Pietermaritzburg
11 Sep 2009

Before Voortrekker Pietermaritzburg there was no urban focus in the area. Indeed, towns and cities as we know them were alien concepts to the pre-colonial peoples of the region . The austerity of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer way of life or of the subsistence farming characteristic of the Iron Age required relatively small-scale and scattered patterns of settlement. Nevertheless, some of the features of the local environment which attracted Voortrekker settlement were also important to the earlier communities who chose to live here.

The present City is situated, by no accident, at the junction of several ecological types - thornveld savannah along the Msunduze and southwards, grasslands to the north and forest patches on the southward slope of the escarpment. Each provided a different set of resources which, because of their proximity to one another, enabled local communities to take advantage of all three. It was thus a particularly favourable area for settlement within the broader context of the Natal Midlands, as is clear from the quantity and variety of archaeological remains that have come to light.

The distribution of the different ecological types would not, however, have remained static over the long period we are examining. Considerable climatic changes took place during this period and these would have affected the vegetation. During cooler periods the savannah would have retreated to lower, hence warmer, limits and vice versa in hotter periods. The forest patches probably expanded when rainfall increased and shrank in drier times.

This earliest period of Pietermaritzburg history can be reconstructed only from the archaeological remains that have been found in and around the City. The story will always be incomplete, for time has destroyed many traces of earlier settlement and others have yet to be found or have been built over.

Archaeology enables us to see far back in time and reconstruct some aspects of long forgotten ways of life. But the archaeological traces alone cannot give us the detailed pictures of the past that can be recreated from the well-documented last 150 years. Even within the Pietermaritzburg area the evidence available to us is very patchy. Many of the ancient items recovered and placed in museum collections are chance finds by members of the public . None is from systematic archaeological research. It is the modem archaeological excavations and reconstructions that have been carried out in other parts of Natal and beyond that can provide some historical 'flesh and blood' to the dry 'bones' of the local artefacts.

The patchy nature of our available data can be seen on the maps where the great majority of finds are in and around Scottsville. This pattern results from the work of one ardent collector , F.H.M. French, who was working in the Borough Engineer's Department when the township of Scottsville was being laid out. He took much trouble to recover and record the location of stone implements that came to light during the development works. His collection was donated to the Natal Museum on his death in 1940. Other areas have not been searched nearly so thoroughly, but it is likely that where similar topography and vegetation are present, for example around Ashburton, similar concentrations of Stone Age material may be present.

The Stone Age

Pietermaritzburg, the urban centre, was founded in 1838 but archaeological remains show that people have been living in the city area for a quarter or even half a million years, a period some 2 000 times longer than that of the City itself. But we must give some thought to the possibility that there were people here in the even more distant past. Evidence going back two to three million years on our early cultural and biological evolution has all been found on the African continent - the cradle of humanity. Such evidence is preserved only in very exceptional geological circumstances like the limestone caves north of the Vaal (Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Makapansgat and Taung) or the ancient lake deposits of the East African rift valleys (Olduvai, Omo, Lake Turkana, etc.), No such sites are known from Natal, nor is there much chance of their being found. This is because the landscape in general, and in Pietermaritzburg as much as anywhere, reflects rapid geological denudation: rivers are rapidly cutting down into their beds and the predominantly sloping landscape is subject to hillwash.

Thus the landscape we see today is a relatively young one - no more than 100000 years old. Consequently the oldest Stone Age artefacts are buried under or incorporated into soils that have been formed since that time. If there were people here a million or more years ago, any remains that they left behind would long ago have eroded away and washed down the Msunduze into the Indian Ocean. The very land surface on which they would have walked, according to the estimates of geologists , was some 15 metres above today's ground surface.

But what likelihood is there that these early ancestors of ours would have inhabited the Natal region at all? Austmlopithecus - the first of our ancestors to stand up and walk on two feet - inhabited both eastern and southern Africa from about four million years ago; while the first of our own genus, Homo habilis, is recorded from both Sterkfontein in the Transvaal and from Kenya where it is dated around 1,5 to 2 million years ago. These hominids were evidently adapted to a savannah ecology.

And since the African savannahs extend through the lower lying parts of Natal, it is probable that the hominids were present in Natal as they were in the Transvaal.

Returning to the material evidence from Pietermaritzburg itself, we find the earliest surviving traces belong to the Acheulian Stone Age industry. Hallmark of the Acheulian is the distinctive but poorly understood 'handaxe' - probably a multi-purpose tool - that is characteristic of sites dating to the period 600000 to 150000 years ago. The Acheulian industry was developed by our immediately ancestral species Homo erectus, who spread throughout the habitable parts of Africa and was the first of our family to emigrate to other continents. Their bones have been found as far east as Java and China, while Acheulian handaxes are found eastwards to India and northwards to southern Britain.

