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Date	Original Topic
22nd January 2003	Cairns at Isandlwana By John Has there ever been any mapping done of the cairns at Isandhlwana? I was wondering how many, roughly, there are, and over how wide of an area they are scattered. Also, do the cairns mark individual graves, or mass graves, or both?
Date	Replies
22nd January 2003	Clive Dickens John I could not say how many their are in total ,but to the second part of your question they are mostly mass graves the dead where left untouched untill around May or June during which time the remains had mainly decomposed and wild animals and the weather had alsio played their part so it was mainly bones which had been scattered about making it virtually impossible to bury many individually. Clive
22nd January 2003	Melvin Hunt Did the burial party make any attempt to plot on a map or diagram of the battlefield, if not the individuals, then what fighting unit they were from? If so has the map ever been published?
22nd January 2003	Keith Smith John There is map of the batlefield, showing the locations of the cairns, in David Jackson's new book: Hill of the Sphinx, p. 78. He also notes that due to space constraints, the number of cairns shown has been reduced. It is interesting to note that none are shown on the spur to the north of the camp, nor on the wau down from it. Keith
22nd January 2003	Mo Jones Hi. Last September I took 35 members of The 1879 Group out to Zululand to see the battlefields. We spent over 3 days touring Isandlwana Battlefield. Our guide threw in this and I heard it from a couple of other guide as well: that over the years these stones have been moved to be painted or moved for other dubious reasons !!!!!!, so what they now reckon is that they may now not be exactly where they were placed first all those years ago during the burials???????. A point of interest I thought. Best wishes. Mo Jones. The 1879 Group. www.1879group.com
22nd January 2003	Peter Ewart John, Yes, the Isandlwana Battlefield Site Plan 10155/1, dated 22 Oct 1986, was apparently produced by the Natal Provincial Administration Works Dept which I suspect has a more up-to-date name incorporating KZN somewhere in it these days. And yes, the position and nature of some of the cairns today is quite different to the original site in a number of cases, due to the many re-burial attempts between 1879 and 1883, when there were at least four major burial and reburial operations as well as surveys and clearances, bonfires etc. The constant factor has been the effect of rainy season weather on the erosion of donga banks, near which some of the cairns were situated and still are. This has led to the collapse of the base of some of the cairns and loss of the contents. In the excavations, reburials and repairs of 1879-83 a good many collections from outlying areas were involved, and many of the cairns can no longer necessarily be considered as marking specifically the exact spot where a man or group of men fell or were found. Add to all this the vandalism and souvenir collecting, especially between 1987-91, and the constant need to repair cairns will demonstrate how much they have been altered. An official excavation of two cairns (No 27 & No 28) was carried out in c1993 and the results of this were published in KZN. A summary of the report appears in a very interesting article in Issue 6 of the AZWHS Journal (Dec 1999) which provides a number of helpful references for those interested in their condition, maintenance and historical changes over the years. For my part, I've long thought (perhaps sacrilegiously!) that the cairns - or at least the memorials - are not necessary, and that the imposing memorial to both sides is there before our eyes - the sphinx (or Lion Rock as it was usually called at first) itself. Peter
24th January 2003	Julian Whybra I have a copy of Boast's map showing the location of the cairns after he visited the site to rebury remains washed up by the rains in he 1880s.
25th January 2003	Mo Jones. Hi Julian. Is it possible to get a copy of it from you I will cover any costs. Many Thanks. Mo Jones
28th January 2003	Ian Essex I would agree somewhat with Peters answer. The cairns have been subject to much movement over the years due to people being paid to take anything valuable from them and also due to renovation. The cairns are not necassarily representative to the actual places that soldiers died but the general area. There were simple too many bodies to bury in single graves.