Phalaborwa -
The dead man lay atop a high hill in northern Kruger National Park, surrounded by a forest of baobabs. In all my travels through South Africa’s wild areas, I’d never seen so many of these giant trees together. At least a hundred of them stood sentry over the hilltops alongside the Luvhuvu River.
Heat and humidity usually press down like molten lead in the lowveld, but on the morning we explored the ancient burial site of Thulamela a cool mist shrouded the land, flowing through the baobabs’ immense branches.
Three armed guides and I walked slowly up the hill to where the skeleton lay, keeping our voices low. It was an eerily quiet morning, unusual for the bushveld. But then a baboon barked, and a lion’s baritone roar clattered into our eardrums, and we all looked at each other. Some wild areas in Africa seem to have a way, through sheer wonderment, of making humans very aware of our own insignificance.
We came to the grave, a pile of stones. The king had stopped breathing around 1450 AD, surrounded by about 2 000 of his people, who were probably the iron-age ancestors of today’s Shona and Tsonga people.
As the sun rose, the mist cleared a little, giving us a brief glimpse of this utterly alluring wilderness. It was an exceptional place to die.
This sacred spot was found only in 1983 by ranger Philip Nel, who came across thousands of stones. These had had once formed circular walls, but with time had tumbled into large piles. Philip was probably the first person to come here in five centuries.
Then archaeologists started studying the area in 1991, and found two graves, one of an elderly man, and one of a young woman. Both skeletons were found wearing gold bracelets and beads, and the woman was buried with her hands tucked underneath her cheeks, a position of supplication that the Venda people still use today.
These two people were most probably of “royal” position, and lived among the 500-odd privileged society on top of the hill, while about 1 000 “commoners” lived on the lower slopes. The graves were excavated and studied in the 1990s, and then the skeletons were reburied in a ceremony with the local communities.
Thulamela was the last settlement of these Venda or Shona speaking people, who had previously lived at places like Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe, which were the first examples of formalised, hierarchical societies in southern Africa.
Most of these iron-age settlements were located near the Limpopo River, or its tributaries, and the locals used the river to transport ivory and gold to the Mozambican coast, where they would meet Muslim traders who sailed East Africa’s oceans. On the coast they would swap Africa’s treasures for Chinese porcelain and Indian glass beads, both of which have been found at Thulamela.
No one is sure why Thulamela was abandoned in about 1550 AD, but the increasingly arid climate would have made crop-growing and cattle-keeping unsustainable. Maybe the trade networks collapsed when the Portuguese first arrived in southern Africa and took control from the Arabs.
Today, the walls have been beautifully reconstructed. Local masons worked for 14 months and packed more than 2 000 tons of the original stones to rebuild the ancient circular kraals, without cement or mortar, just as they were several hundred years ago.
My guides Daniel Shibambu and Carel Nkuna walked us around the ruins, showing us ancient pottery shards and stone tools. We sat down on one of the walls, underneath the same baobab trees that were standing here for a thousand years before the original inhabitants had arrived.
Daniel told me that the word “Thulamela” is derived from the words “thula” meaning “raised place” and “mela” meaning “to grow or germinate”. But it can also mean “seed of stillness”. The collective natural wisdom and peace of Thulamela is undeniable.
Daniel also told me that when archaeologists first arrived to start their research, a big male leopard was lying alongside the king’s grave. It peered disdainfully at the human interlopers, grunted a few times, and then disappeared like mist clearing in the morning sun.
Thulamela’s king chose his burial site well. For centuries he has slept atop a hill surrounded by baobabs, with views down a wild African river, his skeleton and soul kept safe by a territorial leopard.
l Ramsay is a photojournalist focusing on Africa’s wild places. Partners include Ford Everest, CapeNature and Goodyear. Instagram: @wildscotty
Tours can be booked at Punda Maria Camp in northern Kruger, 013 735 6873, www.sanparks.org
Cape Times