The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, November 14, 1967 — Several old African graves have been discovered by workers digging a water pipe trench for a housing scheme in Malindela.

The find was made yesterday near the Bulawayo Golf Course, off Fairbridge Way. So far eight graves have been uncovered, revealing the remains of human bones and several pieces of pottery. There are signs of many more graves.

Mr Roger Summers, keeper of antiquities at the National Museum, visited the site of the discovery yesterday. He examined the graves and the remains and took some bones and pottery to the museum.

He said: “It is much too soon to estimate how old the bones are. I have arranged to make further investigations of the site.”

An expert at the site said it was very difficult to say how old the graves were without tests, but they could be anything up to 250 years old. Some of the bones were obviously adult remains, while there were smaller ones indicating that children were also buried there.

It was possible, he said, that the cemetery had been next to the site of a kraal.

On some of the broken pieces of pottery a definite design could be seen, consisting of several wavy parallel lines. Some of the graves were only 18 inches below the surface, while others were two to four feet deep.

Parts of leg bones, knee joints and arm bones were most prominent in the finds. One or two vertebrae had also been unearthed.

The pottery finds were mostly broken pieces of round pots.

Ald Jack Pain, chairman of the Bulawayo City Council’s Town Lands Committee, said the find was “most interesting.”