Russell Kapumha

Research Interests:

The archaeology of southern African farming communities (Iron Age): Landscape archaeology, ancient architecture, material culture, GIS and 3D modelling, heritage management

Geographic Area:

Southern Africa, Zimbabwe

I am a British Academy Newton International Fellow (NIF) with a DPhil in Archaeology. My NIF project titled On missing links and bridging gaps: The Archaeology of Kubiku, a Zimbabwe culture site in Masvingo, south-eastern Zimbabwe, is an attempt to contribute to the unpacking of southern Africa’s ancient urban landscape. This research is focused on the archaeology of the so-called “peripheral” sites and a study of their place in the Zimbabwe Culture’s sequence. This southern African culture is associated with the elite construction of precolonial towns with dry-stone walled architecture. The most outstanding being the UNESCO World Heritage sites, Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Khami. As research has hardly shifted away from these prominent ‘capitals’, this focus on ‘smaller’ towns within the same culture aims to realign the Zimbabwe Culture’s regional trajectories and settlement hierarchies in the region. In the process subjecting them to leading-edge interdisciplinary research. 

I am also a 2018 USA African Studies Association (ASA) Presidential Fellow and a holder of small grants from the British Institute in East Africa (BIEA).