Tim Maggs

Excavations at Melkbosstrand: Variability among herder sites on Table Bay, South Africa

During an archaeological impact assessment in 1997, three shell middens were identified along a dune ridge 1.5 km from the shore at Melkbosstrand, about 22 km north of central Cape Town. They were subsequently excavated and yielded evidence of occupation beginning c. AD 700. Remains consisted mostly of shell and bone, with a very informal stone artefact assemblage. All three sites yielded ceramics and sheep bone; at one site sheep was the animal most frequently identified to species level. On the edge of one midden, a stone hearth 1.8 m in diameter was uncovered. This site cluster was almost certainly occupied by herders and, as such, constitutes the closest herder sites to Cape Town investigated to date.

NQABENI, A LATER IRON AGE SITE IN ZULULAND

Iron Age settlements of a previously undescribed type occur on the elevated plateau between the White Mfolozi and Mzinyathi (Buffalo) Rivers west of Babanango in Zululand. In this paper we examine the characteristic settlement at Nqabeni, offer a definition of its type and make some comparisons with historical and ethnological evidence.

NEGLECTED ROCK ART: THE ROCK ENGRAVINGS OF AGRICULTURIST COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA*

Examples of rock engravings by agriculturists have been known from various parts of South Africa for many years, but there has been no previous attempt to review the genre as a whole. This review establishes a clear link with communities who built extensive stone settlements in the last few centuries of the precolonial period. The subject matter and its treatment differentiates the art from the well known hunter-gatherer art of southern Africa and links it with the cosmology of agriculturists.

Simon Se Klip at Steenbokfontein: the settlement pattern of a built pastoralist encampment on the West Coast of South Africa

A major topic in southern African archaeology, particularly in the western Cape, concerns the differentiation of herder from hunter gatherer signatures. Argument has largelyfocused on the interpreta tion of direct evidence, in theform of remainsfrom domestic animals, and more indirect evidence, in theform of cultural markers derived from the typology of stone implements and ceramics, and average size of ostrich eggshell beads. Current views suggest a spectrum from hunter-gatherers to hunter-gatherers with sheep to herders andfinally to pastoralists, the latter having both a strong economic and cosmolog ical involvement with livestock. However, the assignment of individ ual sites and assemblages, particularly small ones, to these categories can be elusive. Simon Se Klip provides an alternative source of evidence relevant to this issue, namely settlement pattern. This is the first time in the western Cape that the use of stone as a building mate rial has enabled the virtually complete reconstruction of a precolonial settlement. The first millennium builders were able to provide con trolled access and secure penningfor their livestock by taking advan tage of natural topographicalfeatures of the site and augmenting these with rather minimal stone walling. Domestic areas were also partly defined by linear arrangements of rocks. The pattern demonstrates that livestock were a central concern for this pastoralist community.

Bokoni: Old Structures, New Paradigms? Rethinking Pre-colonial Society from the Perspective of the Stone-Walled Sites in Mpumalanga

This article demonstrates that the interdisciplinary research that has been conducted on Bokoni under the auspices of the 500 Year Initiative has had significant outcomes. We have created a more periodised account of the development of the settlements. Narrow and ethnically determined conceptions of identity have been subjected to critique and the notion that specific pottery forms are necessarily markers of specific cultures or linguistic units has been challenged. Conventional accounts of the nature of Iron Age agriculture have been substantially qualified. At the same time, a host of new questions have been developed around the appropriate unit of study for these communities and the economic and political dynamics that shaped their rise and decline.

Precolonial agricultural terracing in Bokoni, South Africa : Typology and an exploratory excavation

Earlier work on the terraced settlements of the Bokoni area (16th to 19th century, Mpumalanga province, South Africa) focussed on the homesteads, their contents, layout and chronology. This paper s ...

The 2009 FYI Workshop and Excursion: Valuable Lessons from Eastern Africa

The July 2009 workshop and excursion organised by the 500 Year Initiative (FYI), with its goals of bringing together researchers from eastern and southern Africa, historians and archaeologists, has been a rare privilege and a valuable learning experience. The concepts of agricultural intensification through the long-term labour inputs involved in landesque capital have been introduced to South Africa as a result of pioneering work by John Sutton and more recently Mats Widgren and many others. It is entirely appropriate that in South Africa, this new approach is developing under the umbrella of the FYI with its broad interdisciplinary and international trajectory, since, to the north of us, the research is being driven by a broad, international range of specialists in fields as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, geography and history.

On Early Human Skin Pigmentation

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Site Distribution and Chronology at Soutpansklipheuwel, a Rocky Outcrop on the West Coast of South Africa

ABSTRACT Archaeological research along the West Coast of South Africa has unveiled a diversity of Holocene adaptive strategies as shown by the different type, size, composition, and distribution of sites and their faunal and artifactual contents. Some differences and similarities are apparent between the northerly semi-desert of Namaqualand and the more central Lamberts Bay and Elands Bay areas. On first impression, this archaeological variability seems related to environmental gradients, human demographics, related divergent economic developments, and perhaps to different contexts for cultural contact between indigenous populations. However, differences between Namaqualand and the central parts of the West Coast need to be assessed more closely in order to understand the influence of environmental and cultural/behavioral variables that could have shaped them and their geographic interaction. Sampling of locations near Lamberts Bay and the southern parts of Namaqualand has become vital. Here we present first observations on a survey and broad chronology at one such locality, namely Soutpansklipheuwel outcrop. First results reveal a millennia-long history of occupation. Possible shared attributes that respond to biogeographic and cultural variables are outlined.