Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-01T12:40:33.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterning in Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Southern Africa as a Reflection of Prehistoric Settlement and Interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Parkington  and
Martin Hall
John Parkington
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Martin Hall
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Radiocarbon dates published by southern African archaeologists since the last review in this journal (in 1980) illustrate an increasingly complex record of population movement and interaction. Substantial gaps in the distributions of dates reflect the ebb and flow of people in response to changing environmental and social circumstances. More interesting perhaps is the range of intergroup relations now emerging from the last two millennia with the appearance of pastoralists and agriculturalists. Radiocarbon dates, taken along with spatial and formal patterns in the archaeological record, show clearly that the distributions between hunters, herders and farmers and between Stone Age and Iron Age communities were blurred and flexible.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Previous reviews of southern African radiocarbon dates which have appeared in this Journal include those by Hall, Martin and Vogel, J. C. (XXI, iv, 1980, 431–55)Google Scholar, Maggs, Tim (XVII, ii,1977, 161–91),Google ScholarSoper, R. C. (xv, ii, 1974, 175–92),Google ScholarSutton, J. E. G. (XIII, i, 1972, 1–24)Google Scholar and Phillipson, D. W. (XI, I, 1970, 1–15).Google Scholar

2 Hall, Martin and Vogel, J. C., ‘Some recent radiocarbon dates from southern Africa,’ J. Afr. Hist., XXI, iv (1980), 431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Freundlich, J. C., Schwabedissen, H. and Wendt, W. E., ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements II,’ Radiocarbon, XXII, i (1980), 68–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarVogel, J. C. and Visser, Ebbie, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates II,’ Radiocarbon, XXIII, i (1981), 43–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Denbow, J. R. and Wilmsen, E. N., ‘Iron Age pastoralist settlements in Botswana,’ S. Afr. J. Sci., XXIX (1983), 406.Google Scholar

5 Wilmsen, E. N., ‘The impact of land tenure policies on the future of the San’ (paper presented at the International Symposium on African Hunter Gatherers, Cologne, 1985), 2.Google Scholar

6 Denbow, J. R, ‘Cows and Kings: a spatial and economic analysis of a hierarchical Early Iron Age settlement system in Eastern Botswana’ in Hall, M., Avery, G., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M. L. and Humphreys, A. J. B. (eds.), Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 207) (Oxford, 1984), 24–39.Google Scholar

7 Denbow and Wilmsen, ‘Iron Age pastoralist settlements,’ 406.Google Scholar

8 Ibid

9 Alexander, J., ‘Early frontiers in southern Africa,’ in Hall et al., Frontiers, 12.Google Scholar

10 Wilmsen, ‘Impact of land tenure policies,’ 2.Google Scholar

11 Humphreys, A. J. B. and Thackeray, A. I., Ghaap and Gariep (South African Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 2) (Cape Town, 1983).Google Scholar

12 Deacon, J., ‘Patterning in the radio-carbon dates for the Wilton/Smithfield complex in southern Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXIX (1974), 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Sampson, C. G., ‘The Stone Age industries of the Orange River scheme and South Africa,’ Memoirs of the National Museum (Bloemfontein), VI (1982), 1–288.Google Scholar

14 Humphreys, A. J. B., ‘The Holocene sequence in the northern Cape and its position in the prehistory of South Africa’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1979).Google Scholar

15 Deacon, H. J., Where Hunters Gathered (South African Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 1) (Cape Town, 1976).Google Scholar

16 PTA-2140, PTA-2541, PTA-2542, PTA-2543, PTA-2544, PTA-2545, PTA-2546, PTA-2723, PTA-2727, PTA-2728, PTA-2729, PTA-2779, PTA-2785, PTA-2790, PTA-2797, PTA-2798, PTA-2852, SI-2030. Humphreys and Thackeray, Ghaap and Gariep, 45–6.Google Scholar

