Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:01:09.803Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Review of Recent Archaeological Research on Food-Producing Communities in Southern Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Tim Maggs  and
Gavin Whitelaw
Tim Maggs
Affiliation:
Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg
Gavin Whitelaw
Affiliation:
Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This review is a further development in the Journal of African History series of archaeological surveys away from the earlier radiocarbon date lists and towards regional examinations of recent archaeological evidence on food-producing societies. It is divided into two sections that examine respectively ‘Stone Age’ pastoralists in the drier west and ‘Iron Age’ agriculturalists in the better-watered east. Relations between food producers and hunter-gatherers are examined, particularly in the west, where it is becoming increasingly difficult to make meaningful distinctions between them in view of the variety of changes that took place roughly contemporaneously in both with the introduction of domestic stock. Several local sequences are beginning to suggest that socio-economic change took place within the framework of the local community rather than by the stereotypic, ethnic replacement model where Khoi succeeds San.

There is much new evidence on communities with an agricultural economic base. The earliest evidence is examined from southern Mozambique and the Transvaal, including traces of first-millennium mercantile trade and its regional antecedents. There are contradictions between different models proposed to explain interactions with residual hunter-gatherer communities and with the natural environment. A major theme of recent studies has been the development and use of models derived from structuralist analysis of the classic ethnography of the region. Such models have given a new understanding of settlement patterns but in several respects are still the subject of controversy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 3 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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 Parkington, J. and Hall, M., ‘Patterning in recent radiocarbon dates from southern Africa as a reflection of prehistoric settlement and interaction’, Journal of African History, XXVIII (1987), 1–25;CrossRefGoogle Scholar see also Denbow, J., ‘A new look at the later pre-history of the Kalahari’, Journal of African History, XXVII (1986), 3–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for an important review of recent work from Botswana.

2 Martavaan, Newsletter of the Cape Historical Archaeology Association, produced since 1987.

3 Parkington and Hall, ‘Patterning’; Denbow, ‘A new look’.

4 Burchell, W. J., Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (2 vols., London, 1824).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Schrire, C., ‘An enquiry into the evolutionary status and apparent identity of San hunter-gatherers’, Human Ecology, VIII (1980), 9–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schrire, C., ‘Wild surmises or savage thoughts’, in Schrire, C. (ed.), Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies (Orlando, 1984).Google Scholar

6 Smith, A. B., ‘Prehistoric pastoralism in the South-western Cape, South Africa’, World Archaeology, XV (1983), 79–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Smith, A. B., ‘Competition, conflict and clientship: Khoi and San relationships in the western Cape’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 5 (1986), 36–41Google Scholar; Smith, A. B., Seasonal Exploitation of Resources on the Vredenburg Peninsula after 2000 BP (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 332, ii) (Oxford, 1987), 393–402.Google Scholar

8 Smith, ‘Competition’.

9 Smith, ‘Exploitation’.

10 Klein, R. G. and Cruz-Uribe, K., ‘Faunal evidence of prehistoric herder-forager activities at Kasteelberg, western Cape Province, South Africa’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLIV (1989), 82–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Klein and Cruz-Uribe, ‘Faunal evidence’.

12 Smith, A. B. and Poggenpoel, C., ‘The technology of bone tool fabrication in the South-western Cape, South Africa’, World Archaeology, XX (1988), 103–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Klein, R. G., ‘The prehistory of Stone Age herders in the Cape Province of South Africa’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 5 (1986), 5–12.Google Scholar

14 Klein and Cruz-Uribe, ‘Faunal evidence’.

15 Parkington and M. Hall, ‘Patterning’.

16 Parkington, pers. comm.

17 Jacobson, L., ‘The size variability of ostrich eggshell beads from central Namibia and its relevance as a stylistic and temporal marker’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLII (1987), 55–8;CrossRefGoogle ScholarJacobson, L., ‘More on ostrich eggshell bead size variability: the Geduld early herder assemblage’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLII (1987), 174–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 R. Yates, pers. comm.

