discovery of the graveyards of the

8/8/2019 Discovery of the Graveyards of The

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DISCOVERY OF THE GRAVEYARDS OF

THE HABE KINGS (Gunguma dynasty) OF

ZAZZAU AT TURUNKU THE FORMERCAPITAL OF KINGDOM

An archaeological amateur work

UMARU YUSUFU

[email protected]

Anguwan Juma, No. 180 PO Box 271, Zaria Nigeria.

Tel. No: - 2348191145293


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1. To my daughter Maimuna, (Yartsohuwa), who becomes sick while I was awayfor the field work, the result of which is this work.


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The precipitation map of the world at the time of our visit

Precipitation (July)


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Africa at night when we sat to give our children the oral tradition known as the tale by the moonlight

Physical map of the Nigerian area


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A map of part of Zaria in the present day Kaduna State of modern Nigeria


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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

The Department of Archaeology usually embarks on a field trip for a given periodannually to conduct research in a selected site and the material remains recovered will be used,utilizing archaeological knowledge to reveal information that might be used to reconstruct the

past culture of the society that once lived in the site.

Being both scientific and humanist discipline, Archaeology employs techniques from allthese fields of knowledge in order to achieve the maximum result. Thus it utilizes the techniques

of geology, Genetic Studies, Anthropology, Paleontology, Geography etc, but at the end, theresult of this research could only be useful when a report followed the work.

Field school was designed so as to give students a chance to practiced what they learnedin the class and the year 2010 field school, was conducted at Turunku, both Tsohuwa (Old) and

Sabuwa (Sabuwa) together which prior to the shift to Zaria, was serving as the capital of the

Gwari Kingdom of Zazzau.The field school was conducted between (27

thof July to the 4

th, of August, 2010), by the

students of the Department of Archaeology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria. This fieldwork was very important for the practical exposition to aspiring Archaeologist and it involved allstudents of 200 400 level as the requirement for the partial fulfillment of a degree award in

Archaeology. At the end, all the recovered materials where to be subjected to a critical analysis,using the necessary approach required, to which the result, will then be made available, to the

both professionals and the general public.

1.0 Aims and Objectives1.1

The field school was intended to train the student on the practice of Archaeology,especially in the collection of Ethnographic Data, Oral Tradition and the Excavation of

the site that will follow Reconnaissance as well as the analysis of this data reconstructpast cultures.

1.2 Methodology1.3

As the jack of all trade an Archaeologist is, he, in order to conduct his profession had toborrow the methods of other sciences to achieve his laid down theatrical goals. Thus to

conduct this work we had utilizes Oral Tradition, Survey, Mapping Gridding,Photographic Documentation, Excavation and Stratigraphy to collect the data that we

latter classified and analyzed.

To do this also, we had utilized the relevant instruments for efficiency, these includes;

Cutlasses, Diggers, Shovels, Hand Trowels, Head Pan, Twine, Pegs, Prismatic Compass,Level with graduated staff, Tripod Ranging Pole, Writing Materials and a Tape.


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CHAPTER TWO

2.0 GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION, CLIMATE, GEOLOGY, SOIL, VEGITATION,

DRAINAGE, ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND HITORICAL BACKGROUND OF TURUNKU

2.1 Geographical location and Climate of Turunku

Turunku is located about 34 km east of Zaria; it lies on or about latitude 10.48Degrees North and Longitude 7.42 Degrees East and has an elevation of about 692

meters above sea level. It is boarded by Garki village to the North Jaji to the West,

Kangimi and Amana to the South. Turunku is also about 40 km North of Kaduna.The climate that that of the typical West African savanna is characterized by the

temperatures that ranges from 28 to 35 Degrees Centigrade and enjoys two seasons ofrainy (Mid May to September) and the dry seasons of November to March corresponding

to Summer and Winter periods with their accompanied equinoxes known as Damina,

Kaka, Rani and Bazara in Hausa language.The terrain slopes from East to West and bounded to the North by a system of

hills known as Dutsen Lawal, Dutsen Tandama and others ranging from 600 800 metersabove the sea level.

The soil is of loamy and literate type with relatively dark and brownish colors

that supported a rich savanna vegetation of grass, shrubs and scattered medium sized

trees. The plant life of this savanna of the transition between Guinea and the Sudan typescontains trees like Orchard, Tamarind, Baobab, Date Palm, Locust Beans, SilkCottonand Shea Butter etc.

