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Zambia: Kalundu
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Taken from: Revisiting Kalundu Mound, Zambia: Implications for the Timing of Social and Subsistence Transitions in Iron Age Southern Africa Steven T. Goldstein, Alison Crowther 2021
Isolated finds of cowrie shells, in the base of the Kalundu (Tonga= Little Hill) mound, show that the Kalomo culture people were able to acquire certain trade objects from their earliest period of settlement. That their trading contacts were only sporadic is shown by the small number of glass beads and other imported items which are found in their villages.
This paper reports the results of re-excavation at Kalundu Mound on the Batoka Plateau of southern Zambia, one of the iconic mound sites of the Iron Age “Kalomo Culture.” New radiocarbon dates were combined with the original dates in a series of Bayesian models, indicating that previous chronologies for the site are not reliable and that the mound site likely developed rapidly from AD 1190 to 1410.
Twelve beads were recovered during our excavations at Kalundu Mound. Of these, seven were made from ostrich eggshell (OES), one was made from stone, and four were Indian Ocean glass trade beads. All the glass beads are turquoise in color with diameters from 3.2 to 5.5 mm, consistent in morphology with K2-Indo-Pacific style beads dating to the late tenth to early thirteenth centuries (Koleini et al., 2016; Wood, 2011). Recovery of many beads from a test trench is significant as only a single glass bead was identified from the 1957 and 1962 excavations. Either there is spatial variation in the distribution of beads at Kalundu, or the difference is due to good recovery.
Zambia: Ingombe Ilede
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Taken from: The Iron Age of Zambia by Brian Fagan.
Recent excavations in the Middle Zambesi valley near Lusitu, 32 miles downstream of Kariba, have given us a clear idea of the type of trade practised in the Middle Zambesi valley during the late 1st millenium. An ash capped ridge known as Ingombe Ilede (Tonga-the place where the cow sleeps) lies some 32 miles downstream of the Kariba Dam Wall on the north bank of the Zambesi. In 1960 the foundations for a water tank were dug into the top of the hill in connection with the Kariba Resettlement Scheme. The labourers exposed a burial with rich grave goods. Subsequent rescue excavations by Chaplin (1962) and further work in 1961 and 1962 by the present writer have given us a clear picture of a village engaged in sporadic trading activity.
No less than 46 skeletons were found during the course of the various seasons of excavation. In the centre of the site lay 11 extended male skeletons, several of which were buried with gold and glass beads, conus sea shells, copper cross ingots and trade wire, pottery, and wire drawing tools. Copper bangles or bracelets adorned the legs and arms of certain of these skeletons. In places the oxidising effect of the copper had preserved fabrics, and several different varieties of imported and indigenous cloth have been recognized. The richness of these burials strongly suggests that they are the bodies of a chief and his retinue. The trade which made these people rich was presumably based on copper, ivory, gold, and perhaps slaves, in exchange for cloth, beads, and other luxuries from the coast. The Livingstone brothers (1865) recorded that the Lusitu stream was famous for its salt, and this local commodity may well have been a basis for trade. The copper and gold must have been obtained from the interior either north or south of the Zambesi, but at present the problem of the origin of the Lusitu raw materials remains unsolved. In the last occupation phases, however, the pottery is finer, and trade goods are more common, suggesting that the volume of trade increased in the later stages of the settlement.
The gold burials, which belong to the later levels, thus date to ca. A.D. 850, whilst the site was first occupied in the 7th century. The Ingombe Ilede thus belongs to the earliest period of Zambesi trade.