19 Schrire, C., ‘The historical archaeology of the impact of colonialism in 17th-century South Africa’, Antiquity, LXII (1988), 214–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Schrire, C. and Deacon, J., ‘The indigenous artefacts from Oudepost, a colonial outpost of the VOC at Saldanha Bay, Cape’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLIV (1989), 105–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Schrire, ‘Historical archaeology’.

22 Welgeluk 1360±50 B.P. (Pta-3960); Edgehill 1830±60 B.P. (Pta-3564); Hall, S. L., ‘Pastoral adaptations and forager reactions in the eastern Cape’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 5 (1986), 42–9.Google Scholar

23 Welgeluk 510±50 B.P. (Pta-3934); S. L. Hall, ‘Adaptations’.

24 S. L. Hall, ‘Adaptations’ Parkington and M. Hall, ‘Patterning’.

25 Feely, J. M., The Early Farmers of Transkei, Southern Africa before A. D. 1870 (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 378) (Oxford, 1987).Google Scholar

26 Pottery present at Colwinton at or after 1890±45 B.P. (Pta-2549), Ravenscraig at 460±45 B.P. (Pta-3192), Bonawe after 2250±80 B.P. (Pta-1711); Opperman, H., The Late Stone Age of the Drakensberg Range and its Foothills (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 339) (Oxford, 1987).Google Scholar

27 Sampson, C. G., ‘Model of prehistoric herder-hunter contact zone: a first approximation’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 5 (1986), 50–6.Google Scholar

28 Calibrated dates are A.D. 900±70 (SMU-1790), A.D. 1395±39 (SMU-1636) and A.D. 1390±120 (SMU-1791); Sampson, C. G., Hart, T., Wallsmith, D. L. and Blagg, J. D., ‘The ceramic sequence in the upper Seacow Valley: problems and implications’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLIV (1989), 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 800±50 B.P. (Pta-3512); Webley, L., ‘Pastoralist ethnoarchaeology in Namaqualand’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 5 (1986), 57–61.Google Scholar

30 Kinahan, J., ‘Archaeological research on nomadic pastoralism in the central Namib Desert’, NSI, 11 (1987), 36–9;Google ScholarKinahan, J., ‘The archaeological structure of pastoral production in the central Namib Desert’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 5 (1986), 69–72.Google Scholar

31 Kinahan, J., ‘Pastoral nomads of the central Namib Desert’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1989).Google Scholar

32 For a review of the chronology and distribution see Noli, D. and Avery, G., ‘Stone circles in the Cape Fria area, northern Namibia’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XLVII (1987), 59–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 Kinahan, ‘Archaeological structure’.

34 Kinahan, ‘Pastoral nomads’.

35 Morais, J., ‘The early farming communities of southern Mozambique’, Studies in African Archaeology, 3 (Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, and Central Board of National Antiquities, Sweden, 1988).Google Scholar

36 Huffman, T. N., ‘The Iron Age of the Buhwa District, Rhodesia’, Occasional Papers of the National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia, Series A. Human Sciences, IV (1978), 81–100.Google Scholar

37 Maggs, T., ‘The Iron Age south of the Zambezi’, in Klein, R. G. (ed.), Southern African Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments (Rotterdam, 1984), 329–60.Google Scholar

38 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

39 See for example: Maggs, T., ‘Mzonjani and the beginning of the Iron Age in Natal’, Annals of the Natal Museum, XXIV (1980), 71–96.Google Scholar

40 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

41 Hall, M., Settlement Patterns in the Iron Age of Zululand: An Ecological Interpretation (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 119) (Oxford, 1981).Google Scholar

42 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

43 Sinclair, P. J. J., Nydolf, N. and Nydolf, G. W., ‘Excavations at the University Campus site 2532 Dc 1, southern Mozambique’, Studies in African Archaeology, 1 (Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, and Central Board of National Antiquities, Sweden, 1987).Google Scholar

44 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’ M. Hall, Settlement Patterns, for St Lucia data.

