Using GIS to integrate old and new archaeological data from Stone Age deposits in Karonga, Malawi

The Karonga District of northern Malawi has an extensive Stone Age archaeological record, primarily represented by stone artefacts that occur in both superficial and buried contexts. Work conducted in the 1960s provided initial documentation of this record. Some of this was presented in summary form in a small number of publications. However, most data were restricted to unpublished field notes, maps, and other static or largely inaccessible formats. GIS has been an essential tool for bringing together these diverse datasets in a digital format to facilitate integration of new research and promote reinvestigation of old sites. Examples from both the regional and site scale demonstrate how old data have been combined with recent survey and excavation data to document, analyse, interpret, and archive current knowledge about the rich Stone Age record of northern Malawi. A significant result from this approach has been the suggested reinterpretation of the Mwanganda’s Village Site

Use of Geological Lineaments Results in Groundwater Exploration of Crystalline Rocks, Zomba, Southern Malawi

Locating aquifiers in Precambrian crystalline rocks offers major problems unless areas of intense weathering or fracturing are targeted. These normally occur along geological lineaments which can be identified during groundwater exploration. Major geological lineaments were identified in the Zomba area, southern Malawi, using landsat imagery and aerial photographs for groundwater exploration. In addition, areas of deep and intense fracturing identified by Very Low Frequency (VLF) geophysical technique were selected for borehole drilling. VLF results were able to locate areas with good resiststivity values which yielded borehole with water yields between 2.0 - 4.0 litres per second.Keywords: Aquifier yields, fractured zones; Very Low Frequency(VLF) techniqu