T N Huffman
Biographic Data
| ID | 12626 |
|---|---|
| NAME | T N Huffman |
| GIVEN NAMES | T N |
| FAMILY NAME | Huffman |
| SIGNATURE | HUFFMAN T N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0974-464X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 665 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Zimbabwe Ruins in Botswana
At its peak in the sixteenth century, the Zimbabwe Culture encompassed an area the size of France. The greater Tuli area in east-central Botswana formed the western extent of this culture area. Here many dzimbahwe mark the residences of sacred leaders in the later Khami period (1400–1840 ad). These stone-walled headquarters formed a pyramid of political importance, with district chiefs (Level 4) and petty chiefs (Level 3) at the top and headmen (…
Pueblo ethnography, Sopris archaeology, and the sacred geography of sopris rock art
The Sopris archaeological culture in southeastern Colorado was first identified as Puebloan and then later as local hunter-gatherers influenced by trade with the Northern Rio Grande area. By applying Eastern Pueblo ethnography, we show that the earlier interpretation is better. Physical emphases on such profound cultural features as dualism, cardinal directions, and kiva equivalents cannot be explained by trade, but instead point to Eastern Puebl…
AMS Dates and the Chronology of Great Zimbabwe
Salvage excavations in the 1970s uncovered a sizeable commoner occupation at Great Zimbabwe, as well as evidence for the early construction of an elite stonewalled enclosure. As a result of these excavations, we can revise somewhat the chronology of Great Zimbabwe. The most important changes are the extension of Period IV a, lasting from AD 1285±10 to 1395±10, and the appearance of P, P/Q and Q-coursed walling in Period IV a. The small Nemanwa pa…
The Rhino Early Iron Age site, Thabazimbi, South Africa
The Rhino Early Iron Age site near Thabazimbi in the far north of South Africa is a sixth- to eighth-century AD example of an agricultural settlement that followed the principles of the Central Cattle Pattern. In addition to settlement features, salvage excavations yielded a fragment of a ‘Lydenburg Head’ in association with Happy Rest pottery. Together with other data, head sculptures appear to be a Kalundu Tradition trait. The head, long-term o…
The smell of power
rock art formed part of a pilgrimage trail that led from the lower Apishapa Canyon to the volcanic-like Spanish Peaks near Trinidad, Colorado. Hunter/gatherer ethnography from the southern Great Basin makes sense of abstract engravings in the canyon, at sites such as Cramer, Canterbury, and Snake Blakeslee. According to Great Basin ethnography, mature shamans should lead neophytes along sacred trails to volcanoes because they were sources of supe…
Chemical analyses of glass beads from two Early Iron Age sites in Zimbabwe
Glass beads from the East African coast obtained through the Indian Ocean trade have been known for a half-century to have been taken into the interior of southern Africa. Zhizo Hill and Makuru, both situated in central Zimbabwe, were among the first Early Iron Age sites where such beads were recovered. Zhizo Hill subsequently became the name site for these beads and associated pottery, now called Zhizo. Makuru was among the very few mid-twentiet…
Apishapa rock art and Great Basin shamanism
The Apishapa archaeological phase in southeast Colorado, USA, was more likely an eastern extension of the Great Basin Desert Culture than a western extension of the Plains Village pattern. For this reason, Archaic Period rock art in the Great Basin and the Apishapa area are remarkably similar. Abstract curvilinear and rectilinear styles in both areas share several motifs and combinations. Because of Apishapa origins, we use Great Basin ethnograph…
Cultural proxies for drought in the Iron Age of South-eastern Africa
Archaeology, baobabs and drought
Ethnographic and archaeological data from the Mapungubwe landscape show that rainmaking deposits on hilltops, along with burnt grain bins in ordinary villages, represent cultural responses to severe drought by Iron Age agricultural communities. In ordinary villages, burnt granaries were the result of cleansing rituals, rather than violence or natural causes. A total of 13 episodes of severe droughts were previously documented in hilltop and villa…
Caddoan Archaeology on the High Plains
The co-existence of Apishapa and Upper Republican-derived sites in the Pinyon Canyon area provides new support for our identification of the Wallace and Hobson settlements as Upper Republican
Social Complexity in Southern Africa
Ritual Space in the Zimbabwe Culture
