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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Namaso: A Newly Defined Cultural Entity of the Late First Millennium AD, and its Place in the Iron Age Sequence of Southern Malawi
Author:Davison, Spana
Year:1991
Periodical:Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa
Volume:26
Pages:13-62
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs., ills.
Geographic terms:Malawi
Central Africa
Subjects:archaeology
Iron Age
prehistory
Anthropology and Archaeology
Anthropology, Folklore, Culture
Archaeological sites
Namaso Bay (Malawi)
Nyasa, Lake
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709109511424
Abstract:This paper describes new evidence for settlement at Namaso Bay and other sites along the southeast arm of Lake Malawi towards the end of the first millennium AD, a period to which no dated Iron Age material had previously been attributed in this area, and places it within the local and the wider Iron Age contexts. The research on which the paper is based was conducted as part of a multidisciplinary project investigating lake level changes in Malawi. Namaso is a newly defined phase of the Malawi Iron Age and is exceptionally firmly dated at Namaso Bay from the late 8th to the early 11th centuries AD. Namaso pottery was regularly encountered at raised elevations, since the major period of settlement was concurrent with an extremely high level of Lake Malawi. External contacts notwithstanding, the Namaso material culture suggests a high degree of self-sufficiency, with local resources of lake, swamp, shoreline, valley, hill and bush being exploited to the full. Some materials used for tools (stone, shell) may have provided alternatives to iron. Long-distance contacts, providing copper and cowries, are attested. Trade with other Iron Age villagers may have resulted in the presence in the assemblages of items like iron, graphite, stone tools and decorated shell. Bibliogr., sum.
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