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² Following the practice of Phillipson ‘Early Iron Age in Zambia’ and other writers, the term Early (with a capital E) Iron Age is used to designate the various groups of iron-using, pot-making agriculturalists which settled in southern, central and eastern Africa early in the first millennium A.D. The capitalized proper name is justified since all these groups appear to belong to a single industrial complex—the ‘Southern African Early Iron Age Industrial Complex’ of Soper, R., ‘A general review of the Early Iron Age of the southern half of Africa’, Azania VI (1971), 5–37. The more general term later (lower case 1) Iron Age reflects the greater diversity of the more recent cultures.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ The research on which this paper is based was conducted while I held the post of Secretary/Inspector to the Zambia National Monuments Commission from 1964 until 1972. Plates I, II, and V are reproduced by courtesy of the Director of the Livingstone Museum.Google Scholar

⁴ Phillipson, D. W., ‘Early Iron Age in Zambia’;Google Scholaridem, ‘Early iron-using peoples of south-ern Africa’, in Thompson, L. (ed.), African Societies in Southern Africa (London, 1969), 24–49;Google ScholarHuffman, T. N., ‘The Early Iron Age and the spread of the Bantu’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. XXV (1970), 3–21;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSoper, R., ‘General review of the Early Iron Age’.Google Scholar

⁵ Phillipson, D. W., ‘The Early Iron Age site at Kapwirimbwe, Lusaka’, Azania, III (1968), 87–105;CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, ‘Excavations at Twickenham Road, Lusaka’, Azania, V (1970), 77–118; idem, ‘Early Iron Age Sites on the Zambian Copperbelt’, Azania, VII (1972), 93–128; Mills, E. A. C. and Filmer, N. T., ‘Chondwe Iron Age Site, Ndola, Zambia,’ Azania, VII (1972), 129–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ Personal communication from Mr S. Mattsson.Google Scholar

⁷ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza: an Introduction to the Iron Age Cultures of the Victoria Falls Region (Zambia Museum Papers, II, Lusaka, 1971).Google Scholar

⁸ Vogel, J. O., Kumadzulo: an Early Iron Age Village Site in Southern Zambia (Zambia Museum Papers, III, Lusaka, 1971).Google Scholar

⁹ All archaeological ages given in this paper are based on uncorrected radiocarbon dates, expressed to one standard deviation.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Phillipson, D. W., ‘Notes on the later prehistoric radiocarbon chronology of eastern and southern Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. XI (1970), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ Formerly Mankoya District.Google Scholar

¹² Phillipson, D. W., ‘An Early Iron Age site on the Lubusi River, Kaoma District, Zambia’, Zambia Museum Journal, II (1971), 52–57. Further pottery from this site, collected by Mr M. S. Bisson, will be published in due course.Google Scholar

¹³ i.e. those from Lweti-Sipo, Kunyengenya and Sefula, noted briefly in D. W. Phihipson, ‘Early Iron Age in Zambia’; also that from Lusu described by Clark, J. D. and Fagan, B. M., ‘Charcoal, sands and channel-decorated pottery from Northern Rhodesia’, American Anthropologist, LXVII (1965), 354–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Since this paper was written J. O. Vogel has excavated a site at Sioma, on the west side of the Zambezi some 60 kilometres downstream of Senanga, which is attributed to the Early Iron Age. A brief mention of the site is given in Nyame Akuma, no. 2 (1973), 14.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Details of the radiocarbon dates for Kamnama and Thandwe are given by Sutton, J. E. G., ‘New radiocarbon dates for eastern and southern Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. XIII (1972), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ Full reports on these sites and others in the Eastern Province of Zambia are in preparation by the present writer. A preliminary account will appear in Azania, VIII (1973).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Robinson, K. R., ‘The Iron Age of the southern lake area of Malawi’, Malawi Antiquities Dept. Publications, VIII (Zomba, 1970).Google Scholar

¹⁷ The following Sections on the modern distributions of pottery styles are based on my own field observations in Zambia in 1964–72, supplemented by study of the ethnographic collections of the Livingstone Museum by kind permission of Dr L. Holy`, Mr K. Mubitana and Mr B. G. R. Reynolds. Some explanation is perhaps due of the names by which I have distinguished the various pottery traditions of the Zambian later Iron Age. Since these traditions continue into the present time it was not felt appropriate to follow the general archaeological practice of naming them after a type-site. On the other hand because, as I shall show, their distributions are not coterminous with those of individual societies or ‘tribes’, and because the archaeological evidence indicates that most of them almost certainly predate the existence of the modern societies as recognizable entities, use of ‘tribal’ names also had to be avoided. I have therefore chosen the names of major geographical features, in this case rivers, which are approximately central to the distributions of the respective pottery traditions.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Lawton, A. C., ‘Bantu pottery of southern Africa’, Annals South African Museum, XLIX, 1 (1967);Google ScholarRobinson, K. R., ‘Iron Age of the southern lake area of Malawi’; collections of the Livingstone Museum and of the Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren, which I was able to examine in 1969 by kind permission of Dr A. Maesen.Google Scholar