Economic activities is predominantly agricultural and its subseries. The productstheir farms includes Maize, Millet, Guinea Corn, Yam and a variety of vegetables the

most common of which were Onions, Tomatoes, Pepper etc.,there is a pottery worker and

a blacksmith in the community.The women at home being predominantly a Muslimcommunity usually cook some of the farm produce like Groundnuts and Maize as well as

some common recipes like Wara, Kosai, Waina da Miya, Danwake and so on, for the

children to hawk.

They also rear some animals like goats, sheep and sometimes caws at homes orsimply allowing them to roam about. There are also some cattle rearing Fulani in someisolated country who provided the mostly Hausa community with milk cheese. They also

engaged in some petty trading, government services and other white colored jobs for theeducated few.

There is also a government provided Primary and secondary school in the ancient

settlement.

2.2 Historical background

The name Turunku might have originated from any of the following according to varying

reports;

1. The word Turaku which literally means pillars referring to some pillars on top of oneof the mountains just north to which the town Turunku is, and according to the current


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Chief said, once served as the Kings abodes. The mountain is called Tandama, babban

dutse (the big stone), and that the word Tandama means the resting place. On themountain top we saw some the pillars that seems to be part of a Megaliths Stone system

that could be a place of worship. One of the stone pillars stood 2.30 m with a width ofabout 0.446 m. Or

2. From the word Toronkawa (the people of Toro), the Tukolor, a Futa Toro (mount ofToro) stock called as such or batoranke (Singuler) by the Hausas. In the 9th centuryTukolor settled in the Sngal River valley, and founded the powerful Tekrur state of theTukolor that dominated eastern Senegal from the 11th to the 14th century. According toal-Bekri, an Arab traveler and a Historian, the Tekolor who by 11th century were all

Muslims, were to become the agents that Islamized most of West Africa, always adopting

the language and cultures of the people they settled with. The Encyclopedia Britannicadescribed them as the West African Muslims.

One of the pillars at Tandama babban dutse had the word Tukur (written in ArabicInscription) at it.

Turunku was said to be the capital of the Gwari Kingdom of Zazzau, until the time of BakwaToronka in the beginning of the 15th century since from the time of the first King, of known

dynasty, Gunguma, who probably began his ruled in the 12th century and whose dynasty, the

Fulani overthrew during the 1804 Jihad of Usman Dan Fodio.Gunguma the son of Bawo and the grandson of Abuyazid (bayajida), the legendary Arab man

that once killed the snake of the Kusugu wall of Daura and Married Daurama the Queen of Daura,

was said to have been invited to come to the help of the people of the Kingdom from a treat bysome people from the South. It was said that he first settled at Kargi then Wucicciri before finally

settling at Turunku. It was also said that the large crowd that welcomed him later crowned him astheir King. And before the capital was shifted to Zaria, which was named after the sister to the

legendry Queen Amina, the following succeeding princes had ruled as Kings of Zazzau inTurunku;

Matazu, Tumsa, Tumrasu, Sulaiman, Nasan dan Zaki, Niyuya, Kauchi, Nunaki, Bushekiri,

Kayuwa, Bushekiri na biyu (the second), Najidadi, Kilari, and Sukana. No one could give thedates to which the fore mentioned Kings had ruled with certainty, others includes Rabonbawa

whose reign lasted for 25 years then Azawa who ruled for 2 years before the predecessor toBakwa Toronka, Karonawa, who ruled for only a year.

Bakwa Toronka credited to shifting the capital to Zaria, which he named after one of hisdaughters had ruled for 30 years and his grave is in Tsohuwar Turunku. He was also the father ofQueen Amina.

According to oral tradition, Zazzau had risen to prominence in the early 15th centuryunder the brilliant military leadership of Queen Amina although some had claimed that she never

ruled but that her famed was due her role as a war commander under the leadership of her father

Bakwa Toronka. Zazzau, became part of the Songhai Empire in the 16th century, fell to theFulani in the early 19th century, and was captured by the British in 1901.

Turunku however, is now just a small village, but its cultural remains, had always

informed every visitor and especially the Archaeologist, about its remote antiquity. The monolith

pillars to which the name Turunku might have originated is a reminder of how old the settlementmight have existed.


