James Denbow

The social geography of pottery in Botswana as reconstructed by optical petrography

Over the last 30 years Wilmsen and Denbow have recovered and studied pottery from 28 sites in Botswana dated between ca cal AD 200 and AD 1885. Some sherds in several of these assemblages appear, on stylistic evidence, to have been made in other sub-regions of Botswana than where they were found. These inferences are confirmed in this paper by use of an independent archaeometric technique, optical petrography. We are able to demonstrate the transport of pots from the Okavango Delta to Bosutswe in the eastern hardveld, some 400–600 km distant, as early as cal AD 900–1100, and of others over equal distances to the Tsodilo Hills probably before that time. We are also able to demonstrate several shorter itineraries at contemporary and later times in the Tsodilo-Delta-Chobe region as well as in the hardveld. Furthermore, we demonstrate that clays were transported from geological deposits to sites where pots were made from them. We consider some implications of these findings for a deeper appreciation of the movement of peoples and goods at several time periods of the past and present as well as further implications for understanding the participation of the region in the Indian Ocean trade during the 8th–10th centuries.

The glass beads of Kaitshàa and early Indian Ocean trade into the far interior of southern Africa

Abstract The later African Iron Age saw a shift to centralised polities, as seen in the expansion of hegemonies such as Great Zimbabwe. During this period, trade with the interior of Africa became increasingly centrally controlled. Excavations at the site of Kaitshàa, on the edge of the Makgadikgadi saltpans in Botswana, have revealed how a small settlement based on prehistoric salt trading was able to take its place in the Indian Ocean trade network before such centralised polities arose. Using compositional analysis of glass beads, the authors argue that this site in the central Kalahari Desert exemplifies the role of heterarchy and indigenous agency in the evolving political economy of the subcontinent.

Metal working at Bosutswe, Botswana

This paper provides the results of a detailed metallurgical analysis of the gold, copper, bronze and iron artifacts and slag recovered from excavations, carried out in 1990 and in 2001–2002, at Bosutswe on the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert. While we find that the general manufacturing technologies of smelting and metal artifact production did not change greatly over time, and are indeed similar across vast distances of southern Africa, the cultural context of these materials attests to their importance as productive tools and weapons, as well as jewelry and ornamentation that were important in the construction of sumptuary distinction and social status. The important new technology of copper-alloy bronze production makes its appearance at Bosutswe around CE 1300. The quantity of bronze goods recovered indicates that during much of the 2 nd quarter of the second millennium CE the occupants of Bosutswe participated in elite networks of inter-regional exchange and luxury consumption that were dominated by the larger regional polities of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, and Khami. While the occupants of the site were able to express some degree of political and cultural autonomy through their elaboration and use of uniquely styled ceramics, their subordinate position vis-a-vis these more powerful entities was also attested through many of the same mechanisms — the possession of small numbers of imported glass beads and iron, copper and bronze ornaments, and the occasional gold bangle.

Pride, prejudice, plunder and preservation: archaeology and the re-envisioning of ethnogenesis on the Loango coast of the Republic of Congo

This is the first description of the prehistory of the coastal Congo, won by the author and his colleagues against considerable odds: war, exploitation by big business and, above all, by the entrenched assumption that this part of the world had no history to save. Here is a first glimpse of that history: 3300 years of prehistoric settlement, movement and change chronicled by radiocarbon dating and a new ceramic typology.

The Middens at Tora Nju and Their Adjacent Stone Enclosure

Tora Nju is the local name for a collapsed stone walled enclosure situated approximately 20km from Sowa Spit, 200 m south of the Mosetse River, and 7 km east of the present strandline of Sowa Pan. The site that takes its name from this ruin includes several midden areas containing pottery, stone tools, and faunal remains along with house structures and grain bins. Excavations were carried out in parts of all these site components. The middens contained a moderately rich suite of materials including sherds, glass and shell beads, metal, and animal bones. The enclosure, however, yielded very little. Consequently, we concentrate here first on the middens before turning to the enclosure. Typical Khami vessel forms predominate throughout the midden stratigraphy; a few midden sherds are comparable with Lose wares in part contemporary with Khami ceramics. A possible earlier Leopard’s Kopje presence is also indicated. Glass beads characteristic of Khami Indo-Pacific series were also recovered from all midden levels. Three charcoal samples yielded contradictory radiocarbon dates for the middens, and we have no direct means for dating the enclosure. We evaluate evidence for a takeover of Sowa salt production by the Khami state sometime in the early 15th century. Finally, we examine historical records and incorporate current linguistic and DNA studies of Khoisan and Bantu speakers to illuminate the social history of the Tora Nju region.Tora Nju est le nom local pour une pierre enceinte fortifiee effondree situee a environ 20 km de Sowa Spit, a 200 m au sud de la riviere Mosetse, et a 7 km a l’est de la ligne de rivage actuel de Sowa Pan. A la proximite de le site on trouve plusieurs des zones de petite tertres contenant de la poterie, des outils en pierre et des restes fauniques ainsi les structures des maisons et des silos a grains. Des fouilles ont ete effectuees dans des parties de tous ces composants de site. Les tertres contenaient une moderement riche gamme de materiaux, y compris tessons, perles de verre et coquille, le metal et des os d’animaux. L’enceinte, cependant, a donne tres peu. Par consequent, nous nous concentrons d’abord sur les tertres avant de se tourner vers l’enceinte ruine. Khami formes de la ceramique vaisseaux typiques – jarres de jante roulees avec le cou legerement evasement vers l’exterieur ou verticales avec des surfaces lisses, noirs ou rouges bruni – predominent dans toute la stratigraphie du tertre cependant, quelques tessons de tertres sont comparables avec des ceramiques de le site de Losi, qui sont en partie contemporaine avec des ceramiques de Khami. La presence de quelques ceramique du type Leopard’s Kopje est aussi possible. Perles de verre, fluxe d’un carbonate de sodium mineraux, sont caracteristique de la serie Khami Indo-Pacifique decrite par Wood ont egalement ete recuperes a partir de tous les niveaux de tertres. Trois echantillons de charbon de bois a donne les datation de radiocarbone contradictoires pour les tertres, et nous n’avons aucun moyen direct pour la datation de l’enceinte; Nous evaluons la preuve pour une prise de controle de la production de sel Sowa par l’Etat Khami parfois au debut du 15eme siecle. Enfin, nous examinons des documents historiques et integrer des etudes linguistiques et genetiques de les actuelles parleurs de langues Khoisan et Bantoues pour eclairer l’histoire sociale de la region de Tora Nju.This article is in English.

Analogy and the danger of over-simplifying the past

This is an excellent and tightly written argument against the indiscriminate and essentialist extension of invented anthropological typologies, such as ‘the San’, back into the Pleistocene. While analogical arguments that relate similarities in excavated tools, poisons and so on to the repertoire of items used by extant peoples in order to interpret their function is a common approach in archaeology, as the authors rightly point out, the extension of these analogies to include particular cultural and linguistic forms is ‘a theoretically flawed exercise’.