Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:42:20.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Notes on the Later Prehistoric Radiocarbon Chronology of Eastern and Southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Abstract

This paper is intended as the first of a biennial series summarizing for the benefit of historians the latest developments in radiocarbon dating for the later prehistory of eastern and southern Africa. Ninety new dates have been released during the past year and these are discussed and evaluated in comparison with dates obtained previously. It should be emphasized that many of the dates included in this paper are here published in advance of fully detailed reports, which are in preparation by the archaeologists concerned, and that some of the conclusions reached are provisional pending a fuller examination and evaluation of the archaeological data.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 This method of quoting dates has already been used in Phillipson, D. V., ‘Early iron using peoples of southern Africa’ in African Societies in Southern Africa, ed. Thompson, L. (London, 1969), 2449.Google Scholar

2 See below, pp. 13–15. New dates which have not appeared in B. M. Fagan's previous lists of radiocarbon dates in this Journal are indicated in the appendix by an asterisk.

3 For a valuable guide to the interpretation of radiocarbon dates see Polach, H. A. and Golson, J., Collection of Specimens for Radiocarbon Dating and Interpretation of Results, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Manual no. 2 (Canberra, 1966).Google Scholar

4 Suess, H. E., ‘Secular variations of the cosmic-ray-produced carbon-14 in the atmosphere and their interpretation’, J. Geophys. Research, V (1965), 5950.Google ScholarStuiver, M. and Suess, H., ‘On the relationship between radiocarbon dates and true sample ages’, Radiocarbon, VIII (1966), 534–40. A survey of this problem and a graph showing the approximate magnitude of this variation is shortly to appear in Antiquity (G. Daniel, editorial to Antiquity, XLIII (1969), 90).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa: VI’, J. Afr. Hist. X (1969), 749–69.Google Scholar

6 I am most grateful to all those who have provided me with information, often unpublished, on their latest work. I have attempted to make reference to the sources of all communications in the appropriate passages.

7 D. W. Phillipson, ‘The prehistoric sequence at Nakapapula rockshelter, Zambia’ (in the Press).

8 Phillipson, D. W., ‘The Early Iron Age in Zambia’, J. Afr. Hist. IX (1968), 191211. D. W. Phillipson, ‘Early iron-using peoples’.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 The sample submitted from this horizon was too small to allow complete pretreatment for the removal of possible contaminants and gave an age in the mid-fourth millennium B.C. (GX-1552) which is inconsistent with the rest of the series.

10 Clark, J. D., ‘Bushman hunters of the Barotse Forests’, N. Rhodesia J. I, no. 3 (1951), 5665.Google Scholar

11 For references and discussion see D. W. Phillipson, ‘Early iron-using peoples’.

12 Cooke, C. K. and Simons, H. A. B., ‘Mpato Shelter, Sentinel Ranch, Limpopo River, Beit Bridge, Rhodesia: Excavation results’, Arnoldia (Rhod.), IV (1969), no. 18.Google Scholar

13 Inskeep, R. R., ‘Archaeological background’, in Oxford History of South Africa, I, ed. Wilson, M. and Thompson, L. (Oxford, 1969), 539.Google Scholar

14 Mrs B. Pendleton, in litt. Eros Shelter was excavated by Miss R. MacCalman.

15 Miss Speed, E., in litt. T. Maggs and E. Speed, ‘Bonteberg Shelter’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. XXII (1967), 8093.Google ScholarGrindley, J. R., Maggs, T. and Speed, E., ‘The age of the Bonteberg Shelter deposits, Cape Peninsula’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. (in the Press.)Google Scholar

16 Robbins, L. H., ‘A recent archaeological discovery in the Turkana district of northern Kenya’, Azania, II (1967), 6973.CrossRefGoogle ScholarBerger, R. and Libby, W. F., ‘UCLA radiocarbon dates, VIII’, Radiocarbon, x (1968), 402–66. Berger notes that the date is uncorrected and may not represent the best obtainable age. More data are needed on the C-14 content of Lake Rudolph.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Valastro, S., Davis, E. M. and Rightmire, C. T., ‘University of Texas at Austin radiocarbon dates, VI’, Radiocarbon, X (1968), 384401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Leakey, M. and Leakey, L. S. B., Excavation at the Njoro River Cave (Oxford, 1950). There is a date (Y-91) of the eleventh to tenth centuries B.C. from the Njoro River Cave.Google Scholar

19 R. Soper in litt.

20 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa: V’, J. Afr. Hist. VIII (1967), 513–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 R. Soper, in litt.

