archaeology
• ethnography
• aerophones
• idiophones
• Stone Age
• Iron Age

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded through the Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities Initiative at the Wits City Institute based at the University of the Witwatersrand, but the opinions and conclusions expressed are my own. I thank Prof Sarah Wurz for her support and guidance. I further acknowledge the National Museum of Bloemfontein for loaning me the Matjes River artefacts for analysis and the University of Pretoria Museums for permitting me to analyse the Mapungubwe whistles and allowing me to use some of their archival pictures. Many thanks to Sian Tiley-Nel for facilitating my visit to University of Pretoria Museums and to her and Sandra Markgraaf for providing support during my work there. I thank the Archaeological TransfrontiEr Music (ATEM) workgroup members — Justin Bradfield, Neil Rusch and Sarah Wurz — for allowing me to use some of our collaborative results in this paper. I also thank Sian Tiley-Nel and Jayne Wilkins for providing me with information on music-related artefacts, Hulisani Thomas for giving me information about the Venda Tshokona dance, Lu-Marie Fraser who posted my request on musical instruments from the archaeological record of southern Africa on the Association of Southern Africa Professional Archaeologists mailing list, Faye Lander, Keneiloe Molopyane and the anonymous reviewers.

Note on contributor

Joshua Kumbani is a Mellon, Wits City Institute Doctoral Fellow in Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests lie in music archaeology, ethnomusicology, experimental archaeology and archaeological heritage management.