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Archival Descriptions
FHYA curation of a selection from the Archaeological Collections at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum Subseries
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Davies 1978

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management: In 1978 Oliver Davies joined the winter school run by Martin Hall in conjunction with the University of Cape Town archaeology department, and excavated material at uMgungundlovu. Davies was granted a permit, per/1/45 for reconnaissance work in KwaZulu Natal and East Griqualand on the 30 March 1977. This permit lapsed 31 March 1980. This permit is related to further permits obtained by Davies, all under the same permit number. Davies's excavated material includes 21 boxes of diagnostic and adiagnostic pottery sherds; 53 boxes of unanalysed, waste and diagnostic bone and teeth; 3 boxes of analysed beads with the analysis cards; 1 box of hut floor fragments; 2 boxes of carbon and seeds from all layers of the excavation; and also 2 boxes of metal and waste stone, iron remains, polished stones, dagga pipes, copper and brass bangle remains, slag, grindstones, glass, china and porcelain. Another 2 boxes held at KZNM are catalogued as being part of the 1978 excavations but have been stored under a different shelf number, ‘1978/141 and 1978/143’. These consist of pottery, china, bone and teeth, wire, steel, seeds, iron, beads, dung and a stone chopper with LSA core fragments. There is no record of what is held within Box number ‘1978/142’. Equally, 1978/144 and 1978/145 are attributed to uMgungundlovu-Dingaanstadt but there is ‘no material’ relating to either of these boxes. At KZNM, a further 2 boxes of material taken from Trench 3 have been documented under Box numbers ‘1978/146’ and ‘1978/147’. These are another mixed assemblage consisting of ‘pottery, bone, stone (flake), beads, seeds and a tooth’. A final Box numbered ‘1978/136’ has 2 choppers and an LSA core ‘taken from the Dingaanstadt area’. eThembeni was tasked with photographing the contents of a randomly chosen single sorting tray for each type of undiagnostic and diagnostic material, and for each field season. The FHYA has not endeavoured to check precisely how eThembeni interpreted this specification. The FHYA arranged this material into a 1978 ‘subseries’ in which ‘files’ containing digital ‘items’ which consist of the boxes and their contents.]

Hall 1975

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by Gavin Whitelaw and eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management: In 1975 Martin Hall, an ethno-archaeologist, who was completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge and who worked at the Natal Museum from 1975 to 1980, excavated Midden 3 as a part of a pilot project. Hall was granted a permit, per/1/156, “for excavation and removal of archaeological material from archaeological sites in the Umfolosi catchment river area, Zululand, for purposes of study and preservation”. It was granted 10 November 1975, and lapsed 30 Nov 1978. Some of the material that has been incorporated into Hall's accessioned boxes of material were excavated by Tim Maggs in 1973, most notably the isicoco housed in box 75/139/021. The FHYA has placed this material into a separate Maggs series. The KZNM has used the museum’s index cards to produce a succinct digital record of the contents of the boxes excavated by Martin Hall in 1975. This is located within the KZNM’s Asset Register. eThembeni was tasked with photographing the contents of a randomly chosen single sorting tray for each type of undiagnostic and diagnostic material, and for each field season. The FHYA has not endeavoured to check precisely how eThembeni interpreted this specification. The FHYA arranged this material into a 1975 ‘subseries’ in which ‘files’ sit. These files contain digital ‘items’ which consist of the boxes and their contents.]

Hall 1978

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by Gavin Whitelaw and eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management: In 1978 Martin Hall ran a winter school at the uMgungundlovu site (this winter school was probably run in conjunction with the Univeresity of Cape Town archaeology department). Martin Hall was granted a permit, per/1/183, “for excavation and removal of archaeological material from Mgungundlovu or the purposes of research”. It was granted 14 February 1978, and lapsed 28 February 1981. Martin Hall’s material is housed in the KZNM in boxes 78/132/1-82. This material includes 21 boxes of diagnostic and adiagnostic Zulu pottery sherds; 53 boxes of unanalysed, waste and diagnostic bone and teeth; 3 boxes of analysed beads with the analysis cards; 1 box of hut floor fragments; 2 boxes of carbon and seeds from all layers of the excavation; and also 2 boxes of metal and waste stone, iron remains, polished stones, dagga pipes, copper and brass bangle remains, slag, grindstones, glass, china and porcelain. During the excavation of Midden 3, he put a grid over the midden, most probably made up of 1x1 m squares. He then excavated in 7 adjoining blocks, each made up of several squares. This whole trench formed an 'L' shape. The KZNM has used the museum’s index cards to produce a succinct digital record of the contents of the boxes excavated by Martin Hall in 1978. This is located within the KZNM’s Asset Register. eThembeni was tasked with photographing the contents of a randomly chosen single sorting tray for each type of undiagnostic and diagnostic material, and for each field season. The FHYA has not endeavoured to check precisely how eThembeni interpreted this specification. The FHYA arranged this material into a 1978 ‘subseries’ in which ‘files’ sit. These files contain digital ‘items’ which consist of the boxes and their contents.]