17 PTA-2447, PTA-2448, PTA-2490; Ibid, 175.

18 Hall and Vogel, ‘Recent radiocarbon dates’.Google Scholar

19 Deacon, Where Hunters Gathered, 222.Google Scholar

20 Sampson, C. G., Stone Age Archaeology of Southern Africa (New York, 1974), 331.Google Scholar

21 Ibid

22 Ibid

23 Bakker, E. M. van Zinderen, ‘Comparison of Late Quaternary climatic evolutions in the Sahara and the Namib—Kalahari region,’ Palaeoecology of Africa, XII (1980), 390.Google Scholar

24 Humphreys and Thackeray, Ghaap and Gariep, 94–5.Google Scholar

25 PTA-2835, 2840: Ibid, 103.

26 PTA-186: Ibid

27 Previous estimates of about 400 years before the present appear in Humphreys, ‘The Holocene sequence,’Google Scholar and in Klein, R. G., ‘Palaeoenvironmental and cultural implications of late Holocene archaeological faunas from the Orange Free State and north-central Cape Province, South Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXIV (1979), 34–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Humphreys and Thackeray, Ghaap and Gariep, 175.Google Scholar

29 PTA-1621, 1759, 2095: Ibid, 205.

30 PTA-3413, 3412: Ibid, 159.

31 Stow, G. W., The Native Races of South Africa (London, 1905; reprinted New Haven, 1977);Google ScholarDeacon, H. J., Deacon, J., Brooker, M. and Wilson, M. L., ‘The evidence for herding at Boomplaas Cave in the southern Cape, South Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXIII (1978), 39–65;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRobertshaw, P. T., ‘The origin of pastoralism in the Cape,’ S. Afr. Hist. J., X (1978), 117–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Elphick, R., Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa (Johannesburg, 1985).Google Scholar This interpretation has been supported, on linguistic grounds, by Ehret, C., ‘The first spread of food production in southern Africa,’ in Ehret, C. and Posnansky, M. (eds.), The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African history (Berkeley, 1982), 158–81.Google Scholar

33 Beaumont, P. B., ‘On the origins of Hottentot culture in southern Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Soc. Newsletter, III, i (1980), 2–3.Google Scholar

34 Beaumont, P. B. and Vogel, J. C., ‘Spatial patterning of the ceramic Later Stone Age in the northern Cape Province, South Africa’ in Hall, et al. (eds.), Frontiers, 80–95.Google Scholar

35 PTA-3359: Rudner, I. and Rudner, J., ‘Wilton sand-dune sites in north-western Cape and South Vest Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XIV (1959), 142–5;CrossRefGoogle ScholarBeaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 94.Google Scholar

36 PTA-3088: Beaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 94.Google Scholar

37 PTA-3093: Ibid

38 PTA-3094: Ibid, 95.

39 PTA-964: Ibid, 94.

40 PTA-3357: Rudner and Rudner, ‘Wilton sand-dune sites’;Google ScholarBeaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 92.Google Scholar

41 PTA-3109: Beaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 94.Google Scholar

42 PTA-3417: Ibid, 93.

43 PTA-2833, 2841, 3419: Thackeray, A. I., Thackeray, J. F. and Beaumont, P. B., ‘Excavations at the Blinkklipkop specularite mine near Postmasburg, northern Cape,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXVII (1983), 17–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 PTA-3444, 3462, 3462: Beaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 95.Google Scholar

45 PTA-186, 3089: Ibid, 92.

46 PTA-2452: Ibid, 91.

47 PTA-3401: Humphreys, ‘The Holocene sequence’.Google Scholar

48 PTA-1621: Ibid

49 PTA-1759, 2095: Ibid

50 PTA-3367, 3421: Beaumont and Vogel, ‘Spatial patterning,’ 95.Google Scholar

51 PTA-1483: Ibid, 93.

52 Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements’;Google ScholarVogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates’Google Scholar. See also Wendt, W. E., ‘Preliminary report on an archaeological research programme in South West Africa,’ Cimbebasia B, II (1972), 1–61.Google Scholar