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Picture 1

Picture of the Chief of Sabuwar Turunku Alhaji Usman Ibrahim (standing) in front of his residence as he narrates theoral tradition of Turunku while one of his council members listens

Ethnographic Report.

Ethnology orCultural Anthropology is one of the four subdivisions of anthropology. The

other subdivisions are physical anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Ethnology, typically

practiced by socio-cultural anthropologists, is concerned with the study of cultures in their

traditional forms and in their adaptations to changing conditions in the modern world.Ethnography, the observational branch of ethnology, describes each culture, including itslanguage, the physical characteristics of its people, its material products, and its social customs.

In describing a particular tribe, for example, ethnographers gather information about its locationand geographical environment. They also investigate all aspects of its culture, including food,

shelter, dress, transportation, and manufacture of the tribe; its customs regarding government,

property, and division of labor; its patterns of production and exchange; its customs regarding

birth, adulthood initiation rites, marriage, and death; its religious ideas relating to magic,supernatural beings, and the universe; and its artistic, mythological, and ceremonial

interpretations of its natural and social environment.

To conduct this, we visited a black smiths shop and pottery maker.

Blacksmithing

Sometimes called smithing, or blacksmithing, hand forging is the simplest form of forging and itis one of the methods by which metal was first worked. The metal to be forged is first heated to

red heat in the fire of a forge, and then is beaten into shape on a metal anvil with sledges or

hammers. The forge consists of an open hearth, made of some durable, refractory substance suchas firebrick, which is provided with a number of air openings, or tuyeres, through which air is

forced by a bellows or blower fan. Charcoal, coke, and coal are used as fuels in the forge.Hammers and other tools are employed by the blacksmith in the various forging operations.

At the only blacksmiths shop in Turunku, Malam Usaini Makeri (the blacksmith), who

claimed he had been practicing the profession for about 50 years, but that he had began hisapprenticeship with his father at the age of about 5 years, sat as he does his work while a child of

about five operates the blowers. We ask him on how blacksmiths before the coming of the


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Europeans use to get iron? To which responded that, they use to obtain it from a reddish type of a

rock called dutsen tama (iron ores)Then iron is purified from its ores bysmelting. In this process, this rocks that contain iron are

crushed and melted in a very hot furnace, they were made by fist by heating a mass of iron oreand charcoal (of tree called Kirya) in a forge (Rumbu) with an opening to collect the molten iron

beneath . Under this treatment the ore was reduced to the sponge of metallic iron filled with a slag

composed of metallic impurities and charcoal ash. This sponge of iron was then obtained at itsmelting point via the hole.removed from the furnace while still incandescent and beaten withheavy sledges to drive out the slag and to weld and consolidate the iron.

. Picture 2 picture 3

Picture 2 above shows the hands of Malam Usaini Makeris hand holding chisel as he hand forges

or shapes a hot iron into a hoe (Ruwan fatanya) on an anvil bench while picture 3 shows air

openings, or tuyeres, through which air is forced by a bellows or blower fan and the charcoal usedas fuels in the forge heating the products red hot.

In an answer to a question he said the profession of blacksmith dates back to the time ofKing Solomon, the king of ancient Israel (reigned 961-922 BC), second son of David, king of

Judah and Israel, and Bathsheba ( 2 Samuel 12:24). In later Jewish and Muslim literature

Solomon appears not only as the wisest of sages but as one gifted with the power to control thespirits of the invisible world. He is frequently noted in history and literature as the builder of the

Temple that came to be known as the Temple of Solomon.Malam Usaini Makeri, said when he arrived at the Turunku there was no any other practicing

Black Smith in the village because the head of the last practicing family had forbidding them

from the practice.

He said the head of the family forbid them for two reasons;

1. One time at given ceremony of the Black Smiths (Wasan Wuta), a member of the

family commands fire materialized and people began to regards the feat as a witch craft.2. That some members of the family began to claim they were Sharifai, that was,

claiming they belong to the family of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) simply because they took a

potion which protects them from being burnt by fire.

The Muslims especially in West Africa believed that Members of the households of the

prophet will never literally get burnt by fire! And because the family head knows how reverence

the prophet is to the Muslims, decided to stop the Black Smith profession, in order to preventmembers of his family of taking undue advantage of the innocent members of the public.

