Ancient site · Settlement
Lydenburg Heads site
Also known as Lydenburg
A farm near Lydenburg in Mpumalanga, South Africa, where a boy found pieces of seven hollow terracotta heads, among the oldest known Iron Age artworks south of the equator. Found with pottery, iron and copper beads and bones, and dated to about 500 CE, they belong to early farming communities who brought iron, crops and cattle to the region, part of the spread of Bantu-speaking peoples.
They are now in the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town.
- Dates
- c. 500 CE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 25.10° S, 30.46° E
How we know
No writing existed; charcoal found with the heads is radiocarbon dated to about 1,410 years ago; the point marks the town of Lydenburg.
Nearby sites
- Apollo 11 Cave painted slabs c. 28,000 BCE (about 30,000 years old)
- Lothagam North Pillar Site c. 3000–2300 BCE
- Shum Laka used from c. 30,000 years ago to c. 400 years ago; burials c. 6000 and 1000 BCE
- Laas Geel c. 3500–2500 BCE (estimated)
- Aksum (stelae fields) capital from c. 1st century BCE–1st century CE; great stelae c. 300–400 CE
- Yeha (Great Temple) temple c. 700 BCE
Related
- Bantu expansion (approximate) archaeological culture
- The world in 500: Kingdoms After Rome chapter