Rain-Making: A Thousand Year-Old Ritual?

Aukema, Jan

doi:10.2307/3887647

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…No in situ dwelling structures associated with the Kgopolwe phase were, however, uncovered. It is likely that Magoro Hill, similar to several other hills in northern South Africa, served as a location for episodic rainmaking rituals performed by African farmers [15,16]. This would account for the surface collection of sherds attributed to Early Iron Age (Silver Leaves and Mzonjani) and Middle Iron Age (Mutamba and, possibly, Kgopolwe) ceramic facies.…”

Section: Site History and Archaeological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the glass trade bead sequence from Magoro Hill, South Africa: separating pre-seventeenth-century Asian imports from later European counterparts

et al. 2016

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Excavations conducted between 2010 and 2012 at Magoro Hill, a site in South Africa's Limpopo Province frequented or intermittently occupied by African farming communities since the first millennium AD, yielded a substantial glass bead assemblage. A selection of the beads was studied non-destructively by classifying them according to morphological attributes, supplemented by Raman analyses and XRF measurements. It became evident that a morphological classification of beads recovered from sites that include imports into Africa after the seventeenth century AD could be problematic due to apparent morphological similarities between earlier and later beads. This paper demonstrates the use and archaeological application of Raman and XRF measurements to separate earlier imported beads from later counterparts by identifying glass nanostructure, as well as pigments and opacifiers, which were not used in bead series pre-dating the seventeenth century AD. Results obtained from Raman and XRF measurements indicate that although some beads retrieved from Magoro Hill pre-date the seventeenth century and belong to the Indo-Pacific (K2, East Coast, Khami) and Zimbabwe series, the largest number of beads is from a later European origin. This ties in with the settlement history of the site, which suggests that it primarily served as a rendezvous for episodic rainmaking rituals before it became the stronghold and capital of a Venda chiefdom, headed by the Magoro dynasty, in the second half of the eighteenth century AD. The comparative analysis of the long bead sequence sheds new light on changing patterns in the availability, range, consumption and origin of glass trade beads imported into the northern interior of South Africa over a period of about 1000 years.

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Section: Site History and Archaeological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the glass trade bead sequence from Magoro Hill, South Africa: separating pre-seventeenth-century Asian imports from later European counterparts

et al. 2016

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“…The ochre, grindstones, and the abundant, faded rock art across the cliff face imply that the cliff terrace was used for rituals such as rain-making or initiation ceremonies in the last few thousand years, whereas it may have served other purposes in the deeper past. Rainmaking and initiation ceremonies sometimes took place in isolated rock shelters (Schapera 1930;Feddema 1966;Kinahan 2020), for example, from about AD 1000, Eiland facies pots containing offerings were left in rock shelters (Aukema 1989;Huffman 1990Huffman , 2007van der Ryst 1998). Eiland pottery is linked to a period with a great deal of rain-making activity in the Waterberg (Aukema 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rainmaking and initiation ceremonies sometimes took place in isolated rock shelters (Schapera 1930;Feddema 1966;Kinahan 2020), for example, from about AD 1000, Eiland facies pots containing offerings were left in rock shelters (Aukema 1989;Huffman 1990Huffman , 2007van der Ryst 1998). Eiland pottery is linked to a period with a great deal of rain-making activity in the Waterberg (Aukema 1989). Part of the initiation ceremonies for northern Sotho and Tswana boys is still conducted in secluded gorges, and here the initiates are taught to hunt, to recognise regiment totems, and to fight the enemy (Jensen Krige 1962;Bruwer 1963).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archaeological studies in the Waterberg remain under-developed, notwithstanding early exploration by Mason (1962), the thorough excavations by van der Ryst (1998van der Ryst ( , 2006 and Boeyens (Boeyens & van der Ryst 2014) and field surveys by Aukema (Aukema 1989;Huffman 1990Huffman , 2007 that remain unpublished because of his untimely death. On present evidence, sites in the low altitude foothills of the Waterberg have longer sequences of occupation than those on the highlands.…”

Section: Introduction Background and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Woodstock Rocks: From Acheulean to Iron Age in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Wadley,

Biemond,

Laue

et al. 2023

safa

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The cliff terrace site, Woodstock Rocks, was exploited occasionally by hominins from the Earlier Stone Age to the Iron Age. A small excavation uncovered an Acheulean quartzite workshop with many flakes, but lacking large cutting tools and without organic preservation. Below the workshop site, a ferricrete river terrace cements Acheulean lithics that include large cutting tools, giant flakes and heavy-duty scrapers. A palaeomagnetic study reveals reversed polarity, implying that the ferricrete formation likely took place during the Matuyama Chron and that the lithic assemblage is older than 780 000 years. The cliff face was painted expansively, but both the Bushman and Iron Age farmer art is faded. There are some rare images including a wild dog, a bird and a possible genet. The southern edge of the cliff terrace has Middle and Later Stone Age lithics on the surface and talus slope, as well as grindstones, and ceramics that include Bambata sherds from six vessels. The proximity to the Mokolo River and sources of rocks for knapping, as well as smooth rock walls for painting ensured repeated Woodstock Rocks visits (not necessarily occupation) for generations of Homo sapiens visitors, as well as earlier hominins.

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“…A notable exception to this is the research on archaeological expressions of rainmaking and cultural responses to periodic drought in southern Africa, among both farming (e.g. Aukema 1989; Huffman 2009; Murimbika 2006; Schoeman 2006; 2009) and hunter-gatherer populations (e.g. Challis et al 2008; Kinahan 1999; Prins 1990).…”

Section: Climate and Weather In Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Weathering Climate Change in Archaeology: Conceptual Challenges and an East African Case Study

Petek-Sargeant¹,

Lane²

2021

CAJ

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Research on the social dimensions of climate change is increasingly focused on people's experiences, values and relations to the environment as a means to understand how people interpret and adapt to changes. However, a particular challenge has been making seemingly temporally and geographically distant climate change more immediate and local so as to prompt behavioural change. Environmental humanists, anthropologists and historians have tried to address the challenge through analysis of the experiences, philosophies and memories of weather. Archaeology, commonly preoccupied by hard science approaches to climate change, has largely been absent from this conversation. Nevertheless, with its insights into material outcomes of human experiences and relations, it can become integral to the discussion of ‘weathering’ climate change and historicizing weather. Here, drawing on the subtleties of responses by Ilchamus communities in Kenya and using a mix of historical and archaeological sources, we highlight their experiences of weather since the end of the Little Ice Age and explore the potential of building archaeologies of weather.

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Rain-Making: A Thousand Year-Old Ritual?

Cited by 14 publications

References 3 publications

Unravelling the glass trade bead sequence from Magoro Hill, South Africa: separating pre-seventeenth-century Asian imports from later European counterparts

Unravelling the glass trade bead sequence from Magoro Hill, South Africa: separating pre-seventeenth-century Asian imports from later European counterparts

Woodstock Rocks: From Acheulean to Iron Age in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Weathering Climate Change in Archaeology: Conceptual Challenges and an East African Case Study

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