"Heath", ein Steinhaufenplatz auf dem Daureb (Namibia). Neue Aspekte der Prähistorie einer herausragenden Felskunstregion
Final Report Abstract
The Daureb (Brandberg) in Namibia is well known for its rock art that has been thoroughly recorded and extensively published through projects run by the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne, mainly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Additional field archaeological research from the same institute helped to set the temporal and economic frame for the period of rock art production (between 4000 and 2000 BP) and subsequent periods. The archaeologically most visible post-rock art period is the Brandberg Culture of the past 500 years, which to a considerable extent has left behind various stone structures, the majority of them being stone circles or similar constructions linked to hut or shelter building. No other period in the mountain could so far be linked to stones being used as building material. A conspicuous accumulation of stone heaps in the upper eastern area of Numas Gorge, that was discovered no earlier than 2005, displayed a deviation from the usual pattern of stone structures in the Daureb and therefore called for closer inspection. In April 2012 a team composed of archaeologists from University of Cologne, University of Namibia and the National Heritage Council of Namibia visited the area and undertook various archaeological investigations. These included excavations of stone heaps, systematic collection of surface finds in a defined area, a plan at scale 1:100 of the whole basin containing the stone heap accumulation and the establishment of a matrix of systematic height measurements across the entire basin. Preliminary results can be summarised as follows: The initial hypothesis that the stone heaps mark burials could not be verified but only two stone heaps were excavated. The spot 5 m across of greyish sediment in the centre of the basin is composed of ash and charcoal, marking several closely connected fire places. Pottery was found on the surface in many places of the basin but none in stratified layers during the excavations. Stone tools were found on the surface and in stratified layers, but the typical macrolithic tools of the Brandberg Industry were nowhere identified. Further finds from the surface and from the excavations include ostrich eggshell and bones. Among the latter is bone of a sheep (see expert assessment by N. Pöllath, University of Munich), which represents the first archaeologically sound evidence for sheep in the upper mountain areas. 14C dates were obtained by AMS dating at the newly established laboratory at the University of Cologne in the context of CRC 806 (SFB 806). Two large samples of charcoal yielded dates of 232±33 BP (COL2162.1.1) and 174±33 BP (COL2163.1.1) which falls plainly into a hard to date period, but whichever possible date one might address, it would be fitting exactly into the Brandberg Culture as defined by Breunig (2003). The sheep bone produced an even younger 14C date of 104±41 BP (= 1800-1940calAD, COL2179.1.1) and therefore should belong to the youngest period of use of the Upper Daureb (Brandberg) which can be clearly attributed to the extant Damara population. It should be noted, however, that with a probability of 31% the dating of this bone may fall into the period between 1678 and 1765calAD. The cairns and circles showed to be differentiated in their constructions so that a typology was set up, in which the 64 identified structures were allocated to seven types, or, in the case of 10 structures, to no identifiable type. The excavated material was submitted to a preliminary archaeological analysis in a workshop led by E. Fäder and involving students from University of Namibia. Afterwards it was deposited at the National Museum in Windhoek. There is a report on the sheep bone from the excavation in the Universitäts-Zeitung of the University of Cologne in December 2013.
