FIFTY YEARS OF IRON AGE RESEARCH: A PERSONAL ODYSSEY

Author(s): THOMAS N. HUFFMAN

Source: The South African Archaeological Bulletin , DECEMBER 2014, Vol. 69, No. 200
(DECEMBER 2014), pp. 213-218
Published by: South African Archaeological Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43868717

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South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (200): 213-218, 2014 213

FIFTY YEARS OF IRON AGE RESEARCH: sequence for Mashonaland (Huffman 1971). With a few additions
A PERSONAL ODYSSEY and name changes (e.g. Pwiti 1996: 154), the overall sequence
is still useful. I later revised the relationship of Musengezi to
THOMAS N. HUFFMAN other facies and showed that it was made by Western Bantu
(Huffman 1989a).
As, Keeper/Inspector of Monuments, I visited rural home-
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg steads of every major linguistic group in Zimbabwe, except the
E-mail: thomas.huffman@wits.ac.za far northeast. Those visits contributed data to a booklet for
the QVM called the Tribes of Rhodesia (Anon. 1975). Here tribe
(Received September 2014. Accepted September 2014)
meant a group of people under one chief who spoke the same
The study of pre-colonial farming societies beganlanguage and had a defined territory. Rather than tribes, the
in earnest
in the 1960s when various African countries gainedbooklet used language to describe the distribution of tradi-
independ-
tional African
ence. Funds were available in the USA for African projects and communities. The visits and booklet helped to
consolidate
I was sent twice by the University of Illinois. The first time wasan interest in the relationship between language
in 1967 with Brian Fagan to continue his research and ceramic
on the entities (Huffman 1974a; Herbert & Huffman
Kalomo culture. Zambia provided my first experience 1993)
of which
tradi-I still think important.
tional Africa. Some Ila people we visited, for example, On lived
many visits, I recorded every pot. These assemblages
in villages with the traditional 'street' pattern, whilewere
theyusedkept to test the utility of various types of ceramic analyses
in southern
cattle at distant posts on the Kafue flats. Out on the flats, herds-Africa (Huffman 1980). Ultimately, it led to a multi-
men had taken the heart of a lion, trapped the nightdimensional
before, to method that captures the structure of a group's
use for medicine. Now, I really was in Africa. style. I used this method to analyse the ceramics from the
In the 1960s, Kalomo was considered to be typical Zambian of excavations with Fagan (Huffman 1989b) and for the
pre-colonial farming societies in southeast Africa: it comprehensive
represented study presented in the Handbook to the Iron Age
settled communities of Bantu-speaking people who herded (Huffman 2007). Successful ceramic studies are based on whole
small and large stock, cultivated sorghums, millets vessels.
and various As long as the style is complex, and the makers and
legumes and manufactured iron and copper implements. users the same, ceramic style can be used as a proxy for people.
Archaeologically, these communities were grouped by Overtheirthe years, it has been popular to question the link
ceramic styles. between pots and people. This is misguided: the scale of link-
age is the real question. Jannie Loubser 's (1991) study of Venda
CULTURE HISTORY origins showed that two different language groups, Shona and
At first, virtually all Iron Age excavations were Sotho-Tswana,
focused on could be recognised by Khami and Icon pottery,
culture history, developing ceramic sequences torespectively.
establish More recently, John Calabrese (2007) showed that
a chronological framework of archaeological cultures. ethnic interaction between the people who made Leokwe
