A case for Springbok hunting with kite-like structures in the Bushmanland Bioregion of South Africa

Abstract

Abstract: In the Levant and some arid zones of Central Asia desert kites are well-known hunting structures often thought to have been used for the large-scale harvesting of gazelles during the Holocene. Until recently, such structures were unknown from the southern hemisphere, but three kite sites have now been reported from Keimoes in the arid hinterland north of the Gariep River where the Bushmanland and Kalahari Duneveld bioregions meet. Here we use aspects of gazelle behaviour, and local ethnographical and ethno-historical records to explore the possibility that the stone-built kites or funnel chains of South Africa may have been used to exploit springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), southern Africa’s only gazelle. We argue that seasonal herds of what were colloquially known as trekbokken (large springbok herds on the..