A macro-fracture investigation of the backed stone tools from Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana

Foragers occupying Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana, and producing a Later Stone Age technology came into contact with incoming Iron Age food-producers at approximately AD 350. From the onset of their interactions the Later Stone Age record began to change. One such change was in stone tool preference; over much of southern Africa scraper frequencies increasedwhereas backed tools declined. However, between c. AD 900 and 1200 at Dzombo, backed tools inexplicably dominate the formal tool assemblage. This paper seeks to understand the role of backed tools at Dzombo frombefore the arrival of farmers until the establishment of the Mapungubwe state, c. AD 1220, in order to explain shifts in use and preference patterns. By performing a macro-fracture analysis itwas possible to demonstrate an increased occurrence of fractures consistent with impact-related damage between approximately AD 350 and 1200, and it is suggested here that during this time hunting activitieswere intensified. The factors possibly driving this intensification are discussed and could relate to forager–farmer interactions or a shift in the site's function. As is shown, the former is more likely. The macro-analysis of backed tools provides greater clarity when viewing Dzombo's archaeological sequence and to some extent confirms earlier suggestions that in order to augment growing mercantile opportunities spurred on by the arrival of farmers, forager hunting activities increased.Palaeontological Scientific Trust and their Scatterlings of Africa programme.National Research Foundation.http://ees.elsevier.com/jasrep2015-09-30hb201

A review of hunter-gatherers in Later Stone Age research in southern Africa

Since its inception in academia in 1929 by John Goodwin and Clarence van Riet Lowe, the Later Stone Age (LSA) in southern Africa has seen considerable growth and heated academic debate. Recently, some academics have lamented that LSA research has stagnated, and even reached the brink of marginalisation. According to Mitchell (2005), one reason for reviving LSA research is the field’s global importance and potential to empower and represent previously disenfranchised communities. The aim of this paper is to examine how San communities and southern African hunter-gatherers have been historically perceived by reviewing LSA research approaches. Several key themes of LSA research are presented which capture major shifts in methodological and theoretical frameworks and research interests within the field. These examples signal fundamental shifts in research discourse, archaeologists’ perspectives, and the dominant views of ‘Bushman’. Although providing an historical summary of LSA research, the paper also considers decolonisation within the field, aligning with the current socio-political milieu in southern Africa. It is suggested that while using ethnography and indigenous knowledge systems is helping us decolonise our approach to the archaeological record, this is not without its problems.https://www.archaeology.org.za/saabpm2020Anthropology and Archaeolog

Casting foragers into a new mould? The case of the Mafunyane Shelter, eastern Botswana

The final two millennia of southern Africa’s Later Stone Age saw considerable shifts in subsistence, settlement and production patterns. Much of these changes coincided with the arrival of agriculturalists bringing crops, livestock and metals (Mitchell 2002). The nature of these changes, however, varied across the region and hence not all Later Stone Age features are found at any individual site, thereby requiring archaeologists to undertake regional studies. As a result of one such study, an intriguing discovery was made in eastern Botswana (Figure 1) at Mafunyane Shelter (Figures 2 & 3). Walker (1994), who originally excavated the site, identified an early first-millennium AD Later Stone Age occupation, as well as activity by metalworking people. The present article reports the results of a recent excavation intended to explore the potential relationship between the Later Stone Age occupants and the metalworkers at this site.Palaeontological Scientific Trust and Scatterlings of Africa programme.South African National Research Foundation.http://antiquity.ac.uk2016-12-30hb201

Reflections on a journey through the southern Omo Valley, Ethiopia

In this paper I describe my recent journey through the lower Omo Valley where I visited various tribal groups and witnessed a Hamer bull-jumping ceremony. The aim with this article is to present African life-systems found elsewhere on the continent that might reflect certain aspects archaeologists identify in our own prehistoric records.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/publications/digging-stick/hb201

Dzombo Shelter : a contribution of the Later Stone Age sequence of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape

On the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape, Later Stone Age (LSA) research has been conducted mostly in South Africa, with limited studies in neighbouring Botswana and Zimbabwe, all part of the broader landscape. In an attempt to broaden our understanding of the regional sequence, a recent study in Botswana sought to integrate finds made here with those in South Africa. This paper presents the results from one excavation, conducted at Dzombo Shelter, and relates these to finds made elsewhere on the landscape. Of particular interest is the dominance of backed stone tools between AD 900 and 1000, a period in which scrapers usually dominate the formal component of LSA assemblages, and the infrequency of exchange goods even though the site is in close proximity to farmer homesteads. I argue here that due to the various outcomes from interactions with farmers, excavating a variety of site types is required in order to achieve a holistic understanding of forager cultural change.Palaeontological Scientific Trust, Scatterlings of Africa, NRF and Meyerstein Trust.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/saab/hb201

Hunter-gatherers on the Mapungubwe landscape

The archaeology of the middle Limpopo Valley, which includes eastern Botswana, northern South Africa and south-western Zimbabwe, is best known for its Iron Age archaeology (Fig. 1). This is perhaps expected because found here is Mapungubwe, a hilltop site that was the capital of southern Africa’s first state-level farmer society c. AD 1220 to 1300 (Huffman 2007). However, the local archaeological record extends back quite some time before the appearance of complex societies and the occupation of Mapungubwe. While farming communities arrived at least by AD 900, the earliest evidence of a hunter-gatherer occupation is found to be as far back as 12 000 years ago. This is sometimes overlooked despite the rich cultural material that has been found, the extensive rock art sequence and the intriguing ‘disappearance’ of huntergatherer archaeological remains about the same time that the Mapungubwe state declined.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/publications/digging-stickam201