Now coming back to the professional blacksmithing, forging is the simplest and one of

the methods by which metal was first worked. The metal to be forged is first heated to red heat in


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the fire of a forge, and then is beaten into shape on a metal anvil with sledges or hammers.

Hammers and other tools are employed by the blacksmith in the various forging operations.

In general, six basic types of forging exist: upsetting, or decreasing the length and increasing thediameter of the metal; swaging, decreasing the diameter of the metal; bending; welding, joining

two pieces of metal together by semi fusion; punching, the forming of small openings in the

metal; and cutting out, the forming of large holes in the metal.

A piece of metal, called the work, is upset when it is struck along the longest dimension (for

example, the end of a rod or bar), which shortens and thickens it. Swaging is accomplished byhammering the metal stock while it is held on the anvil within any one of various concave toolscalled swages. Bending is accomplished either by hammering the work around a form or by

leveraging it against a supporting fulcrum. In forge welding of iron, a flux such as borax is firstapplied to the heated metal to remove any oxides from the surfaces of the two pieces, and the

pieces are then joined by hammering them together at high temperature; a welded joint of this

kind, when properly made, is entirely homogeneous and is as strong, that is, uniform, as theparent metal. To punch small holes, the work is supported on a ring-shaped piece of metal atopthe anvil, and a punch of the proper shape is driven through the work by hammer blows. Larger

holes are cut out, and portions of the work are cut off with heavy, sharp chisels similar to coldchisels used to cut cold metal. Combinations of several of these operations can produce forgingsof a wide variety of shapes.

Malam Usaini Makeri however told us that all these could only be achieved using the

locally smelted iron because they realized that joining two pieces of imported iron is just animpossible task to them because of the flux such as borax is first applied to the heated metal toremove any oxides from the surfaces of the two pieces before joining the two at a very high

temperature. He said his father when performing any task that requires joining a metal, usually

applied the locally extracted iron for it can be made to any shape but unfortunately it is no more

available now.

Picture 4 below of the iron slag, found on top of Tandama hill indicates iron smelting skill of the

inhabitants of this place in the past.

Picture 4


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Pottery

Pottery refers to clay that is chemically altered and permanently hardened by firing in a kiln. The

nature and type of pottery, or ceramics (Greekkeramos, potter's clay), is determined by the

composition of the clay and the way it is prepared; the temperature at which it is fired; and the

glazes used.According to Malam Abubakar, a farmer, a pottery maker and a security man at the

Turnku local government secretariat, to make a pot, one requires Yambu, this clay which isobtain just at the northern side of the Tandama hill, is then beaten to pieces and then further

sieved to make the powder finer.It is then socked in mud and left overnight to become elastic enough for the working.

Picture 5

Malam Abubakar the Pot Maker

A mat is then spread and the clay rolled on to the lumps of the required sizes. A pot of the

required size is then turned upside down as indicated in picture 6 bellow, then a lump placedrounds it. This is normally sprinkled will some ash before that is done to enable easy removing

when the work is completed.

When the shape is made, decoration where done then before firing it.

Picture 6

Normally, earthenware is porous pottery, usually fired at the lowest kiln temperatures (900-1200 C/1652-2192 F). Depending on the clay used, it turns a buff, red, brown, or black color

when fired. To be made waterproof, it must be glazed. Nearly all ancient, medieval, Middle

Eastern, and European painted ceramics are earthenware, as is a great deal of contemporaryhousehold dinnerware. Stonewarewater-resistant and much more durableis fired at


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temperatures of 1200-1280 C (2191-2336 F). The clay turns white, buff, gray, or red and is

glazed for aesthetic reasons. (Pottery fired at about 1200 C/2192 F is sometimes called middle-fire ware; its earthenware or stoneware traits vary from clay to clay.) Stoneware was made by the

Chinese in antiquity and became known in northern Europe after the Renaissance (14th century to17th century). Porcelain is made from kaolin, clay formed from decomposed granite. Kaolin is

white primary claythat is, clay found in the earth in the place where it was formed and not

transported there by rivers; secondary clays, borne by rivers to the site of deposit, containimpurities that give them various colors. Porcelain is fired at 1280-1400 C (2336-2552 F); itis white and often translucent. Porcelaneous ware was first made in China, hence its commonname china.Chinese porcelain is less vitrified (and therefore softer) than its modern European

counterpart, which was developed in Germany in the early 18th century. European imitations of

Chinese porcelain are also made; called soft-paste or frit porcelains, they are fired at about 1100C (about 2012 F). In the mid-18th century, English potters invented bone china, a somewhat

harder ware that gained whiteness, translucency, and stability through the inclusion of calciumphosphate in the form of calcined (fired, chemically altered) ox bones.

