The Late Iron Age Type N stonewalled structures on the highveld of South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTStonewalled architecture first appeared on the South African highveld some five or six centuries ago in the landscape between Johannesburg and the Vaal River. The style of these oldest stonewalled structures is referred to as Type N. This paper describes Type N structures and the relevant archaeological details, before presenting their distribution patterns as observed in the remote sensing survey of a 9000 km2 study area in the northern highveld, between Johannesburg and the Vaal River. Combined with previous studies of the Type N structures in the southern highveld, these data allow a reappraisal of the Type N cultural expression. In this landscape, the rank-size distribution of Type N structures shows a hierarchy centred on the Suikerbosrand Hills. This suggests a degree of cultural continuity with the early nineteenth century Tswana capital that formed at their foot. The archaeological period described in this paper — that of the Type N cultural expression — can thus be considered the formative phase of a sequence leading to complex, urbanised state level organisation in this part of the world.