Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180635
M. Morel
In medieval times, a population the so-called Rasikajy was settled on the northeastern coast of Madagascar. This population was in contact with the Indian Ocean trading network, as attested by the presence of imported goods from China, India or Persia in some tombs in the necropolis of Vohémar, excavated in the first half of the 20th century. This population remains under-studied and little is known about their material culture or their way of life. The presence of iron slag in northeastern Madagascar has long been documented in archaeological literature, but no in-depth study had been carried out. The aims of this doctoral project were therefore to describe and better understand these metallurgical remains and the associated technical tradition. Three excavation campaigns and four additional survey campaigns were carried out between 2017 and 2021, completely renewing our knowledge on this area of Madagascar. Approximately 150 slag heaps spread over twenty locations have been described, representing about 450 tons of slag. However, these sites are concentrated in the southern half of the study area, thus defining a spatially delimited metallurgical district. The metallurgical production could be dated by radiocarbon dating to between the 11th and 14th century CE. Before this period, the Rasikajy already knew and used iron tools, but they imported this metal via the Indian Ocean trade. The combined approach of fieldwork and laboratory work has enabled the reconstruction of metallurgical practices, despite the fragile and poorly preserved remains. The Rasikajy technical tradition used a furnace in the form of a simple elliptical bowl dug directly into the sandy substratum, without any clay lining. No clay superstructure could be identified either. However, small walls were built of loose sand, sometimes reinforced with a few stone blocks. A single tuyere, made of stone or clay, was set into this sandy wall and connected to bellows. Lateritic ores, in the form of ferruginous concretions with remarkably high iron content, were reduced in these small structures. When an excess of slag was produced for the capacity of the bassin, the slag was drained off through a small channel dug in the sand. This technical tradition is observed throughout the metallurgical district. However, each site is slightly different, which shows a local adaptation of the technique, probably depending on the availability of raw materials, e.g. to make the tuyere. An detailed chemical (XRF) and mineralogical (XRD, optical microscopy and SEM-EDS) study revealed a high variability in slag composition. This variability is partly due to a high contamination of sand, which is the construction material of the furnace. Mass balance calculations also show that iron production was irregular from one smelting operation to another. In some cases smelting operations even failed, producing no iron at all. The technique appears to be poorly controlled, although the structure of the furnace c
{"title":"Iron metallurgy in northeastern Madagascar: a study of Rasikajy metallurgical production between the 11th and 15th century","authors":"M. Morel","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180635","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180635","url":null,"abstract":"In medieval times, a population the so-called Rasikajy was settled on the northeastern coast of Madagascar. This population was in contact with the Indian Ocean trading network, as attested by the presence of imported goods from China, India or Persia in some tombs in the necropolis of Vohémar, excavated in the first half of the 20th century. This population remains under-studied and little is known about their material culture or their way of life. The presence of iron slag in northeastern Madagascar has long been documented in archaeological literature, but no in-depth study had been carried out. The aims of this doctoral project were therefore to describe and better understand these metallurgical remains and the associated technical tradition. Three excavation campaigns and four additional survey campaigns were carried out between 2017 and 2021, completely renewing our knowledge on this area of Madagascar. Approximately 150 slag heaps spread over twenty locations have been described, representing about 450 tons of slag. However, these sites are concentrated in the southern half of the study area, thus defining a spatially delimited metallurgical district. The metallurgical production could be dated by radiocarbon dating to between the 11th and 14th century CE. Before this period, the Rasikajy already knew and used iron tools, but they imported this metal via the Indian Ocean trade. The combined approach of fieldwork and laboratory work has enabled the reconstruction of metallurgical practices, despite the fragile and poorly preserved remains. The Rasikajy technical tradition used a furnace in the form of a simple elliptical bowl dug directly into the sandy substratum, without any clay lining. No clay superstructure could be identified either. However, small walls were built of loose sand, sometimes reinforced with a few stone blocks. A single tuyere, made of stone or clay, was set into this sandy wall and connected to bellows. Lateritic ores, in the form of ferruginous concretions with remarkably high iron content, were reduced in these small structures. When an excess of slag was produced for the capacity of the bassin, the slag was drained off through a small channel dug in the sand. This technical tradition is observed throughout the metallurgical district. However, each site is slightly different, which shows a local adaptation of the technique, probably depending on the availability of raw materials, e.g. to make the tuyere. An detailed chemical (XRF) and mineralogical (XRD, optical microscopy and SEM-EDS) study revealed a high variability in slag composition. This variability is partly due to a high contamination of sand, which is the construction material of the furnace. Mass balance calculations also show that iron production was irregular from one smelting operation to another. In some cases smelting operations even failed, producing no iron at all. The technique appears to be poorly controlled, although the structure of the furnace c","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"61 1","pages":"157 - 158"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76020760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2189392
The