22 Chapman, S., ‘Kantsyore Island’, Azania, II (1967), 165–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Sassoon, H., in litt. Report forthcoming in Tanzania Notes and Records, 1969.Google Scholar

24 Shinnie, P., in litt. and Comment in Current Anthropology, X (1969), 229–30.Google Scholar

25 This discussion of the Early Iron Age groups follows the terminology of Soper East Africa and of the present writer for Zambia: R. C. Soper, ‘Early Iron Age pottery types from East Africa: comparative analysis’, paper presented to Sixth Panafrican Congress on Prehistory, Dakar, Senegal, 1967Google Scholar; Phillipson, D. W., ‘The Early Iron Zambia’, J. Afr. Hist. IX (1968), 191211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Soper, R. C., ‘Kwale, an Early Iron Age Site in South-Eastern Kenya’, Azania, II (1967), 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 R. Soper, in litt.

28 Sutton, J. E. G. and Roberts, A., ‘Uvinza and its salt industry’, Azania, III 4586.Google Scholar

29 Smolla, G., ‘Prähistorische Keramic aus Ostafrika’, Tribus, VI (1956), 3546Google ScholarSutton, J. E. G., ‘Archaeological sites in Usandawe’, Azania, III (1968), 167–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 See below, p. 9.

31 Robinson, K. R. and Sandelowsky, B., ‘The Iron Age of Northern Malawi: recent work’, Azania, III (1968), 107–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa: VI’, J. Afr. Hist. X (1969), 149–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 K. R. Robinson, in litt.

34 See above, p. 2.

35 Clark, J. D., Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site, I (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar

36 The occupation of Kangonga appears to have been short and GX-1328 is considered to be the less reliable of the two dates quoted because of the sample size available.

37 Phillipson, D. W., ‘The Eary Iron Age in Zambia’, J. Afr. Hist. IX (1968), 191211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 The Early Iron Age occupation of Twickenham Road has given two dates between the early ninth and the mid-twelfth Centuries A.D. (GX-662 and GX-1329). On the other hand an occupation of the same site which must typologically be regarded as later has been dated to between the early seventh and the early ninth centuries (GX-1422, GX-1423). There is some overlap, in the first half of the ninth century A.D., between the two series of dates. When Suess's calculation of the relationship between radiocarbon and true ages is taken into account, the overlap is extended to cover the whole of the eighth and ninth centuries as well as the first decades of the tenth.

39 The post-Early Iron Age occupation of these sites is discussed below, p. 10.

40 Fagan, B. M., in litt.Google Scholar

41 Fagan, B. M., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, I (London, 1967).Google Scholar

42 Garlake, P. S., ‘Chitope, an Early Iron Age village in northern Mashonaland’, Arnoldia (Rhod.), IV (1969), no. 19.Google Scholar

43 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa: V’, J. Afr. Hist. VIII (1967), 513–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 Dart, R. A. and Beaumont, P., ‘Ratification and retrocession of earlier Swaziland iron ore mining radiocarbon datings’, S. Afr. J. Sci. LXIV (1968), 241–6.Google Scholar

45 J. Hiernaux and E. Maquet, ‘L'Age du Fer è Kibiro, Uganda’, Musée royal de L'Afrique Centrale, Annales in 8°, Sciences humaines, no. 63 (Tervuren, 1968). The range of these dates is long because of the small charcoal samples available.