53 Wendt, W. E., ‘Ein Rekonstruktionsversuch der Besiedlungsgeschichte des west-lichen Gross-Namalandes seit dem 15. Jahrhundert,’ J. S. W. Afr. Sci. Soc., XXIX (1975), 23–56.Google Scholar

54 Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 44.Google Scholar

55 Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 70.Google Scholar

56 PTA-1011, 1012, 1013, 1347, 1348, 1536: Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 56.Google Scholar

57 KN-1 .624, PTA-1202: Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 74;Google ScholarVogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 48.Google Scholar

58 KN-2142, KN-2143, PTA-1185, PTA-1186: Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 76;Google ScholarVogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 51.Google Scholar

59 KN-1 .631, KN-1 .632, KN-1.633, PTA-2662: Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 77;Google ScholarVogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 52.Google Scholar

60 PTA-1046, 1050, 1751: Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 49.Google Scholar

61 PTA-1927, 2650: Ibid, 50.

62 PTA-2075, 2077, 2082: Ibid, 55.

63 PTA-1185, KN-2142: Ibid, 51; Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 76.Google Scholar

64 Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates’;Google ScholarFreundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements’.Google Scholar

65 KN-1 .460, KN-1 .461. KN-1 .729, KN-1 .730, KN-1.731, KN-1.732: Freundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 78.Google Scholar

66 Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 59.Google Scholar

67 Ibid, 58–9. Earlier work at Big Elephant Shelter has been reported in Clark, J. D. and Walton, J., ‘A Late Stone Age site on the Erongo Mountains, South West Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXI (1976), 146,Google Scholar and by Wadley, L., ‘Big Elephant Shelter and its role in the Holocene prehistory of central South West Africa,’ Cimbebasia B, III, i (1979), 2–75.Google Scholar

68 KN-1 .636, KN-1 .637, KN-1 .638, KN-1 .639, PTA-2681: Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 59;Google ScholarFreundlich, Schwabedissen and Wendt, ‘Köln radiocarbon measurements,’ 79–80.Google Scholar

69 PTA-1295: Vogel and Visser, ‘Pretoria radiocarbon dates,’ 61.Google Scholar

70 PTA-1546, 1547, 1550, 1773, 1776, 1777: Ibid, 61–2.

71 Bakker, E. M. van Zinderen, ‘Comparison,’ 390.Google Scholar

72 Ibid

73 Deacon, J., ‘Patterning in the radiocarbon dates’.Google Scholar

74 PTA-2250, 2422: Smith, A. B. and Rip, M. R., ‘An archaeological reconnaissance of the Doorn/Tanqua Karoo,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXIII (1978), 118–33, and pers. comm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75 Vogel, J. C., pers. comm.Google Scholar

76 PTA-3766, 3768, 3783: Kaplan, J., ‘Renbaan Cave: stone tools, settlement and subsistence’ (Honours dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1984).Google Scholar

77 Parkington, J., ‘Time and place: some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later Stone Age sequence in southern Africa,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXXV (1980), 73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78 Andrews, W. R. H. and Hutchings, L., ‘Upwelling in the southern Benguela current,’ Prog. Oceanogr., IX (1980), 1–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79 Fluctuation in near coastal seeps is one explanation of the sedimentological sequence recently exposed at Spring Cave near the mouth of the Verloren Vlei. These sediments have been examined by N. Lancaster (pers. comm.).Google Scholar

80 Parkington, J., ‘Landscape and subsistence changes since the last glacial maximum along the western Cape coast,’ in Soffer, Olga (ed.), Regional Perspectives on the Pleistocene Prehistory of the Old World (1986, in press).Google Scholar

81 Deacon, J., The Late Stone Age of southernmost Africa (British Archaeological Reports International Series, 213) (Oxford, 1984), 1–441.Google Scholar

