Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Three-Volume Set, Volume 1-3

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Professor Deborah M Pearsall The Frederick A Middlebush Chair in Social Sciences Department of Anthropology University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO USA

Professor Deborah M.Pearsall

Deborah M. Pearsall was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She grew up in various places in the upper Midwest and graduated from high school in Avon Lake, Ohio. She returned to Michigan for college, where she attended the University of Michigan and majored in Anthropology. It was also at Michigan that she became interested in paleoethnobotany—the study of plant-people interrelationships through archaeology—and studied with Richard I. Ford. After graduation from college, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and began studying with South American archaeologist Donald W. Lathrap. There she became interested in Ecuador, and participated in Lathrap’s excavations at Real Alto, an ancient agricultural village. The study of macroremains and phytoliths from Real Alto became her dissertation research, and she received a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1979. In addition to continuing to work in Ecuador, Deborah has conducted research in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Guam, and the Midwestern U.S., and has supervised students working in these and other regions. She has taught anthropology and carried out paleoethnobotanical studies at the University of Missouri in Columbia since 1978. She is the author of Paleoethnobotany, A Handbook of Procedures (Academic Press, 2000), Plants and People in Ancient Ecuador: The Ethnobotany of the Jama River Valley (Wadsworth, 2004), The Origins of Agriculture in the Neotropics (coauthor with D. R. Piperno, Academic Press, 1998), and editor of this encyclopedia. She enjoys gardening—especially growing old English roses—and writing, and lives on 80 acres outside Columbia with her husband Mike DeLoughery.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Takeru Akazawa Kochi University of Technology Kochi Japan Pedro Paulo A Funari Department of History Universidad Estadual de Campinas Sao Paulo Brazil Julian Henderson Department of Archaeology University of Nottingham Nottingham UK Augustin F C Holl Department of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI USA Joyce Marcus Museum of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI USA

M Rafique Mughal Department of Archaeology Boston University Boston, MA USA Daniel T Potts Department of Archaeology University of Sydney Sydney, NSW Australia Patty Jo Watson Washington University at St. Louis St. Louis, MO USA Steve Weber Department of Anthropology Washington State University Vancouver, WA USA Zhijun Zhao Institute of Archaeology Beijing China

FOREWORD Archaeology today has become a truly international undertaking, and it has done so by employing what has become a new and universal language. The record of the human past is a material one, recorded in the earth, in the buried remains of vanished civilizations and in the material traces which past communities have left behind. As this book clearly documents, those traces, the carefully excavated settlements and burials of early human groups and their artifacts, which they made and used, can today be made accessible in what we may call the language of archaeology. That language, intelligible in every part of the world, is able to transcend the limitations of written history. For narrative history, as set down in writing, is inevitably confined to the literate civilizations whose very early texts come down to us from just a few locations in the Old World. The universal language of archaeology, however, knows no such bounds. Instead it addresses the human use of material culture wherever human beings have lived. It draws upon a broad range of techniques – from stratigraphic excavation to radiocarbon dating, from aerial photography to molecular biology – which now make it possible to speak of a world archaeology, in which the experiences of every country and people can take their place. This book sets out in a coherent way to make that language clearly and directly intelligible to the reader, so that the basic techniques of archaeology can be understood. It goes on to apply those techniques to the entire human story. Its broad sweep takes us from the emergence of the first humans, initially in Africa, and their early out-of-Africa dispersals, through the whole gamut of human experience, dealing with the rise of farming communities, the dawn of civilizations, the formation of the first cities, and so down to the present, and to the postcolonial era in every part of the world. The good news is that every land, every inhabited area of the earth, does have its archaeology. Each community has a past, which today can be investigated with the use of the now-universal techniques of investigation described here. The scope is vast. The story unfolds here on a continent-by-continent basis. Only in recent decades has it been possible to put together such a survey. For it was radiocarbon dating that opened the way for early developments in every part of the world to be dated. Suddenly the chronology of early Australia or of southern Africa became just as secure and just as available as the comparable chronologies for Europe or for the ancient Near East. The whole scope of human achievement in every part of the world is becoming known through the practice of archaeology. The authors of this survey have produced an up-to-date account not only of the methods which constitute the language of archaeology but also of the principal findings which now allow us to speak of a world archaeology. The authorship of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology reflects the cosmopolitan status of archaeology today. It is truly international, with Chinese scholars writing many of the entries for China, African scholars for Africa. The coverage is, of course, global, covering every continent (including Oceania) and every period. It is also multifacetted, giving insights into the different schools of archaeological thought, which flourish today. It recognizes that philosophical themes (Marxist archaeology; Postprocessual archaeology) must rub shoulders with social topics (Ethnicity, Rise of political complexity), and both of these with issues of contemporary concern (Who owns the past?, Politics of archaeology). These in turn are found side-by-side with some of the key scientific subdisciplines (archaeometry, phytolith analysis, taphonomy), which today provide much of the vocabulary for that universal language of archaeology. The outcome is that this work will be read with profit in every part of the world. It will be as welcome in South America (where the Amazon basin for once achieves necessary coverage) as in Europe, as appropriate in Japan as in Mesoamerica. It reflects well the changing nature of archaeology, with the fast developing range of new research methods and the changing realities of a postcolonial world where the past of every area and region is of interest. Colin Renfrew

