The archaeology of contemporary artisanal gold mining at Mutanda Site, Eastern Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT In this paper I seek to redefine how we might go about doing archaeology in a way that effectively decolonizes it by collaborating with local communities in research projects. My emphasis is on mining archaeology in precolonial and contemporary settings with a view to contributing to documenting and understanding indigenous African gold mining practices. I achieve this through an empirical illustration of a collaborative archaeological excavation undertaken at Mutanda Site in Eastern Zimbabwe and how we interpreted the recovered material culture jointly, using dialogical ethnographic engagements with community members. The paper also illustrates that gold mining in this area heavily relies upon indigenous knowledge of the past and its application in the present. Interpretation of material culture recovered during the excavation occurred using ethnographic analogies and ritual beliefs that are associated with mining in the area. Thus, a social process of knowledge production developed within this collaborative research.