的
{"title":"The exploitation, processing and use of softstone in northern Madagascar and its links to the Indian Ocean world, 800–1500 CE","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2189392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2189392","url":null,"abstract":"The","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"36 1","pages":"159 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89952888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180680
Nick Gestrich
{"title":"Divine consumption: sacrifice, alliance building, and making ancestors in West Africa","authors":"Nick Gestrich","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2180680","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"30 1","pages":"153 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87047418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270x.2023.2180673
Giuseppina Mutri
{"title":"Du Capsien chasseur au Capsien Pasteur. Pour un modèle régional de néolithisation","authors":"Giuseppina Mutri","doi":"10.1080/0067270x.2023.2180673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270x.2023.2180673","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"8 1","pages":"155 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86975507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182570
E. Wilmsen, J. Denbow
ABSTRACT The Xaro sites are located in the Okavango Delta Panhandle of northwestern Botswana. All have an upper component with pottery identical to that made by nineteenth-century and current Mbukushu potters. Xaro 1 also has European glass beads for which cited historical documents provide calendar year dates of between 1850 and 1890. Other historical documents place the Xaro 1 Mbukushu settlement from the 1890s into the early twentieth century. All three Xaro Early Iron Age components have pottery motifs common at Tsodilo and Cubango sites on the basis of which a date range of the late sixth/early eighth centuries AD for Xaro 1 is most likely, while several pottery distinctions suggest a chronological separation within the same range for Xaro 2 and 3. Xaro Early Iron Age pottery has two unique features not discernible by the unaided eye but identified by microscopic optical petrography: 1) a red iron oxide veneer approximately two microns thick on outer surfaces; and 2) a variably thick post-deposition deposit of caliche derived from calcite suspended in Okavango water. A third uniqueness is an SEM estimated firing temperature of at least 1000˚C, much higher than the ±800˚C common for southern African vessels. Two Xaro burials provide aDNA data on Early Iron Age people in southern Africa; discriminant analysis of multiple variables determined that no present-day population sampled so far has the same ancestry mix, probably reflecting a northern genetic influence and offering genetic support to the hypothesis of a pre-Bantu expansion of pastoralists into southern Africa.
{"title":"Iron Age sites in northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta 2: the Xaro sites in the Panhandle of the river-delta system","authors":"E. Wilmsen, J. Denbow","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182570","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Xaro sites are located in the Okavango Delta Panhandle of northwestern Botswana. All have an upper component with pottery identical to that made by nineteenth-century and current Mbukushu potters. Xaro 1 also has European glass beads for which cited historical documents provide calendar year dates of between 1850 and 1890. Other historical documents place the Xaro 1 Mbukushu settlement from the 1890s into the early twentieth century. All three Xaro Early Iron Age components have pottery motifs common at Tsodilo and Cubango sites on the basis of which a date range of the late sixth/early eighth centuries AD for Xaro 1 is most likely, while several pottery distinctions suggest a chronological separation within the same range for Xaro 2 and 3. Xaro Early Iron Age pottery has two unique features not discernible by the unaided eye but identified by microscopic optical petrography: 1) a red iron oxide veneer approximately two microns thick on outer surfaces; and 2) a variably thick post-deposition deposit of caliche derived from calcite suspended in Okavango water. A third uniqueness is an SEM estimated firing temperature of at least 1000˚C, much higher than the ±800˚C common for southern African vessels. Two Xaro burials provide aDNA data on Early Iron Age people in southern Africa; discriminant analysis of multiple variables determined that no present-day population sampled so far has the same ancestry mix, probably reflecting a northern genetic influence and offering genetic support to the hypothesis of a pre-Bantu expansion of pastoralists into southern Africa.","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"29 1","pages":"74 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79376654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182572
T. Forssman, Siphesihle Kuhlase, Chanté Barnard, Justin Pentz
ABSTRACT By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, forager histories, and their involvement in associated socio-economic systems, are scarcely acknowledged, despite their presence before, as well as during, the farmer-occupation period. Foragers are instead seen as passive or even inactive in local economies and thought to begin ‘disappearing’ after AD 1000. In opposition to these views are recent results from excavations carried out at Little Muck Shelter showing that a forager presence continued into the second millennium AD and that those living at the site were engaged in trade with farmers during the process of state formation. We show this by presenting the distribution of cultural material throughout the site’s occupation and a sample of stone tools and trade items dating from before 2000 BP to AD 1300. Specifically, diagnostic stone artefacts persist into the contact period and until Mapungubwe’s appearance that are morphologically consistent with those from before the BC/AD transition. The occurrence of traded glass beads, ceramics and ostrich eggshell beads also increases and peaks in the second millennium AD, showing continued engagement with the local market economy. Evidence from the shelter demonstrates the contributions that indigenous hunting and gathering communities made during the rise of the Mapungubwe state, when trade wealth came to mark social élite groups, a period that can be characterised as one of social upheaval.