INTRODUCTION

Archaeology is a subject that fascinates us. From Egyptian tombs to a frozen Alpine wayfarer, from cities buried under volcanic ash to stone arrowheads turned up by the plow, archaeology is in the news and in our backyards. It is paradoxical that a subject that so easily captures the imagination is so difficult to access. Superficial media treatments and picturebook atlases and site guides on the one hand, jargonheavy scholarly books and narrowly focused articles on the other – there are few ways to learn about the real world of archaeology outside the university classroom or the dig site. The aim of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology is to change this, to make all aspects of archaeology accessible to a broad audience, from educated laypersons and university students eager to learn about the field, to scholars intent on broadening and updating their knowledge of the discipline. No existing work provides the breadth and depth of coverage achieved here. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work with over 260 talented archaeologists from around the globe during this project. In the pages that follow, they will introduce you to archaeology through contributions arranged in an easy-to-use, alphabetical format. From the moment I was invited to undertake this project, I knew that I wanted the Encyclopedia of Archaeology not only to showcase archaeological knowledge at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but to convey how archaeologists work, and to illustrate the diversity of issues and theoretical paradigms that drive our research. From this grew an underlying four-part structure for the Encyclopedia of Archaeology: Archaeology as a discipline The practice of archaeology Archaeology at the beginning of the twenty-first century: A world overview Geographical overviews Topics and issues that cross-cut geography Archaeology in the everyday world

The ‘Contents list by subject’, which follows this Introduction, illustrates how individual contributions are grouped conceptually within this framework. Each contribution to ‘Archaeology as a discipline’ places emphasis on the broad approach and subject matter of part of the field of archaeology, and provides historical context when appropriate. Here you will be introduced to schools of thought as distinctive as cognitive and evolutionary archaeology, learn of the historic roots and philosophy of the field, and read overviews of subjects from archaeoastronomy to forensic archaeology to urban archaeology. Contributions to ‘The practice of archaeology’ describe the nuts and bolts of how archaeological research is conducted, and incorporate case studies as illustrations of modern archaeological practice. Topics range from fieldwork, through analysis of artifacts and biological materials, to approaches to interpreting the archaeological record. Among our authors you will find experts and innovators in archaeological methodology. ‘Archaeology at the beginning of the twenty-first century: A world overview’ is a wide-ranging review of our knowledge of the past. Archaeological sites and cultural traditions are placed in regional and temporal context in contributions in the ‘Geographical overviews’ section. Each article is written by an archaeologist with hands-on research experience in the region, and includes maps and illustrations of sites and artifacts. Look up an archaeological site in the index (or use the search function in the online version) and you will be guided to the regional and topical articles that discuss it. Or just browse and learn the latest on the archaeology of East Africa, Micronesia, or the Lesser Antilles. Regions are ordered in the ‘Contents list by subject’ west to east, and north to south, and within regions contributions are ordered chronologically or by subregion, as deemed appropriate.

