CHAPTER ONE

RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND APPROACHES

1.1 Background to the Study

This thesis re-examines the current interpretations on the expansion and decline of

complex socio-political systems in the Shashe/Limpopo River Basin (hereafter referred to as

SLRB), southern Africa (Figure 1.1). Over the last several decades, archaeological research has

focussed on reconstructing the cultural sequence of Iron Age communities, primarily those

centred on the elite sites of Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe, with growing consideration given to

allied commoner sites. Researchers (e.g. Hanisch 1980; Eloff and Meyer 1981; Huffman

1986a,b; Meyer 1998) have shown that these central places, or capitals, controlled and

coordinated the region in increasingly more complex ways between AD 900 and 1290, leading to

a class-based society in which hierarchy was controlled by sacred leadership from the ‘capital’ at

Mapungubwe between AD 1220 and 1290. This was followed by the collapse of the

Mapungubwe system (Meyer 1998), with a population decrease and redistribution until after AD

1450, when large settlements were re-established in the river basin.

While the complexity and increased size of the Mapungubwe state is readily acknowledged,

the production and acquisition of food resources required to sustain its burgeoning population

are often perceived in terms of small-scale subsistence farming (e.g. Voigt 1983; Huffman

1996a; Meyer 1998). Within this context, research in the SLRB makes assumptions about the

environmental parameters and the nature of cultural knowledge for crop and livestock

production. Voigt (1983:64), for example, speculates, “It is unlikely that the Mapungubwe people

were aware of the importance of carrying capacity, which would have aggravated the situation in

drought years”. This and other suppositions gives rise to untested correlations between climate

change and the success or failure of agropastoralists in the region, as exemplified by the

expansion and decline of agropastoral communities centred on Mapungubwe. Consistently, the

sequence of cultural change, as exemplified by the expansion and decline of agropastoral

communities centred around Mapungubwe, has been directly correlated with the timing of large-

2

Figure 1.1: Approximate locations of the SLRB and sites discussed in thesis (adapted from Mitchell 2002). HR-Happy Rest; SC-Schroda; PD-Pont Drift; LH-Leokwe Hill; MP-Mapungubwe; IC-Icon; GZ-Great Zimbabwe; FR-Faure; KL-Kolope; SF-Sofala

Shashe Rv

SOUTH AFRICA

BOTSWANA

ZIMBABWE

MOZAMBIQUE

250km

26oE 32oE 36oE

18oS

24oS Soutpansberg

PD MP K2 SC

GZ

SF

HR

KL

LH FR IC

NAMIBIA

ZIMBABWE MOZAMBIQUE

SWAZILAND

LESOTHO

500km

BOTSWANA

N

South Africa

Limpopo Rv

3

scale climatic trends, such as the ‘Medieval Warm Epoch’ (AD 900 to 1300) and the ‘Little Ice

Age’ (AD 1300 to 1850), and the subsequent affect these ‘events’ may have had on the

economy, especially agropastoral production (Huffman 1996a; Meyer 1998; Plug 2000; Tyson et

al. 2002).

There are several problems with this approach and its underlying assumptions. For one,

these relatively small-scale temperature shifts are well established for high latitudes in the

Northern Hemisphere, and extension beyond those areas (i.e. as global phenomena) has been

debated. Likewise, any global climate shifts and their regional manifestations in different parts of

the world are not clearly understood; certainly, they were not at the time when most of the

previous research was being carried out in the SLRB. Greater clarity has since emerged on the

chronology and regional climate manifestations of the ‘Little Ice Age’ from high-resolution

stalagmite sequences in Limpopo Province. Two records suggest that stormy, cooler and drier

conditions culminated at 1700-1750 AD (Lee-Thorp et al. 2001; Holmgren et al. 2003).

Secondly, in applying climatic data extrapolated from trends at a sub-continental scale and from

external climatic sequences, one may speciously imply universal timing, effects or responses,

thereby overlooking local climatic variability as well as environmental and cultural modifiers. In

my re-examination of these climatic and agropastoralist correlations I add a consideration of the

environmental ranges and tolerances of livestock and crops, and the learned knowledge of

managing them in an area that is currently regarded as being environmentally marginal for

agropastoral production. These strategies are placed within the ~AD 900 to 1700 socio-political

context of the SLRB, building on hypotheses expound in J. Smith and S. Hall (1999), and

Huffman’s (2000) reconsideration, that the agropastoral economy associated with the rise of the

Mapungubwe political state would have required organised intensive or extensive production

well beyond the homestead level. As noted elsewhere (e.g. Classen 1984; Tainter 1988;

Kopytoff 1989) when approaching or reaching the level of a state, cultural, socio-political and

economic activities go beyond the local context to that of regional interaction and the integration

of regional diversity.

4

This thesis, therefore, seeks to investigate the structure of agropastoral production in the

SLRB, its compatibility with increasing socio-political complexity and how both relate to local

climatic change. In summary, I aim to identify and quantify factors relating to:

1. The structure of crop and livestock management in an area that is semi-arid and

environmentally marginal or variable for agropastoral production.

2. Agropastoral production and management at different social and political scales, particularly

those in the shift from K2 to Mapungubwe.

3. Short-and long-term local environmental and climatic fluctuations, for which there is a

paucity of local data pertaining to the last 2000 years. Before climatic trends and

environmental modifications can be assigned causal status for cultural change, it is pertinent

to know if they are manifested in the SLRB sequence and if so, what scale of change they

represent.

In order to achieve these goals two different methodologies are employed. First,

documented African agropastoralist cultural systems are explored to provide comparable

environmental parameters and management practices that are required to sustain, intensify and

extend agropastoral production in semi-arid regions. Secondly, identifying these parameters and

the climatic and environmental history for the SLRB is approached using multi-stable isotope

analyses of material directly associated with the cultural sequence between AD 900 and 1700.

1.2 Research Review and Archaeological Context Previous archaeological research in the SLRB has divided the Iron Age sequence into the

Early, Middle and Late Iron Age and phases within each period. This thesis uses this established

periodisation. These terms are used with the understanding that they do not represent

technological stages in the SLRB, but mark the advent, beginning in ~AD 500, of significant

reconfigurations of Bantu-speaking agropastoralists upon this landscape. The recognition of

these expansions in the SLRB and their timing are facilitated by radiocarbon-dated stylistic

distinctions in ceramics (Figure 1.2). These distinctions in space and through time represent

broad cultural identities because, as Huffman (1989) argues, pottery techniques and ceramic

5

styles are learnt and communicated within specific cultural settings.

Before proceeding, some brief comments about cultural terms and sequences are required.

First, is that the term ‘Iron Age’ and its periodisation, which was initially adopted by Summers

(1950) and then by successive archaeologists, has been criticised as being too constrained in its

perceived emphasis only on iron-working technology and defined cultural boundaries. Most

obviously, research into the significant interactions and overlaps between agropastoralists and

Later Stone Age foragers (S. Hall pers. comm.; B. van Doornum, pers. comm.; S. Hall and B.

