<span id="_ctl0_lbl3">Excavations at the walled Early Iron-Age site in Moor Park near Estcourt, Natal</span>

Authors

  • O. Davies Natal Museum

Abstract

This paper describes archaeological excavations in 1972 at a walled hilltop-site near Estcourt (Natal). The site consists of a walled citadel covered with terraces, and extending northward from it along a ridge a large outer area with a circuit wall which was not completed along the steepest side. Some of the terraces were open courts and others house-sites. The houses have been reconstructed as of primitive rectangular type. Much plain pottery, terracotta figurines of cows, grindstones and a little iron were found. Three radiocarbon-dates are of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries A.D.

The site seems to be one of the first settlements of a group of Early Iron Age people (probably Bantu-speaking but not identifiable with any modern Bantu tribe) who came over the Drakensberg into upper Natal. Apparently the citadel hill was first occupied; but the surrounding walls and much of the upper terracing were built at a rather later stage, without necessarily any break in occupation. The site was abandoned without destruction.

To cite this article: Davies, O. 1974. Excavations at the walled Early Iron-Age site in Moor Park near Estcourt, Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 22 (1): 289-323.

Published

2021-02-04

How to Cite

Davies, O. (2021). <span id="_ctl0_lbl3">Excavations at the walled Early Iron-Age site in Moor Park near Estcourt, Natal</span>. Southern African Humanities, 22(1), 289–323. Retrieved from https://sahumanities.org/index.php/sah/article/view/31