Author(s)

Makarius Peter Itambu^1*, Alfred Mulinda², Allan Bukenya³, Charles Bernard Saanane¹, Emmael Sassi Gibinagwe⁴, Mariam Bundala¹, Pastory Magayane Bushozi¹

¹Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
²Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
³Pallottine Missionary Siuyu Parish (S.C.A), Singida, Tanzania.
⁴Dar es Salaam University College of Education, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Our recent archaeological expeditions in the Siuyu and Ughaugha wards of Singida eastern province have recuperated the very compelling rock engravings (petroglyphs) that weren’t reported in Tanzania before. Archaeologically, Singida’s fame emanated from her endowments of rock paintings. However; during this research, we did discover rock cupules, gongs, and grinding hollows art together with rock paintings (pictographs) that have opened up a new avenue for rock art studies in Tanzania. We carried out intensive site surveys around four sites namely Siuyu, Ngaghe, Misimbwa and Ughaugha B with the aims of solely examining, recording, and documenting archaeological artifacts on the surface in order to research the cultural and behavioural patterns of early humans in the Singida region. Surveys also enabled us to locate suitable areas where future excavations would be established. In some cases, ethnographic enquiries were employed to get supplementary information on the present-day use of rock art sites. Besides, we interviewed local people to assess their general understanding of the presence of more sites or helping in locating, and discovering new sites. Through ethnographic inquiries, we discovered several sites with substantial number of rock engravings that were never document by any researcher. On top of that, this study reports other archaeological potentials of the region by describing in detail their significances for future research undertakings. Additionally, this paper article reports on the occurrence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological assemblages from the open-air site and the presence of grinding hollows and rock cupules (Siuyu complexes) in central Tanzania for the first time.

Rock Engravings, Rock Paintings, Archaeological Expeditions

Itambu, M. , Mulinda, A. , Bukenya, A. , Saanane, C. , Gibinagwe, E. , Bundala, M. and Bushozi, P. (2018) Rock Engravings and Paintings: Rethinking of the Cupules, Gongs, and Grinding Hollows of Siuyu and Ughaugha in Singida East (Tanzania). Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 6, 160-180. doi: 10.4236/gep.2018.66012.