Picture 7According to Malam Abubakar, this firing is usually done in a pit kiln that most first be

swept clean and then the bigger pots arranged below with the smaller ones above. Then animal

dung is used as part fuel to keep the fire overnight, then grasses and fire wood were also added.

Pots are used for cooking, as storage facility ritual purposes etc.

Picture 8

Pictures 7& 8 are typical example of the hand work of Malam A bubakar.,

Towards the end of our excavation work, we were told that if we are interested, we cango up to the hill to see some remains of human activities there, but it was not to be regarded as

part of our present programs.

Earlier on a visit to the Village Chiefs house for the oral tradition of the area, the ChiefAlhaji Ibrahim Usman had told us that; in days of the old (referring to pre Bakwa Toronka andlegendry Aminas periods), it was the Kings that lived on the hills while the subjects lives below.

On the mountain of a hill called that I now come to understand had always been called

Tandama, babban dutse (the big resting stone), and in company of over fifty other students of thedepartment, we were taken to virtually all the places I had once visited during a privatelyarranged visit in far back December 2007.

While on top amongst the things that attract my attention were some groups of heaps of stones, inwhich to an explanation of what it were, we were told that, they were meant to indicate places


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where some historical artifacts were buried by the people that once lived in these areas, but I do

not agree with this explanation. To me these things looks like graves, in fact, in one of the areas itwere so numerous that I conclude it must be a complete grave yard! That might at one time been

demarcated because till today it is completely circled by heavy stones that protected the area frombeing eroded by rain running water. Then I remembered when I asked theChief during our visit

to him for the oral tradion of Turunku whether some one knows the where about of the grave of

Gunguma the founder of the dynasty that produces Amina, because I saw that of her fatherBAKWA TORONKA at the old Turunku, He said had in an answer to the question said no.

But could this be the resting place of Gunguma and his successors? Because if accordingto the Chief in his oral tradition only the Kings lived here it could only means that when they

died, they were buried there also and it was only the grave of the last king who transfer the capital

to its present day site of Zaria is at Turunku Sabuwa.

Photo 8a

The graveyard at Tandama hill


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Photo 8b

A wall dug (covered as security because the children frequenting the place) by perforating stone!

On top of mountain hill

Photo 8c

A typical grave in the graveyard

The Maianguwa (representative of the Chief) of the Tandama, but who lived in the ground and

who I suppose gave the idea, that those graves were instead some hidden cultural remains, alsotold me that they were the burring place of some figurine terracotta, when I later asked him about

what he thought the heaps of stones where meant to be. He claimed he personally dug some ofsuch places, and that in one place, he dug a horse mounted human figurine that raised a sward!

And, in others he saw either just a human head figurine or even that of an animal (a tiger, to be

specific)!


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These figurines to me could only be the statues of the personalities that were buried there

or the animal personification they represent (example one of the kings was nick named bakondamisa) which means a visitor of the tiger!

Then shifting our attention to another area and certainly another topic, further to eastabout one hundred meters away, we come across a place that to me is probably not connected

even to the time of the Gunguma dynesty but rather belonging to a much older period, a place that

must had been used as a place for a very old religious cult known as the Fatality Worshipsymbolized by Megaliths, both the erect and the circular types that represents male and femalegentiles! The cult which Chiek Anti Diop in his book The African Origin ofCivilization, saidwas exported to Phoenicia who in turn subsequently exported it to Europe through the

Mediterranean Sea trading activity in the antiquities.