x Introduction

Contributions to ‘Topics and issues that cross-cut geography’ are in-depth articles on cutting-edge research in archaeology. Case studies, often from more than one region of the world, illustrate each topic. Here you will be introduced to research on subjects as diverse as extinctions of big game, social inequality, and daily life in ancient cities. Contributions on related subjects are grouped in the ‘Contents list by subject’. Finally, ‘Archaeology in the everyday world’ steps back from the approaches, methods, and findings of archaeology to look at archaeology as a profession. In this section are contributions on the ethical and legal aspects of practicing archaeology today, popular culture and archaeology, and archaeology and stakeholder communities.

The Encyclopedia of Archaeology would never have come to fruition without the hard work of the members of the Editorial Board, who assisted in developing the subject list, fine-tuned the geographical overview sections, suggested authors for contributions, and reviewed completed manuscripts. They each have my wholehearted thanks. I also thank the following friends and colleagues for their assistance and advice: Robert A. Benfer, Jr., J. Scott Bentley, Jane C. Biers, Christine Hastorf, Janet Levy, Naomi Miller, Hector Neff, Elizabeth Reitz, Ralph Rowlett, and Peter Warnock. Deborah M. Pearsall

A AFRICA, CENTRAL Contents Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists Great Lakes Area Sudan, Nilotic Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists Scott MacEachern, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary bantu languages A closely-related group of languages in the Niger–Congo family, now spoken through much of Africa south of the equator. The ‘Bantu expansion’ is the process – still not entirely understood – through which early Bantu languages spread to the east and south from their homeland on the Nigerian–Cameroon border, beginning perhaps 5000 years ago. Lupemban A Middle/Late Pleistocene stone tool industry, found in different areas of sub-Saharan Africa and descended from the Sangoan and eventually the Acheulean traditions. It is characterized by the extensive use of bifacial and core-tools. It is often assumed to be associated with forest environments, where these tools were used for woodworking and other functions. microlithic Stone tool industries characterized by the use of small tools, usually made by carefully breaking stone blades into predetermined shapes or by the production of very small blades. Microliths are defined as being <3 cm in length, and are often used as elements in composite tools. ‘semi-domesticates’ Plants that are not planted by humans and that do not need human assistance to reproduce, but yield products important to the human communities in the area. Because of their importance, people often protect and encourage the growth of semi-domesticates, for example, through weeding of competing species. tazunu Funerary monuments found in the western Central African Republic, first built in the early first millennium BC. They consist of a group of upright standing stones, usually between 1 and 3 m in length, set in an artificial platform that often contains one or more rectangular chambers.

Tshitolian A Holocene stone tool industry of western Central Africa, characterized by a heavy-duty bifacial tool component originating in the Middle/Late Pleistocene Lupemban industry, as well as a variety of different types of arrowheads and microlithic tools.

Archaeologists know less about the prehistory of Central Africa through the last 10 000 years than about any other part of the continent. This is only in part because of the difficulties of working in tropical forest: indeed, some of the least-known areas are in the woodlands along the northeastern fringes of the Congo Basin. More important have been the effects of decades of political instability and an underdeveloped infrastructure that goes back to the colonial period. Over the last decade, however, some parts of Central Africa – especially in the northwest – have yielded a great deal of information on ancient occupations in this period. Moisture levels in Central Africa increased dramatically from the terminal Pleistocene, much drier than the present, to the early Holocene, which would have been generally wetter than today. This corresponded to a great increase in forests over the same period. However, models of a uniform expansion of tropical forest out of Late Pleistocene refugia are oversimplified. There seems to have been a great deal of local diversity in plant associations, as well as significant regional variations in rainfall, temperatures, and seasonality, through this period. Instead of thinking about environmentally determined depopulations and repopulations over Central Africa as a whole, we must imagine human communities adapting to a wide variety of circumstances and resources in different areas and at different times.

