Dr. Thomas Huffman, Professor emeritus and former Chair of the Dept. of Archaeology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa will be giving the Center for African Studies Baraza lecture entitled Prehistoric Ethnicity in the Mapungubwe Landscape on Friday, April 10 at 3:30 pm in 404 Grinter Hall.
For more than five decades Professor Huffman has been investigating the rise and fall of complex societies in southern Africa, including Great Zimbabwe. He is currently conducting fieldwork at Mapungubwe, one of Southern Africa’s first great kingdoms and now a UNESCO Cultural Landscape and South African National Park. Positioned at the crossroads of major trading routes, the Mapungubwe polity reached its zenith of power and influence between ca. 900 and 1300 CE when it was superseded by Great Zimbabwe.