According to Laurence Patrick Kirwan inan article published in a Microsoft Encarta 2007. 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation writing on the topic of these ancient stone monuments that

could still be found in many parts of the world, he said;

Megalithic Monuments are structures oflarge, roughly dressed stones erected assepulchralmonuments oras memorials ofnotableevents. Found in allparts ofthe world,

megalithic monuments in Western Europe datefromprehistoric times, beginning in the 5th

millenniumBC. ThoseofIndia datefrom thefirstcenturies ofthe Christian era, and thoseonEasterIslandprobably arecontemporary with the medievalperiod in Europe. Megalithicmonuments are stillbeing built inparts ofIndonesia and in Assam, India. The areas ofgreatest

abundanceofmegalithic monuments include thefollowing groups: the British Isles, westernFrance, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the islands ofthe western Mediterranean; Scandinavia;

North Africa; Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Middle East; the Iranian uplands; Japan andMyanmar(formerly known as Burma), and Assam and the Deccan Plateau in India; and also the

islands ofthe South Pacific Ocean,particularly EasterIsland.Europan megalithic monuments usually are divided intofourclasses: the menhir, ormonolith, a

single standing stoneoften ofgreat size; the stonecircle, consistingofmany monoliths, as at

Stonehenge in England; therow ofmonoliths, as at Carnac in France; and the burialchamber,orchambertomb, usually walled with monoliths androofed by capstones orfalsevaults.

Chambertombs are sometimes called dolmens (see Dolmen). They are the most widespread typeofmegalithic monument in Western Europe; more than 50,000 examples areextant. The majority

ofthe burialchambers wereoriginally within earth mounds orbarrows, many ofwhichhavesince been denuded. Three types ofburialchambermay be distinguished: the dolmen, orsinglechambertomb; thepassage grave, in which thechamberis approached by a passage; and the

gallery grave, orallecouverte, a long, rectangularchamber. The interiors ofthe walls androofsofsome tombs are decorated with geometricalornaturalistic designs.

Megaliths found in the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian islandsfrequently have walls

andplatforms builtofunworkedrock, and in generalconsistofcyclopean masonry erectedwithout the useofcement. In only three instances do these megaliths varyfrom unworked stone:the trilithon at the town ofMua on Tongatapu Island, which is builtoftwo uprights supporting a

crosspiece; the gigantic statues surmounting the ahu, orburialplatforms, on EasterIsland,

carved in compressedvolcanic ash; and the alignments at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands,consistingofgroups ofcone-shapedcoralpillars known as Lat'te, constructedoflayers ofcoral

cemented together.


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CHAPTER THREE

3.0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE, SURVEY AND EXCAVATION OF THE

FOOT OF DUTSEN LAWAL

Reconnaissance is the first stage in any field work. In this task, the archaeologist

familiarized himself with a site which may involve long days of walking and looking for telltalesigns of ancient human habitation. Various objects may remain on the surface for long periods oftime. Archaeologists may find pot fragments or stone tools, light-colored ash from ancient fires,and piles of shells accumulated by people who ate shellfish for instance or any other evidence.

Objects may as well come up to the surface when previously built-up sediments are eroded by

weather, or brought up by burrowing animals. Thus when an archaeologist has reason to believethat there is something to be found in a particular area, systematic and patient searching

sometimes pays rich dividends.When an archaeologist has reason to believe that there is something to be found in a particular

area, systematic and patient searching sometimes pays.Surveying on the other hand is an aspect or act of observing, measuring, recording and

documenting on paper or graph papers the find and features on a given site, usually accompanied

by using instruments like geological positioning systems (GPS), prismatic compass, levels,ranging poles etc.

3.1 RECONNAISSANCE & SUVVEY AT THE FOOT OF DUTSEN LAWALDutsen Lawal is located at an altitude of about 773.5m above the sea level approximately

200 northeast of our camp (GSS Turunku) corresponds to longitude 10 Degrees 48.321 MinutesNorth and Latitude 07 Degree 42.071 Degree East. There several cultural materials were found

that includes some potsherds, spheroids stones, grinding stones etc., were found at the site thatwas characterized by grasses shrubs, and few trees.

The reconnaissance and survey carried out on the site had proved once human activities.

The grinding stone in the pictures 9 and pot shreds in picture 10 below which givesencouragement for further research and excavations in the site.

Picture 9 Picture 10.

