Occasional Publications

The most recent publications in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum's Occasional Publications series are:

Commoners and elite at Great Zimbabwe by Thomas N. Huffman (2025). 

Of this book, Prof. Jan Boeyens wrote, "This long awaited monograph on the salvage excavations that were carried out at Great Zimbabwe from 1971 to 1975 fittingly caps a distinguished scholar's long engagement with southern Africa's most impressive and intriguing precolonial site. In it Thomas Huffman meticulously records and amply illustrates the large-scale excavations of commoner households and a secondary elite enclosure. The finds provide a comprehensive picture of, especially, how commoners subsisted, built and interacted in the shadow of the hilltop palace of their rulers. The monograph is much more than a field report though. The well-documented research results, including several new radiocarbon dates, are carefully assessed and used as a backdrop to address key issues currently dominating debates about the site. To substantiate the archaeological observations, analyses and interpretation, recourse is frequently made to Portuguese eyewitness accounts of the Mutapa state, Shona customs and oral traditions, as well as Vende ethnography. The author's arguments and conclusions, which will no doubt spark new debate and research, are clearly presented in a highly readable style and format that will appeal to non-specialists as well."

Three volumes by Garth Sampson and Dennis Neville, The world of the Seekoei River Bushmen: habitat and resources (2018), Chronicles of the Seekoei River Bushmen and their neighbours: Volume 1 (2021) and Chronicles of the Seekoei River Bushmen and their neighbours: Volume 2 (2024) .

Of the first book, Prof. Lyn Wadley writes, "The prose is clear and clean with writing that skips effortlessly from page to page. This first volume deals with the natural history of the Seekoei Valley and sets the stage for the actors in the next volume – Bushman and Trekboer. There is exhaustive (but not exhausting) coverage of the geology, botany and animal life of the Valley. All of this is appropriate and necessary because the lives of hunter-gatherers and farmers were equally impacted by the presence of plant resources and pests."

Of the second book, Prof. Peter Mitchell writes, "A beautifully illustrated companion volume to The world of the Seekoei River Bushmen, published in 2018. It thoroughly documents the history of the Seekoei valley at a crucial moment in the development of the Cape Colony and the expansion of European settlement into the interior of southern Africa. I do not think that there is, or will likely ever be, anything of this comprehensiveness on record anywhere else in southern Africa as regards the opportunity to integrate a rich series of historical observations with archaeological and ethnographic material."

Now selling for R150 (Great Zimbabwe), R280 (The world) and R510 (Chronicles) excluding packing and postage. For inquiries, contact SAH Deputy Editor Ghilraen Laue (glaue@nmsa.org.za).