Two burials at Malle, a late Iron Age settlement in the Bankeveld in the North-West Province (South Africa)

The graves of a middle-aged male individual and a juvenile (possibly female) were excavated at Malle, a Late Iron Age stone-walled site near Marikana in the North-West Province. The features of the graves at Malle correspond with burial practices recorded for a stone-walled site near Brits (Site ZK001) and those recorded for a site close to Malle, namely Makgope (Site NTG001). At these three sites, all associated with Sotho-Tswana farming communities, men were buried in flexed, upright sitting positions in cattle kraal enclosures. Some of these burials featured funerary goods including (Deliberately) broken pots and the remains of domestic stock such as cattle and possibly sheep or goats. The possibly female juvenile from Malle was buried in a similar fashion, but this grave was located outside the cattle kraal. Individuals buried in a horizontal, flexed position were also excavated at Olifantspoort, a Sotho-Tswan settlement close to the Bankeveld sites. Both horizontal and vertical burial postures amongst the Sotho-Tswana have been described and illustrated in ethnographic accounts.