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Date	Original Topic
9th July 2005	Zulu war artifacts By Andrew bush I am going to Zululand in September and I have been told that artifacts are still been found around devils pass area , can anyone shed any light on this?.
Date	Replies
9th July 2005	Martin Everett Dear Andrew, If you climb up Hlobane and trek across the mountain to the other side, and then climb down the Devil's Pass - that's is sufficient excitement to last you a lifetime, and you will return home with a great sense of achievement being at the spot where history was made and VCs were hard won. Don't please encourage the local children to desecrate this famous battlefield - just for the odd MH spent cartridge.
13th July 2005	Mike McCabe Because a few, seperated, very specific parts of the Hlobane battlefield were well known to yield significant numbers of MH rifle and carbine cartridge cases these have been systematically hoovered up by 'collectors' or those acting for them. This particular battlefield is unusually remote and the mine authorities appear no longer to monitor it systematically. Though there are some vehicle tracks, there is no continuous track accross the whole of Hlobane and down the Devil's Pass. As raabits are a plague in much of Australia, so artefact hunters are viewed in KZN. Pleasing numbers of them still have accidents or become stranded by darkness on the Hlobane battlefield. MC McC
14th July 2005	Haydn Jones Andrew I was at the Devil's Pass as recently as May this year and can assure you that there is nothing obvious to be found in the way of artifacts. Not that I was looking too hard anyway because my understanding is that it is actually illegal to remove anything from at least some, if not all, of the battlefield sites. (A young boy was offering something for sale at Khambula (not sure what it was!) but I politely declined). I would fully support Martin's comments above. Enjoy the history and the views and marvel at how anyone actually escaped from that place. Let everything else rest in peace. Have a good trip!