{"title":"Foragers during a period of social upheaval at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa","authors":"T. Forssman, Siphesihle Kuhlase, Chanté Barnard, Justin Pentz","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182572","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, forager histories, and their involvement in associated socio-economic systems, are scarcely acknowledged, despite their presence before, as well as during, the farmer-occupation period. Foragers are instead seen as passive or even inactive in local economies and thought to begin ‘disappearing’ after AD 1000. In opposition to these views are recent results from excavations carried out at Little Muck Shelter showing that a forager presence continued into the second millennium AD and that those living at the site were engaged in trade with farmers during the process of state formation. We show this by presenting the distribution of cultural material throughout the site’s occupation and a sample of stone tools and trade items dating from before 2000 BP to AD 1300. Specifically, diagnostic stone artefacts persist into the contact period and until Mapungubwe’s appearance that are morphologically consistent with those from before the BC/AD transition. The occurrence of traded glass beads, ceramics and ostrich eggshell beads also increases and peaks in the second millennium AD, showing continued engagement with the local market economy. Evidence from the shelter demonstrates the contributions that indigenous hunting and gathering communities made during the rise of the Mapungubwe state, when trade wealth came to mark social élite groups, a period that can be characterised as one of social upheaval.","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":"114 - 150"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89422723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2187559
Razika Chelli-Cheheb, S. Merzoug
ABSTRACT The Phacochères site (formerly known as Les Allobroges) is a small ravine belonging to a karst system in northern Algeria. The rescue excavations conducted in 1960s at this site have yielded an exceptionally rich assemblage of vertebrates associated with Aterian stone tools. These faunal fossils collected in sandy clay levels are characteristic of the North African Upper Pleistocene and they represent a remarkable model for understanding the structure of prehistoric mammalian associations, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and past habitat diversity. Based on biochronological and palaeoenvironmental data, the assemblage is attributed to Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS 5) defined by a forest and grassland ecosystem. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the modifications of this faunal assemblage produced by human and carnivore activity. It suggests that the Aterian occupants of the site preferentially oriented their hunting towards large prey such as buffalo and aurochs and that they were able to compete with other carnivore predators. Nevertheless, the assemblage represents a palimpsest accumulated by different predators, both human and carnivore, that results from events that overlapped with brief human occupations of the site.
phacochres遗址(以前称为Les Allobroges)是阿尔及利亚北部喀斯特系统的一个小峡谷。20世纪60年代对该遗址进行的抢救挖掘，发现了与阿特良石器相关的异常丰富的脊椎动物。这些在砂质粘土层收集的动物化石是北非上更新世的特征，它们是理解史前哺乳动物组合结构、古环境重建和过去栖息地多样性的重要模型。根据生物年代学和古环境数据，该组合属于由森林和草地生态系统定义的海洋同位素阶段5 (MIS 5)。本文报道了人类活动和食肉动物活动对这一动物群变化的分析结果。这表明，居住在该遗址的阿特龙人优先将狩猎目标定位于水牛和野牛等大型猎物，并且他们能够与其他食肉动物捕食者竞争。然而，这一组合代表了不同捕食者(包括人类和食肉动物)积累的重写本，这些事件与人类在该地点的短暂占领重叠。
{"title":"The Aterian site of Phacochères (northern Algeria): a zooarchaeological perspective","authors":"Razika Chelli-Cheheb, S. Merzoug","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2187559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2187559","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Phacochères site (formerly known as Les Allobroges) is a small ravine belonging to a karst system in northern Algeria. The rescue excavations conducted in 1960s at this site have yielded an exceptionally rich assemblage of vertebrates associated with Aterian stone tools. These faunal fossils collected in sandy clay levels are characteristic of the North African Upper Pleistocene and they represent a remarkable model for understanding the structure of prehistoric mammalian associations, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and past habitat diversity. Based on biochronological and palaeoenvironmental data, the assemblage is attributed to Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS 5) defined by a forest and grassland ecosystem. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the modifications of this faunal assemblage produced by human and carnivore activity. It suggests that the Aterian occupants of the site preferentially oriented their hunting towards large prey such as buffalo and aurochs and that they were able to compete with other carnivore predators. Nevertheless, the assemblage represents a palimpsest accumulated by different predators, both human and carnivore, that results from events that overlapped with brief human occupations of the site.","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"130 1","pages":"5 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83989920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182563
