18th century – 19th century
Bak River, southeastern Namibia
||Khausǃnas is an Oorlam encampment established on a low hill beside a reportedly reliable waterhole on a remote bend of the Bak River in southeastern Namibia. Its extensive dry-stone perimeter, household clusters, gateways, and defensive features provide archaeological evidence for Oorlam settlement organization, family autonomy, and changing access to wagons and firearms.
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The Story
The encampment known as ||Khausǃnas occupies a low hill overlooking a waterhole on a remote bend of the Bak River in southeastern Namibia. Its perimeter wall extends for almost 700 metres and encloses approximately 35,000 square metres, containing the ruins of as many as thirty dwellings. The scale of the enclosure makes the site an unusually substantial archaeological record of Oorlam settlement.
The site’s construction combines a carefully finished southern boundary with features that could slow or channel an approaching visitor. The wall contains twenty-two gateways, although none is wide enough to have admitted an ox-wagon. A rectangular building outside the wall may have served as a reception point, while the main household inside had substantial perimeter walls of well-laid stone.
The internal layout is especially important for reconstructing social organization. Most northern gateways lead directly into distinct groups of huts and cooking shelters, and some have screening walls that would have protected household privacy. The arrangement resembles earlier nomadic pastoral camps in Namibia, with relatively autonomous family groups structured along kinship lines; two elaborate northern clusters were probably occupied by Klaas Afrikaner’s sons, Jager and Titus, while the largest southern cluster was likely Klaas’s own household.
The site also exposes tensions between written accounts and material evidence. Historians describe the Oorlam as possessing rifles, yet the gunflints found at ||Khausǃnas suggest smoothbore guns, while the southern defenses appear appropriate for less accurate weapons. Likewise, the absence of wagon-sized gateways may indicate that documentary descriptions reflect a later phase, after wagons had become part of Oorlam equipment.
18th century – 19th century
Bak River, southeastern Namibia
||Khausǃnas is an Oorlam encampment established on a low hill beside a reportedly reliable waterhole on a remote bend of the Bak River in southeastern Namibia. Its extensive dry-stone perimeter, household clusters, gateways, and defensive features provide archaeological evidence for Oorlam settlement organization, family autonomy, and changing access to wagons and firearms.
Continue exploring
The Story
The encampment known as ||Khausǃnas occupies a low hill overlooking a waterhole on a remote bend of the Bak River in southeastern Namibia. Its perimeter wall extends for almost 700 metres and encloses approximately 35,000 square metres, containing the ruins of as many as thirty dwellings. The scale of the enclosure makes the site an unusually substantial archaeological record of Oorlam settlement.
The site’s construction combines a carefully finished southern boundary with features that could slow or channel an approaching visitor. The wall contains twenty-two gateways, although none is wide enough to have admitted an ox-wagon. A rectangular building outside the wall may have served as a reception point, while the main household inside had substantial perimeter walls of well-laid stone.
The internal layout is especially important for reconstructing social organization. Most northern gateways lead directly into distinct groups of huts and cooking shelters, and some have screening walls that would have protected household privacy. The arrangement resembles earlier nomadic pastoral camps in Namibia, with relatively autonomous family groups structured along kinship lines; two elaborate northern clusters were probably occupied by Klaas Afrikaner’s sons, Jager and Titus, while the largest southern cluster was likely Klaas’s own household.
The site also exposes tensions between written accounts and material evidence. Historians describe the Oorlam as possessing rifles, yet the gunflints found at ||Khausǃnas suggest smoothbore guns, while the southern defenses appear appropriate for less accurate weapons. Likewise, the absence of wagon-sized gateways may indicate that documentary descriptions reflect a later phase, after wagons had become part of Oorlam equipment.
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