Why Lesotho's Archaeology Matters
By:
Prof. Peter Mitchell
Date:
Tue, 09/07/2024 - 18:30 to 19:30
Branch:
Western Cape
LIVESTREAM TALK ON TUESDAY 9TH JULY FROM 18:30 to 19:30 ON MS TEAMS
YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/6buSoAhGJYA
BY: PROF. PETER MITCHELL
YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/6buSoAhGJYA
BY: PROF. PETER MITCHELL
TITLE: “WHY LESOTHO’S ARCHAEOLOGY MATTERS”
ABSTRACT:
Last month’s ASAPA conference in Lesotho makes this the right moment to consider the broader international significance of that country’s archaeology. In this presentation, I highlight several reasons why archaeologists working within the broader southern African region — and beyond — should pay attention to it. First, Lesotho helps build a vital inland counter-narrative to understandings of past hunter-gatherers that emphasise Fynbos and coastal settings. Second, its mountainous terrain and very different climate encourage us to develop models of past hunter-gatherer societies that are not restricted to or by Kalahari-based analogies. Third, Lesotho’s incredibly rich rock art includes the only sites in southern Africa for which images were interpreted by a nineteenth-century Bushman individual, Qing, for whom painting is likely to have been a still-living tradition. Fourth, it has produced a series of sites that offer unique insights into how Later Stone Age societies lived and how their nineteenth-century descendants coped with the challenges of the colonial era. And finally, in this bicentennial year of the country’s nationhood, Lesotho’s archaeology provides multiple opportunities for investigating processes of change such as state-building and religious conversion crucial for understanding how modern-day southern Africa came to be, as well as pointing the way forward for how we can successfully build archaeological capacity and engage productively with local communities.
Last month’s ASAPA conference in Lesotho makes this the right moment to consider the broader international significance of that country’s archaeology. In this presentation, I highlight several reasons why archaeologists working within the broader southern African region — and beyond — should pay attention to it. First, Lesotho helps build a vital inland counter-narrative to understandings of past hunter-gatherers that emphasise Fynbos and coastal settings. Second, its mountainous terrain and very different climate encourage us to develop models of past hunter-gatherer societies that are not restricted to or by Kalahari-based analogies. Third, Lesotho’s incredibly rich rock art includes the only sites in southern Africa for which images were interpreted by a nineteenth-century Bushman individual, Qing, for whom painting is likely to have been a still-living tradition. Fourth, it has produced a series of sites that offer unique insights into how Later Stone Age societies lived and how their nineteenth-century descendants coped with the challenges of the colonial era. And finally, in this bicentennial year of the country’s nationhood, Lesotho’s archaeology provides multiple opportunities for investigating processes of change such as state-building and religious conversion crucial for understanding how modern-day southern Africa came to be, as well as pointing the way forward for how we can successfully build archaeological capacity and engage productively with local communities.
BIO:
Prof. Peter Mitchell studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge (1980–1983) and then moved to Oxford, where his doctorate on the significance and wider context of the Robberg Industry at Sehonghong, Lesotho, was supervised by Ray Inskeep. He visited Lesotho for the first time in 1985, returning in 1988 to excavate at Tloutle, only a few kilometres from the NUL campus, and then along the Phuthiatsana River as a British Academy post-doctoral research fellow. A temporary lectureship (1990) and a post-doctoral research fellowship (1992–1993) at the University of Cape Town allowed him to conduct further fieldwork, notably at Sehonghong, followed by two further seasons at the nearby site of Likoaeng later in the 1990s. Peter returned to Britain in 1993, teaching first at the University of Wales and, since 1995, at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of African Archaeology and Tutor and Fellow in Archaeology at St Hugh’s College. He combines these positions with being a Research Associate of the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Peter has continued to maintain an active interest in Lesotho’s archaeology, supervising several doctoral, masters, and honours theses relating to it and acting as senior heritage consultant during the building of the Metolong Dam (2008–2012). He was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) from 2004 to 2006, served for two decades on the Governing Council of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, and has been co-editor of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa since 2009. Peter’s books include African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World (AltaMira Press, 2005), The First Africans (CUP, 2008, co-authored with Larry Barham), and Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (OUP, 2015). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (OUP, 2013, co-edited with Paul Lane) and African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology (Routledge, 2022) were both awarded the SAfA Book Prize. A second edition of The Archaeology of Southern Africa was published by Cambridge University Press on 6 June this year.
YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/6buSoAhGJYA
Prof. Peter Mitchell studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge (1980–1983) and then moved to Oxford, where his doctorate on the significance and wider context of the Robberg Industry at Sehonghong, Lesotho, was supervised by Ray Inskeep. He visited Lesotho for the first time in 1985, returning in 1988 to excavate at Tloutle, only a few kilometres from the NUL campus, and then along the Phuthiatsana River as a British Academy post-doctoral research fellow. A temporary lectureship (1990) and a post-doctoral research fellowship (1992–1993) at the University of Cape Town allowed him to conduct further fieldwork, notably at Sehonghong, followed by two further seasons at the nearby site of Likoaeng later in the 1990s. Peter returned to Britain in 1993, teaching first at the University of Wales and, since 1995, at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of African Archaeology and Tutor and Fellow in Archaeology at St Hugh’s College. He combines these positions with being a Research Associate of the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Peter has continued to maintain an active interest in Lesotho’s archaeology, supervising several doctoral, masters, and honours theses relating to it and acting as senior heritage consultant during the building of the Metolong Dam (2008–2012). He was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) from 2004 to 2006, served for two decades on the Governing Council of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, and has been co-editor of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa since 2009. Peter’s books include African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World (AltaMira Press, 2005), The First Africans (CUP, 2008, co-authored with Larry Barham), and Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (OUP, 2015). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (OUP, 2013, co-edited with Paul Lane) and African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology (Routledge, 2022) were both awarded the SAfA Book Prize. A second edition of The Archaeology of Southern Africa was published by Cambridge University Press on 6 June this year.
YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/6buSoAhGJYA