Urewe is the name of the site to the Kenya whose publication of the archaeological material by Mary Leakey in 1948 made known this culture. It indicates the phase of the Âge of old iron in the area of the Big lakes in Africa be-power station, around the Lake Victoria.

Chronology

This culture appears in the area with the passage of the 2 {{E}} with the 1 {{thousand-year-old er}} before J. - C. and it seems to have remained in some places until far in the 2 {{E}} thousand-year-old after J. - C.. Its broader expansion related to an important metallurgical activity of iron is in the first six centuries after J. - C., since the area of the Kivu (DRC) in the west, until in Uganda, at the Rwanda, the Burundi, in the North-West of the Tanzania, and the south-west of the Kenya.

Origins

The origins of the culture urewe are always unknown. It incrit probably in the upheavals which caused the collapse of the cultures of the Bronze Age at the end of the 2 {{E}} thousand-year-old before J.C. (shifts in population and armed conflicts whose traditions of the Mediterranean regions were made the echo) and who led to the diffusion of the secrecies of the work of iron in forging mill - what held the Hittites hitherto - in the known world. A culture with resembling ceramics strong exists about the same time with the Cameroun. The research of the origins of the cultures of the Âge of old iron in sub-Saharan Africa was done simultaneously with the studies in African linguistics on the expansion bantoue.

Culture

From the start the culture urewe seems entity fully developed, recognizable with the presence of an original, looked after and esthetic terra cotta and furnaces of pig iron technically highly sophisticated. Neither one nor the other will be, according to our knowledge, prone to evolution or change lasting nearly 2000 years. Only ceramics shows minor local alternatives.

The culture urewe with the Rwanda and the Burundi

Ceramics urewe is of modest size, measuring 30 cm, to the maximum 36 cm in height. Three forms are recognized there: the vase, small vase, forms with profile in S closed, and the bowl, forms open, on which is projected a decoration incised stereotype, bevelled lip, structured collar, hatched to ensure the catch, bandage covered with a ribboned decoration of incised geometrical reasons, supplemented decoration of a basal small cavity. The decorative register is adapted to, and underlines the shape of the vase and its four components, sometimes in a way simplified on the small vase. It, on the other hand, is stuck in its unit on the bowl, without taking account of the least component count of this one. An assumption was formulated that the bowl would be of creation more recent than the vase. It is reinforced by the identification, in linguistics of the language bantoue, of a new term, appearing towards 1000 before J.C., meaning “frying pan”, which could be an indication of culinary modification which could have accompanied a passage towards a more sedentary lifestyle at the time of the installation of the speakers bantous in the hills of the Rwanda and of the Burundi.

The pig iron furnace associated with this ceramics is composed of a basin containing of the leafy branches and still green grasses forming a filter through which the Scorie S could run out towards the bottom. Above the basin was built a conical tank, left chimney, obtained by superimposing wet clay rollers. The decoration of the furnace, Groove S on the supporting roller, major impressions while growing or in S on the external wall, points out that of the edge and the collar of ceramics. Analyzes of pig iron residues did not inform yet about the output of the furnaces, nor if those were with the measurement of their technicality. Iron ore and fuel were within reach. The word “ubutare”, which means “iron” is still found in many locality. Raised cover was exploited for the manufacture of charcoal. This one always was done here starting from wood fresh, which returns the datings to radiocarbon carried out on this material, relatively reliable.

Privileged environments and human activities

The study of the environment combines the anthracologic identification charcoals collected in the pig iron furnaces and in an opened hearth, palynologic analyzes peat of marshes of altitude and valleys like in archaeological structures; and also of the phytosociological data and geomorphological. She teaches us that the period of installation of this culture urewe would be to put in relation to a cooling and assêchement climatic towards 1000 before J.C. The representatives of the culture urewe are, with the Rwanda and with the Burundi, installed exclusively in the area of hills (central plate) in the zone of altitude ranging between 1700 m and 1300 m, on clay soils on primary education substrate, count among richest of Africa. The undulating landscape, cover of Savane S raised (clearer arborescent vegetation on the slopes, denser in the funds and on the peaks) conjugait living conditions favourable (moderated temperature and rainfall, safe from vectors of human and animal diseases) with various activities. They would have lived in a rather sedentary way, as farmers, being devoted partly to agriculture (e.a. cereals) and the bovine breeding with small scales. They do not seem to have driven out nor fished to supplement their diet, as it will be the case with the Âge of recent iron in these areas, and where this was it already with the Âge of old iron, in the cultures urewe more in the east, around Lake Victoria, perhaps influenced by contacts with transhumant communities along the East-African ditch. The combined human activities, clearing, pig iron, cereal agriculture… generated a deforestation with the edges of the large forest, which covered the North-South dorsal at one time, as well as gallery-forests, along the filaments of water which descended the slopes. This phenomenon caused a phase of major erosion, noted on the hill of Kabuye, close to Butare, following their presence lasting nearly 500 years on the site. The area of the hills to the Rwanda and the Burundi was probably also a privileged passage of the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere in Africa and would have thus regularly known a relative overpopulation people who fled assêchement of the areas sahéliennes, which prevented a regeneration of the grounds. The effects of the human activity, added with climatic pulsations cigs and consecutive heats on the contrary worsened only the impoverishment of the soil, and this until our days. As of, the appartion of ceramics rougher and decorated with the caster, as well as new types of pig iron furnaces, announce a major change towards the Âge of recent iron. Certain entities of the culture urewe nevertheless succeeded in surviving by places at least until.

Researchers

The authors and institutions important related to the research of the culture urewe in the area of the Big lakes are: Mary Leakey (publication Owen collection in 1948), Jean Hiernaux (excavations and publications Years 1950 - 1960), Merrick Posnansky (excavations and publications Years 1960 - 70), D.W. Philipson (synthesis on the Age of old iron in East Africa in 1976), the British Institute off Eastern Africa , with Nairobi, under the direction of J.E.G. Sutton (within the framework of the Bantu Studies Project , excavations and publications Years 1960 - 70), P.R. Schmidt (excavations and publications Years 1970 - 80, synthesis 1997), the team Marie-Claude Van Grunderbeek, Emile Rock and Hugues Doutrelepont (excavations years 1978 - 1987, publications until now). New research on the ground in the area of Large the Lakes is in hand on the initiative of the Université of London, in collaboration with BIEA.