2 AFRICA, CENTRAL/Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists

The beginning of the Holocene saw all of Central Africa occupied by foraging communities. Little evidence of these populations is left, aside from their stone tool industries, which show a good deal of continuity from the Late Pleistocene. Not surprisingly, in the center of the continent, these industries are diverse, with stone tool-kits in the northwestern part of Central Africa showing some similarities with adjacent areas of West Africa, eastern industries exhibiting some resemblances to East Africa, and so on. Perhaps most uniquely Central African is the Tshitolian industry, found primarily in the west, in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo, northwestern Angola, and parts of Gabon. The Tshitolian seems to be derived from the Late Pleistocene Lupemban industry, and shares with the Lupemban an important component of heavy-duty bifacial tools, as well as arrowheads and microlithic tools. In other parts of Central Africa, microlithic industries predominate and the bifacial tools are rare or absent. We know little about the lifeways of these populations, but the available evidence indicates that for the most part they were

Nigeria

broad-spectrum, mobile hunter-gatherers. Late Pleistocene lakeshore sites like Ishango in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with their extraordinary bone harpoon points and evidence for fishing and hunting, exhibit striking similarities to Holocene sites in similar environments in East Africa, but there is no firm evidence for the persistence of this lacustrine adaptation in Holocene Central Africa (Figure 1). Just after 7000 years ago, significant innovations appeared in the economic and technical adaptations of communities in the northwestern part of the region. On what is now the frontier between southeastern Nigeria and Cameroon, archaeologists working at sites like Shum Laka have found evidence for consumption of nuts from the incense tree (Canarium schweinfurthii), a wild species that would be increasingly exploited by humans over the succeeding millennia, as well as the first evidence for pottery in the region. At the same time, larger bifacial (but not Tshitolian) tools appear among the microlithic stone tools that earlier dominated in this area, as does the first evidence for ground/polished stone tools. In later periods, such tools would be used in horticulture and forest clearance.

Chad Sudan

Shum Laka

Tazunu sites

Central African Republic

Cameroon Bioko Eq. Guinea Pit Sites Gabon

Republic of the Congo Tshitolian

Ishango

Uganda

Rwanda

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Burundi Tanzania

Upemba sites

Angola

Zambia

Figure 1 Some of the sites and traditions mentioned in the text. The extent of archaeological traditions is approximate.

AFRICA, CENTRAL/Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists 3

The Early-/Mid-Holocene appearance of these new cultural elements signals the origins of a very different adaptation to life in Central Africa, one eventually involving increased sedentism, a concentration on particular wild plant foods and increased levels of environmental manipulation. Over the next four millennia, these elements would come to dominate archaeological assemblages in this part of the region, as important ‘semi-domesticates’ such as oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) were added to local economies. This adaptation would culminate in the farming villages of southern Cameroon and Gabon, during the first millennium BC. These sites are characterized by the occurrence of large numbers of deep pits, probably used for storage and garbage disposal; these pits frequently contain pottery, Canarium, and oil palm remains, and also in some cases the remains of domesticated plants and animals, including millet, banana (originally a Southeast Asian domesticate), and sheep/ goats. These pit sites are probably related to sites of a similar period in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The spread of these communities into Central Africa from the northwestern part of the region is likely associated with the spread of Bantu languages, since the origins of those languages are in the Grassfields region around Shum Laka and the archaeological evidence agrees in general with linguistic evidence for the early expansion of Bantu languages. After the middle of the first millennium AD, few pits are found in sites in this area: the reason for this is unknown, but probably involves changes in settlement patterning during this period. The prehistory of other regions is not as well known through the mid-Holocene, but ground and polished stone axes similar to those found around Shum Laka occur in different parts of Central Africa. In some cases, for example, at Tchissanga and related sites on the coast of Republic of the Congo and in the Central African Republic (CAR), these are found with different kinds of pottery; in other cases, as on the Uelian sites of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Angola and elsewhere, they exist as isolated discoveries, without significant cultural context. In very few cases have these occurrences been dated, but those dates that do exist indicate a Mid-/LateHolocene time period, and these sites are probably evidence of processes of economic intensification similar to those in the northwest – which, indeed, may be their ultimate origin. On the island of Bioko, now part of Equatorial Guinea, the use of stone tools, especially axes, would persist until the nineteenth century. In western CAR, these developments are, by the early first millennium BC, associated with the appearance of the tazunu sites, megalithic sites in which upright standing stones are usually set in low artificial