Smith 2000) have perhaps been hampered by the persistent use of traditional cultural history

categories. In this regard, S. Hall and B. Smith (2000) stress the need to use an alternative

terminology that does not imply exclusive temporal and cultural boundaries. However, if the

focus is only on the ‘Iron Age’, and despite criticism that the description of stylistic boundaries

holds back research into more people centred themes, the archaeology suggests that stylistic

sequences do in part materialise real historical processes. In considering both approaches, what

has to be underscored is the need to explain the political, economic and social strategies that

maintain or change the contemporary juxtaposition of stylistically distinct communities. It is,

consequently, appropriate to use different terms and labels depending on the context under

discussion. Where traditional Iron Age periodisation is not necessary, I adopt Maggs and

Whitelaw’s (1991) suggested use of an economic identification. In this thesis, I use the term

agropastoralist to signify people whose farming economy is dominated by both crop and

livestock. Agriculturalist and pastoralist denote the former and latter, respectively. Where

appropriate, placement within the SLRB cultural and chronological sequence is designated by

the associated ceramic phase, e.g. Zhizo and Leopard’s Kopje A.

In this review section, I describe the SLRB cultural chronology and contextualise it in

relation to the environmental and economic correlations outlined in Section 1.1.

6

Figure 1.2: Origins of southern African agropastoral ceramic traditions discussed in chapter (adapted from Huffman 1999)

100km

Indian Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

6oS 18oS 30oS

12oE 24oE 42oE

Orange Rv

Vaal Rv

Limpopo Rv

Shashe Rv

Lake Victoria

Lake Tanganyka

Lake

Mal

awi

Kalundu Tradition Urewe Tradition Moloko Tradition N

7

The basis for this review is Huffman’s (1996a) cultural correlations for the SLRB compared

against the initial climatic sequence put forward by Tyson and Lindesay (1992) (Table 1.1). I

also discuss previous interpretations of the role of agropastoralism, environmental variability and

related cultural strategies within the changing socio-political structures of the SLRB. Initial

archaeozoological studies for the SLRB Iron Age focussed on the management of herds,

demographics and livestock health, of livestock, as well as the type, amount and distribution of

meat (Voigt 1980, 1983; for review see Plug 2000). While these studies tend to interpret

agropastoralist management within a subsistence level economy, they do nevertheless provide

baseline data for this thesis for understanding agropastoralism beyond the homestead level. The

archaeological material relevant to this review for the period between ~AD 900 and 1700 is

discussed according to the following themes: cultural identity, increasing socio-political

complexity, trade, population growth and health, agropastoralism, evidence for and ideas about

the collapse of Mapungubwe and questions concerning the nature of the post AD 1290 cultural

and physical environment.

Although the initial Early Iron Age phase, dated to between AD 300 and 700, predates

those later periods investigated for this thesis, it is briefly reviewed here for it signifies the

beginning of the SLRB and adjacent areas being settled by agropastoralists and used for mixed

farming. Prior to AD 300 there is ambiguous evidence for Bambata ceramics, which appear in

other areas to be associated more with semi-or-non-sedentary pastoralism, herding or hunters

with sheep (see Huffman 1994, Reid et al 1998). Based on ceramic style, the origins of the early

agropastoral phase, referred to as Happy Rest, is associated with the spread of Eastern Bantu-

speaking people. They are part of the Kalundu Tradition (or Western Stream) that spread from

the western Congo, Angola, western Zambia and Zimbabwe, north and eastern Botswana,

through the Limpopo Province of South Africa and on to KwaZulu-Natal (Figure 1.2) (Prinsloo

1976; Phillipson 1979,1989; Hanisch 1981; Huffman 1982, 1986b, 1993;1989; Whitelaw 1996;

Whitelaw and Moon 1996; Meyer 1997).

8

Table 1.1: Climatic events and linked cultural sequence for SLRB between ~AD 900 and 1850

Time Interval (AD)

Climatic Events (after Tyson and Lindesay 1992)

SLRB Cultural Sequence (after Huffman 1996a)

1650 to 1850

Little Ice Age: cool and dry Fluctuating settlement by various groups

1500 to 1650

Warming within the Little Ice Age Moloko and Khami settlement after AD 1450

1290 to 1500 Little Ice Age: cool and dry End of Leopard’s Kopje B, abandonment of Mapungubwe by AD 1290. Arrival of Moloko (Icon Facies)

1220 to 1290 Medieval Warm Epoch:

End of Leopard’s Kopje A, abandonment of K2. Start of Leopard’s Kopje B, settlement of Mapungubwe

1040 to 1220 warm and wet End of Zhizo, abandonment of Schroda. Start of Leopard’s Kopje A, settlement of K2

900 to 1040 Zhizo settlement, settlement of Schroda

9

As with the subsequent cultural phases, the presence or absence of this Early Iron Age

phase has also been linked to large-scale climatic changes. The occurrence of Happy Rest

ceramics at the base of the Mapungubwe sequence (Meyer 1997) led Huffman (1996a) to

correlate the success of dryland agriculture at this time with a proposed general warm/wet phase

between AD 500 and 700 (Tyson and Lindesay 1992). This association is difficult to assess

because, in spite of extensive archaeological surveys in the SLRB (for review see Huffman

2000), no unequivocal Happy Rest homesteads have been found. The ceramic and faunal

evidence, including more recent finds on nearby hilltops (Huffman 1999), is too scant to

determine the extent or the nature of the Happy Rest occupation and whether indeed,

agropastoral activities were practiced or viable in the SLRB. Huffman (1996a) argues that an

inferred cool/dry trend between AD 700 and 900 (Tyson and Lindesay 1992) accounts for any

apparent agropastoralist hiatus during this interval. In the light of contemporary Early Iron Age

agropastoralist sites in adjacent north-eastern Botswana at this time (Reid and Segobye 2000),

it is not clear whether this hiatus is actually climatically influenced or simply reflects a continued

low visibility of cultural material. Alternatively, given the settlements in Botswana and the

developing east-coast trade, this small-scale intrusion into the SLRB may have set the stage

and motivation for the subsequent cultural expansions.

1.2.1 ~AD 900 to 1290: Agropastoralist expansion, increasing socio-political complexity and the collapse of Mapungubwe Following Happy Rest, the Zhizo phase (Early Iron Age), marks the second and

archaeologically more visible occupation of the SLRB by agropastoralists. Huffman (1996a) and

Tyson et al. (2002) argue that this was stimulated by the favourable warmer/wetter climate of the

‘Warm Medieval Epoch’. Zhizo sites dominate the SLRB between ~AD 900 and 1010. Zhizo

ceramics are derived from the Nkope Branch of the Urewe Tradition (or Central Stream)

originating within Eastern Bantu-speaking groups that spread southwards from East Africa

through Malawi, Zimbabwe and into eastern Botswana and the northern part of the Limpopo

Province (Figure 1.2) (Huffman 1982, 1999). Zizho ceramics disappear from the SLRB by about

AD 1010, to be replaced by new agropastoralists identified by Leopard’s Kopje A ceramics

(Middle Iron Age). Deriving from an Early Iron Age middle phase of the Kalundu Tradition, the

10

Leopard’s Kopje A phase, also known as K2, dates between about AD 1010 and 1220 (Huffman

1982, 1999; Vogel 2000). The change and shifts in settlement organisation that accompanied

the K2 phase attest to the growing complexity of agropastoralist organisation at this time.

