Kent Fowler and his graduate students in South Africa
Digging in deeper
An archaeology project four years in the making continued it's findings in South Africa earlier this spring
Dr. Kent Fowler and his team of students recently travelled to South Africa to continue their research on the Zulu Kingdom Archaeology Project.
The SSHRC Insight and Insight Development grants funded the project from 2020 to 2026. The research is being conducted in the heartland of the Zulu Kingdom in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
From the beginning of this project, it has been a global collaboration involving KwaZulu-Natal Amafa and Research Institute, the eMcakweni Community Trust, and researchers and cultural heritage practitioners from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and South Africa.
“It’s rare that everyone involved in this project can come together in one place like this. It’s intriguing to work on this together and find what we are finding.”
Kent Fowler focuses on the economic links between commoners and kings, using geochemical, isotopic, and genetic methods to investigate herding practices, domestic equipment production, metal tools and weapons, and dating ceramics.
Before heading out to South Africa, Kent broke down the project focus into three goals:
- Identify unknown settlements
- Understand lifestyles outside king’s capitals
- Understand agriculture in local ecologies
After returning home in early July, Kent and his team of students are now working on analyzing their findings as they continue this project for the coming years.
To learn more about this Archaeology Project, visit our website.