Pottcnj. 25 



On some Hottentot and Bnshman Pottery in the collection of the 

 Albany Museum.— By Dr. S. Schonland, Hon. M.A. Oxon. 



All along the coast of Cape Colony from Namaqualand to the 

 Bashee (and probably also further north) one finds a large number 

 of kitchenmiddens. They are chiefly composed of large shells, 

 and this Ttact alone points to their having been accumulated by 

 human agency ; but with them one finds bones of animals, the 

 marrow bones being split open for ol)vious purposes. With them 

 and near them one finds ashes and coals, stone-implements, frag- 

 ments of pottery, bone awls, Sec. Though of immense extent, our 

 knowlege of them is comparatively recent, and a systematic ex- 

 ploration will no doubt yield very interesting results as to the 

 knowledge of the races of man which inhabited the southern 

 extremity of Africa during prehistoric times. Some of these 

 middens are comparatively recent, while others most likely go back 

 to very remote times. ^ The question naturally presents itself : 

 Who left these remnants of the past ? They were certainh' not 

 left by any Bantu tribe, and there remain only the Bushmen and 

 the Hottentots to consider. As a rule they are ascribed to im- 

 poverished Hottentots, but Theal maintains^ (and, I think, rightly 

 so) that all the shell-heaps on the S. A. coast were not made by 

 impoverished Hottentots. A few — possibly a good manj' — were 

 made by Bushmen, as is proved by the paintings overhanging the 

 deposits. There must also have been mixed breeds along the coast 

 in olden times, as there are to-day in the territory about the Lower 

 Vaal River, and some of the remains may be due to them. These 

 mixed breeds arose from the union of Hottentot men with captured 

 Bushwomen, for though the races were constantly at war, yoimg 



' See George R. McKay, " Evidence of the Antiquity of Man in East 

 London, Cape Colony " Natural Science, Vol. XI, November, 1897. 

 The complete paper of which this is only an abstract, together with a 

 number of illustrative diagrams, is jjreserved in MS. in the library of 

 the Albany Museum. 



2 G. M'Call Theal, "The Portuguese in South Africa," London, 1896, p. 1. 



