Mapungubwe. Ancient Bantu Civilization on the Limpopo

Large 4to; original cloth-backed papered boards, with title printed on upper cover, and paper spine label; clipped dustwrapper; pp. xiv + 183, incl. index; folding charts; several plates, incl. some in colour; tables and diagrams in text.  Dustwrapper somewhat sunned and mottled, with some loss to ends of spine panel; light wear to bottom fore-corners of boards. Loosely inserted first day cover of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, dated 23.09.2009. Very good condition.

Fouché's work is the seminal monograph on Mapungubwe, now a protected site within a South African national park.  'The editor, variously assisted, contributes the introductory chapters on Discovery, Preliminary work and certain aspects of culture believed to be connected with Mapungubwe.  Part II, the 1934 Expedition, is a report on excavations, by Neville Jones.  In his summary he stresses the Bantu affinities, relying mostly on the pottery for evidence.  He is in complete agreement with J. F. Schofield, who gives a detailed analysis of the pottery from this site and others in the vicinity.  Two types ... are distinguished as belonging to two language groups.  [Another] is considered not to be of local manufacture.  Two periods, the Mapungubwe Period (1500-1750) and the Venda Period (1750-1830) correspond with this; the Third or Post-Mzilikazi Period resulted in the dislocation of the settlement.  Part IV, on the beads, is by H. C. Beck, and the chapter on Metallurgy by M. Weber, by R. Pearson, and by G. H. Stanley.  G. H. Lestrade investigated the ethnology (Part VI), which is followed by a report on the 1934-5 work and concluding remarks by the Editor (Part VII).  The report on the Skeletal remains and dentition of the Mapungubwe skulls by A. Galloway (Part VIII): It seems to contradict all other conclusions: the skulls are said to be positively not Bantu but to represent "a Homogeneous Boskop-Bush population physically akin to the post-Boskop inhabitants of the coastal caves".' - Holm: Bibliography of South African Pre- and Proto-Historic Archaeology, p. 45