45 Sinclair et al., ‘Excavations’, Plates 8 and 9, Fig. 29.

46 Op. cit.; Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

47 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

48 Sinclair et al., ‘Excavations’.

49 All Mozambican radiocarbon dates are taken from Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’. Archaeologists working in Mozambique have used both the Rome and Stockholm laboratories. All Stockholm dates are 13C corrected, while those from Rome are corrected using the procedure recommended by Ralph, E. K., Michael, H. N. and Han, M. C., ‘Radiocarbon dates and reality’, MASCA Newsletter, IX (1973), 1–20.Google Scholar With this correction the original first-century A.D. date from Matola falls into the second century. This and new dates are provided: Matola: A.D. 140±50 (R-1327), A.D. 230±110 (St-8546), A.D. 480±80 (St-8547). The latter date is possibly contaminated (see Morais, , ‘Southern Mozambique’, 96)Google Scholar; University Campus: A.D. 175±85 (St-9836), A.D. 360±75 (St-9838), A.D. 595±100 (St-9837); Zitundo: A.D. 175±105 (St-8909), A.D. 190±105 (St-8911), A.D. 265±105 (St-8912), A.D. 375±105 (St-8913), A.D. 515±105 (St-8919).

50 For example, see Maggs, T., ‘Msuluzi Confluence: a seventh century Early Iron Age site on the Tugela River’, Annals of the Natal Museum, XXIV (1980), 111–45.Google Scholar

51 See Denbow, ‘A new look’; Evers, T. M., ‘The recognition of groups’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1988);Google ScholarHuffman, T. N., ‘Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations’, The African Archaeological Review, VII (1989), 155–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 Although this sequence was presented in less detail by Huffman, T. N., ‘The origins of Leopard's Kopje: an 11th century Difaqane’, Arnoldia (Rhod), VIII (1978), 1–23Google Scholar; Hall, M. and Vogel, J. C., ‘Some recent radiocarbon dates from southern Africa’, Journal of African History, XXI (1980), 431–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar, refer to sites with Western Stream ceramics as the ‘Lydenburg cluster’.

53 Evers, ‘Recognition’.

54 Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’.

55 Sinclair, P. J. J., Space, Time and Social Formation: A Territorial Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique c. 0–1700 A. D. (Uppsala, 1987), 117.Google Scholar

56 Op. cit.; Morais, ‘Southern Mozambique’; dates from Chibuene are A.D. 550±85 (St-8495), A.D. 680±80 (St-8494), A.D. 795±85 (St-8496), A.D. 830–850 (R-1325), A.D. 1285±80 (St-8493).

57 Sinclair, Space.

58 Huffman, T. N., ‘Archaeology and ethnohistory of African Iron Age’, Annual Review of Anthropology, II (1982), 133–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

59 Denbow, ‘A new look’.

60 Meyer, A., ‘’n Kultuurhistoriese interpretasie van die Ystertydperk in die Nationale Krugerwildtuin’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pretoria, 1986)Google Scholar; Plug, Ina, ‘Hunters and herders: an archaeozoological study of some prehistoric communities in the Kruger National Park’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pretoria, 1988)Google Scholar; Plug, I., ‘Aspects of life in the Kruger National Park during the Early Iron Age’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 6 (1989), 62–84.Google Scholar Dates from the Park are: Sk 17: A.D. 740±50 (Pta-3507); Le 6: A.D. 790±50 (Pta-3491); Ol 20: A.D. 850±150 (Pta-3473). Pottery style provides relative dates for other sites.

61 Maggs, T. M. O'C. and Michael, M., ‘Ntshekane: an Early Iron Age site in the Tugela Basin, Natal’, Annals of the Natal Museum, XXII (1976), 705–40Google Scholar, and G. Whitelaw, in preparation.