Both Zhizo and most Leopard’s Kopje A settlements were organised according to the

Central Cattle Pattern model (Huffman 1986b, 2000, Kuper 1982), in which central cattle byres

are enclosed by a ring of huts and material linked to domestic activities. The Nguni and

Sotho/Tswana-speakers upon which the model is based (Kuper 1982) are Eastern Bantu-

speakers and the settlement plan underpins a linked set of beliefs that emphasize patrilineal

descent, brideprice transacted through cattle and the primacy of ancestors in the day-to-day

affairs of the living. In this model, the central cattle byres are linked to a court, formal political

power and male activities and are where men or important people are buried. Women, children

and domestic activities are constrained to the outer ring of households.

During the Zhizo phase, the settlement of Schroda has been identified as the capital

(Figure 1.3) (Hanisch 1980; Meyer 1998) because of its greater spatial extend compared to

other Zhizo sites, as well as the types of artefacts recovered. Size correlates with political

authority and the unequal access to cattle and the power this gives to attract and command

people (Huffman 2000). Furthermore, large numbers of ceramic figurines at Schroda also attest

to the centralised control of ritual, perhaps initiation (see van Schalkwyk and Hanisch 2002).

Most importantly, the capital is identified through the evidence of exotic glass trade beads and

the growing control and accumulation of cultural material and trade items resulting from trade

links with Swahili Arabs on the East African coast (Hanisch 1980; Huffman 2000; Woods 2000).

Indeed, one potential motivation for Leopard’s Kopje A people to move into the SLRB, and

rapidly incorporate certain Zhizo related groups and displace others, was to take over the

growing international trade links (Denbow 1982; Huffman 1996b, 2000). This led to the

abandonment of Schroda and the establishment of K2 as the regional capital (Figure 1.3). The

contemporary increase in Zhizo influenced ceramic styles at Toutswe period sites in northeast

Botswana, points to one potential area to which Zhizo people moved (Denbow 1982, 1983,

11

Figure 1.3: Approximate spatial distributions of SLRB sites between AD 900 and 1300 (adapted from Huffman 2000)

Limpopo Rv

Shashe Rv

Motloutse Rv

Unzingwani Rv

600m

600m

Zhizo

N

Limpopo Rv

Shashe Rv

Motloutse Rv

Unzingwani Rv

600m

600m

Leopard's Kopje A

Limpopo Rv

Shashe Rv

Motloutse Rv

Unzingwani Rv

600m

Leopard’s Kopje B

600m

12

1986). The continuation of a Zhizo phase at Leokwe Hill until ~AD 1200, however, indicates that

this displacement was not absolute, and that there is a need to re-evaluate the position of Zhizo

within the Leopard’s Kopje A/K2 phase (Calabrese 2000; Vogel and Calabrese 2000).

The next phase in this sequence sees the dramatic abandonment of the Leopard’s Kopje A

capital at K2 at about AD 1220 and the relocation to Mapungubwe less than one kilometre away

(Figure 1.3). Continuity of K2 ceramic style in those of the Leopard’s Kopje B ceramics of

Mapungubwe (Huffman 2000) represents an in situ social and political change and not an influx

of a new cultural group as thought by other researchers (Gardner 1958, Meyer 1980). This

underpins the most important shift in the rise of social complexity from a kin-based or ranked

society, to a class based system that was socially and politically stratified, and in which the

relationship between elites and commoners was redefined (Huffman 1986b, 2000). This was

spatially expressed by a new settlement organisation at elite sites, exemplified by the capital at

Mapungubwe between ~AD 1220 to 1290, and defines the beginning of the Zimbabwe Culture

Pattern. Commoners, however, continued to organise their settlements according to the

principles of the Central Cattle Pattern.

Huffman (2000) suggests that the re-location of the capital to Mapungubwe was the end

point in a process started at K2, in which the Central Cattle Pattern could no longer express the

political and socio-economic distance between elites and commoners. An important indicator of

this structural change begins at K2 with the relocation of the central cattle byre away from the

settlement and the dominance of a huge court midden in its place. Very simply, this midden

expressed political power and wealth derived from the increasing centralisation of the east coast

trade and consequently, the status of the capital. That the structural shift was almost complete at

K2 is indicated by the fact that the new settlement form is immediately established at

Mapungubwe. Most obvious is that the distance between commoner and elite is now fully

articulated by the elite ruling family removing themselves from the body of the settlement and

into a position of sacred seclusion on the hilltop. Archaeologically, the hilltop palace is identified

by prestige walling, while the status of its occupants is further embellished by the royal cemetery

13

and the well known associated gold grave goods, a royal wives area at the western end of the

hill and a national rain making area at the eastern end. The public court was now located at the

base of the hill on the southern side and it was from just above the court that access to the

hilltop via a short but difficult accent could be made. The link between the court (male activity)

and this route suggests it was that only men used it (Huffman 2000). In contrast, commoners

lived around the base of the hill on the southern terrace and on a low plateau to the north.

Unlike Schroda and the initial stage of K2 occupation there was no central cattle byre at

Mapungubwe, which contrasted to the continued Central Cattle Pattern at its associated

commoner sites. This indicates that cattle continued to have status and that elites must have still

owned and had extensive access to cattle herds. Livestock was probably kept elsewhere until

needed (Garlake 1978), a suggestion that is debated by Voigt (1983) (see below for further

discussion), and raises obvious questions about the way herds were managed. Elites obviously

had more political power than that allowed by a solely cattle based wealth system, and this

came from the control of trade goods and the additional wealth this brought. Although elite cattle

wealth in the form of byres is not directly observable, apart from settlement organisation, wealth

and status was materialised in other ways. Three of the skeletons recovered from the royal

cemetery on the hilltop, for example, were ornately adorned with gold grave goods (Meyer

1998), a practice not found in commoner burials.

The external economy, and the increasingly important connection to the Indian Ocean and

sub-continental trade networks, clearly was a main factor in the development of a stratified

socio-political system by creating access to wealth for those controlling the trade. Elites at

Mapungubwe likely controlled the export of Shashe/Limpopo gold and ivory to the Swahili-Arab

traders of the East African coast (see Axleson 1973 for trade links; Voigt and Plug 1981; Voigt

1983; Miller et al. 2000), and intensified historical trade patterns forged by Zhizo and Leopard’s

Kopje A people. The widespread distribution of Leopard’s Kopje B ceramics, over about

30 000km2 (Huffman 1999), may indicate the extent of the region that participated or contributed

this trade network controlled by Mapungubwe. Tracing trade connections to areas outside of the

14

SLRB need to be studied further, however, keeping in mind that a common ceramic style as a

reflection of a common identity and a commodity catchment for trade need not be the same.