¹⁹ For a description of Lungu pot-making see Fagan, B. M., ‘A note on potmaking among the Lungu of Northern Rhodesia’, Man, LXI (1961), article 104.Google Scholar

²⁰ Phillipson, D. W., ‘Early Iron Age sites on the Zambian Copperbelt’.Google Scholar

²¹ Mills, E. A. C. and Filmer, N. T., ‘Chondwe Iron Age site’.Google Scholar

²² Phillipson, D. W., ‘Excavations at Twickenham Road’.Google Scholar

²³ Phillipson, D. W., ‘Later prehistoric radiocarbon chronology’.Google Scholar

²⁴ Phillipson, D. W., ‘The prehistoric sequence at Nakapapula rockshelter, Zambia’, Proc. Prehistoric Soc. XXXV (1969), 172–202.Google Scholar

²⁵ Details of all available radiocarbon dates from Kalambo Falls are given by Clark, J. D. et al. , Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site, 1, (Cambridge, 1969). A description of the Iron Age material will be included in vol. II of this work, which is in press.Google Scholar

²⁶ Reports on these excavations are forthcoming.Google Scholar

²⁷ Robinson, K. R., ‘Iron Age in the southern lake area of Malawi’.Google Scholar

²⁸ Kaoma and Zambezi Districts are the former Mankoya and Balovale Districts respectively. Western Province is the former Barotse Province (Barotseland).Google Scholar

²⁹ Male potters, as found in northwestern Zambia, are also encountered among the Mbukushu of the western Caprivi Strip and adjacent areas of Angola and Botswana. They are not recorded from elsewhere in southern Africa. The Mbukushu today live somewhat to the south of the general distribution of the Lungwebungu tradition but they trace their origins from the region of the Kabompo River in the Lungwebungu tradition area. Mbukushu pottery, as illustrated by Lawton ‘Bantu pottery of southern Africa’ is distinct from that of the Lungwebungu tradition but it likewise displays several features reminiscent of the Early Iron Age, notably externally thickened rim bands decorated with cross- hatched incision.Google Scholar

³⁰ These pits were formerly made with a specially rounded stick or bone but today are generally impressions of the head of an imported iron nail, which has a pleasing cross-hatched pattern.Google Scholar

³¹ Philhipson, D. W., ‘Early Iron Age site on the Lubusi River’.Google Scholar

³² As indicated by the collections in the Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren.Google Scholar

³³ Clark, J. D., ‘Some early Iron Age pottery from Lunda’, in Clark, J. D., Further Palaeo-Anthropological Studies in Northern Lunda (Lisbon, 1968), 189–205.Google Scholar

³⁴ van Moorsel, H., Atlas de Préhistoire de la Plaine de Kinshasa (Kinshasa, 1968).Google ScholarMortelmans, G., ‘Archéologie des grottes Dimba et Ngovo’, in Mortelmans, G. et Nenquin, J. (eds.), Actes du IVè Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire (Tervuren, 1962), 407–25.Google Scholar

³⁵ E.g. Torday, E. and Joyce, T. A., ‘Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples communément appelés Bakuba, ainsi que sur les peuplades apparentées—les Bushongo’, Annales du Musée du Congo belge, série IV, II (Bruxelles, 1910).Google Scholar

³⁶ Occasional naturalistic silhouettes are also found, including anthropomorphs, zoomorphs and, on the most recent specimens, representations of modern inanimate objects such as motor vehicles and aeroplanes.Google Scholar

³⁷ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza (for a single exception see p. 48) and personal communication.Google Scholar

³⁸ In Livingstone Museum.Google Scholar

³⁹ Livingstone, D., Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857);Google ScholarMubitana, K., ‘The traditional history and ethnography of the Victoria Falls region’, in Phillipson, D. W. (ed.), Mosi-oa-Tunya: a Handbook to the Victoria Falls Region (London, in press).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Reconnaissance of Iron Age sites in this region was conducted by the present writer in 1967–1969.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Fagg, W., The Potter's Art in Africa (British Museum, London, 1961);Google ScholarLawton, A. C., ‘Bantu pottery of southern Africa’;Google ScholarReynolds, B. G. R., ‘The primitive world—Africa’ in Charleston, R. J. (ed.), World Ceramics (London, 1968).Google Scholar

