Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1988 - 18

like the prophet Ezekiel in the valley of
bones that cameto lifewithfleshandblood.
Just for a moment,I had peered intoa vanished, remote world-a worldfar removed
from ours.
I have made other momentaryvisits to
that world:campingin wildcountryby the
banks of the ZambeziRiver,sleepingin the
open and hearing lions roar at the moon;
walkingthroughthickbushnearthe Luangwa
Riverin eastern Zambia,close to a herd of
feeding elephants. The giant creatures
movedsurprisinglyquietly,their stomachs
growlingsoftly in the late afternoonheat.
I remember wonderinghow a Stone Age
hunter with a wooden spear would have
killedsuchbeasts. I stilltreasure those rare
moments when prehistorylingeredin the
air, elusive,evocativeand remote.
In a generationor so, few people willbe
ableto see Africawearingevena fractionof
its prehistoricclothing.Except for the big
game in a handful of parks, the African
faunawillhavegone the wayof megafauna
everywhere-into extinction.Withthe animalswillvanisha vast repositoryofhunting
lore and tracking skill that still lingers in
parts of Africato this day. Despite highly
sophisticated studies of African hunterstudies
gatherersand manyanthropological
of subsistence farmers, surprisinglylittle
attentionhas been paidto the nuts andbolts
of traditionalAfricanhuntingmethods and
trackingskills.Howdid Stone Agehunters
killelephants?What were prehistoricsuccess rates? What strategies did hunters
use to pursue wary impala antelope and
lumberingbuffalo?To answer such questions requiresmonthsof arduousparticipatory observationduringthe hunt-and few
anthropologistshave done this.
One shiningexceptionis the American
Stuart Marks, who in the mid-1960sspent
ten months studyingthe huntingmethods
of the LuangwaValleyBisa, hunters and
farmersin a remote part ofeastern Zambia.
There hunters used inaccurate muzzleloadingmuskets just like those carried by
Napoleon'ssoldiers. So they had to rely
on huntingand stalkingskillslikethose developedmillenniabefore,in the StoneAge.
The Bisa thoughtof themselves as predators, likelionsand hyenas."I also belongto
the chase,"proclaimsone of their proverbs.
Their success dependednot on twentiethcentury technology, but on prehistoric
expertise.
Over manymonthsMarks becamefamiliar with the local game populations,and
with the routes and hunting patterns followedby individualhunters. He accompaniedBisahunterson dozensofhunts- after
buffalo,elephant, hippopotamus,warthog,
and antelope large and small. He talked
to old men who remembered the ancient
elephant-huntingguildsand their methods.
A group of hunters wouldslip in amongan
elephant herd. The leader would wound
one of the great animals.Then the other
hunters moved in with weighted spears
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Archaeology

alongits escape route. There were other,
less directmethods,too. Sometimesexperiencedhunters wouldclimbtrees and cast
spears at elephants passing underneath,
aimingfor a vulnerablepoint between the
shoulderblades. Manytimes, the hunters
woulddig large pits alonggame paths and
line the bottoms with sharp spears. The
elephant would crash through the grass
and pole coveringand could be speared
at leisure.
Bisa hunters were especiallyskilledat
stalking buffalo.The stalker would commit himselfto a specificherd long before
the stalk began. Large herds leave abundant traces of their passing. The hunters
claimedthey couldtell howlongagoa herd
hadpassed simplybyexaminingfreshdroppings.They wouldthen test the winddirection, study the compositionof the herd
and begin the stalk. Marks watchedthem
approach their prey, moving forward as
the animalsfaced the other way or were
feeding,freezingwhen they lookedup and
stared. Once in position,the hunter fired
his ancientmusket. Sevenout of ten times
he missed. Andif a hit was scored, the animalwas almostnever killedoutright.As in
Stone Age times, it could be hours, even
days,beforethe hunter couldcatchup with
his quarry and kill it, havingtracked the
beast over manymiles.In manycases, the
woundedanimalescaped or was killedand
eaten by lionsbeforethe hunter arrived.
For centuries the Bisa livedin their remote homeland.They used simplehunting
methods that providedan adequate meat
supply,yet theyneverdepletedgamestocks
to dangerouslevels.In a sense, Markslived
prehistory,for the Bisa farmers still presumablyuse the same basic stalkingand
trappingmethodsas the StoneAgehuntergatherers who had dwelt in the Luangwa
Valleybefore them. I am sure that there
were momentswhenMarks,likeme, felt a
closeaffinityto a vanishedpast, a timewhen
humanslivedbyhuntingalone.Whatcounted
morethananythingelse wasnot technology,
but an intimateknowledgeof the animals'
habits and of the naturalenvironment.
In these days of all-outscience and hitech archaeology,it is distinctlyunfashionable to talk of emotionalreactions to the
past. But find me a serious archaeologist
whodoes not experiencemomentsofintuitive revelation,a sense of walkingamong
the prehistoricpeople. It is this qualityof
intuition,ofimagination,that makesarchaeology unique among the social sciences.
Weare fortunatein Africato havesomelast
remnantsofthe prehistoricworldto helpus
understandan increasinglyremote past.
As I watchedthe Kafuelechwe,back in
1961,I remembered Frederick Courtney
Selous, who was the epitomeof the 1880s
Victorianhunter- he haddecimatedAfrica's
game. Oddly enough, we had-at quite
differenttimes, of course-both attended
the same school. Selous's sharp-eyed,
bearded countenance stared down at us

Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1988