Earthworks of Bigo bya Mugenyi and Ntusi
Movimientos de tierra de Bigo bya Mugenyi y Ntusi
- Date
- c. 1000-1500 · confidence medium
- Place
- Bigo bya Mugenyi and Ntusi, Sembabule, Uganda
- Credited to
- Pastoralist societies of the Kitara kingdom (tradition linked to the Bachwezi)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A system of ditches and ramparts several kilometres long, the largest in the Great Lakes, centred on Bigo, beside Ntusi, a herders' settlement with pottery and cattle. They point to hierarchical societies before Bunyoro and Buganda.
Ntusi was occupied c. 1000-1400 and Bigo c. 1300-1500 according to pottery and radiocarbon. The link with the semi-legendary Bachwezi and a Kitara state is an uncorroborated oral tradition. Approximate coordinates.
What it led to
- archaeology of political complexity in the Great Lakes
- study of the antecedents of the interlacustrine kingdoms
- debate on the Bachwezi state