Revil Mason

In Episode 1 of this series (click here to read), mention was made of the agro-pastoralists (farmers who grew crops and kept livestock) who moved into the Magaliesberg region in about 225 AD. Scholars have categorised them as people of the "early iron age", as they possessed and made use of the technology needed for smelting and forging iron in order to make tools and weapons. They did not, however, build the more sophisticated settlements which were characteristic of the middle and late iron ages.

It is something of a mystery as to what became of these early iron age people. The dating techniques used by archaeologists indicate that they were present in the Broederstroom area up until about 450 AD. There is then a large gap in the archaeological record, and the next evidence of iron age peoples in the Magaliesberg region is dated at about 1100 AD. The most likely explanation (e.g. by Prof Tom Huffman) seems to be that the early iron age people moved away from the Magaliesberg, and that the middle iron age settlements are evidence of a second wave of immigrants who moved southwards from areas further north in Africa. Some scholars, however, including Prof Revil Mason, have maintained that the middle iron age people were direct descendants of those of the early iron age, and that we have not yet found the evidence of their continuous occupation of the Magaliesberg region from 450 AD to 1100 AD.

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Revil John Mason died on 23 August 2020 at the age of 91 years, scarcely a year after receiving the Golden Eagle award on Gaudy Day at St John’s College in 2019. Revil was born on 10 February 1929 and grew up in Saxonwold. He entered St John’s Prep in 1936. After matriculating in 1946, Revil studied at the University of Witwatersrand and obtained a B Com. degree, garnering several prizes, including the Aitken medal for the best graduate in Commerce, together with the Chamber of Industries medal and the Dean’s award.

St John's College (The Heritage Portal)

Wits Great Hall (The Heritage Portal)

However, after attending a lecture by Prof Dart he became fascinated by archaeology and proceeded to study Archaeology at the University of Cape Town where he again excelled in his studies and obtained a doctorate at the age of 28 years old. At the young age of 24 years he successfully excavated Makapansgat, discerning three layers of the Stone Age, a new discovery in South African Archaeology. During the 1950s he often visited St John’s, talking to the boys about new archaeological...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie highlights the remarkable work of archaeologist Revil Mason. The piece was originally published on the City of Joburg's website on 19 November 2009. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

We might not know about the historical significance of Melville Koppies and other areas of Joburg if not for the meticulous work done by archaeologist Revil Mason.
 
Now retired, Mason is credited with uncovering the secrets of iron smelting at the koppies, one of the last indigenous, protected green lungs in the city.
 
Mason went on to find 14 more prehistoric iron furnaces in the suburbs of Northcliff, Lonehill, Panorama and Bruma. In the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve in southern Joburg he found 110 prehistoric Sotho/Tswana villages, occupied from 1500 to 1800.

Northcliff Hill (The Heritage Portal)

Lonehill Koppie (The Heritage Portal)

His excavations led to the koppies being proclaimed a national monument, now a heritage site, in 1963.
 
Mason, former professor of research in the Wits department of archaeology, uncovered an Iron Age furnace on the koppies, dating to around 1600AD.
 
"In 1948 I found Stone Age artefacts on Melville Koppies...