J. Denbow, E. Wilmsen
ABSTRACT This paper, one of three focused on Early Iron Age (EIA) sites of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, provides descriptions and analyses of two sites, Mat82 and Matlapaneng, on the southern margin of the Delta and of a small contemporary hunting-fishing camp at Qogana in its eastern middle reaches. The relationship of these sites to others, particularly in the areas of the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers and Victoria Falls, is examined in detail. Pottery recovered from the Delta sites is shown to be a western expression of the eastern Kalundu Tradition. Optical petrographic analyses of 26 sherds from Mat82, Matlapaneng and Qogana compared with 60 sherds from Chobe-Victoria Falls sites, plus clays from most lithological exposures in these regions, confirms that most of the Mat82 and Matlapaneng sherds can be associated with local southern Delta clays, while five have fabrics comparable with Chobe-Victoria Falls clays and sherds, documenting that these Matlapaneng sherds are from vessels made in, and imported from, that region. While the distribution of finds at Matlapaneng displayed a higher concentration of lithic artefacts on the site’s outer margins with a corresponding higher pottery concentration in the centre, all areas have the same representation of lithic tools, débitage, pottery fabrics and décor motifs and proportions of wild game to domestic animals, thus providing no evidence for a herder/hunter or inner/outer space dichotomy in residence or subsistence activities. This trio of sites, then, provides a further lesson regarding the archaeological erasure of mistaken isolationist tenets in southern African archaeology in which peoples have been automatically segregated according to the material inventory of the sites at which they lived.
{"title":"Iron Age sites in northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta 1: the southern Delta sites Mat82 and Matlapaneng plus Qogana on the region’s eastern margin","authors":"J. Denbow, E. Wilmsen","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2182563","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper, one of three focused on Early Iron Age (EIA) sites of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, provides descriptions and analyses of two sites, Mat82 and Matlapaneng, on the southern margin of the Delta and of a small contemporary hunting-fishing camp at Qogana in its eastern middle reaches. The relationship of these sites to others, particularly in the areas of the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers and Victoria Falls, is examined in detail. Pottery recovered from the Delta sites is shown to be a western expression of the eastern Kalundu Tradition. Optical petrographic analyses of 26 sherds from Mat82, Matlapaneng and Qogana compared with 60 sherds from Chobe-Victoria Falls sites, plus clays from most lithological exposures in these regions, confirms that most of the Mat82 and Matlapaneng sherds can be associated with local southern Delta clays, while five have fabrics comparable with Chobe-Victoria Falls clays and sherds, documenting that these Matlapaneng sherds are from vessels made in, and imported from, that region. While the distribution of finds at Matlapaneng displayed a higher concentration of lithic artefacts on the site’s outer margins with a corresponding higher pottery concentration in the centre, all areas have the same representation of lithic tools, débitage, pottery fabrics and décor motifs and proportions of wild game to domestic animals, thus providing no evidence for a herder/hunter or inner/outer space dichotomy in residence or subsistence activities. This trio of sites, then, provides a further lesson regarding the archaeological erasure of mistaken isolationist tenets in southern African archaeology in which peoples have been automatically segregated according to the material inventory of the sites at which they lived.","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"10 1","pages":"34 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78179571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2023.2184660
E. Wilmsen, J. Denbow
ABSTRACT Lotshitshi is a small site on the edge of the Thamalakane River floodplain on the southern margin of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. A component with Later Stone Age lithic artefacts radiocarbon-dated to the second/third millennia BC is overlain by a component with the same kind of stone tools, but with the addition of Bambata pottery and domestic cattle radiocarbon-dated to the earlier decades of the first century AD. A component with Recent pottery is at the top of this sequence. Although modest in size and content, Lotshitshi adds valuable details to our knowledge of Bambata pottery-making peoples with cattle and provides additional evidence for the movement of peoples during this time from the Chobe-Zambezi confluence region to western Botswana, thus supplementing efforts to understand Early Iron Age population dynamics in southern Africa as a whole.