Of the trade items present in the SLRB archaeological record, glass beads are the most

abundant (see Saitowitz 1996; Wood 2000) and are important political and trade markers. In the

Zhizo phase, beads are found at the capital, Schroda, as well as other Zhizo sites (Hanisch

1980; Denbow 1986), implying a less centralised control over trade. At K2 and Mapungubwe,

however, access to exotic goods appears to have become restricted to the upper class elites.

There may have also been a decreased dependency on imported items as local innovations

were able to replace imports. The presence of spindle whorls, for instance, indicates the use of

cotton plants for local production of cloth, thereby limiting the need to import it. Additionally,

technical developments during the K2 period leads to glass beads being locally recycled and

made into the larger but rare garden roller beads, an innovation probably aimed at providing

another material sign of status and control (Wood 2000).

It is beyond question that the Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe sequence in the SLRB

represents an absolute population increase, but attaching numbers to this increase is difficult.

Based on ceramic style, present survey data securely identifies and allocates settlements to a

cultural phase, irrespective of settlement size and rank within a regional hierarchy. Table 1.2

represents Huffman’s (2000:23) breakdown of the predicted population, based on current site

numbers and using an ethnographic standard of ~50 people per homestead and an independent

estimate for the capitals. Archaeological estimates of this kind are difficult because there will be

a range of homestead populations and furthermore, it is unknown whether people in the capital

also maintained farming homesteads elsewhere in the river basin. Nevertheless, additional site

surveys by T. N. Huffman (2000; pers. comm. 2001) record that even if there is continuity in

homestead occupation from one phase to the next, there is still an incremental increase in sites

between Zhizo, Leopard’s Kopje A and Leopard’s Kopje B (Figure 1.3). In addition, the

interpretation of the mortality profile derived from human skeletal remains from K2 and

Mapungubwe supports Huffman’s estimates of population increase. Steyn (1998:290)

15

Table 1.2: Huffman’s (2000) estimated population increase for SLRB capitals and related homesteads between ~AD 900 and 1300

Capital AD Date Capital Population Homestead Population Total

Schroda 900 to 1010 500 1400 1900

K2 1010 to 1220 1500 3800 5300

Mapungubwe 1220 to 1290 5000 5000 10 000

16

estimates that there was a growth rate of 2.5% per annum, a demographic profile that she finds

to be similar to those recorded for populations elsewhere in the world at this time.

There was a clear population increase in the SLRB between ~ AD 900 and 1290 but, as

indicated above, there has been little attention given to how agriculture was accordingly

managed to meet the demands. Although Zhizo and Leopard’s Kopje A and B were obviously

settled agropastoralists, there is yet little direct evidence of crop types, although it is axiomatic

that varieties of sorghum and millet would have been the primary crops. The few carbonised

seeds found at K2, Mapungubwe (Eloff and Meyer 1981) and Little Muck (Calabrese pers.

comm.), as well as the presence of granaries and grinding stones and historical and

ethnographic accounts of agricultural practices (for example Schapera 1950; Axleson 1973) all

indicate that this was the case. Furthermore, millet seed impressions on pottery from earlier in

the sequence dating to ~ AD 300 from the site of Silver Leaves, near Tzaneen in the Limpopo

Province, confirm that millet was a component of the earliest agropastoralist economy (Klapwijk

and Huffman 1996). For successful sorghum and millet production to have been possible in the

SLRB during this period, Huffman (1996a) suggests, based on criteria set forth by Doggett

(1976) and Purseglove (1976), that minimum growth season temperature was >15oC, minimum

summer rainfall was >350mm and annual rainfall was >500mm. This criteria, however, does not

consider the full environmental range under which sorghum millet can be produce, which

encompasses cooler and drier climates (National Research Council 1996).

In addition to a consideration of site numbers, population increase and the tolerances of

staple cereals, the specific locations of settlements can be added to the question of agricultural

management. This thesis specifically examines the variety of growing conditions for staple

cereals and other food crops. Consequently, I suggest that the SLRB site locations reflect

agriculturalist strategies and knowledge of the conditions necessary to maintain or increase crop

production as political complexity and population increased and climate conditions continued to

vary. Most Zhizo phase sites, for example, are located along the Shashe/Limpopo tributaries

and rocky outcrops, while Leopard’s Kopje phase sites dominate the floodplains (Figure 1.3).

17

Earlier I presented (J. Smith and S. Hall 1999; Huffman 2000) that intensive or extensive use of

the Shashe/Limpopo floodplains would have been central to the growing socio-political

complexity and large-scale and long-term agricultural production. Prior to the construction of

recent weirs and dams, regular flooding by the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers replenished soil

nutrients, creating an extensive fertile strip for cultivation. The typography around the junction of

these two rivers makes this part of the system particularly attractive for this mode of agriculture

(Figure 1.3), and the distribution of commoner homesteads reflects this activity. A developing

focus on floodplain agriculture through the Zhizo, K2 and Mapungubwe sequence is a logical

agricultural strategy in light of the inferred increase in population and political complexity.

After 400 years of continuous agropastoral occupation of the SLRB, the capital of

Mapungubwe was abandoned around AD 1290, while Great Zimbabwe emerged and elaborated

the Zimbabwe Culture Pattern established in the SLRB where there was an apparent overall

decrease in the number of sites up to ~AD 1450 (Huffman 1996a; Meyer 1998). The reasons for

this collapse are obviously important and several ideas have been suggested. As highlighted in

Section 1.1 and in Table 1.1, there is an apparent correlation between the decline of

Mapungubwe and with the start of the cooler/drier ‘Little Ice Age’ (Huffman 1996a), and the

negative impact this had on agricultural production. This correlation, along with the earlier

AD 900 to 1290 correspondence between agropastoralist success and the warmer/wetter

‘Medieval Warm Epoch’, are based on broadly resolved sub-continental-scale climate

reconstructions by Tyson and Lindesay (1992) and Tyson (1999a), which need to be

substantiated by synoptic climatic and environmental data from the SLRB and the wider region.

The location of Great Zimbabwe following the decline of Mapungubwe may also be seen as

a response to a climatic downturn. Its position on the southern slopes of the Zimbabwe Plateau

would have optimised a higher amount of available rainfall (Figure 1.1) for the agropastoral

production required for sustaining the new capital. The success of trade for the SLRB elites may

also have played a role in the decline of Mapungubwe (Voigt 1983; Huffman 1986b, 2000). The

system was dependent on East African coast trade and people to the east, who were closer to

18

the coast, may have contributed to the decline of Mapungubwe’s economic and political control

by interfering with trade routes and supply and shifting their trade alliances, e.g. Great

Zimbabwe. The possible relationship between climate change and the collapse of Mapungubwe

is one that is returned to in the following sections of this thesis. I now turn in slightly more detail

to a consideration of Voigt’s research that discusses the demise of Mapungubwe in relation to

herding practice. This is necessary background because I develop alternative ideas below.