The social use of space is a worldwide phenomenon that can clarify the structures of various ancient societies. One of these, the Zimbabwe culture, embraces state-level societies dating to the Iron Age of Southern Africa (AD 1200–1820). In contrast to the preceding chiefdom-level societies, ritual space in the Zimbabwe culture centered on sacred leadership. Among other things, what had been rain-control hills in the wild bush became the locus for…
The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent. Volume II
Bioarchaeological Analysis of Iron Age Human Skeletons from Zambia
The Ingombe Ilede and Isamu Pati Iron Age sites in Zambia provide 47 human burials for analyses. Our new study provides demographic information (sex and age), evidence of trauma, infectious diseases as well as physiological and mechanical indicators of stress. We found a high mortality rate for infants and children. Most of the sample (65%) lacked indications of stress or infectious diseases, but a few had cribra orbitalia, osteoarthritis, osteop…
Caddoan Archaeology on the High Plains
The Wallace site is a thirteenth-century hamlet of rectangular lodges, situated on a bluff near Pueblo, Colorado. Commonly attributed to the Apishapa phase, it is more likely affiliated to the Upper Republican cluster, and so the people most likely spoke Northern Caddoan. Because of this identity, we use Pawnee ethnography to interpret the organization of space and spatial distribution of artifacts, including a rock art chamber below the bluff. T…
Vitrified cattle dung in the Iron Age of southern Africa
Ritual Space in Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa
Ritual behavior in the archaeological past is not self-evident. Understanding pre-historic ritual therefore requires access to the worldview of people at the time. This is at least partially possible for pre-colonial farming societies in Southern Africa through the settlement model known as the Central Cattle Pattern. With this model we can recognize and interpret a wide variety of artifacts, features and spaces. The most important dimensions in …
Khami and the Venda in the Mapungubwe Landscape
In the Mapungubwe landscape, the Khami phase grades into the historic Venda period. Khami occupation, however, differs markedly from recent Venda settlement. Among the differences, rainfall was more consistent in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Limpopo Valley supported several thousand people living on cattle posts and in agricultural villages. In contrast, 19th century Venda capitals virtually housed the entire chiefdom, totalling only some…
Intensive El Niño and the Iron Age of South-eastern Africa
Treatise on the Rivers of Cuama (Tratado dos Rios de Cuama) by António da Conceição
Treatise on the Rivers of Cuama (Tratado dos Rios de Cuama) by Antonio da Conceicao, edited and translated by Malyn Newitt, Oxford, Oxford University Press for The British Academy, Fontes Historiae
Revisiting Great Zimbabwe
Editor's notes The following article is in response to a paper by Shadreck Chirikure and Innocent Pikirayi that appeared in Antiquity (2008) revisiting the sequence of Great Zimbabwe, and proposing fundamental changes to the site's interpretation. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read this paper, it may be freely accessed online at: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/082/ant0820976.htm. It is anticipated that Chirikure and Pikirayi will make a …
State Formation in Southern Africa
Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe
Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, southern Africa
A cultural proxy for drought
Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the African Iron Age
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
The Rise and Fall of Zimbabwe
Two hypotheses are available for the origin of the Zimbabwe culture. A religious hypothesis attributes its development to an African society in isolation, placing it in the class of a primary state. In contrast, the trade hypothesis maintains that it was a secondary state resulting from the gold trade. If the religious hypothesis is correct, then Zimbabwe would be an exception to all other known cases of primary state formation. The archaeologica…
Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations
Ceramics, classification and Iron Age entities
Ceramic style can be used to determine archaeological group identity during the Iron Age for several theoretical and practical reasons: as part of culture it is possessed by groups of people, free to vary regardless of socio‐economic and habitat factors; and it is common, widespread, and variable. Not every ceramic analysis succeeds equally in characterizing style, and the purpose of this paper was to test experimentally the accuracy of different…
