Settler farm or Anglo Zulu war site??

[Gary Mortimer]

I noticed this mark in the ground whilst real flying and returned with my sons and a pole to get some images.

Very pleased to notice it on Google Earth as well. See attached kmz.

I have tried getting answers as to what it is from several historical groups in South Africa but so far have heard nothing about it.

Maybe they are all on Christmas break.

You would hope that when the powerlines were put in something was done about excavating the site!!

I will take a model down and try and take some more shots but was hoping to get some feedback to what it actually was first!!

Its probably an early settler farm but might be connected with the Anglo Zulu wars as its just off the main track inland from Pietermaritzberg to the battlefields near Rorkes Drift.

Happy New year all.

G

[Tom Harper]

Gary,

Fascinating site. Quite extensive.

Did the Zulu make defensive fortifications?

Is there an archaeologist around who could render an opinion?

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Hi Tom,

I have emailed about 15 people so far and not one of them has responded.

The Zulu's did make fortifications perhaps not as hexagonal and neolithic man also hung around the area, maybe thats the more circular workings.

But lets hope somebody will respond soon and then I will add the findings!!

[Tom Harper]

Gary,

I checked "The Washing of the Spears". It describes Kraals as extensive, but temporary, with brush walls.

Wild guess - the large rectangular pen at the lower end of the structure could be a corral for oxen. It might have been a British staging area for the invasion.

Will be interesting to see if you get any learned responses. Really great find!

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Yeah my best guess is that it is a farm.

Found reference to a hexagonal farm here http://www.grahamstown.co.za/forts_of_frontier_country.html

But as you say it would be really nice to get an experts idea.

Should it prove to be of interest of them I shall risk an RC flight over those wires to get some more images.

You'd think that when they put the wires in they would have surveyed and identified the site.

But this being Africa.....

[Tom Harper]

Gary,


I think it's universal. The BLM put some phone poles in the middle of a known trail. I asked the archaeologist if he noted the trail in his survey. He said he was looking for indian ruins, not wagon tracks. I didn't ask him about the pot sherds at the base of the telephone poles.

That's an interesting link. None of those forts seem to have extensive outer works.

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Well I just found this, http://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&id=qHV_S7Fdop0C&dq=british+fortifications+in+zululand+1879&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=8vPVimmu4x&sig=oQGOi_YYaFmvgz273Wn0was1ark&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

I'm looking it as I type, perhaps there will be something there.

Oh and there is, the picture of Things Post is very similar to the site I found. Now if ony I could find a map of these forts.

Perhaps we can come up with an answer before the experts.

[Tom Harper]

Gary,

I may have to buy that book.

The author claims that after Isandlwana everything was fortified. This could be a 'fort' for one of the columns.

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Well no positive news from this side yet, lets hope everyone is back from Christmas/New Year soon and able to shed some light.

A good friend of mine in the UK emailed it to a learned type over there and I recieved the following from him.

The photos were interesting. I know nothing about African archaeology, ethnography or historty....if I hadn't been told that they were in SA I would have thought instead that they were in the UK. The structure shows a huge amount of similaity with multivalate UK Iron Age (830BC to 43AD) hillforts. If there is any synergy between Iron Age Britain and pre-industrialised SA, then this might suggest that what we are looking at is a fort rather than a farm, and one made by the indigenous population rather than the incomers. The problem with this hypothesis is that, at the time of the Zulu wars, the indigenous population probably had more in common with the UK Mesolithic period (10 000 BC to 4000 BC - ie subsitance hunter-gatherers, not tied to one particular piece of land and always on the move) than with the UK Iron Age (ie settled communities living by farming, some industry, some trading, generating eough excess food to allow spcialists "time off" from farming to build forts and monuments. If I am correct in the hypothesis the indigenous population would see no advantage in defending one particular pieceof land within the wider landscape.....they could stay within a defensive structure but without access to stored food reserves such as cereal crops or access to game, wild plants and running water they would starve. In addition, it seems unlikely that a hunter-gatherer population would have the knowledge, nor yet the inclination, to build such a structure.

In summary what I'm saying is that the photograpghs probably do show a military structure from the Zulu War period, however, despite the superfical similarity with UK Iron Age hillforts, the photographs probably show a strategic defensive position, with 360 degree observation, built by the British Army, not by the indigenous population.

I'd be keen to hear any feedback you get on this.

[Tom Harper]

Gary,

The book review, in your link above, indicated that furrows were used by the Brits to expose attackers. That and the large rectangular pen would tend toward British Army - but, who knows.

Any chance of vistiting the site with a metal detector?

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Well heres a response from Ken Gillings, this might get even more interesting!!! I did'nt think Anglo Boer war so I shall start looking at that.

--------------------

I don’t recall having seen them and the only way to confirm that it is some kind of fortification is to visit it. It isn’t shown in my list of forts.

Bear in mind, however, that during the Anglo-Boer War (after the relief of Ladysmith), several fortified posts were established along the major routes to the north.



I mentioned to Prof Philip Everitt that perhaps a site visit would be necessary

[Tom Harper]

Interesting indeed!

[kipper21]

They Brits also had concentration camps during the Boer wars. I once read that around 200,000 white Christian women and children died in these British-run concentration camps during the Boer wars.

[Gary Mortimer]

Yep your right, but I think your numbers are a tad skew.

The closest camp to this site was here

http://www.warthog.co.za/dedt/tourism/battlefields/conflict/pow2.htm

More reading here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War

http://www.anglo-boer.co.za/womens-memorial/

[quailbird]

Fascinating subject! When the movie came out (Zulu) it showed them using the trenches to get closer. It seems that all the fortifications or forts were some what different. If the movie has any truth to it several forts were over run by Zulus. Sure hope someone can get to the site. I'll be watching this thread! Good luck guys!

[DT56]

Looks like a hill covered with grass to me. :)

[kipper21]

Yep your right, but I think your numbers are a tad skew.

I can't find my numbers any longer, can only find your numbers.

[Tom Harper]

QB,

A lot of the action was in open territory with hasty fortifications. Another movie - Zulu Dawn, about the battle of Isandlwana, the day before Rourks Rift.

Tom

[Gary Mortimer]

Funnily enough Zulu dawn has the British leaving the very barracks and sports ground in Pietermaritzberg as the guys that used this place might have done if its a Anglo Zulu war site. I'm hoping for more info in next 2 weeks.

Right now the papers here are running specials on the anniversary of the war. Good old coincidence that this discovery has been made.