Investigating ironworking in Kigezi highlands, Southwestern Uganda

This dissertation reports of the field results from Kigezi Highlands, southwestern Uganda. The major objective of this research was to establish the archaeological representation of the region and more specifically to map out ironworking sites in order to reconstruct the metallurgical history of the region. In this investigation, the study employed basic archaeological field methods such as surveys and excavations but also consulted previous works conducted around the study area and the Great Lakes region. In total, 33 sites have been located out of which nine belong to the Late Stone Age period, eight to ironworking societies, while the rest are settlement sites evidenced by pottery, domestic animal bones as well as caves. The distribution pattern of lithics and metallurgical materials show that there was a co-existence of two cultures which may mean co-habitation of two groups of people that lived within Kigezi Highlands up to the sites excavated are of the Late Iron Age. Although a few EIA potsherds were collected from the surface, none cane from excavation. These results therefore contradicting the paleoecological hypothesis of early farming that spans from at least 3000 years ago (Taylor and Marchant 1994/5; Hamilton 1982). It is against the current findings, that I recommend further studies in the region that could shed more light on possible early habitation and more so understanding the cultural affiliation of Kigezi Highlands’ metallurgical history with that of the Great Lakes region.