Indeed,
Roger Summers' (1970) review here in the Bulletin was and K2all pottery
about led to ethnic stratification in the Mapungubwe
ceramics and their spatial distributions. Following landscape.
this focus, In both the Venda and Leokwe cases, the scale
my second trip was to examine Leopard's Kopje ceramics of linkage was appropriate for the questions.
in the
National Museum, Bulawayo, excavated by K.R. Robinson Ceramic andidentity led me to consider the possibility that
curated by Summers. Because of the interest in Great Nguni-speaking
Zimbabwe, people were responsible for some stone-
there had been a longer history of Iron Age researchwalled arrangements, even though their descendants now
in Rhodesia,
speak Sotho-Tswana. The Ntsuanatsatsi sequence, first estab-
and both men (along with Peter Garlake) had been instrumental
in clarifying many culture-history issues. Robinson's lished by Tim Maggs (1976), is a case in point. I originally
(1966)
interpretation of Leopard's Kopje, however, appeared thought to Mike
be Taylor (1979) had exaggerated the differences
problematic, and my doctoral project (Huffman in 1974b) was technique between his walling types, but he was
decoration
aimed at resolving the ceramic sequence. I spent the right. Ntsuanatsatsi pottery (associated with his Group I)
American
summer of 1968 in the Museum, examining every is related
Leopard'sto the earlier Blackburn facies in KwaZulu-Natal, and
Type N walling
Kopje collection. These collections were well-maintained but (Taylor's Group I) also has parallels there
few represented excavated assemblages. So I went (Huffman 2007: 161-182). Among other areas, these data have
back in 1969
and 70 to re-excavate Leopard's Kopje Main Kraal near
helped the
to clarify stonewalled settlements in the Rustenburg
region (e.g. No
Khami Ruins (supported by the Wenner Gren Foundation). Hall et al 2008): they show that Tlokwa and Fokeng
telephone booths here. My team and I excavatedwere two once
areasNguni.
covering 20 x 60 feet (6 x 18 m) each. In these largeIn
areas we of Bambata pottery, the linguistic link remains
the case
uncovered several houses, storage pits, two cattle kraals,
unresolved. In contrast to some colleagues, I do not think
Khoisan
a copper smelter, a few burials and a clear separation hunter-gatherers independently invented pottery
between
Zhizo, Mambo and Historic Kalanga occupations. I inregret that
the Cape nor that Bambata pottery was made by them. In the
I did not ask my helpers more about the finds. To1990s,
learnI more,
was part of a team that test excavated two Bambata sites
I stayed in a Kalanga homestead for a few days near near
the Botswana
Toteng in Botswana. Its culture-history importance attracted
border. The occasion was a remembrance ceremony considerable
a year afterexpertise: Alec Campbell (the Principal Investiga-
tor), Simon
the death of an old woman when her spirit was brought Hall, Edwin Hanisch, Makgolo Makgolo, Hannali
back.
That began my interest in ethno-archaeology. van der Merwe and Nick Walker were all there. Simon was
I joined the Historical Monuments Commission responsible
in 1970 andfor the bones and I the pottery (Huffman 1994,
was based at the Queen Victoria Museum (QVM) in Harare.
2005). I thought the discrete midden at Toteng 1 made it an
When Elizabeth Goodall passed away, I inherited her Earlymuseum
Iron Age (EIA) residence, but this was incorrect. A series
responsibilities as Keeper of Antiquities. By examining of AMSevery
radiocarbon dates (some surprisingly early) indicate
ceramic collection and associated documentation archived a palimpsest of occupations (Robbins et al. 2005), and the pottery
there, I gained a comprehensive overview of the Iron Age
occurred in a hunter-gatherer context (my Bambata A). Its

