Bakoni Ruins
Introduction
The Bakoni Ruins are intriguing to many individuals. Its origin is largely disputed between psuedoarchaeologists and archaeologists. Because of this, the dating of the site widely ranges between 25,000 to 250,000 years old. It is important to note that it was before the colonization of Africa when this land was settled by the Bakoni. This site is located in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa, which is now referred to as eNtokozweni. The Bakoni Ruins are constructed stonewalls located in mostly grassy pasture areas [1]. These walls consist of maze-like ruins that form circular enclosures as well as linear pathways. “Among the maze of stonewalling there are three main elements visible today: the homesteads, the terraced fields and the road networks” [1]. These stonewalls are spread all throughout the province. To present day, this site has yet to be excavated and has earned the title as South Africa’s “Lost City”, for its mysterious past. What little we do know about the site comes from interpretations of the site itself as well as the oral histories and written documents that have existed for thousands of years. While the oral histories and written documents give us more knowledge of the site, it is very limited.
While we use the term the “Bakoni” as a way to reference the site, region, and for the group of people who actually settled in this region; it is important to not assume that the Bakoni people were all from the same origin. Through the interpretation of the Bakoni oral traditions in a collaborative effort between archaeologist Alex Schoeman and Historian Peter Delius, we have concluded that the Bakoni tribe was most likely a consolidated group made up of various neighboring groups that arrived in the Mpumalanga region at different times. It is also important to note that while these oral traditions could be true, over time stories are manipulated to match the biases of the storyteller [2].
Context of the Bakoni Ruins
The Bakoni Ruins are maze-like structures that consist of enclosed circular stonewalls as well as linear pathways. The Mpumalanga Province where the ruins are found is located within the escarpment of South Africa. This land was used for agricultural purposes when the Bakoni inhabited the land. “After about 1600 [Bokoni] saw the establishment of numerous communities based on the development of what was for the times an exceptionally intensive form of agriculture. Evidence for this is to be found in the numerous and often densely concentrated ruins of stone enclosures, agricultural terraces, and interweaving cattle lanes” [3].. The extensive amount of ruins through this region suggests that agriculture was a large part of the Bakoni lifestyle. Some of these stone walls were used to create terraces. Terrace agriculture is an important asset when the fields could be endangered of erosion through intense agricultural practice. These stone terrace walls surround the small fields the Bakoni used to cultivate. It is thought that these terraces were not built all of once. The process of creating the stone walls and well as the movement of soil to create the raised edge of the terrace would have taken too many years to build up. Along with the stone walls, sherds of pottery have been found although out this region. The presence of pottery suggest that the people who existed here also stored their agricultural products as the use of pottery was popularly used as food storage.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Delius, Peter, Tim Maggs, and Alex Schoeman 2014 Forgotten world: the stone walled settlements of the Mpumalanga Escarpment. Wits University Press, Johannesburg.
- ↑ Delius, Peter, Tim Maggs, and Maria Schoeman 2012 Bokoni: Old Structures, New Paradigms? Rethinking Pre-colonial Society from the Perspective of the Stone-Walled Sites in Mpumalanga. Journal of Southern African Studies 38(2): 399–414.
- ↑ Wright, John 2010 Putting Bokoni on the Historians Map. African Studies 69(2): 229–233.