62 Meyer, ‘Kultuurhistoriese’. Site Ma 38 is dated to A.D. 470±50 (Pta-3725).

63 Op. cit.; Plug, ‘Hunters’; Plug, ‘Aspects’.

64 Meyer, ‘Kultuurhistoriese’, 302.

65 Plug, ‘Hunters’.

66 Ibid.; Plug, ‘Aspects’. Ma 4 is considered to date to the ninth century.

67 Voigt, E. A. and Plug, I., ‘Happy Rest: the earliest Iron Age fauna from the Soutpansberg’, South African Journal of Science, LXXX (1984), 221–7.Google Scholar

68 Plug, I. and Voigt, E. A., ‘Archaeozoological studies of Iron Age communities in southern Africa’, Advances in World Archaeology, IV (1985), 189–238.Google Scholar

69 Plug, ‘Hunters’; Plug, ‘Aspects’.

70 Mason, R., Origins of Black People of Johannesburg and the Southern Western Central Transvaal A.D. 350–1880 (Johannesburg, 1986). Compare Evers, nn. 51–3.Google Scholar

71 Ibid.

72 Meyer, ‘Kultuurhistoriese’.

73 G. Whitelaw, in preparation.

74 Mason, Origins.

75 Klapwijk, M., ‘A preliminary report on pottery from the northeastern Transvaal, South Africa’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XXIX (1974), 19–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Maggs, T., ‘Ndondondwane: a preliminary report on an Early Iron Age site on the lower Tugela River’, Annals of the Natal Museum, XXVI (1984), 71–93Google Scholar; Maggs, T. and Ward, V., ‘Early Iron Age sites in the Muden area of Natal’, Annals of the Natal Museum, XXVI (1984), 105–40.Google Scholar

77 Meyer, ‘Kultuurhistoriese’.

78 Wadley, L., Later Stone Age Hunters and Gatherers of the Southern Transvaal: Social and Ecological Interpretation (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 380) (Oxford, 1987), 83.Google Scholar

79 Mazel, A. D., ‘People making history: the last ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin’, Natal Museum Journal of Humanities, 1 (1989), 1–168.Google Scholar

80 Acocks, J. P. H., ‘Veld types of South Africa’, Memoirs of the Botanical Survey, 28 (1953), 1st edition.Google Scholar

81 Feely, Early Farmers.

82 For an overview of this period see Maggs, ‘The Iron Age’, but also see Denbow, ‘A new look’; Evers, ‘Recognition’; Huffman, ‘Archaeology’; and Huffman, T. N., ‘Leopard's Kopje and the nature of the Iron Age in Bantu Africa’, Zimbabwea, 1 (1987), 28–35.Google Scholar For the Evers/Mason debate see Mason, Origins; Mason, R. J., “Oori’ or ‘Moloko’? The origins of the Sotho-Tswana and the evidence of the Iron Age of the Transvaal’, South African Journal of Science, LXXIX (1983), 261Google Scholar, and Evers', T. M. reply in South African Journal of Science, LXXIX (1983), 261–4.Google Scholar For a detailed analysis of the ceramics, see Evers, ‘Recognition’.

83 Huffman, ‘Ceramics’.

84 In Hall, M., The Changing Past: Farmers, Kings and Traders in Southern Africa, 200–1860 (Cape Town, 1987)Google Scholar, Hall claimed that a far more extensive area was forested. In more recent publications (referenced in the notes following), perhaps in the light of Feely's findings (Feely, Early Farmers), he has modified this claim somewhat.

85 Hall, M., ‘The role of cattle in southern African agropastoral societies: more than bones alone can tell’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 5 (1986), 83–7 (85).Google Scholar

86 Hall, , The Changing Past, 71Google Scholar; Hall, M., ‘Archaeology and modes of production in pre-colonial southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, XIV (1987), 1–17 (8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a discussion of this early period, see also Hall, M., ‘At the frontier: some arguments against hunter-gathering and farming modes of production in southern Africa’, in Ingold, T., Riches, D. and Woodburn, J. (eds.), Hunters and Gatherers: History, Evolution and Social Change (Oxford, 1988), 137–47.Google Scholar

87 Hall, The Changing Past; ‘Bones’ Hall, ‘Archaeology’.

88 Ibid.

89 Kuper, A., ‘Symbolic dimensions of the southern Bantu homestead’, Africa, L (1980), 8–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kuper, A., Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa (London, 1982).Google Scholar

90 Huffman, ‘Archaeology’ Huffman, ‘Leopard's Kopje’ Huffman, T. N., ‘Iron Age settlement patterns and the origins of class distinction in southern Africa’, Advances in World Archaeology, v (1985), 291–338Google Scholar; Huffman, ‘Ceramics’.

