Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6bnxx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-21T05:34:36.274Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

24 - Southernmost Africans, archaeology and the environment during the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Maria H. Schoeman
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Pre-colonial southernmost Africa underwent substantial changes during the Holocene. These included climate change, as well as population and economic transformations, such as shifting from a hunting and gathering economy to one dominated by herding and crop farming. These changes took place in the context of an environmentally diverse region, which both facilitated and constrained settlement. Hunter-gatherers, herders and farmers, however, developed social strategies to cope with this diversity, as well as the substantial climatic fluctuations that affected the region. This chapter explores elements of the complex relationships between pre-colonial southernmost Africans and the environment during the Holocene.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 397 - 411
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allott, L. F. (2004). Changing environments in Oxygen Isotope Stage 3: Reconstructions using archaeological charcoal from Sibudu Cave. South African Journal of Science, 100, 179–184.Google Scholar
Barnard, A. (2007). Anthropology and the Bushman. Oxford: Berg, 224pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binneman, J. (1996). Preliminary results from investigations at Kulubele, an Early Iron Age farming settlement in the Great Kei River valley, Eastern Cape. Southern African Field Archaeology, 5, 28–35.Google Scholar
Binneman, J. (2001). An introduction to the Later Stone Age research project along the south-eastern Cape coast. Southern African Field Archaeology, 10, 75–87.Google Scholar
Boeyens, J. C. A. (2003). The Late Iron Age sequence in the Marico and early Tswana history. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 58, 63–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calabrese, J. A. (2000). Interregional interaction in Southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje relations in northern South Africa, southwestern Zimbabwe, and eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200. African Archaeological Review, 17, 183–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chirikure, S., Manyanga, M., Pikirayi, I. and Pollard, M. (2013). New pathways of sociopolitical complexity in Southern Africa. African Archaeological Review, 30, 339–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coetzee, T. J. (2015). Mapping Bokoni: Exploring Bokoni Settlement Choices and Changes in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, South Africa using GIS Site Distribution Analysis Techniques. MA Dissertation, Pretoria: University of Pretoria.Google Scholar
Collett, D. P. (1982). Excavations of the stone-walled ruin types in the Badfontein valley, Eastern Transvaal, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 37, 34–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, M. I. J. (2013). Forced moves or just good moves? Rethinking environmental decision-making among East African Intensive Cultivators. In Humans and the Environment: New Archaeological Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century, ed Davies, M. I. J. and M’Mbogori, F. N.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 57–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, O. (1975). Excavations at Shongweni south cave: The oldest evidence to date for cultigens in Southern Africa. Annals of the Natal Museum, 22, 627–662.Google Scholar
Deacon, H. J., Deacon, J., Scholtz, A., Thackeray, J. F., Brink, J. S. and Vogel, J. C. (1984). Correlation of palaeoenvironmental data from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at Boomplaas Cave, Southern Cape. In Late Cainozoic Palaeoclimates of the Southern Hemisphere, ed. Vogel, J. C.. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, pp. 330–352.Google Scholar
Delius, P., Maggs, T. and Schoeman, M. (2012). Bokoni: Old structures, new paradigms? Rethinking pre-colonial society from the perspective of the stone-walled sites in Mpumalanga. Journal of Southern African Studies, 38, 399–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denbow, J. (1986). A new look at the later prehistory of the Kalahari. The Journal of African History, 27, 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denbow, J., Smith, J., Ndobochani, N. M., Atwood, K. and Miller, D. (2008). Archaeological excavations at Bosutswe, Botswana: Cultural chronology, paleo-ecology and economy. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 459–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derricourt, R. M. (1977). Prehistoric Man in the Ciskei & Transkei. Cape Town: Struik, 284pp.Google Scholar