Archaeological evidence and conventional explanations of southern Bantu settlement patterns
Opening ParagraphThe settlements of Bantu-speaking people in Southern Africa vary widely in size and distribution, ranging from the dispersed homesteads of the Nguni to the large towns of the Tswana. These two extremes have interested Africanists since the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Europeans first encountered the Thlaping at Dithakong near present-day Kuruman. Today the contrast between Tswana and Nguni settlements are most often …
The Early Iron Age and the Spread of the Bantu
Snakes and birds
A cultural proxy for drought
Broederstroom and the origins of cattle - keeping in Southern Africa
Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, southern Africa
Expressive Space in the Zimbabwe Culture
L'A. fournit une nouvelle interpretation de l'usage des constructions de la ville prehistorique de Grand Zimbabwe (Afrique du Sud), capitale de l'empire Shona. Ces bâtiments auraient ete le siege d'une ecole initiatique premaritale, elle-meme partie integrante du systeme politique centralise des etats Zimbabwe
Settlement hierarchies in the Northern Transvaal
1987). Settlement hierarchies in the Northern Transvaal: Zimbabwe ruins and Venda history. African Studies: Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 79-116
Cognitive studies of the iron age in Southern Africa
Cognitive Archaeology concentrates on the physical manifestation of the ideals, values and beliefs of past societies. Appropriate models are developed largely from ethnographic data and then applied to the archaeological record. Using this approach, two models have so far been developed for the Iron Age in Southern Africa: one determines political hierarchies and the other cosmologies. Cognitive models such as these help provide an integrated des…
The Chronology of Great Zimbabwe
A series of 21 radiocarbon dates are now available for Great Zimbabwe. Within the limits of the technique, this series provides precise chronological criteria for interpreting the sequence of occupations at this famous site. The main occupation of the Zimbabwe culture, the one associated with the stone walls, can be bracketed to a two hundred year period, ending in the mid-fifteenth century
Ritual Space in Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa
Ritual behavior in the archaeological past is not self-evident. Understanding pre-historic ritual therefore requires access to the worldview of people at the time. This is at least partially possible for pre-colonial farming societies in Southern Africa through the settlement model known as the Central Cattle Pattern. With this model we can recognize and interpret a wide variety of artifacts, features and spaces. The most important dimensions in …
Intensive El Niño and the Iron Age of South-eastern Africa
Presidential Address
On Why Pots Are Decorated the Way They Are
Vitrified cattle dung in the Iron Age of southern Africa
Social Complexity in Southern Africa
Khami and the Venda in the Mapungubwe Landscape
In the Mapungubwe landscape, the Khami phase grades into the historic Venda period. Khami occupation, however, differs markedly from recent Venda settlement. Among the differences, rainfall was more consistent in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Limpopo Valley supported several thousand people living on cattle posts and in agricultural villages. In contrast, 19th century Venda capitals virtually housed the entire chiefdom, totalling only some…
Revisiting Great Zimbabwe
Editor's notes The following article is in response to a paper by Shadreck Chirikure and Innocent Pikirayi that appeared in Antiquity (2008) revisiting the sequence of Great Zimbabwe, and proposing fundamental changes to the site's interpretation. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read this paper, it may be freely accessed online at: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/082/ant0820976.htm. It is anticipated that Chirikure and Pikirayi will make a …
Leokwe and K2
Recent research in the Shashe-Limpopo basin advances our understanding of the development of social complexity at K2 and Mapungubwe. Calabrese shows that ethnic interaction between Leokwe and K2 peoples led to ethnic stratification. However, one aspect ― that class distinction was first expressed at Leokwe Hill before Mapungubwe ― is not supported by more recent data. Re-examination of ceramics, glass beads and radiocarbon dates show that Leokwe …
Snakes and Crocodiles
David Beach, M. F. C. Bourdillon, James Denbow, Martin Hall, Paul Lane, Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, Thomas N. Huffman, Thomas N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 166 (Dec., 1997), pp. 125-143