46 Annual Report of Tanzanian Antiquities Department for 1966 (Dar es Salaam, 1968), II.Google Scholar

47 H. Sassoon in litt.

48 See above, p. 5.

49 Sutton, J. E. G. and Roberts, A., ‘Uvinza and its salt industry’, Azania, III (1968), 4586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Posnansky, M., ‘The Iron Age in East Africa’, in Background to Evolution in Africa, ed. Bishop, W. and Clark, J. D. (Chicago, 1967), 629–49.Google Scholar

51 M. Posnansky, in litt. and article forthcoming in Uganda J.

52 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa: V’, J. Afr. Hist. VIII (1967), pp. 513–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 H. N. Chittick, in litt.

54 Chittick, H. N., ‘Kilwa, a preliminary report’, Arania, I (1967) 17, 33.Google Scholar Husuni Kubwa is described in Garlake, P. S., The Early Islamic Architecture of the East African Coast (Nairobi, 1966). (An early fourteenth century date is now preferred to one in the thirteenth century (H.N.C.).)Google Scholar

55 Phillipson, D. W., ‘Prehistory of the copper mining industry in Zambia’, South African Mining J. 1968, pp. 1332–9.Google Scholar

56 Phillipson, D. W. and Fagan, B. M., ‘The date of the Ingombe Ilede burials’, J. Afr. Hist. X (1969), 199204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Fagan, B. M., ‘Excavations at Ingombe Ilede’, in Fagan, B. M., Phillipson, D. W. and Daniels, S. G. H., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, II (London, 1969).Google Scholar

58 See above, p. 7.

59 B.M. Fagan, in litt.

60 Fagan, B. M. and Phillipson, D. W., ‘Sebanzi: the Iron Age sequence at Lochinvar, and the Tonga’, J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. XCV (1965), 253294.Google Scholar

61 Fagan, B. M., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, I (London, 1967).Google Scholar

62 J. O. Vogel, in litt.

63 Vogel, J. O., Kamangoza: An Introduction to the Iron Age Cultures of the Victoria Falls Region (Nairobi, in the Press).Google Scholar

64 K. R. Robinson, in litt.

65 Robinson, K. R., ‘The Leopard's Kopje culture, its position in the Iron Age in Southern Rhodesia’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. XXI (1966), 551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

66 Rudd, S., ‘Preliminary report of excavations, 1963−6, at Lekkerwater Ruins, Tsindi Hill, Keydon, Rhodesia’, Proc. Rhod. Scient. Ass. XXXII (1968), 3850. I am grateful to Mr R. Summers for this reference.Google Scholar

67 Summers, R., Robinson, K. R. and Whitty, A., ‘Zimbabwe excavations, 1958’, Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus. S. Rhod. III (1961), no. 23a.Google Scholar

68 Summers, R., ‘Iron Age industries of southern Africa’, in Background to evolution in Africa, ed. Bishop, W. and Clark, J. D. (Chicago, 1967), 687700.Google Scholar

69 R. Summers, in litt.

70 R. Summers, Ancient Mining in Rhodesia, memoir no. 3, National Museums of Rhodesia (Salisbury, 1969).

71 Cooke, C. K., Summers, R. and Robinson, K. R., ‘Rhodesian prehistory re-examined, Part II, Iron Age’, Arnoldia (Rhod.) II (1966), no. 17.Google Scholar

72 R. Summers, in litt. These dates and those from Aboyne Mine (SR-53) and Thakadu Copper Prospect (SR-51) are fully discussed in Summers's Ancient Mining in Rhodesia.

73 Mason, R. J., ‘Transvaal and Natal Iron Age settlement revealed by aerial photography and excavation’, African Studies, XXVII (1968), no. 4, 114.Google Scholar

74 Mason, R. J., Prehistory of the Transvaal (Johannesburg, 1962).Google Scholar

75 T. Maggs, in litt.

76 Asterisks denote dates not reported in previous lists in this Journal.