Abstract
Mr. E. J. Way-land figures and describes in Man for February relics of a culture at present unidentified from a site at the top of Luzira Hill, Port Bell, Uganda, of which the first indications were some remarkable heads, of pottery figures found by natives in the course of building operations. A stratum of angular granite rubble, thought to be of middle Pleistocene or post-middle Pleistocene age, was found to contain arte facts belonging to two groups, one contemporaneous, the other derived. In a stratum of red earth above, were elongated continuations of the surface soil which were found to contain parts of pottery figures and a number of fragments of pottery vessels, all of which had been broken before being deposited in the pits. The pits were circular in horizontal section and showed no sign of any interment. On a hill top a quarter of a mile away was found a shrine consisting of an earthenware pot containing rain water and a few coins and having a number of spears arranged point inward and other objects around it. Although the shrine is still or was until recently in use, the natives know nothing of its origin. Mr. Miles. Burkitt, reporting on the stone artefacts from Luzira, considers the industry of great interest and compares it with that found by F. B. Macrae in the Kafue district of Northern Rhodesia, in a cave near Mumbwa. Mr. H. J. Braunholtz considers that the objects from the pits are older than those from the shrine. The pottery figures are remarkable for the head-dress and also for the conventional treatment of the body. In one figure the thighs are omitted. The figures are unique in African art. One small fragment of pottery has an ornament still in common use among the Baganda. These finds are probably only a few centuries old. Among the objects from the shrine the iron spear heads with tangs are peculiar for Uganda, while those with sockets and an eyelet between blade and socket are not a modern Baganda type and cannot be matched in the British Museum collections.
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Research Items. Nature 131, 439–441 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131439a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131439a0