Edward M. Andrews assisted British archaeologist David Randall-MacIver* when the latter investigated the ancient ruins of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1905. Andrews participated in the study and excavation of the ruins at Mutare (then Umtali), Khami, and Great Zimbabwe, as well as the Dhlo-Dhlo ruins some 105 km north-east of Bulawayo. At Mutare he mapped the altar site and found what Randall-MacIver described as "an extraordinary collection of magical objects carved in soapstone, including figures of men and women, birds, beasts, etc." The material found and Adrews's excavation notes went to the Museum of Mankind, in the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum. His findings were reported by Randall-MacIver (1905) and in the latter's Medieval Rhodesia (1906).

At the 1906 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Andrews contributed a "Note on the Webster ruin, Southern Rhodesia" which was included in the Association's Report for that year. He followed this up in May 1907 with a paper before the Rhodesia Scientific Association on "The Webster ruins of Melsetter district" (some 150 km south of Mutare). The paper was published in the Association's Proceedings (1907, Vol. 7(1), pp. 62-71) and also as The 'Webster' ruins of Southern Rhodesia, Africa in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (1908, 13p).

Andrews was elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in November 1905.

List of sources:

Bordini, M.A. Umtali altar site excavations, 1905: Further comments on and new references to the original field notes of E. M. Andrews. Zimbabwe prehistory, 1983, No. 19, pp. 23-25.

Edward M. Andrews. Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). Retrieved on 27 December 2022 from https://historywiki.therai.org.uk/index.php?title=Edward_M._Andrews

Hubbard, P. A bibliography of Zimbabwean archaeology to 2005, Version 1.0, January 2007 (digital document available from the author).

Randall-MacIver, D. Report on ruins in Rhodesia. Report of the 75th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in South Africa, 1905, pp. 302-304.

Rhodesia Scientific Association. Proceedings, 1907, Vol. 7.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2022-12-27 08:58:32