3.2 GRID SYSTEM AND EXC

AVATIONGrid system allows the archaeologist to precisely record the location of a material in

relation to other objects because archaeological excavation involves meticulous recording of thelocation of all artifacts and other items of interest. How this information will be recorded is

established at the beginning of a dig. Researchers commonly use a grid system to record theobjects found in a site. A grid system is anchored to a baseline called a datum point. The datum

point serves as the center of reference for the location of artifacts, other remains, and features ofthe terrain. By using such a system, archaeologists can record the precise horizontal position ofany find, however small, with reference to other objects in the dig. They also record the precise


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vertical location of each object, according to the geological and occupation layers in which they

are buried.Thus for any excavation, grid is the starting point after the four cardinal points were

established using a prismatic compass, and for our field studies a 4 by 4 meter area was selectedafter which the following reading of the stations were recorded:-

Readings of the station

A B C D E F

1 1.85 1.27 0.89 0.40 0.35 8.35

2 2.09 1.18 1.1 0.69 0.69 0.723 2.51 2.13 1.6 1.6 1.16 1.19

4 2.68 2.52 2.17 1.51 1.51 1.57

5 3.34 3.06 2.52 1.9 1.9 1.87

3.3 EXCAVATION

Archaeological Excavation is a systematic recovery and study of material evidencesuch as buildings, tools, and potterythat remains from past human life and culture. The

archaeologists carry out an excavation in order to preserve and record endangered sites or to addto knowledge of certain periods of history but exactly how a site is dug depends on what theywant to learn from the site and the nature of the site itself.

The area we choose to excavate out of the grid area is A3, A4, B3, and B4 that

corresponds to the asterisk cell bellow.

*

3.4 CLEARING OF THE SURFACE

The surface to be excavated picture 11 below was first cleared using cutlass and shovels.

Picture 11 Picture 12

This is normally done before any excavation work could commence.Then the cleared area picture 12 below;


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3.5 EXCAVATION OF ASTERICED AREA (A3, A4, B3 & B4)

Excavation which is a deliberate and systematic exposition of the remains of humanactivities could be achieved through any of the following:-

-Vertical excavation

This allows the comparison of the different layers of time by opening up a trench exposing all thelayers in a vertical section. Vertical digging usually occurs on complex urban sites that have

multiple periods of occupancy. An early excavation method focusing on vertical sections was the

Wheeler Box Grid System. Used on large sites, the whole area would be exposed with intact linesof earth left in place between squares of excavated areas. These gridlines would expose thestrata and could be removed to further expose important features and a more modern example of a

vertical excavation method is keyhole excavation.

Keyholeexcavation

This concentrates on specific features of interest identified by initial surveying. Trenches areopened only around the identified features and the contents excavated and recorded withoutexposing the site as a whole. This method has been widely used in Roman military archaeology,

allowing features of particular sites to be compared to the already known general plans. However,

it is not a useful method for acquiring complete information about a whole site.

Horizontal excavation/open area excavation

This is a method generally employed on sites or large areas where an understanding of the site asa whole is required. Because it involves stripping off strata above the area of interest, it is often

used on shallow sites with only one or two layers of occupancy, for instance abandoned

settlement sites.

There are instances when large areas of multiple occupancy need to be excavated in detail bothhorizontally and vertically. This is particularly the case with sites under threat from developmentand damage. In these cases, combinations of methods are used. The site as a whole will be

exposed and each layer excavated and recorded in detail whilst vertical sections will be sunk in

areas of particular interest.

Excavation methods can also be modified to take into account exceptionally deep sites or sites

prone to water logging.

Step trenching

Used on deep sites such as tells in the near east where deep digging is required. A large area is

opened at the surface, diminishing as it proceeds downwards in a series of steps

Cofferdams

Used in areas where the excavation is deep and the sides likely to collapse. Sheet piling is erected

around the extent of the area under investigation. This is particularly useful on waterlogged sites,


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for instance when investigating a shipwreck as it allows water to be contained or pumped away

from the site.

However out of these varieties Dr. MK Aliyu who led the exercise chooses the step trenching the

final outcome of which looks as the picture 13 below;-

Picture 13 Picture 14

The excavation began by dividing the area to be excavated into four quadrants named A,B, C & D which corresponds to A4, B4, A3 and B3 corners respectively. At the depth of 20 cmthe A quadrant picture 14 above yielded 37 potsherds and quartz. It had a brown-black soil and

some rocks. Quadrant B in the other hand yielded 31 pieces of pot shreds, quadrant 71 pieces but

the color of the soil here, was reddish-brown and finally at the D quadrant having the same soil

color with the previous quadrant yielded 35 pieces of the potsherds.

