| 1. |
- Badenhorst, Shaw, et al.
(författare)
-
Faunal remains from Chibuene, an Iron Age coastal trading station in central Mozambique
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Southern African Humanities. - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa : KwaZulu-Natal Museum. - 1681-5564. ; 23, s. 1-15
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the small faunal assemblage from the Iron Age coastal trading station of Chibuene, situated on the coastal littoral of central Mozambique. The faunal assemblage was excavated in 1995 and contains bones from a variety of animals, including livestock, chickens, wild game animals, as well as aquatic species such as turtles and fish. Fish, turtle and shark remains dominate the assemblage. The fauna from the first and second millennium AD occupations share similarities with other contemporaneous sites to the north on the East African coast, rather than with sites located in South Africa.
|
|
| 2. |
- Fredriksen, Per Ditlef, et al.
(författare)
-
Making in turbulent times:new insights into late 18th-and early 19th-century ceramic crafts and connectivity in the Magaliesberg region
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Southern African Humanities. - 1681-5564. ; 36, s. 89-124
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Among Simon Hall's influential contributions to historical archaeology are two research agendas: The need to focus attention on lower scalar levels of analysis, and broadening the concept of ceramic style to include less visible technological qualities. The latter is of particular importance to the stylistically bland and less decorated assemblages from the 18th and 19th centuries. Combining and developing the two agendas further, this article presents a new set of analyses of ceramic material from the stonewalled sites Marothodi and Lebenya in the Magaliesberg region, dating to the decades leading up to the difaqane in the 1820s. We explore households as flexible spaces for making, creativity and memory-work in turbulent times. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw an accelerated development of pyrotechnologies such as metalworking and ceramics. This happened in tandem with significant changes to the built environment and spatial organisation of the household, which was the primary arena for craft learning. Frequent relocation and alteration of learning spaces put transmission and teacher apprentice ties under serious strain. Seeking to trace connections across a complex and layered political landscape, we tentatively hypothesise that ceramic craftspeople became relatively less reliant on locally anchored insights and placed more emphasis on sharing knowledge and materials within extended craft-learning networks. The study includes a comparison of the results of petrographic and geochemical laboratory analyses with those from a handheld XRF device. Offering instant feedback while still in the field, such mobile tools can help in developing sampling strategies that also include a higher percentage of undecorated ceramic material.
|
|
| 3. |
- Maggs, Tim, et al.
(författare)
-
Moxomatsi : the organisation of space in a major Bokoni settlement
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Southern African Humanities. - 1681-5564 .- 2305-2791. ; 36, s. 61-88
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the archaeological quest towards better understanding the precolonial farming communities of South Africa, Bokoni settlements are doubly important. They represent the only ‘island’ of agricultural intensification in the region. They are also characterised by a wider use of stone in construction than any other such communities. This distinguishing attribute provides us with far greater potential for reconstructing the patterns according to which space was organised in Bokoni, than is possible with other precolonial farming societies. This applies particularly to the larger and more densely built settlements such as Moxomatsi, where intensive use was made of available space. Here we describe the various types of stone-built features and the spatial patterning we can derive from them. Networks of roads and footpaths, together with related features, give us insight into patterns of circulation by people and livestock within the settlement. Circulation routes together with walls, terraces and stone lines contribute to patterns on the ground, which indicate ways in which cultivated land was subdivided and allocated, both adjacent to homesteads and at some distance away. Ways in which groups of homesteads are linked seem to reflect clustering based on kinship, an organisational principle which resonates with ethnographic evidence. Local environmental issues of hydrology, topography, geology, and soils have also played a significant part in how the community used the landscape.
|
|
| 4. |
- Steyn, Maryna, et al.
(författare)
-
Four Iron Age women from KwaZulu-Natal : biological anthropology, genetics and archaeological context
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Southern African Humanities. - 1681-5564 .- 2305-2791. ; 32:1, s. 23-56
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report further details on four partial human skeletons from KwaZulu-Natal previously selected for genetic analysis. Dating and genetic results indicate that they derived from agriculturist communities of the mid-second millennium AD. Morphological and genetic analysis shows that three individuals were female; identification of the fourth as female comes from genetic analysis only. All four were adults at death, three older adults and one younger. Genetically, all four individuals cluster strongly with Bantu-speaking populations with West African roots, a result supported by craniometric data for the one individual with a complete and well-preserved cranium. All nevertheless display some admixture with Khoe-San populations. We show that three of the women, and probably the fourth, carried genetic resistance to the Plasmodium vivax malaria parasite, while two had some protection against Trypanosoma brucei gambiense-induced sleeping sickness. The unusual rock-shelter burial locations of three of the women suggest that their deaths required ritual "cooling"€™. Lightning and violence are possible causes. We argue that this multipronged approach is necessary for the development of detailed and nuanced understandings of the past and of the individuals who lived in the region centuries ago.
|
|