Voigt’s (1983) interpretation of the faunal remains from K2 and Mapungubwe ties the

collapse of the Mapungubwe capital to herding practices within a deteriorating environment by

quantify the changing relationships between herd size and carrying capacity. She clearly

demonstrates that domesticated Bos taurus (cattle) and Ovis/Capra (sheep/goat) were the

dominate herd animals and the main protein sources for people at K2 and Mapungubwe, and

which was supplemented to a much lesser extent by wild and freshwater fauna. Voigt (1983:45)

calculates herd size using ethnographic accounts of pastoralists in Kenya (Brown as cited in

Monod 1975) and these numbers are extrapolated to the SLRB Mopane grassland, where she

estimates that to avoid overgrazing under present conditions 30 head of cattle will require ~385

hectares of graze, or one cow per 20 or 30 hectares (Voigt 1983:45). Additional to her

calculations is that to achieve a minimum pastoralist standard for dietary protein, one person

needs to consume ~5 cattle (Bos taurus) or ~25 sheep/goat (Ovis/Caprus) per year (Brown as

cited in Monod 1975). If such a diet was maintained throughout the increase in human

population between K2 and Mapungubwe the outcome would have been overstocking, as

evident in Table 1.3 which combines Voigt’s ratio of required livestock per person with Huffman’s

population estimates to calculate the change in livestock numbers at different stages in the

SLRB sequence. These herd levels would have lead to decreases in carrying capacity and

production and large-scale stock loss during droughts, which would have been exacerbated by

the overgrazing. Voigt concludes that land degradation eventually reached a state whereby the

Mapungubwe capital could no longer sustain the agricultural or the pastoral production demands

of the increased population.

19

Table 1.3: Estimated increase in livestock for the SLRB capitals of Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe between ~AD 900 and 1290

Capital AD Date

*Capital Population

+Bos taurus (5 x 1 Person/Year)

+Ovis/Capra (25 x 1 Person/Year)

Schroda 900 to 1010 500 2500 12 500

K2 1010 to 1220 1500 7500 37 500

Mapungubwe 1220 to 1290 5000 25 000 125 000

*Estimated population (Huffman 2000) +Estimated number of livestock required for 1 pastoralist/year (Voigt 1983)

20

This model, however, assumes that both large and small livestock, as the major dietary

component, were pastured nearby and that a transhumant herding strategy, i.e. seasonal

pasturing, as proposed, for example, by Garlake (1978), was not practiced. The presence of

cattle bone from all age categories in the elite faunal assemblage suggests to Voigt (1983) that

there was ample choice of meat, and that they did not have to manage herds for beef, a practice

implied by transhumant grazing of livestock. The ready availability of meat for elites may be

tentatively recognised in human dietary reconstruction and bone pathologies. Stable carbon and

nitrogen isotope data, for example, show that some people at K2 and the Leopard’s Kopje B site

of Skutwater consumed more meat in comparison to those from the other South African Iron Age

sites (Lee-Thorp et al. 1993). Furthermore, human skeletal analysis by Steyn and Henneberg

(1995) and Steyn (1998) conclude that overall, the children and adults from K2 and

Mapungubwe were well nourished, postulating that meat resources possibly buffered periods of

cereal crop famine.

There are potential inconsistencies in a local herding strategy for Mapungubwe and its

proposed link to environmental deterioration. For instance, a decline in animal nutrition due to

increased herd sizes and decreased local carrying capacity would place considerable stress on

livestock. Currently, however, no bone pathologies indicative of stress, poor diet or health have

been identified in the Iron Age faunal assemblages from the SLRB, and none were recorded

during the course of bone and teeth sample selection for this thesis. Likewise, absence is the

expected skeletal evidence for deterioration in human dietary health that would have been in

accordance with drier ‘Little Ice’ conditions, as meat protein would not be able to compensate

fully for crop famine.

Further, Voigt’s (1983) extrapolation of Brown’s (as cited in Mondo 1975) pastoralist model

of meat consumption to K2 and Mapungubwe does not in corporate that cereal crops are the

primary day-to-day food sources in most agropastoralist communities. Consequently, the

dietary, as opposed to the social importance of livestock at these archaeological sites may be

over emphasized, and the required meat consumption as calculated in Table 1.3 over estimated.

21

At the time of Voigt’s initial faunal study there was a dearth of palaeoenvironmental data for the

last 2000 years. The lack of emphasis on cereal crops, therefore, stems from environmentally

contextualising livestock reconstruction within the recent SLRB conditions, which are marginal

for dryland agricultural, but suitable for herding. If this thesis data support Tyson and Lindesay’s

(1992) model for a general increase in moisture between ~AD 900 and 1290, then analogous

agropastoral economies in environments comparable to the SLRB, as well as those in higher

rainfall areas need to be considered, in order to obtain a realistic assessment of the contribution

of both cereal crops and livestock to the diet of Zizho, K2 and Mapungubwe people, and most

importantly, how agricultural production was managed within the SLRB landscape.

In this thesis I confront the hypothesis idea that Mapungubwe collapsed because of poor

herd management and asserts instead that the local management of large herds with a focus on

meat production was sustainable within an expanding social and political system because of the

implementation of appropriate strategies. I contend that the archaeologically identified livestock

consumption patterns and livestock age profiles do not exclude transhumant pastoral strategies

and this thesis presents appropriate supporting data to support this theory. Rather, such

strategies can be seen as a means by which herd size and carrying capacity would have been

regulated and overgrazing ameliorated. In reconsidering the larger role played by agriculture,

these aspects would have been important in preserving soil quality and field productivity. I

propose that as regional power expanded through the SLRB sequence, cattle and crops would

have also been managed regionally not simply to spread the ecological load and offset localised

failures, but also to build and maintain social and political links. I now turn to a brief review of the

post Mapungubwe period where the correlations between climatic and cultural change continue

to be an issue.

1.2.2 ~AD 1300 to 1700: Nature of post 1290 environment and occupation

The immediate post-Mapungubwe period in the SLRB has received little attention. As

referred to earlier and below, this is perhaps because of lower archaeological visibility and that

the assumed cooler/drier climate of the ‘Little Ice Age’ at the end of the 13th century AD limited

22

agropastoral production or exacerbated a degraded environment, which lead to population

dispersal (Huffman 1996a; Tyson et al. 2002). The movement of Leopard’s Kopje B people out

of the SLRB creates a cultural discontinuity in the archaeological record, but the Zimbabwe

Culture Pattern that was established at Mapungubwe continues elsewhere. People appear to

have migrated northward from the SLRB to settle at Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the middle

phase of the Zimbabwe Culture between ~AD 1300 and 1450. Here the continuity and

elaboration of the Zimbabwe Culture Pattern implies an obvious cultural link to Mapungubwe.

