RITUAL PRACTICE IN A DOMESTIC SPACE: EVIDENCE FROM MELORA HILLTOP, A LATE IRON AGE STONE-WALLED SETTLEMENT IN THE WATERBERG, LIMPOPO PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

This paper reports on preliminary observations and interpretations pertaining to a previously little-researched area and time frame. Artefacts, namely a bored stone, a grinding stone, an iron adze and fragments of what is concluded to be a clay grain bin, found in association during recent excavations on Melora Hilltop in Limpopo Province, are discussed in terms of both their mundane and ritual connotations. The ritual importance of seemingly mundane artefacts is implied. Their association and location argue for a shrine or place of ancestral ritual in a domestic space, possibly belonging to a person of status.