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214 South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (200): 213-218, 2014

wereVessels
thinness, however, is a red herring. brief; I have
werespent 30 years since
scraped thin, then convincing ot
perhaps to reduce weight, but the design structure
archaeologists (profile,
of their validity.
decoration layout and motif) parallels
After theother facies
ZP I applied Kuperin the of Nguni settle-
's model
Chifumbaze complex. Moreover, pottery
ments to Iron
with Agethe
societies
same based
design
on social ranking. To see
structure occurs with normal thickness in EIA contexts model on the ground, so to speak, I went to the Trans
(Bamba ta B). Here is a case for more data and thinking. where Lewis Matiyela served as interpreter. Then Mike Ev
As these last cases show, culture history sequences (1984)
are openshowed that the model - the Central Cattle Pattern
to interpretation. Indeed, Tim Maggs and I have exchanged (CCP) - also applied to Sotho-Tswana settlements, as Kupe
good whiskey over some identifications. He was right predicted.
about Both the CCP and ZP stem from a theoret
approach about the relationship between worldview, socia
the close relationship between the pottery at Broederstroom
and Mzonjani, for example, while I showed that the and Kalundu
spatial organisations and the distribution of artefact
Tradition did not come from Natal. We still disagree (Huffman on 2001).
Some criticism of this approach came from conservati
Bambata. Clearly, culture history sequences are not straightfor-
ward: this is why they are an intellectual challenge. archaeologists and historians who were against the wh
enterprise. Conservative historians generally believe that o
LIFEWAYS day-to-day political history is worth pursuing. It is true t
Although Iron Age studies were still in their infancy political
in thecontestation is an important dynamic. Howev
1970s, the focus on culture history was not universal. Martin life, including politics, would not be possible wi
day-to-day
Hall (1981), for example, championed cultural ecology out shared
as an beliefs. Such contrasts in approach are the basi
alternative (and then Marxism). Much debate ensued. David I am of
Beach's (1998) reaction to my spatial analysis of Gr
mixed emotions about some exchanges because ofZimbabwe. the unpro-This tension was recently revived by the 500 Y
fessional tone. Nevertheless, informed debate can Initiative
be good for (Swanepoel et al. 2008). As valuable as any new ini
a discipline. In the end, both positions are necessary: tivecultural
can be, the hostility between historical and anthropologi
ecology is one approach that investigates lifeways, approaches
a differentis unnecessary: both are of equal value and of eq
research domain to culture history. As Tim Maggs (1984) to understanding the pre-colonial past. It is silly
importance
showed, it is possible to do both. choose one over the other.
By the late 1970s and early 80s there was a clear pattern For their
of part, conservative archaeologists believe that
interest at universities and museums in South Africa: the archaeological data must speak for itself. "What can we get
University of Stellenbosch (under Hilary Deacon), for example,
from the archaeology alone?" they ask. The answer is 'nothing'.
was known for environmental archaeology; Cape Town Weforknow from philosophers of science that it is not possible to
archaeometallurgy and isotopie archaeology (Nick van derivederanswers directly from data: we instead apply different
Merwe and now Judith Sealy and Shadreck Chirikure),models spatial(i.e. hypotheses) to see which fits best. This different
studies (John Parkington) and pastoralism (Andy Smith); understanding
the of scientific method lay behind the debate
Natal Museum for the Early and Late Iron Age (Tim Maggs, in the 1980s (and now again) over the role of cattle in the ELA.
Martin Hall and later Gavin Whitelaw); Pretoria for excava-
We know from ethno-archaeological studies that social impor-
tions at Mapungubwe (Johannes Eloff, Andrie Meyer tance and
cannot be simply deduced from numbers. Many archaeo-
zoological studies make this logical mistake; terms such as
Helgaard Prinsloo); the Transvaal Museum for archaeozoology
(Liz Voigt, then Ina Plug and now Shaw Badenhorst); and reliance',
Wits 'dominance' and 'economy' are cultural concepts
that require cultural data about worldview.
for cognitive archaeology of the Later Stone Age (Lyn Wadley),
rock art (David Lewis-Williams) and the Iron Age. Advances Because of my unease about inferring social importance
have been made in all these areas of interest. Indeed, we know
from cattle numbers, I learned about phytoliths to identify
much more about African prehistory than we did 50 years cattle
ago.kraals. As colleagues in botany showed me, it is another
world under the microscope. The huge number of grass
COGNITIVE ARCHAEOLOGY phytoliths showed that many features identified as middens
Compared to 50 years ago, Iron Age research were actually dung deposits. Broederstroom was a case in
incorporates
considerably more theory. Because I was trainedpoint. Although faunai counts yielded only one cow (Brown in
in American
anthropology departments, I was predisposed to use 1981),
Mason religion
at least five kraals were more or less contempora-
as an avenue to understanding pre-colonial societies. neous This
(Huffman
was 1993). Clearly cattle were underrepresented.
problematic in Zimbabwe, however, because sacred Theleadership
kraals look like middens, by the way, because people
disappeared after the early 19th century, and spirit intentionally
mediums threw bones and artefacts inside after stock had
were not prominent before the mid-18th century. been slaughtered
Rather than to honour the ancestors.
present-day religion, the most important influence was Adam
Kuper' s (1980, 1982) spatial analysis of Southern POSTBantu PROCESSUALISM
settle-
ment patterns. Anthropological analyses such as this Myincorpo-
cognitive models are not part of the Post Processual
movement.
rate religious as well as other cultural values, beliefs and ideals, Although we study similar things, Post Processualist
and, most importantly, it considers them in terms originally rejected the scientific method. My research, in con
of their social
relationships. I first applied Kuper's approach to trast, follows the normal method of multiple hypothes
the spatial
organisation at Great Zimbabwe and other Zimbabwe comparison
culture(Huffman 1986a, 2004); the hypothesis with th
greatest coherence,
settlements. For a few exciting weeks it was one discovery after explanatory power and predictive potenti
the other: the men's court here, the palace there;isthe superior
stairway (e.g. Laudan 1996).
to the king here, the stairway to the senior sister over For their
there. part, some Post Processualists criticised the cogni-
The
first synthesis was somewhat exploratory (Huffman tive 1981),
models andbecause they believed they were structuralist.
then the Zimbabwe Pattern (ZP) crystallised (Huffman True, the1982,models use binary codes, and I found structuralism
1986a, b, 1996). This was a completely new perspectiveuseful at first
on theas a convenient heuristic device to summarise
pre-colonial Zimbabwe culture. Alas, the exciting inherent social relationships (Huffman 1981). The cognitive
discoveries