During this phase, the capital presided over a larger territory than Mapungubwe, trade with the

East African coast intensified further and the institution of sacred leadership expanded (Garlake

1982, 1983; Huffman 1996b, 2000). A further movement of Leopard’s Kopje B people from

Mapungubwe south and east along the Soutpansberg (Loubser 1991; Huffman 2000) is also

well documented. These areas are believed to have been wetter during this period, since they

presently receive greater annual precipitation than the SLRB (Huffman 1996a).

Although there is movement of people out of the SLRB after the Mapungubwe state

collapsed, the region continued to support agropastoralist settlement. Between ~AD 1300 and

1400 a new group of agropastoralists settled in the Shashe/Limpopo area, and ceramics from

the type-site of Icon (Hanisch 1979) represent the first phase and facies of the Moloko ceramic

tradition. Early Moloko ceramics represent a sharp stylistic break with prior ceramic phases.

Stylistic continuity of Moloko ceramics through to historic times indicates that they were

ancestral Sotho/Tswana-speakers, while comparative linguistics trace their origins to a

movement out of East Africa (Huffman 1989). The presence of other Icon related sites in the

SLRB area and northern Limpopo Province (E. O. M. Hanisch pers. comm. 1998; S. Hall pers.

comm. 2000) indicate that agropastoral activities were still viable during the post-Mapungubwe

period, despite the emphasis placed on the alleged negative impact of late 13th century climatic

change. Attention clearly needs to be given to this period to determine the nature and extent of

the early Moloko/Icon occupation. If the demise of the Mapungubwe state was the result of

climate change, then what environmental conditions in the early 14th century supported the Icon

and related communities? There is a sharp contrast between the productive and political scale of

23

the two systems and agriculture was viable perhaps only at the scale of the small dispersed

Moloko homesteads and not at the demographic scale evident at Mapungubwe and related

sites? Given the drought-adapted varieties of millet and sorghum (National Research Council

1996) and African livestock (Campher et al. 1998; see Appendix C), it is imperative to have

higher resolution climate data for the 'Little Ice Age' in order to assess how it influenced

sustainable production, the collapse of Mapungubwe and subsequent agropastoralist

settlement?

Sometime between AD 1400 and 1450 Great Zimbabwe was abandoned and a new

dynasty and capital was established at the site of Khami (Figure 1.4). The new leadership was

formed either by an external group expanding into the region or by people connected to Great

Zimbabwe. In either instance, there is continuity in settlement layouts and Khami starts a third

period of the Zimbabwe Culture Pattern (Robinson 1959; Huffman 1996b). Site distributions

places the extent of Khami’s influence somewhere between that of Great Zimbabwe and

Mapungubwe (Figure 1.4) (Huffman et al. 1995). Ancestral Sotho/Tswana (Moloko)

agropastoralists were already resident in the SLRB when Khami settlements expanded into the

SLRB and areas north of the Soutpansberg at around the mid-15th century AD, and evidence for

interaction comes from the presence of Moloko ceramics in Khami tradition sites (Huffman and

Hanisch 1987; G. Lathy pers. comm. 1998; T. N. Huffman pers. comm. 2000).

At the start of the 16th century AD the control of the east coast trade shifted from the

Swahili-Arabs to the Portuguese (Axelson 1973) who began to meddle increasingly in the affairs

of interior African polities. Portuguese documents indicate that maize was imported into the

Mozambican port of Sofala early in the 16th century AD (Axelson 1973), and that its cultivation

became more widespread in southeastern African communities between ~AD 1600 and 1700

(M. Hall 1976; M. Hall and Vogel 1978; Maggs 1980). It was eventually added to the

complement of Khami cultivars and was probably known to the later Moloko agropastoralists. It

suggested that the re-settlement of the SLRB after AD 1450 was made possible by an

interpreted warmer/wetter phase within the ‘Little Ice Age’ from ~AD 1500 to 1650 (Table 1.1)

24

Figure 1.4: Estimated area under control of the capitals of Mapungubwe (MP), Great Zimbabwe (GZ) and Khami (KM) (Adapted from Huffman 1999)

Mapungubwe Zimababwe Khami

SOUTH AFRICA

ZIMBABWE

MOZAMBIQUE

BOTSWANA

MP

GZ KM

25

(Huffman 1996; Tyson et al. 2002) that in turn met the higher moisture requirements of maize.

Again, this is a tempting correlation but (a) is there independent evidence for such a

wetter/warmer interlude and (b) what conditions allowed for the continued agropastoralist

occupation after the return to cold ’Little Ice Age’ conditions?

These questions and the other climatic/cultural correlations put forward for the SLRB need

to be explored further. Clearly, in a marginal area like the SLRB, there must have been a

relatively direct relationship between appropriate climatic and environmental conditions and the

success or failure of agropastoralism. There is, however, a danger of over-determining this

relationship, particularly in the absence of a local and independent palaeoenvironmental

sequence. Moreover, the directness of these correlations tends to paint agropastoralists in a

somewhat passive light. As made clear by Huffman (2000), a number of inter-related factors

were important in the rise of complexity in the SLRB, but wealth and power generated by control

and distribution of resources, of which I also include agropastoral production, was critical. The

cultural and political dynamics of this control may be amplified by drawing on historical

analogues, of which facets of Kopytoff’s (1989) African frontier model may provide a framework

for the rise and decline of the Mapungubwe capital. This model posits that after a ruler has

gained wealth and status amongst a growing population, there is a formation of inter-

dependence between the ruler and the ruled. The sacred-leader becomes responsible for the

well-being of the society through: 1) accumulation and distribution of food resources, 2) the

control of rain and prevention of certain natural disasters via contact with the ancestors and 3)

connections with outside polities. The need to preserve a divine image leads to his seclusion.

Death or removal of the sacred-leader leads to disorder in the socio-political system until a

successor is appointed or people leave for leadership in different polity.

Having reviewed the basic archaeological sequence and highlighted climatic correlations, in

the following section I outline an approach that tests these assumptions and asserts more

control by agropastoralists over the management of production even in highly variable

conditions.

26

1.3 Theoretical Approaches to Semi-Arid Agropastoral Ecologies

Section 1.2 draws out the strong links that researchers have made between cultural

activities and changes in climatic and environmental conditions, be they naturally or human

induced. Working within the framework of a controlling and determining ecology, climatic change

and environmental carrying capacity are seen as over-riding factors that motivated the

establishment of settlement, hiatuses in settlement and the termination of settlement phases in

the SLRB. This approach stems from an equilibrium model for agropastoral land use in which,

…vegetation change is gradual…Livestock populations are in turn limited by available forage in a density-dependent manner, so that excessive animal numbers, above a ‘carrying capacity’ level, results in negative effects on the vegetation. In the longer term this is assumed to cause more or less permanent damage - degradation or desertification. Scoones (1995:1).