Like their Stone Age successors, the Acheulian population lived a hunting and gathering way of life relying entirely on wild plant and animal foods. They would have moved about from place to place, seldom staying for more than a few days at a time. They evidently preferred to live in the open , for their artefacts are seldom found in caves or rock shelters. Although many of the modern large African mammals were already present, a number of others became extinct in this period. These include Megantereon, the last sabretoothed cat; Hipparion, a three-toed horse; Sivatherium, a short-necked but antlered relative of the giraffe; and Hippopotamus gorgops, a hippo with periscopic eyes.

Evidence from Central Africa and Europe shows that the Acheulians could hunt animals as large as elephants. From the abundance of their artefacts found along river valleys, we conclude that they spent much oftheir time in these areas. An example can be seen in Fig. 1, which shows sites found on both sides of the Msunduze in the Scottsville and central town areas. Note that the sites are not immediately beside the river but on the slightly higher ground on either side of the valley. This reflects the down cutting of the river and the sideways movements of its meanders during the last 150000 years or so, which have erased the earlier evidence from the riverside itself.

Downstream, and particularly along the Mngeni below Table Mountain, there exist 'terraces', now raised above the river, marking the position of ancient parts of the river-bed. These terraces are frequently covered by sheets of old river pebbles amongst which Acheulian artefacts can be found. Indeed these river pebbles were a major source of suitable stone for the artefact makers.

Acheulian material has also been found further away from the Msunduze valley. Here it is usually from relatively flat areas such as Scottsville-Pelham and the Ashburton ridge or beside smaller streams such as the Slangspruit, Foxhill Spruit and Mkhondeni. Some Acheulian occupation clearly took place on these flatter areas. However, with time, soil creep will have taken place down the steeper slopes carrying any artefacts with it into the small streams. Once into a stream, the artefacts are washed down relatively rapidly, becoming rounded in the process. Such artefacts, often barely recognizable, can be found in the river gravels downstream.

The hunter-gatherer way of life continued through the Middle Stone Age (MSA) which is characterized by a development in stone tool technology. Here the emphasis was on producing long, blade-like flakes of stone, some of which were then trimmed to produce spearheads and scrapers. MSA artefacts are very common over most of Natal below an altitude of 12000 metres, and the map shows that Pietermaritzburg is no exception. ' The strong concentration in the Scottsville area again reflects the intensive collecting of Mr French. But the absence of any sites on the higher ground north of the central city is representative of the situation in Natal in general. For a considerable part of the MSA the climate would have been appreciably cooler than today - corresponding to the last glacial period of the northern hemisphere. This climate would probably have made the upland areas of Natal from Hilton up to the Drakensberg relatively unattractive to hunter-gatherers and many of the game animals they hunted.

The MSA people were of our own species, Homo sapiens, though not of any racial type surviving today. Their contemporaries in Europe and parts of Asia - the Neanderthals - are currently considered as an anatomically robust adaptation to the glacial conditions of northern climes, not the brutish primitives of cartoon mythology.

The dating of the MSA is still beset by controversy, mainly because existing methods of dating are still relatively ineffective for this period. It may have started any time between 200000 and 130000 years ago, and it was replaced at least 35000 years ago (but possibly as early as 60000 years ago) by the Late Stone Age (LSA).

The early part of the LSA is still poorly known for Natal, although current research on the Umhlatuzana Shelter, under the N3 freeway midway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, will provide important new evidence. In Pietermaritzburg itself the evidence consists of several small collections of stone artefacts including a distinctive type known as a naturally-backed knife. These have been dated to the period roughly 15000 to 7000 years ago, during which climates worldwide were recovering from the last glacial epoch and becoming similar to today's conditions.

An interesting point about the local spread of these artefacts is that, although far fewer sites have been recorded than for the earlier periods, some sites do occur on the highlands north of the City, and there is even one near the top of Swartkop, the highest local peak. This pattern has been noted elsewhere in the Natal Midlands, and it therefore seems that people at this time were attracted to these cool, sourveld areas despite their being even colder then than now. During this period several large mammals became extinct in South Africa including Equus capensis, a giant zebra; Pelorovis, a large, long-horned buffalo; Bond's springbok and antelope species related to the blesbok and hartebeest. Climatic change and man's hunting activities have been suggested as the reasons for some of these extinctions.

The final phase of the Stone Age began about 7 000 years ago and is the most familiar one to us , for its cultural heritage was passed down to the historic Khoisan hunter-gatherers whom the white colonists disparagingly referred to as 'Bushmen'. Their stone toolkit evolved gradually during this period, and consisted mainly of miniature implements scrapers, arrowpoints and woodworking tools - that were attached to other materials by the use of adhesives. The bow and arrow was the main hunting weapon and towards the end of the period arrowheads of bone, then steel, used with poison, increasingly replaced stone. The bored stone, made to give more weight to digging sticks, was also a feature of this period.

An increasingly wide range of wild plant and animal foods was exploited during this period. Fish - both marine and freshwater - were caught, sometimes with delicate bone hooks, while shellfish were important along the coast. Among the bones of the occasional large animal we find numerous smaller ones : small buck, dassies, hares and even moles. Bored stones attest to a predilection for underground plant parts - bulbs/corms/roots which are often highly nutritious. Fruit and berries were also much sought after.