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South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (200): 213-218, 2014 215

models may be termed 'structuralist'ethnographies

not arebecause
not as constrained
they as some
are have claimed.
founded on static binary codes but While Europeans undoubtedly
because interfered with African
they articulate the polities,
underlying normative guidelines for they did not create the Tswana
behaviour. This chief
is doms
not in the
Botswana, for
example, nor did Rather,
same as classic Lévi-Straussian structuralism. they create African attitudes towards
the models
bridewealth, sacred
are based on the premises that cultural rules leadership
are or ancestors. In fact, Shona
embedded
in the social context of daily action and
beliefs about thethat
ancestorshuman action
helped to explain the distribution of
burials at Kgaswe,
requires the prior existence of cultural rules. one ofThese
Denbow' s premises
Toutswe sites (Huffman &
are entirely reasonable. Murimbika 2003).
Because material
To some Post Processualists, the meaning of culture
space means
is so little to most anthropol-
invoked
primarily through social action. ogists,
Generally, these
archaeologists must colleagues
do their own e thno -archaeological
give priority to the human body, social
studies. action
In this regard, and
McEdward agency.
Murimbika' s (2006) outstand-
While daily action may well invokeing investigation into
meaning, ittraditional
does not rainmaking
follow provides a datum
that all meaning is absent before for future projects.
action. Indeed,Equally important
as cognitive was Alex Schoeman's
models, the CCP and the ZP must(2006)have excavations
meaning that clarified
at thesomematerial-culture
scale signa-
beforehand. One should not forget ture of rainmaking
that human hills. Archaeozoologists
societies divide could advance
their spatial environment into a their
setinterpretative
of inter-related
framework by studying places historical faunai
remains from such
where only a limited range of culturally situationsactivities
related as homesteads and arecattle posts
acceptable. Thus, broad meaningswhere ofthey spatial categories
already know exist
the functional context. They may well
be surprised that their ideas about archaeological cultures do
before, during and after social action.
not match living situations.
THE ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORD
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Many Iron Age archaeologists know the value of ethnogra- CULTURES
Throughout the last 50 years, Iron Age archaeologists have
phy. Gavin Whitelaw (1994), for example, used Sotho-Tswana
ethnography to help interpret the bottomless pots so com-
struggled with the relationship between material culture and
monly found in EIA sites, and pollution concepts real groups of people. Initially, lists of material traits defined
to examine
the archaeological signature of different marriage
archaeological
patterns cultures and these were considered equivalent
(Whitelaw 2013). to a social group. Because archaeologists study material culture
As another example, James Denbow and Phenyo it isThebe
easy to over-emphasise the importance of physical objects
(2006) published a book on the customs of Botswana, and aspects of culture. For me, culture and worldview
to the social
Denbow' s new book on central Africa (Denbow 2014) begins
are synonymous. By these terms I mean a cluster of symbols
with ethnography. For his doctoral research, that gives
Denbow meaning to social organisation, rules to govern
had
systematically examined the Toutswe area aroundbehaviour
Palapye. and values to decide choice. This worldview consti-
He
used aerial photography to recognise ancient kraals
tutescovered
a system of beliefs about people, society and the natural
world. (Denbow
in Cenchrus ciliaris and ground surveys to find more It is far removed from a list of material-culture traits.
1982). At the time, this was the most comprehensive Iron Age traits can be symptomatic of different kinds of
Material-culture
survey in southern Africa. I had several trips with Jim
society, saytorank-based versus class-based, but they can never
Toutswe sites, the Makgadikgadi Pan and other places.
be its I Only social aspects can define social formations.
definition.
wanted pictures for teaching purposes and IFor
wanted
this andto
other reasons, material-culture traits do not corre-
broaden my own understanding of where people chose spond to live.
easily with social formations. It is a truism that physical
To understand choices, we have to understand to some items can only implicate social aspects under certain conditions.
degree the other society's worldview. I feel strongly about this This is one reason I use ethnographically-derived settlement
point: if we do not have an indigenous interpretative frame- models: they clarify the conditions.
work, we impose our own. The imposition of our own Even though cultures are social phenomena, real groups of
worldview is a pervasive problem throughout archaeology. people can be identified in the archaeological record. In Ian
Fortunately, descendants of pre-colonial peoples are stillHodder's (1982) well-known study, people in East Africa used
present in much of the continent (though somewhat accultur- their material-culture differences to distinguish themselves
ated) to discuss their worldview and daily actions. This is why from other groups with whom they interacted daily. Signifi-
I went to the Transkei. This kind of investigation, by the way, cantly, the degree of interaction did not create group identities:
takes time. Indeed, the more you know, the more people are the identities were the result of shared histories, cultural norms
willing to tell you. This is why Lewis Matiyela was my inter- and so on in contrast to other such groups. Change through
preter. Anthropological investigations are also important for space was also an issue in South Africa, and Mike Evers' (1988)
this purpose. It is worth remembering, of course, that all analysis was consistent with Hodder's results: ceramic similarity
ethnographies are inevitably biased by the social context of the was not dependent on the degree of interaction. Both studies
recorders and the informants. Valid data about worldview, show that a vital relationship exists between culture, material
however, can nevertheless be extracted from eyewitness culture, language and group identity.
accounts. This is why models of settlement organisation can be I use this relationship to re-construct population dynamics
derived from the ethnography of descendants. in the Mapungubwe landscape. I find field surveys particularly
Underlying much disagreement are different attitudes rewarding. The excitement of discovery: what will we find
about the validity of the ethnographic record. One view can be today? My six-week Honours field school was the highlight
expressed as 'the tyranny of the ethnography'. This phrase of the academic year, and we always had a week of survey. As
is commonly attributed to Martin Wobst (1978) in the context of a result, we now have over 1150 Iron Age sites on record.
hunter-gatherer studies. His insights are particular germane to Recognising different kinds of sites (agricultural villages, field
the Kalahari debate but less so to pre-colonial farming societies. camps, cattle posts and ritual sites) and identifying different
For one thing, some ethnography began with 16th-century ceramic facies (Zhizo, Leokwe, K2, TK2, Mapungubwe, Icon,
eyewitness accounts before European colonisation. Even later Khami and 19th-century occupations) allow one to document

