The bones were left intact in the grave.

AmaRharhabe Royal House spokesperson Prince Zolile Burns-Ncamashe said the royal house was certain it was Sandile's body in the grave and happy that he had not been beheaded.

He said they were looking at the possibility of exhuming the remains and reburying them at Mngqesha Great Place.

The skeleton was found yesterday afternoon at a depth of about 1,6m.

The skull was facing to the left.

Traditional leaders at the scene said the findings corrected distorted African history and restored the dignity of the traditional leaders.

The finding dismissed the myth that Sandile had been beheaded and his head buried on a farm in England.

The team which carried out this week's investigation, anthropologist Professor Maryna Steyn and archaeologists Coen Nienaber and Louise Hutten, said they believed that the grave contained Sandile's skeleton and that it had not been tempered with.

"There is nothing suggesting that it is anybody other than Sandile," said Nienaber.

There were no foot bones, but Nienaber said this appeared to be because of poor preservation.

The team found the skeleton's legs were not the same shape and size, indicating a disability. Sandile was known to have had a disabled leg, using a stick to assist him.

"There seems to be a confirmation there," Nienaber said.

Also in the grave were cartridges from bullets and pieces of bottle.

One surprise was that the headstone on the grave, erected in 1972, had been placed at Sandile's feet instead of at his head.

Sandile was killed in a skirmish with a detachment of Fingo troops under the command of a Captain Massey-Hicks at Tyusha Forest, Izeli, on June4, 1878, during the Ninth Frontier War. He was buried five days later between the graves of British troopers A Dicks and FHillier.

Nienaber said they would deliver a brief preliminary report before the end of next week, while a complete report will be completed in about two months.

Traditional leaders barred the Daily Dispatch from taking pictures of the skeleton, on the grounds that this was "culturally insensitive and would not be in the interest of the public to see a human skeleton in the media".

The experts said it had been a little "scary" working under the sharp eye of King Maxhoba Sandile, who is descended from the legendary Sandile.

"It was difficult to deal with because it's culturally sensitive in that we are looking into a legend. And it is also politically sensitive because there is a lot that will follow on our finding which is important to the descendants of the deceased king," said Nienaber.

"This is something special."

A bronze plaque erected at Sandile's grave in 1941 by the Historical Monuments Commission reads: "SANDILE Chief of the Gaikas. Born about 1820. Killed in the Ninth Kaffir War 1877-78 and buried on 9-6-1878." This is also translated into Afrikaans and IsiXhosa with wrongly spelt names.

Burns-Ncamashe said they had embarked on the exercise after concern arose over the accuracy of the history of the king, his death and his burial, with suggestions that he was buried headless.

The digging up of the grave was "to verify and authenticate the facts of history so that we can ascertain clear facts beyond reproach".

An AmaRharhabe delegation, with members of the South African government, visited England last May to verify the stories that Sandile's head was buried on a farm there along with a pet cat and dog.

Burns-Ncamashe said they found a tombstone, reportedly made by a Colonel Carrington, in a garage at Hillcott Farm, which reads: "Here lies the head of Sandilli, Chief of the Gaika Nation, killed in action at the Peri Bush, King Williams Town 1878."