A hydroelectric dam under construction in Angola has led archaeologists to one of the country’s most important historical discoveries. Before the area disappears beneath the dam’s reservoir, researchers uncovered Angola’s oldest radiocarbon-dated burials. These burials are the earliest known stone structures in central Angola and the country’s only known ancient urn cremation. The discoveries offer a rare glimpse into how people in the region lived and buried their dead more than 600 years ago. The findings were published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.According to Science X, the discoveries were made at the archaeological site of Caculo Cabaca in central Angola. The archaeological team had limited time to study the site before it was lost. “We gave priority to the places that we knew would soon disappear,” said Sofia Mateus Simplicio D’Oliveira, a doctoral candidate at the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris and one of the study’s authors.The discoveries are significant because they challenge long-held ideas about the history of stone building in Angola. Earlier European accounts mostly described people living in wooden houses, which decay over time and leave little archaeological evidence. This led historians to debate whether stone architecture developed locally or was introduced later through contact with Europeans or other African groups.
Stone site at undercontruction dam
According to a report by Medium, stone buildings are well known in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including the famous remains of Great Zimbabwe. However, central Angola has received much less archaeological attention, and very few stone sites had been properly studied or dated.Before this excavation, no stone structure in Angola had been reliably dated to before the 16th century. Although archaeologists had found a few burial sites with circular stone enclosures along the Cuanza River, most dated from the 16th to 19th centuries. Without reliable dates, it was impossible to know when the stone-building tradition had actually begun.The Caculo Cabaca site lies along the Cuanza River, a region that once connected several African kingdoms, including the Ndongo, Quicama, Libolo and Imbangala. From the mid-1400s onwards, European traders, missionaries and soldiers also travelled through the area. Part of the site is near a village remembered as the homeland of the maternal family of Queen Njinga, the 17th-century ruler who became known for resisting Portuguese colonial expansion.The archaeological site came to light in 2023 when construction workers building the hydroelectric project discovered stone structures. The find prompted Angola’s heritage authorities and the National Museum of Archaeology in Benguela to begin an emergency rescue excavation before the reservoir flooded the area.Before digging could begin, the land first had to be checked and cleared for landmines left behind during Angola’s civil war.The researchers also followed local customs before starting the excavation. Village elders, known as Sobas, performed a ceremony to seek permission from the ancestors. Eggs, bread, wine and juice were offered during the ritual, and a goat was sacrificed to ask for protection before work began.
Skeletons found at Caculo Cabaca. Credit: D’Olivera et al.
Burials from early 1400s
During the excavation, the researchers recorded 117 groups of stone structures and excavated 65 individual structures. These included stone platforms, small stone rings and tumuli, which are stone mounds built over graves.Among the excavated structures were 12 tumuli. Six still contained human remains. For the researchers, this marked an important turning point because they realised they were looking at a planned burial landscape rather than isolated stone structures.“It was very exciting, but also quite overwhelming,” D’Oliveira said. “We were no longer looking only at isolated stone structures; we were looking at a complex human landscape.”To determine the age of the burials, the team used radiocarbon dating. This scientific method measures how much naturally occurring radioactive carbon remains in ancient organic material, allowing researchers to estimate when a person or object lived.The results showed that three burials dated between AD 1411 and AD 1481. An urn containing cremated human remains dated between AD 1404 and AD 1448. These dates place the burials in the early 15th century, several decades before the Portuguese reached the region.The findings make these the earliest radiocarbon-dated burials discovered in Angola. They also show that stone structures were already being built before European arrival, confirming that this architectural tradition existed locally much earlier than previously documented.
Different burial positions
The burials revealed different funeral practices. Some people had been buried lying on their sides with their legs bent, while others had been placed in a seated position with their knees drawn up towards their chest.In Angolan traditions, seated burials have often been linked to chiefs or other high-status people. However, the discoveries at Caculo Cabaca suggest that the situation may have been more complex.The seated burials did not contain expensive jewellery or other prestige items. Instead, archaeologists found grinding stones, pottery and pieces of iron slag.“Grinding tools are especially interesting because they are often connected to domestic activities and, in many ethnographic contexts, to women’s work,” D’Oliveira said.The researchers believe these objects may have been symbolic offerings or may have reflected a person’s identity, sex or social role. According to D’Oliveira, the findings support “a more complex interpretation of status, possibly including women in positions of social or ritual importance.”
Sobas preforming the ceremony at the graves. Credit: D’Olivera et al
No known parallel
The most unusual discovery at the site was a simple pottery urn containing cremated skull fragments and teeth. Archaeologists said it is the only known example of an ancient urn cremation found in pre-colonial Angola and has no known parallel in the country’s archaeological record.Researchers found only one possible historical comparison. Drawings made in the 1680s by Capuchin missionary Antonio Cavazzi repeatedly show pottery being used during ceremonies involving loyalty oaths, sacrifices and other rituals.Although much of Caculo Cabaca will soon disappear beneath the dam’s reservoir, researchers have already identified additional stone structures outside the flood zone. They hope future excavations will help answer more questions about the communities that lived there before European contact.