82 Scheitzer, F. R. and Wilson, M. L., ‘Byneskranskop I. A late Quaternary living site in the southern Cape Province, South Africa,’ Ann. S. Afr. Mus. LXXXVIII, i (1982), 1–203.Google Scholar

83 Louw, J. T., ‘Prehistory of the Matjes River rock shelter,’ Memoirs of the National Museum (Bloemfontein) I (1960), 1–143.Google Scholar

84 Thackeray, J. F. and Feast, F. C., ‘A midden burial from Cape St Francis, eastern Cape Province,’ S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., XXIX (1974), 92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

85 Singer, R. and Wymer, J., The Middle Stone Age of Klasies River Mouth in South Africa (Chicago, 1982).Google Scholar

86 Parkington, ‘Landscape and subsistence changes’.Google Scholar

87 There is considerable discussion in the literature as to whether Holocene features around the shores of southern Africa lying 2–3 metres above present sea-level result from a higher stand of the sea or an emergence of the land. The most general model is given by Clark, J. A., Farrell, W. E. and Peltier, W. R., ‘Global changes in post-glacial sea level: a numerical calculation,’ Quaternary Research, IX (1978), 265–87;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and by Clark, J. A. and Lingle, C. S., ‘Predicted relative sea-level changes (18000 years BP to Present) caused by late-glacial retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet,’ Quaternary Research, XI (1979), 279–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

88 Manhire, A. H., Parkington, J. E. and Robey, T. S., ‘Stone tools and sandveld settlement,’ in Hall, et al. (eds.), Frontiers, 111–120.Google Scholar

89 Smith, A. B., ‘Prehistoric pastoralism in the Southwestern Cape, South Africa,’ World Archaeology, xv, i (1983), 79–89;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSmith, A. B., ‘Adaptive strategies of prehistoric pastoralism in the south-western Cape,’ in Hall, et al. (eds.), Frontiers, 131–42.Google Scholar

90 Robertshaw, P. T., ‘Coastal settlement, freshwater fishing and pastoralism in the later prehistory of the western Cape, South Africa’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1979).Google Scholar

91 PTA-3641, 3711, 3737, 3742, 3747, 3785, 3787, 3788: A. B. Smith, pers. comm.Google Scholar

92 Smith, A. B. and Klein, R., pers. comms.Google Scholar

93 Moll, E. J. and Jarman, M. L., ‘Is fynbos a heathland?,’ S. Afr. J. Sci., LXXX, viii (1984), 352–4.Google Scholar

94 E. Moll, pers. comm.Google Scholar

95 N. Penn, pers. comm.Google Scholar

96 T. Maggs, pers. comm.Google Scholar

97 Maggs, T., ‘The Iron Age south of the Zambezi,’ in Klein, R. G. (ed.), Southern African Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments (Rotterdam, 1984).Google Scholar

98 Exceptions are Maggs, T., ‘The Iron Age sequence south of the Vaal and Pongola Rivers: some historical implications,’ J. Afr. Hist., XXI, i (1980), 1–15;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHall, M., Settlement Patterns in the Iron Age of Zululand (British Archaeological Reports International Series, 119) (Oxford, 1981), 1–191;Google Scholar and Jones, Peta, ‘Mobility and migration in traditional African farming and Iron Age models,’ in Hall, et al. (eds.), Frontiers, 289–96.Google Scholar

99 For examples of this approach see Phillipson, D. W., The Later Prehistory of Eastern and Southern Africa (London, 1977);Google ScholarHuffman, T. N., ‘African origins,’ S. Afr. J. Sci., LXXV (1979), 233–7.Google Scholar

100 For a critique of this assumption see Hall, M. and Morris, A., ‘Race and Iron Age human skeletal remains from southern Africa: an assessment,’ Social Dynamics IX, ii (1983), 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 PTA-2824, 2825. Cable, J. H. C., Economy and Technology in the Late Stone Age of Southern Natal (British Archaeological Reports International Series, 201) (Oxford, 1984), 1–267.Google Scholar