Caddoan Archaeology on the High Plains
The Wallace site is a thirteenth-century hamlet of rectangular lodges, situated on a bluff near Pueblo, Colorado. Commonly attributed to the Apishapa phase, it is more likely affiliated to the Upper Republican cluster, and so the people most likely spoke Northern Caddoan. Because of this identity, we use Pawnee ethnography to interpret the organization of space and spatial distribution of artifacts, including a rock art chamber below the bluff. T…
The Early Iron Age and the Spread of the Bantu
Shona Pottery from Pumula Township, Bulawayo, Rhodesia
The Rise and Fall of Zimbabwe
Two hypotheses are available for the origin of the Zimbabwe culture. A religious hypothesis attributes its development to an African society in isolation, placing it in the class of a primary state. In contrast, the trade hypothesis maintains that it was a secondary state resulting from the gold trade. If the religious hypothesis is correct, then Zimbabwe would be an exception to all other known cases of primary state formation. The archaeologica…
Tafuna Hill
Cattle from Mabveni
Gokomere Pottery from the Tunnel Site, Gokomere Mission
Test Excavations at Naba and Lanlory, Northern Mashonaland
Test Excavations at Chamabvefva, Southern Mashonaland
Ceramics, classification and Iron Age entities
Ceramic style can be used to determine archaeological group identity during the Iron Age for several theoretical and practical reasons: as part of culture it is possessed by groups of people, free to vary regardless of socio‐economic and habitat factors; and it is common, widespread, and variable. Not every ceramic analysis succeeds equally in characterizing style, and the purpose of this paper was to test experimentally the accuracy of different…
Snakes and birds
Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the African Iron Age
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
The Trance Hypothesis and the Rock Art of Zimbabwe
Hypothesis Evaluation
Expressive Space in the Zimbabwe Culture
L'A. fournit une nouvelle interpretation de l'usage des constructions de la ville prehistorique de Grand Zimbabwe (Afrique du Sud), capitale de l'empire Shona. Ces bâtiments auraient ete le siege d'une ecole initiatique premaritale, elle-meme partie integrante du systeme politique centralise des etats Zimbabwe
The Soapstone Birds from Great Zimbabwe
Cognitive studies of the iron age in Southern Africa
Cognitive Archaeology concentrates on the physical manifestation of the ideals, values and beliefs of past societies. Appropriate models are developed largely from ethnographic data and then applied to the archaeological record. Using this approach, two models have so far been developed for the Iron Age in Southern Africa: one determines political hierarchies and the other cosmologies. Cognitive models such as these help provide an integrated des…
Archaeological evidence and conventional explanations of southern Bantu settlement patterns
Opening ParagraphThe settlements of Bantu-speaking people in Southern Africa vary widely in size and distribution, ranging from the dispersed homesteads of the Nguni to the large towns of the Tswana. These two extremes have interested Africanists since the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Europeans first encountered the Thlaping at Dithakong near present-day Kuruman. Today the contrast between Tswana and Nguni settlements are most often …
Settlement hierarchies in the Northern Transvaal
1987). Settlement hierarchies in the Northern Transvaal: Zimbabwe ruins and Venda history. African Studies: Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 79-116
On Why Pots Are Decorated the Way They Are
Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations
Broederstroom and the origins of cattle - keeping in Southern Africa
The Chronology of Great Zimbabwe
A series of 21 radiocarbon dates are now available for Great Zimbabwe. Within the limits of the technique, this series provides precise chronological criteria for interpreting the sequence of occupations at this famous site. The main occupation of the Zimbabwe culture, the one associated with the stone walls, can be bracketed to a two hundred year period, ending in the mid-fifteenth century
Iron Age Migrations
Iron Age Migrations
A new perspective on Bantu expansion and classification
1993). A new perspective on Bantu expansion and classification. African Studies: Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 53-76
Geography (52 works) · Archaeology (43 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (43 works) · History (37 works) · History (24 works) · Ancient history (16 works) · Ethnology (16 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (14 works)