In a classic equilibrium situation, environments within an ecosystem are considered stable

and the climate - especially high rainfall - is predictable, hence there is very little annual variation

in primary bio-production levels (for reviews see Ellis 1995; Dalhberg 1996; Archer 2002). The

stability of the system enables it to normally absorb a certain amount impact without structural

change, but once change occurs it is difficult to recover its mature state, because the longer-

lived components, e.g. trees, have slower turnover rates (Green 1988:250). Sustained

agropastoral production is favourable under these conditions, providing that cultural exploitations

can maintain the established balance that exists amongst the natural components of a system.

The security afforded agropastoralists in these systems frequently leads to over intensification of

an area and alters the productivity of the natural resources, e.g. soil and vegetation. Unless

brought back to a former equilibrium or stable state, usually by removing stock or ceasing crop

cultivation, imbalances created between the natural components can lead to an unstable state

and environmental deterioration. For semi-arid regions, such as the SLRB, climate exacerbates

the imbalance process. Under conditions of variable rainfall, the carrying capacity for crops and

livestock is difficult to predict from one season to the next. This results in greater environmental

fragility and unless carefully managed, equilibrium is more difficult to maintain.

27

In South Africa, the equilibrium model has governed semi-arid agropastoral management

policies and practices, and informed research questions and interpretations. Underpinning its

practical application is the preservation of the succession/climax pathway for natural vegetation

communities and at a larger scale ecosystems (Clements 1916, 1928; Stoddart et al. 1975), in

which productivity and biomass increase at small intervals to reach a mature community that is

constant in composition and productivity. Green (1998:248) points out that in general there is a

conflict between agropastoralism and succession systems, as the latter aims to increase

productivity by keeping the system in an immature, less diverse, fast growing and highly

productive state. Such a system is vulnerable and therefore, needs to be socially managed in

order to protect it from factors such as climate change, depleted soil nutrients and pests that

may shift the natural direction of succession. In reports of the deterioration of South African

semi-arid grazing lands (Acocks 1979, 1988), colonial period overgrazing of the Karoo is held up

as a warning for loss of both economic and environmental productivity if semi-arid grazing lands

that are not “properly” managed. Here depletion of grass cover has lead to reduced topsoil and

water retention, encroachment of Acacia thorn bush and the incapacity of the vegetation

community to revert to its grassland succession state even after the removal of livestock.

This model implicitly informs the environmental-culture correlations made for the SLRB

archaeological sequence. In the face of increased cooling and drying, the carrying capacity of

the SLRB decreased and the environmental equilibrium was unable to recover from

agropastoralist over exploitation. The outcome was reduced food production and environmental

degradation that led to the collapse of the Mapungubwe state (Voigt 1983). Mortimore (1998:2),

furthermore, alerts us to the fact that in research on African semi-arid agropastoral ecologies,

the equilibrium model implicitly links environmental degradation to population growth (Figure

1.5). Driven by population and socio-economic pressures, degradation is caused by the failure to

prevent overgrazing, over cultivation and deforestation, due to inappropriate technologies and

the management of natural resources. In broad outline, this is the prevailing scenario applied by

Voigt to the SLRB.

28

Figure 1.5: Population induced degradation model for semi-arid Africa (adapted from Mortimore 1998)

Population Growth

Resource Mismanagement

Reduced Supporting Capacity

_

+

+

Environmental Degradation

_

29

In contrast to this general paradigm for agropastoral ecology, a series of studies (e.g. Blaikie

1985; Ellis and Swift 1988; Parry et al. 1988; Westoby et al. 1989; Gill 1991; Mace 1991;

Behnke et al. 1993; Scoones 1995; Dahlberg 1996; Beinart 1996; Brocking and Homewood

1996; Dahlberg and Blaikie 1996; Scoones et al. 1996; Mortimore 1998) question the viability of

applying the equilibrium model to semi-arid regions, where unpredictable rainfall and lower

carrying capacities make it difficult, or unwarranted, to sustain a successional environment. This

is particularly evident under modern commercial and privatised farming practices where fields

are fenced for livestock pasture and agriculture, thereby decreasing an already low agropastoral

carrying capacity and limiting access to alternative support environments. Rather, these

researchers consider semi-arid ecosystems to contain non-equilibrium environments that are

highly dynamic in response to extremely variable rainfall patterns. This dynamic creates a

resilient system that is able to recover from impacts that cause structural change thereof. Within

these environments there may be stable equilibrium conditions, for example, the floodplains and

naturally dammed wetlands of the SLRB. As summarised by Scoones (1995:2, 3), this non-

equilibrium approach posits that most semi-arid ecosystems are:

• Not at equilibrium with external factors, such as drought, set livestock numbers and

vegetation status. Under these conditions, livestock numbers are kept naturally in check,

thereby limiting degradation and long-term negative effects caused by overstocking and

overgrazing.

• Heterogeneous environments that vary across space and over time in their composition and

productivity. Flexible movement by agropastoralists between different resource zones is

necessary to offset local variability and unpredictability.

• Influenced by a range of different agropastoral production strategies, therefore, a universal

management plan with fixed carrying capacity and standard, fenced off size fields is not

practical for sustaining or increasing output.

Central to this hypothesis and to this thesis is that there is a range of intra-and inter-

environmental heterogeneity through time and over space, and that such systems have the

capacity to accommodate and absorb a corresponding range of cultural strategies that are

30

designed to contend with environmental unpredictability (Westoby et al. 1989). In these systems

incorporating uncertainty is the norm, rather than an aberration (Mortimore 1998).

In a southern African context, although Kinahan (2000:234) advocates the need to move

away from an equilibrium approach, he cautions that the non-equilibrium perspective should not

over look the fact that any ecology is obviously finite and that this model may downplay the

potential “long-term impacts of subsistence farming in Africa by emphasizing the apparent

sustainability of such systems”. In his research context, Kinahan’s focus is on pastoralism and

foraging in a very arid landscape. I argue that in sustainable agropastoralism there are shifts in

response to a resilient and adapting ecosystem, as opposed to one that is constant. An

environment, for example, that becomes less sustainable for agriculture, may then fall within the

parameters for a more pastoral based economy. In contrast to the equilibrium model, it is

acknowledged that the requirements and management of semi-arid systems are influenced by

the cultural perceptions and values placed upon it, which relate to historical context and the

social and economic structure of the community making those demands. In this regard, Cleaver

and Schreiber (1994) and Neff (1994) observe that in semi-arid agropastoral ecologies there is

no direct causal relationship between population growth and environmental degradation, and

that technology and social organisations mediate between the two. Maintaining productivity

while offsetting drought, variability in seasonal rainfall and degradation reflects the “complex

economic and social adjustments that embody the everyday decisions of ordinary people”

(Mortimore 1998:6). Humanly generated degradation is more likely to occur when the

community’s social memory no longer remembers shifting and sustainable strategies, or when

they are prevented from practicing them (McIntosh 2000).