102 PTA-2527, 2528: Robey, T., ‘Mpambanyoni: a Late Iron Age site on the Natal south coast,’ Ann. Natal Mus., XXIV, i (1980), 163.Google Scholar

103 Denbow and Wilmsen, ‘Iron Age pastoralist settlements’.Google Scholar

104 PTA-2017: Cronin, M., ‘Radiocarbon dates for the Early Iron Age in Transkei,’ S. Afr. J. Sci., LXXVII, i (1982), 38.Google Scholar

105 Voigt, E. and Bigalke, E. H., ‘The interdisciplinary aspect of a study of shellfish exploitation by indigenous coastal communities,’ S. Afr. Mus. Bull., x, vii (1973), 1–16.Google Scholar

106 Colson, E., ‘In good years and in bad: food strategies of self-reliant societies,’ J. Anthrop. Res., xxxv, i (1979), 18–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

107 PTA-1848, 2485, 2537: Hall, Settlement patterns, 1–191.Google Scholar

108 ST-8546, 8547, 8548: Morais, J., ‘Mozambican archaeology: past and present,’ Afr. Archaeol. Rev., ii (1984), 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

109 Cable, ‘Economy and technology’.Google Scholar

110 PTA-3268: T. Maggs, pers. comm.Google Scholar

111 Acocks, J. P. H., ‘Veld types of South Africa,’ Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa, XL (1975), map I.Google Scholar

112 Aron Mazel is currently exploring the interaction between hunters and farmers in his Natal research.Google Scholar

113 Maggs, T., ‘Msuluzi Confluence: a seventh century Early Iron Age site on the Tugela River,’ Ann. Natal. Mus., XXIV, i (1980), 111–45.Google Scholar

114 Mazel, A., ‘Through the keyhole: a preliminary peep at the lithic composition of Later Stone Age sites in the central and upper Tugela River basin, Natal,’ in Hall, et al. (eds.), Frontiers, 182–93.Google Scholar

115 PTA-2971, 2973, 3247: Ibid, 185.

116 PTA-3242, 3243, 3245: Ibid, 186.

117 PTA-3269, 3275, 3276, 3443, 3455, 3460: Ibid, 187.

118 Maggs, ‘Dates’; Hall and Vogel, ‘Recent radiocarbon dates’.Google Scholar

119 Daniel, G., A Hundred and Fifty Years of Archaeology (London, 1975).Google Scholar

120 Leacock, E. and Lee, R., Politics and History in Band Societies (Cambridge, 1982).Google Scholar

121 Alexander, ‘Early frontiers’.Google Scholar

122 Giliomee, H., ‘Processes in development of the southern African frontier,’ in Lamar, H. and Thompson, L. (eds.), The Frontier in History (New Haven, 1981).Google Scholar

123 For example, the Okiek: Blackburn, R. H., ‘In the land of milk and honey; Okiek adaptations to their forests and neighbours,’ in Leacock and Lee, Politics and History, 283–305.Google Scholar

124 Alexander, ‘Early frontiers’.Google Scholar

125 Bettinger, R. L. and Baumhoff, M. A., ‘The numic spread: Great Basin cultures in competition,’ American Anthropology, XLVII, iii (1982), 485–503.Google Scholar

126 See Blackburn, ‘In the land of milk and honey’;Google ScholarHoffman, C. L., ‘Punan foragers in the trading networks of south-east Asia,’ in Schrire, C. (ed.), Past and Present in Hunter-gatherer Societies (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

127 We would like to thank Curtis Marean, ‘T’ Farrar, Rob Blumenshine, Preston Miracle and Charles McNutt, all of Berkeley, and Royden Yates, Tony Manhire and Alyson Herlihy in Cape Town.Google Scholar