This period has left relatively little trace Pietermaritzburg itself, although rock shelters in theneighbourhood have produced evidence. Best known among the remains are rock paintings, most of which were done in this period. Drakensberg shelters in the Cave sandstone contain the great majority of Natal's rock art, though there are paintings closer afield, for example in the Mngeni valley above Table Mountain and near Shongweni. Indeed, wherever sandstone outcrops have formed suitable rockshelters, paintings may be found.

Khoisan hunter-gatherers continued to occupy the upland portions of Natal, between Hilton and the Drakensberg, down to the coming of white settlers. The Voortrekkers named the escarpment which overlooks Pietermaritzburg 'Boesmansrand', and initially referred to the Msunduze as the 'Boesmansrivier ' and the Dorpspruit as the 'Klein Boesmansrivier'.

The most important change in the pre-colonial past was the advent of a new way of life, labelled by archaeologists the Iron Age. Of most significance was not so much knowledge of metals, but rather that of the farming of domestic plants and animals. Food was now produced rather than obtained from the wild. The nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life gave way to sedentary settlement with built homesteads comprising domestic accommodation, food storage structures and stock pens. Pottery, known in simple forms to the last of the Stone Age inhabitants, was now expertly fashioned and well decorated. Such distinctive pottery is a hallmark of this period. Current evidence indicates that this revolution in life style was introduced by new arrivals of Negro physical type indistinguishable from today's black population.

The Iron Age

The Iron Age way of life developed in equatorial Africa, spreading rapidly southwards and reaching the Natal coastal plain around AD250. By AD500 Iron Age villages were established throughout the coastal and savannah areas. Inland, the settlements clung to river valleys, for broad flat areas of good soil beside the rivers were preferred as village sites. These were often large in size and probably housed a few hundred people. The Pietermaritzburg sites fit into this pattern with one slight exception, which is away from the rivers near the University. Although none has been excavated and dated, the styles of pottery indicate dates between AD500 and 800.

Since Pietermaritzburg is situated at the upper limit of savannah country in the Msunduze valley, these Early Iron Age sites mark their furthest expansion up the valley during this period. In the same way contemporary sites in the Albert Falls area mark the furthest penetration up the Mngeni valley. However, the riverside village locations should not obscure the point that within a few hours' walk from such sites other desirable resources would be available to these communities. In particular the grasslands on the adjacent highlands, for example up towards the Hilton ridge and beyond, would have provided better spring and summer grazing than the sweeter but sparser lowland pastures which in turn have better autumn and winter grazing. Thus, although the permanent settlements remained in the valleys, the surrounding areas would also have been used for a variety of purposes such as grazing, firewood , hunting and collecting wild foods to supplement the products of farming. Each village was relatively self-sufficient, even to the smelting and production of its own iron and steel tools. We can therefore see the beginning of local industry at this time.

The lowland, village pattern of settlement gave way to a more dispersed and upland pattern around ADIOOO. Reasons for this change are not yet well understood, but it seems that the emphasis was now on smaller and shorter term settlements. These were probably no more than the homestead of a single family group, as was the case with the Nguni-speaking peoples as far back as the earliest written records go, which is to the mid-sixteenth century accounts of shipwrecked Portuguese mariners. One such settlement was built on the shoulder of the spur overlooking the Dorpspruit in the Botanical Gardens. All that remains is a thin scatter of pottery sherds suggesting a family homestead of perhaps only a few years' duration.

The pottery of the last 900 years has relatively little decoration. Many vessels are plain, and what decoration there is usually consists of no more than a few rows of impressions on the rim or neck. An interesting find from Mountain Rise is part of a bowl carved out of soapstone, but both in shape and decoration it is similar to pottery and even wooden vessels made by nineteenth century Zulu craftsmen. It probably dates to shortly before the arrival of white colonists.

Outside the City itself, but in the neighbourhood, are the remains of stone structures which were built during the past few centuries. Earliest of these may be the irregularly-walled areas in naturally defended sites such as one in the Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve. A similar structure at Moor Park near Estcourt, the only one yet excavated, dates to around AD1300. Later in the sequence are numerous circular stone cattle-pens which can be found in many of Natal's grassland areas. Each was the centre of a homestead inhabited by ancestors of today's Nguni-speaking people. Also belonging to this late period are several collections of iron artefacts which have been dug up in recent years. These were no doubt buried by their owners for security but never reclaimed. One such batch of hoes was found at the SOMTA Factory, Plessislaer.

Thus down to the coming of the Voortrekkers, or at least to the Mfecane of a few years earlier, the Pietermaritzburg area had been occupied for 1 300 years by settled black communities of agriculturalists. They evidently avoided the mistbelt sourveld areas from Hilton up country, but the savannah areas continued to be attractive throughout this time and from about AD1200 grassland areas with less acid soils also saw Iron Age settlement.

Source: Pietermaritzburg 1838-1988: a new portrait of an African city, edited by John Laband and Robert Haswell (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press and Shuter & Shooter, 1988) pp 14-17.