⁴² Oral tradition attributes a Kololo origin to many other craft styles which survive in Bulozi (personal communication from Mr Q. N. Parsons).Google Scholar

⁴³ The Kololo, a Sotho offshoot, defeated and established themselves as overlords over the Lozi and peoples west of the Victoria Falls during the 1830s. They were overthrown by the Lozi in 1864. Livingstone, D., Missionary Travels;Google ScholarMubitana, K., ‘Traditional history and ethnography’; Caplan, G. L., The Elites of Barotseland (London, 1970).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Vogel, J. O., ‘The Kalomo culture of southern Zambia: some notes towards a reassessment’, Zambia Museum Journal, I (1970), 77–88.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza, 15, 28.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza, 19.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Vogel, J. O., The Iron Age archaeology of the Victoria Falls region’, in D. W. Phillipson (ed.), Mosi-oa-Tunya. For comments on such ‘tribal’ names see note 57.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Fagan, B. M. and Phillipson, D. W., ‘Sebanzi: the Iron Age sequence at Lochinvar, and the Tonga’, J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. XVC (1965), 253–94.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Fagan, B. M., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, I (London, 1967);Google Scholaridem, ‘Excavations at Ingombe Ilede 1960–1962’, in Fagan, B. M., Phillipson, D. W. and Daniels, S. G. H., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, II (London, 1969).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza, 19, 31.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Fagan, B. M. and Phillipson, D. W., ‘Sebanzi’; J. O. Vogel, ‘Iron Age archaeology of the Victoria Falls region’. Very considerable change took place in the pottery styles of this area during the last eight centuries, but no sharp breaks are discerned.Google Scholar

⁵² Phillipson, D. W. and Fagan, B. M., ‘The date of the Ingombe Ilede burials’, J. Afr. Hist., X (1969), 199–204;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFagan, B. M., ‘Excavations at Ingombe Ilede’;Google Scholar see also Garlake, P. S., ‘Iron Age sites in the Urung-we District of Rhodesia’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. XXV (1970), 25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵³ The above does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatment of the Zambian later Iron Age pottery traditions. In particular, no reference has been made to the sequence in the Solwezi and Kasempa Districts which is currently being investigated by Mr M. S. Bisson, including the material from Kamusongolwa discussed by Danicls, S. G. H., ‘A note on the Iron Age material from Kamusongolwa Kopje, Zambia’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. XXII (1967), 142–50. Several undated and modern assemblages are known from the territory of the Luangwa tradition which do not conform with the general typology of that tradition. It is clear that the final picture of the Zambian later Iron Age will prove to be far more complex than the outline presented here.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁴ It is relevant at this stage to note that in Rhodesia there is similar evidence for the establishment of the later Iron Age at a comparable period. Some of the pottery wares recorded from the later Iron Age of that territory are strongly reminiscent of the Luangwa tradition but it is doubtful whether they should be fully subsumed within that tradition. First among these, in terms of the available radiocarbon dates, is the Mambo Hill industry, previously known as Leopard's Kopje II, whose dates span the seventh to tenth centuries A.D. Possibly contemporary, but inadequately dated, is the first later Iron Age occupation of Zimbabwe, dated by a single analysis to between the early tenth and the early thirteenth centuries. There are close connexions between the two areas in pottery style, although the decoration on the Mambo Hill material is more elaborate, undecorated vessels predominating in the Zimbabwe assemblage. In both areas stone building is associated. In each area parallel subsequent development took place, into Woolandale (ex Leopard's Kopje III) and Zimbabwe III respectively. These two pottery styles are closely related to each other and to the Mapungubwe material. It has been suggested that Khami Ruins ware is a later development of the same tradition. The later Iron Age succession in Mashonaland has recently been codified by T. N. Huffman, ‘A guide to the Iron Age of Mashonaland’, Occ. Pap. Nat. Mu,. Rhod., A, IV (1971), i, 20–44. Huffman recognizes two main traditions, Harare and Musengezi, in the Salisbury area and the Zambezi escarpment respectively. He notes that ‘because the Harare and Musengezi traditions differ in the same way from the (Early Iron Age) stamped ware as does the Mambo Hill material in Matabeleland, and since they appear at approximately the same time, they probably all belong to a large grouping like a co-tradition’ (op. cit.).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza, 31–2.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ As is attested, for example, at some Chondwe group sites, notably Roan Antelope. Phillipson, D. W., ‘Early Iron Age sites on the Zambian Copperbelt’.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ A greater time–depth for oral tradition in parts of Mashonaland is, however, indicated by the research of D. P. Abraham.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Miller, J. C., ‘The Imbangala and the chronology of early Central African history’, J. Afr. Hist. XIII (1972), 549–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁹ Vansina, J., Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1966).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Vansina, J., Kingdoms of the Savanna;Google ScholarBirmingham, D., ‘The date and significance of the Imbangala invasion of Angola’, J. Afr. Hist. VI (1965), 143–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁶² Tervuren Museum collections, also Coart, E. and de Haulleville, A., ‘La céramique’, Annales du Musée du Congo beige, série III, II, i (Bruxelles, 1907).Google Scholar