Assessing surface movement at Stone Age open-air sites : first impressions from a pilot experiment in northeastern Botswana

Open-air sites are ubiquitous signatures on most archaeological landscapes. When they are appropriately recorded, well-preserved and are single-component occupations, they provide access to high-resolution occupation data that is often not available from rock-shelter sites. These sites are, however, commonly affected by a number of post-depositional factors that are not adequately studied in archaeology. This paper presents the results of an open-air experiment conducted in northeastern Botswana. Two surface scatters modelled on known Bushman open-air camp sites were created to investigate the taphonomic factors affecting such sites. The scattered materials at these sites included stone tools, ostrich eggshell fragments, ceramic sherds, glass beads and faunal remains. Two scatters were laid out consisting of a nested square design; one site was excavated after four months and the other after twelve. The results show little horizontal material movement at these scatters and an initial, rapid, vertical period of mobility, after which the majority of surface artefacts are protected from subsequent movement, preserving the general scatter structures. This experiment suggests that open-air sites can offer detailed spatial information relevant to human settlement structure that is often not accessible at rock-shelter sites.Palaeontological Scientific Trust, the Leakey Foundation, the Meyerstein travel grant and Mashatu Game Reserve.http://www.sahumanities.org.za/hb201

A preliminary analysis of the backed stone tool assemblage at Little Muck Shelter

Little Muck Shelter in the middle Limpopo Valley has an unusually large density of scrapers that increase in frequency from the last few centuries BC into the first millennium AD, and then decline in the early second millennium. Scraper densities rise even when all other artefact categories decline. Backed tools, on the other hand, occur in low frequencies and it is unclear why. In this report, we present an analysis of the backed tool morphology and a preliminary examination of macro-fractures. We show that the backed tools are broadly similar to those found at other sites in the area but occur in different densities. We also identify diagnostic impact fractures on 10 of the 27 backed tools, which may indicate hunting. Our analysis demonstrates the potential of such a study in understanding the function of the shelter; for example, the low frequency of backed tools and abundance of scrapers may underscore the site’s function as a trade or exchange centre. The results help guide further research at the shelter.The Palaeontological Scientific Trust and a Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers from the National Research Foundation.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/saabam2023Anthropology and Archaeolog

The end of the later Stone Age in the Middle Limpopo Valley, Central Southern Africa

DATA AVAILABILITY : Data used in this study is all presented in the manuscript.Later Stone Age industries are often applied pan-regionally despite having been defined in specific environments that possess their own set of underlying conditions. Archaeologists have expressed concern with this approach as it may generate an appearance of homogeneity when in fact technological industries are variable. This study examines the middle Limpopo Valley’s mid- to late Holocene Later Stone Age cultural sequence and compares its various attributes to more broadly defined Later Stone Age industries from that period. Specific attention is given to the formal tool and core components as these are typically used to ascribe industries to assemblages along with chronology. Contrasting the valley’s Later Stone Age sequence with stone tool industries brings into question the influence that socio-economic systems had over stone tool producers and whether stone tool forms and preferences reflect social change. The middle Limpopo Valley is ideally suited for such an assessment as it was here that southern Africa’s earliest state-level society arose, Mapungubwe at c. AD 1220, several centuries after farmer groups settled the region. During these developments, stone tool-producing foragers were present, and they interacted with farmer groups in several ways. However, the analysis presented here fails to identify confidently regular change in forager stone tool assemblages linked to social developments and shows reasonable alignment with stone tool industry definitions. Examining change in late Holocene society of this landscape, and perhaps others, may need to consider a variety of cultural indicators in combination with stone tools.South Africa’s National Research Foundation and specifically the Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers and the African Origin Platform and students on the study were supported by the Palaeontological Scientific Trust.https://link.springer.com/journal/419822024-08-17hj2023Anthropology and Archaeolog

The spaces between places: a landscape study of foragers on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape, southern Africa

Our understanding of the Later Stone Age (LSA) on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape has until now been fairly limited. However, it is a landscape upon which foragers witnessed and partook in agriculturalist state formation between AD 900 and 1300, altering their cultural behaviour to suit their changing social and political topography. Nowhere else in southern Africa were foragers part of such developments. For this project a landscape approach was used to study the various changes in the regional LSA record as well as the way in which foragers interacted with farmers. In order to address these issues, data were obtained from an archaeological survey followed by an excavation of seven sites in north-eastern Botswana, part of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape. These finds indicate that the local forager record varies chronologically and spatially, which had not previously been recorded. Foragers also used a variety of site types and in each a different forager expression was deposited, providing indications of their changing settlement pattern. Notably, this included a gradual movement into agriculturalist homesteads beginning by at least AD 1000 and concluding by AD 1300, when the Mapungubwe capital was abandoned. Thus, interactions, at least in some cases, led to assimilation. There is also clear evidence of exchange with agriculturalists at many of the excavated sites, but this does not always seem to be related to their proximity with one another. Performing a landscape study has also made it possible to make two general conclusions with regard to LSA research. First, these data challenge ethnography, displaying its limitations particularly with linking modern Bushman practices, such as aggregation and dispersal patterns or hxaro gift exchange, to LSA foragers. Second, a full landscape understanding combines the archaeology of multiple cultural landscapes and in this case also crosses national borders, two themes often neglected in southern African archaeological studies.</p