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216 South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (200): 213-218, 2014

such things as cattle management instrategies (Smith

that same issue). et al.
I quote from his2010;
1984 paper in World Arch
Mashimbye 2013), consumptionology patterns
(page 463): (Fatherley 2009),
"... a form of structuralism, which, in seekin
ethnic interaction (Calabrese 2007), international
universal processes of humantrade (Wood
mental organisation, can beco
2005, 2011), population growthahistorical,
(Huffman and as such2000), political
is particularly attractive in an intel
boundaries (Huffman & du Piesanie 2011),
tual and political rainmaking
environment that tends to seek stasis rath
(Murimbika 2006; Schoeman 2006) and
than shifting
change in the past land use (du
of indigenous communities". Note t
I neither
Piesanie 2008), to name a few. Good have, nor had,degrees
postgraduate such political
have motivations. Rather
come from this research. was Hall's (2005) own 'situational ethics' which suppor
Among other things, Iron Age research in the Limpopointerpretations that were politically acceptable, despite t
Valley must consider climate change. To support the large weight of evidence against them. The initial migration of Ban
Middle Iron Age population, for example, rainfall had to havespeakers into southern Africa is a prominent example. Gramie
(1978) paper in the Bulletin articulated the anti-migration
been more consistent and reliable than today. For her doctoral
research, Jeannette Smith used isotopes to recognise periods school
of from an East African perspective. According to unassa
high and low rainfall (Smith et al. 2007). We correlated herable linguistic data, however, the Bantu language fam
results with rainmaking deposits and with evidence for the evolved in West Africa. One can question the mode and tem
purposeful burning of grain bins; evidently, the structures of travel, but not the movement itself. Unfortunately, a f
were burnt as a ritual of cleansing during severe droughtsarchaeologists still reject a migration hypothesis, but the
(Huffman 2009a). Because ritual burnings were widespread rejection is based on politics, not good data.
throughout southeastern Africa, including Malawi and I recently revisited the ELA site of Mabveni in the Chiv
Zambia, El Niño events may have been the cause (Huffmandistrict of Zimbabwe. I went there several years ago with We
2010). Stephen Woodborne' s (Woodborne et al. 2013) new Ndoro for photographs (see fig. 19.4 in Huffman 2007) and no
baobab study will help to date these droughts more precisely. this time with Munyaradzi to collect palaeomagnetic sampl
At present, I am using the comprehensive Limpopo sequence Robinson's (1961) excavations uncovered the first evidence f
as background for a study of palaeomagnetism with a team from what later became known as the 'ELA package': that is, sett
KwaZulu-Natal (Mike Watkeys, a geologist) and Rochester villages with large and small domestic stock, grain agricultu
in the US (John Tarduno, a geophysicist). Burnt daga structures metallurgy and Chifumbaze pottery. None of these inter
as well as vitrified dung have fixed magnetic signals. So far, welated traits evolved from an earlier hunter-gatherer b
have sampled sites dating over the last 1000 years. We have justin southern Africa.