Eldredge, E. A. (1995). Sources of conflict in Southern Africa c. 1800–1830. In The Mfecane Aftermath: Reconstructive Debates in Southern African History, ed. Hamilton, C.. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press and University of Natal Press, pp. 123–161.Google Scholar
Esterhuysen, A. B. (1992). Charcoal from Leliehoek Shelter, eastern Orange Free State, South Africa. Palaeoecology of Africa, 23, 193–201.Google Scholar
February, E. C. (1994). Rainfall reconstruction using wood charcoal from two archaeological sites in South Africa. Quaternary Research, 42, 100–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feely, J. M. (1987). The Early Farmers of Transkei, Southern Africa, before A.D. 1870. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 142pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feely, J. M. and Bell-Cross, S. M. (2011). The distribution of Early Iron Age settlement in the Eastern Cape: Some historical and ecological implications. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 66, 105–112.Google Scholar
Hall, G., Woodborne, S. and Pienaar, M. (2009). Rainfall control of the δ13C ratios of Mimusops caffra from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The Holocene, 19, 251–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, G., Woodborne, S. and Scholes, M. (2008). Stable carbon isotope ratios from archaeological charcoal as palaeoenvironmental indicators. Chemical Geology, 247, 384–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, M. (1976). Dendroclimatology, rainfall and human adaptation in the later Iron Age of Natal and Zululand. Annals of the Natal Museum, 22, 693–703.Google Scholar
Hall, S. (2000). Forager lithics and Early Moloko homesteads at Madikwe. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities, 12, 33–50.Google Scholar
Hall, S. and Binneman, J. (1987). Later Stone Age burial variability in the Cape: A social interpretation. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 42, 140–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S., Miller, D., Anderson, M. and Boeyens, J. (2006). An exploratory study of copper and iron production at Marothodi, an early 19th century Tswana town, Rustenburg District, South Africa. Journal of African Archaeology, 4, 3–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S. and Smith, B. (2000). Empowering places: Rock shelters and ritual control in farmer-forager interactions in the Northern Province. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series, 8, 30–46.Google Scholar
Hanisch, E. O. M. (2002). Schroda: The archaeological evidence. In Sculptured in Clay: Iron Age Figurines from Schroda, Limpopo Province, South Africa, ed van Schalkwyk, J. A. and Hanisch, E. O. M.. Pretoria: National Cultural History Museum, pp. 21–40.Google Scholar
Hannaford, M. J., Bigg, G. R., Jones, J. M., Phimister, I. and Staub, M. (2014). Climate variability and societal dynamics in pre-colonial southern African history (AD 900–1840): A Synthesis and Critique. Environment and History, 20, 411–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hattingh, T. (2014). A Phytolith Analysis of Bokoni Soils. MSc dissertation, Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 97pp.Google Scholar
Holmgren, K., Karlén, W., Lauritzen, S. E., Lee-Thorp, J. A., Partridge, T. C., Piketh, S., Repinshi, P., Stevenson, C., Svanered, O. and Tyson, P. D. (1999). A 3000-year high-resolution stalagmite-based record of palaeoclimate for northeastern South Africa. The Holocene, 9, 295–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmgren, K. Lee-Thorp, J. A., Cooper, G. R. J., Lundblad, K., Partridge, T. C., Scott, L., Sithaldeen, R., Talma, A. S. and Tyson, P. D. (2003). Persistent millennial-scale climatic variability over the past 25,000 years in Southern Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 22, 2311–2326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmgren, K., Tyson, P. D., Moberg, A. and Svanered, O. (2001). A preliminary 3000-year regional temperature reconstruction for South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 97, 49–51.Google Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (1996). Archaeological evidence for climatic change during the last 2000 years in Southern Africa. Quaternary International, 33, 55–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2000). Mapungubwe and the origins of the Zimbabwe culture. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series, 8, 14–29.Google Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2002). Regionality in the Iron Age: the case of the Sotho-Tswana. Southern African Humanities, 14, 1–22.Google Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2004). The archaeology of the Nguni past. Southern African Humanities, 16, 79–111.Google Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2008). Climate change during the Iron Age in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 2032–2047.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2009). A cultural proxy for drought: Ritual burning in the Iron Age of southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36, 991–1005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, T. N. (2015). Social complexity in southern Africa. African Archaeological Review, 32, 71–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerardino, A. and Yates, R. (1996). Preliminary results from excavations at Steenbokfontein Cave: Implications for past and future research. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 51, 7–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. G. (1979). Palaeoenvironmental and cultural implications of late Holocene archaeological faunas from the Orange Free State and north-central Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 34, 34–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. G. (1980). Environmental and ecological implications of large mammals from upper Pleistocene and Holocene sites in Southern Africa. Annals of the South African Museum, 81, 223–283.Google Scholar
Lane, P. J. (2004). Re-constructing Tswana townscapes: Toward a critical historical archaeology. In African Historical Archaeologies, ed Reid, A. M. and Lane, P. J.. London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, pp. 269–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J. A., Holmgren, K., Lauritzen, S.-E., Linge, H., Moberg, A., Partridge, T. C., Stevenson, C. and Tyson, P. D. (2001). Rapid climate shifts in the Southern African interior throughout the mid to late Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters, 28, 4507–4510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maggs, T. (1980). The Iron Age sequence south of the Vaal and Pongola Rivers: Some historical implications. The Journal of African History, 21, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maggs, T. and Whitelaw, G. (1991). A review of recent archaeological research on food-producing communities in Southern Africa. The Journal of African History, 32, 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manyanga, M. (2007). Resilient Landscapes: Socio-Environmental Dynamics in the Shashe Limpopo Basin, Southern Zimbabwe, c. AD 800 to the Present. Studies in Global Archaeology 11, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 235pp.Google Scholar
Manyanga, M., Pikirayi, M. and Chirikure, S. (2010). Conceptualising the urban mind in pre-European southern Africa: Rethinking Mapungubwe and great Zimbabwe. In The Urban Mind: Cultural and Environmental Dynamics, ed Sinclair, P. J. J., Nordquist, G., Herschend, F. and Isendahl, C.. Uppsala: Uppsala University, pp. 573–590.Google Scholar
Meyer, A. (2000). K2 and Mapungubwe. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series, 8, 4–13.Google Scholar
Mitchell, P. J. (1997). Holocene Later Stone Age hjunter-gatherers south of the Limpopo river, Ca. 10,000–2000 B.P. Journal of World Prehistory, 11, 359–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, P. (2008). Practising archaeology at a time of climatic catastrophe. Antiquity, 82, 1093–1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, P., Plug, I., Bailey, G., Charles, R., Esterhuysen, A., Lee Thorp, J., Parker, A. and Woodborne, S. (2011). Beyond the drip-line: A high-resolution open-air Holocene hunter-gatherer sequence from highland Lesotho. Antiquity, 85, 1225–1242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norström, E., Holmgren, K. and Mörth, C.-M. (2005). Rainfall-driven variation in δ13C composition and wood anatomy of Breonadia salicina trees from South Africa between AD 1375 and 1995. South African Journal of Science, 101, 162–168.Google Scholar
Pikirayi, I. (2001). The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline in Southern Zambezian States. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 336pp.Google Scholar
Plug, I. (1997). Late Pleistocene and Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Eastern Highlands of South Africa and Lesotho: A Faunal Interpretation. Journal of Archaeological Science, 24, 715–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prins, F. E. (1994). Climate, vegetation and early agriculturist communities in Transkei and KwaZulu-Natal. Azania, 29–30, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L., Brook, G. A., Ivester, A. H., Campbell, A. C., Klein, R. G., Milo, R. G., Stewart, K. M., Downey, W. S. and Stevens, N. J. (2000). Archaeology, palaeoenvironment, and chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, Northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 1085–1113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadr, K. (2008). Invisible herders? The archaeology of Khoekhoe pastoralists. Southern African Humanities, 20, 179–203.Google Scholar