Then in the second level of the step trench (picture 15 bellow), the recovered evidence ofthe human past, includes potsherds, a spherical stone object that could be either a missile

(Majejjewa) or used for grinding some things, like pepper, charcoal and a piece of bone.

Picture 15

In the third step however an important discovery was made, a pavement of potsherdstypical of the tradition in our area of studies (Hausa land), as indicated in picture 16, bellow,

proving that it was a settlement area.


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Picture 16

Then just to east of the pavement another evidence provided itself as large part of a potsherd in

picture 17bellow

Picture 17

3.6 Stratification/stratigraphy

Stratification relates to the process of the laying down of debris over time. This debris can be

cultural or natural, consist of many things from coins, broken pottery, flint, animal and plantremains. Stratification is often used in dating and showing sequential relations between different

periods of time on a site. Contemporary changes occur in the same strata and changes through

time can be seen by comparing strata. The older the time span of human activity on a site, themore complex the stratification, also it is hypothesized that the older layers always lay beneaththe relatively younger layer.

However, sometimes layers can be disturbed causing finds from later periods to slipdown into older strata. For this reason, it is important that the finds are carefully examined.

Artifacts, such as fragmented bones and pieces of knapped flint can often be fitted back together.If this reconstruction occurs with fragments from different strata, it can be assumed that there has

been slippage over time.

Excavation can concentrate on one particular layer of strata relating to a specific period

of a sites life or study a cross section of history by studying vertical strata. Different methods of

excavation are employed in each case.

In Geology in geology, stratigraphy is the study of rock layers, or strata, particularly their ages,

compositions, and relationships to other rock layers. Stratigraphy provides geologists with clues

about the earths past. Stratigraphy also allows geologists to predict what types of rocks lie belowthe ground and to understand geologic processes. Consequently, most geologists regularly use

basic elements of stratigraphy in their work and it is from this that archaeologist inherit the idea

of stratigraphic analysis in order to provide essential information about the chronological

relationship of archaeological materials, study the layers of the earth, and thus an artifact found


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within it can tell us a great deal about the society that once lived in the site you are investigating,

their culture, economic activities sociological life and past climatic conditions etc.At the fourth step of our excavated site, the southern wall was the only complete side

which was excavated to the last 80 cm depth. It was cleaned stratified at the end of which aparticular shape was detected.

This profile detected was critically analyzed using stick to differentiate the layers of the

different colors of the soil identified as could be seen in the picture 18 below;

Picture 18

The first layer was identified as loamy with granite that makes a straight down designwith protruding stones within, which just began below this line. It contained some dark part (fromthe heat of fire), charcoal, dried and burnt seeds, which convinced us to believe that the area had

been used for the production of something, probably daddawa.

The pavement of potsherds typical of the tradition in our area of studies (Hausa land)

refer to in picture 16, the grinding stone in picture 9 and the pot shreds of picture 10 and 17, allcollaborates to further suggests a settled life in the site


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CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 Summary, conclusion and recommendation.

4.1 SummaryArchaeological field school is designed to give the student a practical experience in

archaeological ways of investigating the human past. In chapter one, the introduction of the report

was immediately followed by aims and objectives of the exercise before the method used. In thesecond chapter the geographical location, climate, geology, soil, vegetation, drainage, economicactivities and the historical background of Turunku was given while the third chapter dealt withthe issue of archaeological reconnaissance survey and excavation of the foot of Dutsen Lawal

then finally this chapter that is presenting the summary, conclusions and the recommendation.

4.2 Conclusions

In concluding this work, that includes oral tradition, ethnography, excavations andreadings of some literatures or related subject a lot of data had been assembled to give

clue for reconstruction of the history of our area of study, Africa and human past as awhole.

4.2 Recommendation

During this exercise one glaring reality had presented itself, a treat to these humanremains that like the Zaria city wall, may one day be only part of the oral tradition which

our grand children may be claiming while telling the future archaeologist, they had us

narrating to their parents.The reason for this was so obvious when we heard that, Arab Contractors had already

started blasting away these cultural remains for theirCourantyne activities.The government is therefore advice not to only halt the work but hand over these

parts of the human remains to United Nation to be incorporated as part of the world widehuman heritage.

discovery of the graveyards of the

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