Abstract
The Iringa Region is famous among archaeologists for the Acheulean site of Isimila, and among historians as the stronghold where Chief Mkwawa led the Hehe resistance against German colonial forces. However, our research reveals that Iringa has a rich archaeological record that spans the period from the Stone Age into the recent past. This article summarizes the results of 14 years of research by our team, the Iringa Region Archaeological Project (IRAP). Since 2006, IRAP members have recorded 67 sites, and this only scratches the surface of the archaeological potential in the area. These sites, some of which were recorded in conjunction with local participants, have archaeological component characteristic of the Early, Middle, and Later Stone Age, the Iron Age, and the recent past. We consider the archaeological and historical value of Iringa to be high and hope that this work inspires future research, tourism, and conservation efforts in the area.
Highlights
While archaeological research in Tanzania has traditionally focused on the northern and coastal regions of the country, our project has spent the last 14 years documenting the rich record of the country’s southern highlands
We observed a decline in the proportion of Iron Age (IA) materials as we traversed east, and towards the base of the mountain, we found almost exclusively Stone Age lithics
The Iringa Region has a long and rich history, with at least half a million years of occupation. It was a home for our hominin ancestors, a center of innovation in the Middle Stone Age (MSA), an environmental refugium where people could survive the Last Glacial Maximum, and a stronghold where Chief Mkwawa held off the German colonial army
Summary
While archaeological research in Tanzania has traditionally focused on the northern and coastal regions of the country, our project has spent the last 14 years documenting the rich record of the country’s southern highlands. The inselbergs are of the bornhardt variety, broken down into castle kopjes (Buckle 1977) These result in rocky outcrops (called mapango in Swahili) that provided natural shelters and are commonly associated with cultural materials. The erosional gullies (makorongo in Swahili) expose ancient archaeological materials that would otherwise lie deep underground These ravines are created when ephemeral streams flow down steepsided hills during the wet season. During the 2016 and 2018 field seasons, we observed high concentrations of cultural materials associated with or directly embedded in heavily varnished gravel layers exposed by erosion These distinct layers are lag deposits ( known as colluvial lag or desert pavements), which form through natural processes when wind and water remove small sedimentary grains (clay, silt, sand, gravel) from the surface (Fig. 2). For a comprehensive review of the geology of Iringa, see Biittner (2011), with supplementary analyses of the lithic raw material economy in Alexander (2010), and Werner and Willoughby (2017)
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