In the SLRB, it seems that semi-arid conditions prevailed since at least ~AD 900 and

probably well before that (see Lee-Thorp et al. 2001). Even with an increase of ≥200mm of

rainfall purported to have occurred between ~AD 900 and 1290, as argued by Huffman (1996a),

it is highly unlikely that mean annual rainfall ever exceeded 800mm, which is the upper range for

semi-arid summer rainfall regions. Contextualised within this persistently semi-arid environment,

31

I adopt a non-equilibrium model for the reconstruction of agropastoral strategies, in which

environmental resilience and social mediation are investigated in relation to concepts of drought,

variability in precipitation and land degradation. Chapter Two sets out the present-day and

historical ecological baseline against which these strategies and concepts are assessed in the

archaeological and palaeoecological contexts. Local and regional climatic variability are qualified

relative to present SLRB conditions and where documented, quantified over annual and multi-

year cycles. Corresponding agropastoralist perceptions of semi-arid ecological variability and

associated management strategies are drawn from ethnographic and historical sources. Chapter

Two also outlines the important natural and agropastoral domestic resource base of the region

and the importance of understanding the range of environmental tolerances within which these

resources can be productive, rather than the optimal conditions in which plants and animals

produce optimal yields.

1.4 Alternative Methods for Reconstructing SLRB Agropastoral Ecology

Our current understanding of the past agropastoral ecology of the SLRB is derived from

archaeozoological and palaeobotanical analyses that provide varying degrees of information

about economy, human diet, animal husbandry and health, trade networks and environment. As

noted in Section 1.2, archaeozoological analysis of faunal assemblages from Schroda, K2 and

Mapungubwe clearly establish that most of the protein diet came from B. taurus and Ovis/Capra.

This conventional analysis, however, advocates an equilibrium approach and a local herd

management strategy for cattle, against a background of a steadily decreasing carrying capacity

(Voigt 1983). Alternatively, I have suggested that a non-equilibrium management framework

may better serve analysis and interpretation. One aspect of this is the movement of livestock

between regions in order to offset seasonal variability in carrying capacity, for trade and socially

and economically bind communities in different resource regions. Archaeozoological methods

required for identifying livestock habitats have to go beyond conventional methods of interpreting

faunal ecology based on species expected dietary behaviour and modern habitat utilisation, e.g.

grazers=grassland and browsers=woodland, and be able to detect dietary and territory flexibility

when faced with seasonal variability in vegetation sources.

32

It is possible to identify crops types through current methods of palaeobotanical analysis

and to have them surmised from material culture such as grinding stones. These in turn

contribute towards inferring the general environmental conditions under which the crops and

natural vegetation communities grew. A few seed remains have been under collected from the

SLRB sites, but pollen however, typically desiccates in dry conditions and therefore is poorly

preserved in the SLRB environment. Pollen sequences from other regions of the Limpopo

Province offer tentative environmental data for the last 2000 years (Scott 1984, 1990), but

because these sequences are chronologically too poorly resolved for the purpose of this thesis,

and moreover not local, correlations with the SLRB cultural sequence have limited application.

One other potential source of SLRB palaeobotanical data comes from plant phytoliths, which are

micro-silicate formations that withstand dry environments. In a preliminary study, Carrion et al.

(2000), demonstrate that phytoliths, ingested and excreted by cattle, are recoverable from SLRB

Middle Iron Age dung deposits. They suggest that the paucity of arboreal phytoliths in the dung

during this period indicates the anthropogenic removal of trees and environmental degradation

of the SLRB. While methodologically valuable, the environmental interpretation is open to

contention and limited in scale because the result reflect only the conditions in the immediate

vicinity of the settlements. Based ethnographic observations, these would have been cleared

open environments.

The Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe sequence in the SLRB represents important changes in

the scale of agropastoralist societies, but there are critical questions concerning the

commensurate scale of agropastoral production and the environmental and climate backgrounds

against which agropastoral strategies were developed. Furthermore, the alternative ecological

perspectives outlined in Section 1.3, offer an appropriate framework within which changing

agropastoral production redefines and recalibrates the landscape according to cultural needs. In

order to explore these questions further it is necessary to develop alternative methodologies to

those discussed above. Accordingly, this thesis adopts multi-stable isotope analyses of faunal

remains, recovered from high-resolution archaeological contexts, to address some of the gaps in

the record. This approach can develop insight into long- and short-term patterns of vegetation

33

change and social use and shifts in climate, which are all factors that affect livestock and crop

production. Furthermore, isotopic analyses can potentially resolve and identify the geology and

geography of different herding locations and thereby, contribute data relevant to livestock

movement and management and areas of interaction.

These stable isotopic reconstructions are based on the testable supposition that dietary

sources and consequently, environmental conditions are transferred to faunal bone collagen and

enamel apatite in a predictable manner (for reviews see Ambrose 1993; Koch et al. 1994;

Schoeninger 1995; Lee-Thorp 2002; Price et al. 2002). Chapter Three discusses the link

between stable carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and radiogenic strontium isotopic signatures of

terrestrial environments and those of faunal tissues, and the application and methods used to

investigate environmental changes and agropastoral strategies. The stable isotopic signatures

from modern fauna, with a range of grazing and mixed-feeding diets and habitats, are quantified

and qualified with regards to precipitation levels (nitrogen), evapotranspiration and available

moisture (oxygen), percentage graze versus browse in the diet (carbon), territory (strontium),

and seasonal shifts in evapotranspiration and available moisture (oxygen) and diet (carbon).

In Chapters Four and Five the isotopic composition of B. taurus and Ovis/Capra samples

from archaeological sites dating between ~ AD 900 and 1700, (Zhizo, Leopard’s Kopje A and B,

Icon, Moloko and Khami occupations) (Figure 1.6) are assessed in relation to the modern

comparative values provided in Chapter 3. Stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen data are

presented in Chapter Four which are relevant to the reconstruction of moisture levels, livestock

diet and seasonal variability, while herding strategies and regions of interactions are interpreted

from strontium data in Chapter Five. Chapter Six provides a concluding synopsis of the results

which are compared to previous ecological interpretations and the regional and sub-continental

scale climatic sequences outlined in Table 1.1. Most importantly, this new data also provides a

re-evaluation of previous explanations for the “rise” and “collapse” of complex socio-political

structures in the SLRB. Natural environmental change is reviewed as a more intricate part of a

socially mediated ecology, rather than the primary controlling factor of agropastoral success or

34

Figure 1.6: Approximate locations of Zhizo (Schroda and Pont Drift), Leopard’s Kopje A (Schroda, Pont Drift and K2), Leopard’s Kopje B (Mapungubwe), Moloko (Icon) and Moloko/Khami (Faure and Kolope) sequences analysed

NAMIBIA

ZIMBABWE MOZAMBIQUE

SWAZILAND

LESOTHO

500km

BOTSWANA

South Africa

BOTSWANA ZIMBABWE

SOUTH AFRICA Mapungubwe

K2

Schroda

5km

Limpopo Rv

Pont Drift

Shashe Rv

Faure Kolope

Icon

~20km from Limpopo Rv

N

35

failure. Recommendations for future research directions are presented in relation to the

objectives outlined in this introduction.