Archaeological survey in the Machili Valley, Zambia: a report on the 2019 preliminary field season

ABSTRACT After c. AD 700 the Machili Valley in Western Province, Zambia, is exemplary of the type of ‘in-between’ places that made up large portions of the African continent where states did not develop, but that were anything but isolated and undifferentiated. Limited archaeological surveys in the 1950s to 1970s situate the Machili Valley into a larger context of Iron Age life in Zambia in particular and in south-central Africa more broadly. This paper details early results from survey work in Machili conducted in 2019 that employed a combination of geophysical and shovel test survey methods to re-survey previously documented sites, identify new ones and study localised variations in iron production practices in the valley. Results suggest geographic and temporal changes in settlement patterns and iron production practices, as well as in the spatial relationships between domestic areas and iron smelting and smithing locations among Early Farming Communities in Zambia.