The Monk's Kop Ossuary

This paper describes the excavation of a cave used for funerary purposes in the Mtoroshanga district of Rhodesia. The cave was found to contain a large quantity of skeletal material and pottery, together with the personal ornaments of the persons interred there. The physical type represented is similar to that of the modern Bantu-speaking peoples of Southern Africa. Bodies had been placed in the cave surrounded by pottery—although pottery, unlike the skeletal material, which was ubiquitous, was mainly placed towards the entrance of the cave. Quantities of palm-leaf and bark-cloth matting used for wrapping round the bodies of the persons interred were found. Conus shell end-whorls and glass beads indicate trade links with the outside world. There are two superimposed funerary layers in the cave, both belonging to the same culture, but at different stages of its development. The earlier layer has been dated by radicarbon dating methods to approximately the late 13th or early 14th century A.D. Prior to its use for funerary purposes, the cave had been briefly occupied for other purposes by people of the same culture. The ceramics of the site indicate that it belongs to a culture newly recognized in Rhodesia with a fairly wide distribution in the north-east of the country. Cultural affinities lie with Zambia and Malawi, rather than with the contemporary Zimbabwe culture, whose expansion, indeed, probably put an end to the occupation of the Mtoroshanga area by the people of the ossuary

Ancient history · Archaeology · Cave · Excavation · Geography · Ornaments · Pottery · Style (visual arts · African history and culture studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

• Central Africa from Cameroun to the Zambezi

  Open Access•David Birmingham•Cambridge History of Africa•1975

  Incluir item

• The western Maghrib and Sudan

  Open Access•Nehemia Levtzion•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The East African interior

  Open Access•Roland Oliver•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The East Coast, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean

  Open Access•H Neville Chittick•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Upper and Lower Guinea

  Open Access•J D Fage•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Central Africa from Cameroun to the Zambezi

  Open Access•David Birmingham•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Constructing Ancestors in Sub-Saharan Africa

  Open Access•Timothy Insoll•Death Rituals, Social Order and…•2015

  Incluir item

• The eastern Maghrib and the central Sudan

  Open Access•Humphrey J Fisher•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The Cambridge History of Africa

  Open Access•John D Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver et al.•The Cambridge history of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Incisor avulsion, social identity and Saharan population history

  Open Access•C M Stojanowski, Charisse L Carver et al.•Journal of Anthropological…•2014

  Incluir item

• The Central Cemetery at Ingombe Ilede, Zambia

  Open Access•D Killick, Jay Stephens et al.•Journal of World Prehistory•2025

  Incluir item

• Excavations at the Nhunguza and Ruanga Ruins in Northern Mashonaland

  P S Garlake•The South African Archaeological…•1972

  Incluir item

• Report on a Burial at Castle Kopje Wedza

  Nick Walker•The South African Archaeological…•1991

  Incluir item

• Small size, high value

  Thomas Panganayi Thondhlana, Marcos Martinón-Torres•Journal of African Archaeology•2009

  Incluir item

• Consuming the Past

  Seke Katsamudanga•Public Archaeology•2015

  Incluir item

• Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations

  Open Access•T N Huffman•African Archaeological Review•1989

  Incluir item

• Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography

  Open Access•Innocent Pikirayi, Anders Lindahl•African Archaeological Review•2013

  Incluir item

• Iron age skulls from Southern Africa re‐assessed by multiple discriminant analysis

  Open Access•G P Rightmire•American Journal of Physical…•1970

  Incluir item

• Economic change, ideology and the development of cultural complexity in northern Zimbabwe

  Gilbert Pwiti•Azania Archaeological Research in…•2004

  Incluir item

• The Shimabala Mass Burial

  F V Anderson•The South African Archaeological…•1961

  Incluir item

• A Preliminary Report on the Recent Archaeology of Ngonde, Northern Malawi

  Open Access•K R Robinson•The Journal of African History•1966

  Incluir item