Catalogue of Stone Age Artefactsfrom Southern Africain The British Museum

The British MuseumOccasional PaperNumber 108

Peter Mitchell with contributions byAlison Roberts, Alan Cohen and Karen Perkins

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Publishers

The British Museum

Great Russell Street

London WC1B 3DG

Production Editor

Josephine Turquet

Distributors

The British Museum Press

46 Bloomsbury Street

London WC1B 3QQ

Occasional Paper No. 108

Catalogue of Stone Age Artefacts from Southern Africa

in The British Museum

Peter Mitchell with contributions by

Alison Roberts,Alan Cohen and Karen Perkins

ISBN 0 86159 108 9

ISSN 0142 4815

© The Trustees of the British Museum 2002

Front cover:Acheulean handaxes and cleavers,

Pniel, Northern Cape Province, South Africa

(photograph, P. Mitchell)

For a complete catalogue giving information on the full range

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Acknowledgements v

1. Introduction and Geographical Background 1

The Scope of the Study 1

Physical Geography of Southern Africa 2

Physiography 2

Climate 4

Ecological zones 5

Historical Geography of Southern Africa 5

2. Southern African Archaeology and its Changing Relationship with Britain 9

Introduction 9

Colony and Metropole: The Antiquarian Era of Southern African Archaeology 9

The British Association for the Advancement of Science 11

Study and Research in the United Kingdom 12

British Archaeologists Working in Southern Africa 12

Based in Britain: Research Projects Conducted in Southern Africa 13

British Sources of Funding for Archaeological Research in Southern Africa 14

3. The History and Contemporary Significance of the Collections 17

Peter Mitchell and Alison Roberts

The History of the Collections 17

Where are the collections from? 17

When were they collected? 17

Who collected them? 21

The acquisition of Stone Age material from southern Africa by The British Museum 25

The Present Day Significance of the Collections 27

4. Terminology and Typology 31

Terminology 31

The historical development of Stone Age terminologies in southern Africa 31

Current terminologies for the southern African Early and Middle Stone Ages 34

Current terminology for the southern African Later Stone Age 35

Typology 39

Typological glossary 40

Raw materials 43

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5. Gazeteer of the Southern African Stone Age Collections in The British Museum 47

Introduction: Organization of the Gazetteer 47

Concordance of Provenances of the Southern African Stone Age Collections of The British Museum 48

South Africa 55

Eastern Cape Province 55

Free State 69

Gauteng 81

KwaZulu-Natal 85

Mpumalanga 96

North West Province 98

Northern Cape Province 106

Northern Province 126

Western Cape Province 128

South Africa – no further provenance 143

Angola 145

Botswana 146

Lesotho 151

Mozambique 152

Namibia 155

Swaziland 157

Zimbabwe 158

Appendix 1. Southern African Stone Age Collections in the Department of Ethnography of The British Museum 179

Appendix 2. Other African Stone Age Archaeological Collections in The British Museum 183

Karen Perkins

Appendix 3. Stone Age Archaeological Collections from Southern Africa in other Museums in the United Kingdom 193

Alison Roberts

Appendix 4. Individual Collectors Represented in The British Museum Southern African Stone Age Archaeological 209

Collections

Alan Cohen

Bibliography 221

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Acknowledgements

Many people have helped to make this monograph possible

and I should like to take this opportunity of thanking them

all. In particular, I owe a tremendous debt to Alison

Roberts, now of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, for the

initial suggestion and for giving so much time and energy

to facilitating access to The British Museum’s collections

and associated records, corresponding with other

institutions and providing a sounding board for ideas. Both

Alison and I should like to thank Jill Cook, Head of the

Quaternary Section of The British Museum’s Dept of

Prehistory and Early Europe, who sponsored the project,

organized access to the Department’s collections and saw

the Catalogue through to its publication with great

enthusiasm and support. Both Jill Cook and Ray Inskeep

deserve many thanks for reading, commenting on and

significantly improving earlier drafts of the text. Of present

and former staff of The British Museum’s Quaternary

Section we should like to thank Karen Perkins for preparing

the collections for study and curation, Phil Dean for maps,

Hazel Martingell for illustrations of stone artefacts from

Alfred County Cave, Justin Morris and Mick Lindop. In

addition, Stuart Airey and Alex Mackenzie both helped

track down artefacts and references, while Dr Alan Cohen

spared no effort in carrying out research on the lives of

those responsible for accumulating The British Museum’s

southern African Stone Age collections; Appendix 4

represents only part of the effort that he put in and we

have also drawn heavily on his researches in writing

Chapter 3. Within the Department of Ethnography of The

British Museum we should also like to thank Jim Hamill

and Julie Hudson for providing the information used in

construction of Appendix 1. Last, but by no means least, a

heartfelt thank you to Josephine Turquet for her patience

and perseverance in seeing the Catalogue through to

publication.

Both Alison and I owe a further debt of gratitude to all

those individuals at other Museums in the United Kingdom

who took the time and trouble to reply to letters asking

about southern African Stone Age collections in their care

or biographical information on individual collectors. The

comprehensiveness of Appendices 3 and 4 is owed to: Ms

S. Beeby, Dr R. Boast, B. Chisholm, Ms B. Conradie, Ms B.

Crozier, Ms S. Giles, Mrs W. Glover, Dr P. Hughes, Dr L.

Keppie, Mr R. Langley, Mr K. Leahy, Fr T. McCoog, Capt. D.

O’Reilly, Mr J. Parsons, Dr A. Prag, L. Rechterstchort, P.

Sanders, Ms L. Stumpe, Mrs G. Turner, Dr L. Washington,

Mrs V. Ward and Mr P. Watson. A particularly big thank you

is due also to Zo� Henderson and Sven Ouzman, both of

the National Museum, Bloemfontein, Gwilym Hughes of

the Dyfed Archaeological Trust (formerly University of

Birmingham), Mary Leslie of the South African Heritage

Resources Agency, David Morris of the McGregor Museum,

Kimberley, Prof. Desmond Clark of the University of

California, Berkeley, and Dr Roger Summers for providing

information on individual collectors and answering other

queries. Prof. Jeff Guy of the University of Natal, Durban,

kindly drew attention to the archaeological connections of

Bishop Colenso and his family.

My own interest in southern African archaeology is the

result of a personal connection with two British

archaeologists whose names figure prominently in the

development of the subject in the sub-continent. Fittingly,

both Ray Inskeep and Pat Carter worked in museum

departments at different times of their careers and I hope

they will not feel it presumptuous if I offer this work to

them. Finally, voglio dire tante grazie a Gloria perchè mi ha

fatto ricordare che c’è di piu nella vita di queste pietre.

Note: the catalogue was completed in early 1998 and

reflects the state of archaeological knowledge of southern

Africa at that time. For a more recent assessment that

includes references to key papers published in 1998-2001

readers should look to P. Mitchell (2002) Archaeology of

Southern Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Contact addresses

Peter Mitchell

Lecturer in African Prehistory, St Hugh’s College,

Oxford OX2 6LE

Alison Roberts

Collections Manager, Department of Antiquities,

Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street,

Oxford OX1 2PH

Alan Cohen

42 Meadow Road, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 1ED

Karen Perkins

Department of Medieval and Modern Europe,

The British Museum, Great Russell Street,

London WC1B 3DG

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