{"title":"Iron Age sites in northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta 3: Lotshitshi, a Later Stone Age/Bambata/Recent site on the Delta margin","authors":"E. Wilmsen, J. Denbow","doi":"10.1080/0067270X.2023.2184660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2184660","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Lotshitshi is a small site on the edge of the Thamalakane River floodplain on the southern margin of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. A component with Later Stone Age lithic artefacts radiocarbon-dated to the second/third millennia BC is overlain by a component with the same kind of stone tools, but with the addition of Bambata pottery and domestic cattle radiocarbon-dated to the earlier decades of the first century AD. A component with Recent pottery is at the top of this sequence. Although modest in size and content, Lotshitshi adds valuable details to our knowledge of Bambata pottery-making peoples with cattle and provides additional evidence for the movement of peoples during this time from the Chobe-Zambezi confluence region to western Botswana, thus supplementing efforts to understand Early Iron Age population dynamics in southern Africa as a whole.","PeriodicalId":45689,"journal":{"name":"Azania-Archaeological Research in Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":"104 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88317354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-13DOI: 10.1080/0067270x.2022.2156719
D. Witelson
It has been proposed that the southernmost coast of South Africa was a uniquely important region in later human evolution, in part due to the abundance of nutritious and dense coastal resources. Yet, strong contrasts between its Middle Stone Age (MSA) and subsequent Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological records cast uncertainty on the significance of shellfish utilisation for processes of human evolution. Furthermore, climatic shifts are frequently advanced as drivers of widespread technological change, but few climate proxy records correspond adequately to the archaeological evidence at a temporal or spatial level to allow them to be unambiguously linked to human cultural activity. This thesis presents a temporally and spatially distributed record of near-shore seasonal sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from serial δO shell measurements of archaeological Turbo sarmaticus opercula. In addition, the annual timing of shellfish harvesting captured in the temperature signal of the shells’ final few growth increments is indicative of hunter-gatherers’ scheduling of foraging behaviours and of their social organisation. A non-destructive method for evaluating the preservation of the original aragonitic shell carbonate using Fourier transform infrared spectrometry with an attenuated reflectance attachment is presented, allowing for robust SST reconstructions. Near-shore SST reconstructions are presented from the LSA levels of Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1, along with new radiocarbon chronologies spanning the terminal Pleistocene and the Holocene, and from the MSA deposits at Pinnacle Point 5–6 and Klasies River Main site, dated to periods in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 and across the MIS5/4 transition. These reconstructions confirm the utility of near-shore SST records for terrestrial climate reconstructions, indicating shifts in summer rainfall during the Holocene and across MIS5/4. The annual timing of shellfish foraging is shown to be markedly different between the MSA and LSA, permitting more nuanced assessments of foraging behaviours within the MSA and LSA.
有人提出，南非最南端的海岸在后来的人类进化中是一个独特的重要地区，部分原因是丰富的营养和密集的沿海资源。然而，其中石器时代(MSA)和随后的晚石器时代(LSA)考古记录之间的强烈对比，使人们对贝类利用对人类进化过程的重要性产生了不确定性。此外，气候变化经常被认为是广泛的技术变革的驱动因素，但很少有气候代理记录在时间或空间水平上与考古证据充分对应，从而使它们与人类文化活动明确联系起来。本文通过对古萨玛aticus opercula的δO壳序列测量，获得了近岸季节海表温度的时空分布记录。此外，贝壳最后几个生长增量的温度信号中捕获的贝类捕捞的年度时间指示了狩猎采集者的觅食行为和他们的社会组织安排。本文提出了一种非破坏性的方法来评估原始文石壳碳酸盐的保存情况，该方法使用带有衰减反射附加的傅里叶变换红外光谱法，允许稳健的海温重建。从Nelson Bay Cave和Byneskranskop 1的LSA水平重建近岸海表温度，以及跨越更新世和全新世的新放射性碳年代学，以及Pinnacle Point 5 - 6和Klasies River Main遗址的MSA沉积物，可追溯到海洋同位素阶段(MIS) 5和MIS5/4过渡时期。这些重建证实了近岸海温记录在陆地气候重建中的作用，表明了全新世和MIS5/4期间夏季降雨的变化。贝类的年度觅食时间在MSA和LSA之间有显著差异，这使得对MSA和LSA内的觅食行为进行更细致的评估成为可能。
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