Maggs 1973

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management and material provided through personal communication with Gavin Whitelaw: Following a visit to uMgungundlovu with George Chadwick, who worked at the Natal Education Department and was a National Monuments Council representative for a number of years, Oliver Davies created a Natal Museum archaeological site record for the site. He recorded the owner of the site as the National Monuments Commission. Davies wrote in his site record that “[a] number of huts have recently been uncovered, of a regular pattern: beaten clay floors which is fairly well preserved; clay hearth with raised rim, preserved in many cases; in one or two cases the sockets of the posts which formed the hut-walls. Also, several depressions which are thought to be collapsed grain-silos, and an area where slag and fragments of copper have been found, probably the site of the workshops. Some low banks with bone-fragments in the earth, thought to be middens.” The phrasing of Davies’s report suggests that Chadwick had already exposed hut floors on the site in 1971 through a process of shovel-clearing. Gavin Whitelaw contends that Chadwick might have asked Davies to accompany him to the site to view the progress of this shovel-clearing work. By 1973, Chadwick and E. Wally Hyde, a National Monuments Council Honorary Officer, were shovel clearing on the brewery hut in the isigodlo at uMgungundlovu. Whitelaw suggests that Chadwick asked Tim Maggs, at the time newly appointed to the Natal Museum, to view the shovel-clearing action taking place on the site. Maggs intervened to curb this action. Maggs then conducted a preliminary survey of the Royal iKhanda area along with George Chadwick. 1973. A National Monuments Council communication dated 1 November 1973 incorporates a report from George Chadwick in which he states that in July 1973 he and Maggs had uncovered several floors, collected pottery and beads, and surveyed in detail the floors already uncovered. Two floors were notable: the brewery hut (labelled as Hut 11 in Parkington and Cronin’s 1979 article ‘The Size and Layout of Mgungundlovu 1829-1838’) and the weapon storage hut (probably the hut labelled as Hut 23 in Parkington and Cronin’s 1979 article ‘The Size and Layout of Mgungundlovu 1829-1838’). The physical work was apparently undertaken largely by Hyde and his labour team. The material from this preliminary survey and the curbed shovel clearing was excavated and collected in 1973, but is housed with Martin Hall’s material from his 1975 excavation at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum as a result of a curatorial decision on the part of the museum. eThembeni was tasked with photographing the contents of a randomly chosen single sorting tray for each type of undiagnostic and diagnostic material, and for each field season. The FHYA has not endeavoured to check precisely how eThembeni interpreted this specification. The FHYA arranged this material external to the Hall material into a Maggs series and further 1973 subseries, in which ‘files’ sit. These files contain digital ‘items’ which consist of the boxes and their contents.]

Parkington, Cronin and Poggenpoel 1975

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management and material provided through personal communication with Gavin Whitelaw: In 1974 and 1975 members of the Archaeology Department of the University of Cape Town (UCT), led by Parkington, Mike Cronin, Cedric Poggenpoel, and Heinz Ruther, a survey specialist, explored the size and layout of the site and excavated. Parkington noted to the FHYA that his primary interest in the site related to the organisation of space. They were further assisted by Jeremy Baskin, John Wright, Chrissie Sievers, Simon Hall, Polly Scott and Frank Silberbauer. In 1975 advice was also provided by Martin Hall and Tim Maggs.The excavations included clay floors in the isigodlo area, part of the isigodlo midden, hut floors from the Bheje, and hut floors associated with the warrior quarters. During these fieldwork periods, permanent datum points were established over an area of the hillside. 184 daga floors were plotted and recorded photogrammetrically, and 36 daga floors were excavated as individual units. One half of the pit in the Bheje area was also excavated. The material from the excavations is housed with Martin Hall’s material from his 1975 excavation at the KwaZulu-Natal Musuem as a result of a curatorial decision on the part of the museum. eThembeni was tasked with photographing the contents of a randomly chosen single sorting tray for each type of undiagnostic and diagnostic material, and for each field season. The FHYA has not endeavoured to check precisely how eThembeni interpreted this specification. The FHYA arranged this material external to the Hall material into a Parkington and Cronin series, in which a 1974-1975 subseries containing ‘files’ sits. These files contain digital ‘items’ which consist of the boxes and their contents.]