While not precisely an archaeological matter, I thought that a short note on a metal item found in Haenertsburg (Limpopo) a few years back might both interest readers and encourage feedback. A dirt track was graded to provide access to a plot being developed just outside Haenertsburg, one of the original gold mining centres of the ZAR. My sister lives next door and as I was visiting at the time, I went across to see what had been exposed.
I have known for some time that historical debris is present in the area which is downslope of the original hospital, said to date to the early years of the twentieth century. This debris consists in the main of undecorated sherds of local clay vessels, but occasionally items of a European origin are exposed during farming operations and in mole-rat mounds. This “exotic” element includes sherds of bone china, glass fragments and the occasional bakelite item. We have even come across a small but broken Bakelite toy car of 1940s vintage that we gave to the custodian of the local village museum.
As expected the grader had churned up many clay sherds, but there was one item that caught my eye - a flat and weathered metal disc. Careful cleaning revealed hand stamped text on the two sides. One side reads NATIVE DOG 029004, while the other more weathered reads TRANSVAAL 1903 (see main image). Its presence seems to confirm my earlier assumption that the debris is not simply an old village garbage dump...