Sadr, K., Smith, A., Plug, I., Orton, J., and Mütti, B. (2003). Herders and Foragers on Kasteelberg: Interim Report of Excavations 1999–2002. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 58, 27–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoeman, M. H. (2006). Imagining rain-places: Rain-control and changing ritual landscapes in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 61, 152–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sjöström, J. (2013). Late Holocene Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction on a Peat Sequence from Northeastern South Africa, Using Grass Phytoliths as Main Proxy. Masters Thesis, Stockholm: Stockholm University, 100pp.Google Scholar
Smith, A. B. (2008). Pastoral origins at the Cape, South Africa: Influences and arguments. Southern African Humanities, 20, 49–60.Google Scholar
Smith, B. W. and Ouzman, S. (2004). Taking stock: Identifying Khoenkoen herder rock art in Southern Africa. Current Anthropology, 45, 499–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. M. (2005). Climate change and agropastoral sustainability in the Shashe/Limpopo River Basin from AD 900. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 178pp.Google Scholar
Smith, J., Lee-Thorp, J. and Hall, S. (2007). Climate change and agropastoralist settlement in the Shashe-Limpopo River Basin, Southern Africa: AD 880 to 1700. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 62, 115–125.Google Scholar
Smith, J., Lee-Thorp, J., Prevec, S., Hall, S. and Späth, A. (2010). Pre-colonial herding strategies in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, Southern Africa, based on strontium isotope analysis of domestic fauna. Journal of African Archaeology, 8, 83–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stager, J. C., Ryves, D. B., King, C., Madson, J., Hazzard, M., Neumann, F. H. and Maud, R. (2013). Late Holocene precipitation variability in the summer rainfall region of South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 67, 105–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyson, P. D. and Lindesay, J. A. (1992). The climate of the last 2000 years in southern Africa. The Holocene, 2, 271–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van de Noort, R. (2011). Conceptualising climate change archaeology. Antiquity, 85, 1039–1048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Doornum, B. (2008). Sheltered from change: Hunter-gatherer occupation of Balerno Main Shelter, Shashe-Limpopo confluence area, South Africa. Southern African Humanities, 20, 249–284.Google Scholar
van Waarden, C. (1998). The Late Iron Age. In Ditswa Mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana, eds Lane, P., Reid, A. and Segobye, A.. Gaborone: Botswana Society, pp. 115–160.Google Scholar
Viljoen, R. (1997). Making sense of the Khoikhoi cattle-killing of 1788: An episode of millenarianism in Khoikhoi society. Kronos, 24, 62–76.Google Scholar
Vogel, J. C. and Fuls, A. (1999). Spatial distribution of radiocarbon dates for the Iron Age in southern Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 54, 97–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadley, L. (1987). Later Stone Age Hunters and Gatherers of the Southern Transvaal. Oxford: BAR, 225pp.Google Scholar
Wadley, L., Plug, I. and Clark, J. L. (2008). The contribution of Sibudu fauna to an understanding of KwaZulu-Natal environments at ~60 ka, ~50 ka and ~37 ka. In People, Places and Animals of Africa: Papers in Honour of Ina Plug, ed Badenhorst, S., Mitchell, P. and Driver, J. C.. Oxford: BAR International Series, 1849, pp. 34–45.Google Scholar
Walker, N. (1998). The Late Stone Age. In Ditswa Mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana, eds Lane, P., Reid, A. and Segobye, A.. Gaborone: Botswana Society, pp. 65–80.Google Scholar
Wilmsen, E. and Denbow, J. (1990). Paradigmatic history of San-speaking peoples and current attempts at revision. Current Anthropology, 31, 489–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, M. (2011). Interconnections: Glass Beads and Trade in Southern and Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean – 7th to 16th Centuries AD. PhD thesis, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 109pp.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×