Excavations at the walled Early Iron-Age site in Moor Park near Estcourt, Natal

This paper describes archaeological excavations in 1972 at a walled hilltop-site near Estcourt (Natal). The site consists of a walled citadel covered with terraces, and extending northward from it along a ridge a large outer area with a circuit wall which was not completed along the steepest side. Some of the terraces were open courts and others house-sites. The houses have been reconstructed as of primitive rectangular type. Much plain pottery, terracotta figurines of cows, grindstones and a little iron were found. Three radiocarbon-dates are of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries A.D. The site seems to be one of the first settlements of a group of Early Iron Age people (probably Bantu-speaking but not identifiable with any modern Bantu tribe) who came over the Drakensberg into upper Natal. Apparently the citadel hill was first occupied; but the surrounding walls and much of the upper terracing were built at a rather later stage, without necessarily any break in occupation. The site was abandoned without destruction. To cite this article: Davies, O. 1974. Excavations at the walled Early Iron-Age site in Moor Park near Estcourt, Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 22 (1): 289-323.