⁶³ Other aspects of material culture also differ markedly between the three groups, the exception being certain items of wood sculpture which appear to be intimately connected with the royal courts. Examples from Mwata Kazembe's court are preserved in the Codrington Collection in the National Museum of Rhodesia, Bulawayo. Jones, N., ‘The Codrington Collection in the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia’, Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus. S. Rhod. I, 7 (1938), 1–6;Google ScholarMubitana, K., Zambian Sculpture (Lusaka, in press);Google ScholarPhillipson, D. W., ‘Zambian sculpture as historical evidence’ in K. Mubitana, op. cit.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ This homogeneity is reflected in the wide dispersal of the common clan–system through the regions lying to the east of the Lualaba, noted by Cunnison, I., The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1959), 62. I am indebted to Dr Andrew Roberts for this reference.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ It is tempting tentatively to suggest that the tradition of chieftainship may extend back in time beyond the point at which it is attested in the surviving oral records, since it was presumably present at Zimbabwe, associated with ceramic styles closely akin to those of the Luangwa tradition, by at least the fourteenth century and probably earlier. Garlake, P. S., ‘The value of imported ceramics in the dating and interpretation of the Rhodesian Iron Age’, J. Afr. Hist. IX (1968), 13–33;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHuffman, T. N., ‘The rise and fall of Zimbabwe’, J. Afr. Hist. XIII (1972), 353–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The occurrence in fourteenth/fifteenth century contexts at Ingombe Ilede of flange–welded clapperless single iron bells or gongs may also be quoted in support of this hypothesis. Such bells have generally served as ‘insignia of political leadership’—Vansina, J., ‘The bells of kings’, J. Afr. Hist. x (1969), 187–97;CrossRefGoogle Scholar for illustrations of the Ingombe Ilede bells, see Fagan, B. M., ‘Excavations at Ingombe Ilede 1960–1962’, in Fagan, B. M., Phillipson, D. W. and Daniels, S. G. M., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, II (London, 1969), Figs 31, 32. Furthermore, Dr Andrew Roberts has pointed out to me (in litt.) that ‘there is some evidence in oral tradition for chiefly dynasties with “Luba” associations which preceded the present dynasties, e.g. the mulopwe who ruled in Bembaland before Chitimukulu’.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ This is, of course, no new concept—cf. Stokes, E. and Brown, R., ‘Editors' introduction’ to The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1966), xiii–xxxvi—but it deserves further emphasis in view of the recently discovered ceramic evidence.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Langworthy, H. W., ‘Chewa or Malawi political organization in the pre-colonial era’, in Pachai, B. (ed.), Early History of Malawi (London, 1972), 104–22;Google Scholaridem, ‘Understanding Malawi's pre–colonial history’, Soc. Malawi J. xxiii (1970), 30–47.

⁷⁰ This statement is based on the writer's field observations in eastern Zambia and on the Livingstone Museum collections.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Cunnison, I., ‘History on the Luapula’, Rhodes–Livingstone Papers, XXI (Cape Town, 1951);Google Scholaridem, The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1959).

⁷² Omer–Cooper, J. D., The Zulu Aftermath (London, 1967).Google Scholar

⁷³ Many such collections by the writer and others are now housed in the Livingstone Museum and will be published in due course.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ This statement is based on field observations of surface scatters of Iron Age pottery in this region and on the survival of the Lungwebungu tradition in areas peripheral to the Zambezi valley.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Personal communication from Mr Q. N. Parsons.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ A. C. Lawton, ‘Bantu pottery of southern Africa’.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Smith, E. W., ‘Sebetuane and the MaKololo’, African Studies, XV (1956), 49–74. Smith estimates that Sebetuane had same thirty thousand followers when he reached Linyanti.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁷⁹ Men are, however, the potters in several East African Societies. Male potters are also the rule among the Azande—Evans—Pritchard, E. E., ‘A further contribution to the study of Zande culture’, Africa, XXXIII (1963), 183–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In this connexion it is interesting to note that some Zande pots show marked resemblances to East African Early Iron Age wares, as discussed by Soper, R., ‘Resemblances between East African Early Iron Age pottery and recent vessels from the north-eastern Congo’, Azania, VI (1971), 233–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar