A sortie into the archaeology of the Moravian mission station, Genadendal
In the 1980s Tony Humphreys suggested the archaeology of the Moravian Mission at Genadendal as a possible avenue through which the archaeological 'void' regarding the Khoekhoen, post 1652, could be addressed. Building on this suggestion, the primary aim of this research was to find evidence of the Khoekhoen who lived at the mission during the 18th and early 19th century and to explore the ways in which Khoekhoe communities interacted with mission establishments as a means of reinventing themselves in a changing world. Material evidence of both the Khoekhoen and the mission itself (excluding the architecture) during this period proved to be elusive, in contrast to the wealth of documentary records. The reasons for this elusive material expression of the 18th and early 19th century mission, missionaries and Khoekhoe converts at Genadendal has been sought in the archaeological elusiveness of the Khoekhoen themselves and the nature of their material cultural base, as well as in the nature of the exchange and supply of European manufactured commodities in the Overberg.
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