Joséphine Lesur

“Of Sheep and Men”: Earliest Direct Evidence of Caprine Domestication in Southern Africa at Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia)

The origins of herding practices in southern Africa remain controversial. The first appearance of domesticated caprines in the subcontinent is thought to be c. 2000 years BP; however, the origin of this cultural development is still widely debated. Recent genetic analyses support the long-standing hypothesis of herder migration from the north, while other researchers have argued for a cultural diffusion hypothesis where the spread of herding practices took place without necessarily implicating simultaneous and large population movements. Here we document the Later Stone Age (LSA) site of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia), which contains confirmed caprine remains, from which we infer that domesticates were present in the southern African region as early as the end of the first millennium BC. These remains predate the first evidence of domesticates previously recorded for the subcontinent. This discovery sheds new light on the emergence of herding practices in southern Africa, and also on the possible southward routes used by caprines along the western Atlantic coast.

Neolithic occupation of an artesian spring: KS043 in the Kharga Oasis, Egypt

Abstract KS043 is a stratified site associated with a complex of artesian springs. The archaeological remains, as well as a series of radiocarbon determinations, date the site to between 4800 and 4200 b.c. Our study suggests a connection between Saharan pastoralists, forced to move into oasis areas by increasing aridification, and the first Predynastic cultures of the Nile Valley. The site is the only well dated stratified settlement attributed to the Late Neolithic in the eastern Sahara that is characterized by Tasian cultural traditions.

Exploitation of wild mammals in South-west Ethiopia during the Holocene (4000 BC–500 AD): the finds from Moche Borago shelter (Wolayta)

Abstract The rock shelter of Moche Borago in Wolayta Province, South-west Ethiopia, has provided evidence of human occupation during part of the Holocene. Recovery of more than 30,000 animal bones has allowed reconstruction of the exploitation of animals by humans from the 4th millennium BC until the first half of the 1st millennium AD. It could be demonstrated that humans exploited (mainly for food) a great diversity of mammals, especially bovids, and that there were very few diachronic changes observed in the fauna during the occupation. Remains of domestic animals have not been found, even in the most recent part of this period, suggesting that animal husbandry was a late introduction into this mountainous and isolated part of Ethiopia. The human inhabitants of the shelter appear to have exploited the surrounding environment, using its favourable position at the end of a stepped valley for mass killing of African buffaloes (Syncerus caffer). The rich and diverse environments of Wolayta favoured the development of a specialised society that mastered the exploitation of wild animals throughout much of the Holocene.

Fuel and Vegetation at Asa Koma (Republic of Djibouti) during the Second Millennium BC

Charcoal analyses were performed on hearths and ash layers from a seasonally occupied Neolithic dwelling site in the eastern lowlands of the Horn of Africa, dated to the first half of the second millennium BC. It was suggested by an earlier study that the predominance of two taxa, Suaeda (seablite)/Chenopodiaceae and Salvadora persica (saltbush), could be an over-representation due to the selection of wood for specialized use, i.e. fish processing. In this study, we show that this can be ruled out, and that the characteristics of the charcoal spectra can be explained in terms of past vegetation composition. We suggest that arid steppe plant formations prevailed, from which most of the fauna was hunted, and that the nearby water channel was not active all year round.

New insights on the first Neolithic societies in the Horn of Africa: The site of Wakrita, Djibouti

Abstract The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma. The faunal remains confirm the importance of fishing in Neolithic settlements close to Lake Abbé, but also the importance of bovine husbandry and, for the first time in this area, evidence for caprine herding practices. Radiocarbon dating places this occupation at the beginning of the 2nd millennium b.c., similar in range to Asa Koma. These two sites represent the oldest evidence of herding in the region, and they provide a better understanding of the development of Neolithic societies in this region.

Late hunters of western Ethiopia: the sites of Ajilak (Gambela), c. AD 1000–1200

The dual model of foragers versus producers is increasingly perceived as inadequate for understanding the complexities of subsistence practices in the past and in the present. A wide spectrum of in-between strategies, falling under the label ‘low-level food production’ (Smith 2001), has been pointed out. Africa has, however, remained mostly outside this debate, despite offering many examples of societies that combine hunting and gathering with food-production, particularly in ecological and cultural borderlands. This paper examines one such society by presenting the first archaeological evidence from the region of Gambela, in the borderland between South Sudan and Ethiopia. Field survey here identified several sites with traces of occupation during the early second millennium AD. One of these sites (Ajilak 6) furnished a large number of faunal remains, most of which derive from wild animals. The exploitation of aquatic resources is also attested. Human remains were found that show traces of manipulation, tentatively identified as evidence for the practice of secondary burial. The sites are interpreted as being related to a low-level food-producing group that was probably ancestral to present-day populations engaging in similar economic activities.