91 Huffman, ‘Settlement patterns’.

92 Denbow, J. R., ‘The Toutswe Tradition: a study in socio-economic change’, in Hitchcock, R. R. and Smith, M. R. (eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on Settlement in Botswana: The Historical Development of a Human Landscape (Johannesburg, 1982), 73–86;Google Scholar Denbow, ‘A new look’.

93 Evers, T. M., ‘The Iron Age in the eastern Transvaal, South Africa’, in Voigt, E. A. (ed.), Guide to Archaeological Sites in the Northern and Eastern Transvaal (1981), 64–109Google Scholar; Evers, T. M. and Hammond-Tooke, W. D., ‘The emergence of South African chiefdoms: an archaeological perspective’, African Studies, XLV (1986), 37–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

94 Evers, T. M., ‘Sotho-Tswana and Moloko settlement patterns and the Bantu cattle pattern’, in Hall, M. et al. (eds.), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 207) (Oxford, 1984), 236–47.Google Scholar

95 Taylor, M. O. V., ‘Southern Transvaal stone-walled sites: a spatial consideration’, in Hall, M. et al. (eds.), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 207), 249–51 (Oxford, 1984)Google Scholar; Huffman, ‘Settlement patterns’ Huffman, T. N., ‘Boschoek and the Central Cattle Pattern’, in T. M. Evers, T. N. Huffman and L. Wadley (eds.), Guide to Archaeological Sites in the Transvaal (1988), 1–8.Google Scholar

96 Mason, Origins.

97 Dreyer, J. J. B., ‘Argeologiese opgrawings op Doornpoort 19, Winburg’, National Museum News, XXIX (1985), 22–4Google Scholar; Dreyer, J. J. B., ‘Klipmure vertel verhale’, National Museum News, XXX (1986), 26–8.Google Scholar

98 Mason, Origins.

99 Loubser, J. H. N., ‘Buffelshoek: an ethnoarchaeological consideration of a Late Iron Age settlement in the southern Transvaal’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, XL (1985), 81–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

100 Mason, Origins. Dates from Olifantspoort 29/72 are A.D. 1240±120 (RL-199), A.D. 1510±90 (RL-243), A.D. 1600±90 (RL-244). Evers, ‘Recognition’, suggests that the earlier date be discarded.

101 Ibid.

102 Pistorius, J. C. C., ‘n Etno-argeologiese interpretasie van'n Sotho-Tswana vestigingseenheid op Selonskraal’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Pretoria, 1984).Google Scholar

103 Ibid.

104 Ibid.; Radiocarbon dates from Selonskraal are A.D. 1770±50 (Pt-3488), calibrates to A.D. 1660 and 1770; A.D. 1780±45 (Pta-3492), calibrates to A.D. 1660 or 1770.

105 Huffman, T. N., ‘Archaeological evidence and conventional explanations of southern Bantu settlement patterns’, Africa, LVI (1986), 280–98; Mason, Origins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

106 Huffman, ‘Conventional explanations’.

107 Huffman, ‘Archaeology’.

108 Huffman, T. N. and Hanisch, E. O. M., ‘Settlement hierarchies in the northern Transvaal: Zimbabwe ruins and Venda history’, African Studies, XLVI (1987), 79–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

109 Loubser, J. H. N., ‘Archaeological contributions to Venda ethnohistory’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of the Wirwatersrand, 1988)Google Scholar; Loubser, J. H. N., ‘Archaeology and early Venda history’, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series, 6 (1989), 54–61.Google Scholar