Earliest settlers

Earliest settlers
We've heard about the early Boer farmers who settled on the Witwatersrand. We've admired the colonial buildings in suburbs like Parktown and Westcliff. We've read about the Boers and Brits going head to head in the Anglo Boer War, but what about the very first settlers in the region? Looking North from the Melville Koppies ridge The broader Johannesburg area used to house scattered villages of early Bantu peoples (African people whose languages originate in the Niger-Congo region), evident from aerial photographs showing the rings made by the kraals, usually situated on koppies. Melville Koppies and Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve are the only two remaining areas in the city that preserve evidence of these early settlements. In the early 1960s an Iron Age furnace was discovered by Professor Revil Mason, former head of archaeology at Wits University, in the fenced central section of Melville Koppies, now a national monument. "In 1963 I was asked by the Melville Koppies Management Committee to have a look at what was visible on the top ridge - a ring. It wasn't too clear, only a trained eye could see it. We soon discovered iron-smelting debris - fragments of charcoal, slag raw iron and broken blowpipes on the floor of the furnace," says Mason. He estimates the site to date from around 1060AD. Three other furnaces have been found on the ridge. And further afield in Johannesburg's suburbs, 13 furnaces have been found at Honeydew, about eight kilometres north of Melville. "These were exposed on a dirt road, which has since been covered with tar," says Mason. Another three furnaces were found at Lonehill in the far northern suburbs, but these were subsequently covered again to protect them. Further east, near Bruma Lake, another furnace was found. A plaster cast of this furnace was made, and it now resides at Wits University's archaeology department. The remains of another furnace are visible at Hearn Drive in Northcliff.

We've heard about the early Boer farmers who settled on the Witwatersrand. We've admired the colonial buildings in suburbs like Parktown and Westcliff. We've read about the Boers and Brits going head to head in the Anglo Boer War, but what about the very first settlers in the region? Looking North from the Melville Koppies ridge

The broader Johannesburg area used to house scattered villages of early Bantu peoples (African people whose languages originate in the Niger-Congo region), evident from aerial photographs showing the rings made by the kraals, usually situated on koppies.

Melville Koppies and Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve are the only two remaining areas in the city that preserve evidence of these early settlements.

In the early 1960s an Iron Age furnace was discovered by Professor Revil Mason, former head of archaeology at Wits University, in the fenced central section of Melville Koppies, now a national monument.

"In 1963 I was asked by the Melville Koppies Management Committee to have a look at what was visible on the top ridge - a ring. It wasn't too clear, only a trained eye could see it. We soon discovered iron-smelting debris - fragments of charcoal, slag raw iron and broken blowpipes on the floor of the furnace," says Mason.

He estimates the site to date from around 1060AD. Three other furnaces have been found on the ridge. And further afield in Johannesburg's suburbs, 13 furnaces have been found at Honeydew, about eight kilometres north of Melville. "These were exposed on a dirt road, which has since been covered with tar," says Mason.

Another three furnaces were found at Lonehill in the far northern suburbs, but these were subsequently covered again to protect them. Further east, near Bruma Lake, another furnace was found. A plaster cast of this furnace was made, and it now resides at Wits University's archaeology department. The remains of another furnace are visible at Hearn Drive in Northcliff.