returned from a trip to the Tswapong hills in Botswana (with Any mention of politics in archaeology inevitably turns to
Phenyo Thebe) and Mount Buhwa in Zimbabwe (with Great Zimbabwe. One should note that since Caton-Thompson
Munyaradzi Manyanga) to collect older samples. It was satisfy- in 1931, and probably Maclver in 1905, no professional archae-
ologist of the Iron Age has questioned the African origin of the
ing to re-find an ELA site first recorded with a Rhodesian School
Boys Exploration Society expedition in 1973. The specific burnt Zimbabwe culture. Not so for non-archaeologists. I once had
grain bin we wanted no longer exists, but fortunately there a guide book censored while employed by the National
were several others not visible 40 years ago. I also wanted Museums
to and Monuments Administration of Rhodesia. I was
show Munyaradzi a Zimbabwe ruin near Nenga Hill, south-supposed to give the 'exotic' schools equal weight and not
east of Buhwa. It was built with P-coursing (Huffman 1978: belittle them. The battle was not totally lost, however, because
fig. 6 and plate 5) and probably represents the expansion of theI was still able to say that "radiocarbon dates from layers under
Great Zimbabwe state west to the gold-bearing belt controlled the walls eliminate Phoenicians, Sabeo-Arabians and pre-Muslim
by Mapungubwe. This, I argue (Huffman 2009b), is how Great Arabs as the builders" and give credit to Africans (Huffman
Zimbabwe out-competed Mapungubwe. 1976: 2, see also the figure on page 42). This was a difficult time
professionally, but Mike Raath (then Director of the QVM)
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS and I got permission to write an article in the popular (and
Many archaeologists think our sub-disciplineconfrontational) is highly magazine Scope that gave full credit to indige-
political. Politics were inevitable in South Africanous people.
because My next guide book, Symbols in Stone (1987),
Iron
Age archaeology focuses on black societies which the presented
Apartheidthe new spatial analysis based on Portuguese eye-
Government wanted to suppress. Once Masonwitness et al. accounts
(1973) and Shona and Venda ethnography.
dated the beginning of the Iron Age to the first centuries Over ofthethe
years, discussions on the Zimbabwe Pattern have
Christian era, the Government could no longerbeen insist
partthatof the normal cut and thrust of academic debate.
whites moving north met blacks moving south:Inblack these debates,
people some models have remained dominant
had been at the Fish River since the 8th century.because they fit
Of course, it the data better than competing alternatives.
took some time before this knowledge made it into Inschool
future,text-
we need to consider more thoroughly the roles of
books. For a look at Iron Age archaeology and politics institutionalised
see Tim violence, shifting capitals and peer polity
Maggs's (1993) thirty year review in the Bulletin.interaction. He playedAs anin all sciences, good debate advances our disci-
early role in placing the knowledge gained from Iron
pline: Ageleast, it sharpens opposing positions. Good debate
at the
research into schools. We are also grateful to Amanda Ester-
involves good scholarship. We advance further when novel
huysen for her later work as an educational archaeologist. ideas are applied comprehensively to existing data and when
In the 1980s, Iron Age research was criticised from new a data confront existing paradigms. This is not as easy as one
political
perspective within the discipline. For one thing,may think.
recognising
group identity through ceramic style was allegedly based on
a false premise inspired by a conservative ideology.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I repeat my
comments in a previous paper (Huffman 2012). According In addition to to those mentioned in the text, several ot
have helped
Martin Hall (1984), this study had similar philosophical under- through such things as access to collect
comments
pinnings to a false 'tribal model'. This claim was first on papers, field trips and technical support. T
published
in Hall's 1983 paper here in the Bulletin (which include Jan Aukema, Wim Biemond, Johan Binneman,
I answered

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South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (200): 213-218, 2014 217

Huffman,
Boeyens, David Collett, Mike Grant, T.N. 1978.
Edwin The Iron Age of
Hanisch, the Buhwa district, Rhodesia.
David
Occasional Papers National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia A4(3):
Hammond-Tooke, Menno Klapwijk,
81-100.
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