mounds. These are likely to have been funerary monuments, although not all excavated examples contain inhumations, and a tradition of tazunu construction may have continued in the area until a few centuries ago. The construction of these impressive monuments, and their association with single burials (where any are found), would seem to imply the existence of some degree of social ranking in western Central African Republic through this period (see Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area). The appearance of iron artifacts would eventually transform the economies and even the ideologies of Central African societies, but this did not happen immediately. Indeed, the available archaeological evidence indicates that early iron technologies were incorporated into the already-existing cultural systems discussed above, and that traditional assumptions of an Iron Age, a sudden break with earlier practices, seem to be particularly misleading in this case. The first evidence of iron production (in fact, very frequently the slag by-products of iron smelting and forging) appears on sites in northwestern Central Africa during the first millennium BC. Establishing the precise timing of that appearance is difficult, in part because of difficulties with radiocarbon calibration during the middle of that millennium. However, both a habitation site associated with the tazunu of the CAR and one of the pit sites in southern Cameroon have yielded dates for iron working of about 2600 years ago, and so between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. This generally agrees with dates on some West African iron-working sites as well, but more work remains to be done on the origins of this technology in subSaharan Africa. Sites with iron from this area, in Gabon and in Republic of the Congo, became more common by the late first millennium BC, and through the ensuing centuries in other areas of Central Africa, until by perhaps AD 800 iron was being used throughout Central Africa (except on Bioko, as noted above, and perhaps by isolated foraging groups elsewhere). Over this same period, the use of stone tools for the most part ceased, presumably replaced by iron. In general, this parallels the introduction of iron into East Africa, although the exact routes by which that introduction took place are unknown. Over the ensuing centuries, as iron technologies became established through the region, we see the development of larger-scale societies, the extension of trade networks and evidence for increasing social complexity in some parts of Central Africa. This is most strikingly demonstrated in the Upemba Depression of southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a remarkable series of high-status grave

4 AFRICA, CENTRAL/Great Lakes Area

sites, dating to between the eighth and eighteenth centuries AD, indicate the processes of social differentiation and ideological development that culminated in the historically known Luba state. There is scattered archaeological evidence for significant trading networks and iron and copper production in western Democratic Republic of the Congo at the same time period, as well. In other areas – the Central African Republic and northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example – the village-level societies that developed in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD remained the dominant economic and political units into the colonial period. As in much of the rest of Africa, there has been little archaeological investigation of recent centuries, and still less of the period of European contact. Over the last two millennia, archaeological data are increasingly supplemented by data from linguistic and historical research. These sources provide information on social and cultural processes that are not easily approached archaeologically – the details of the expansion of Bantu languages, the developing relations between farmers and foragers (Pygmy/BaTwa) in Central Africa and the interplay between ideology and sociopolitical relations across the region as a whole, for example. Only through such integrated approaches will researchers be able to approach a more complete picture of the Central African past. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Africa,

Historical Archaeology.

Further Reading Clist B (2005) Des premiers villages aux premiers Europe´ens autour de l’estuaire du Gabon: Quatre mille´naires d’interactions entre l’homme et son milieu. Doctoral thesis, Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles. Cornelissen E (2002) Human responses to changing environments in Central Africa between 40,000 and 12,000 BP. Journal of World Prehistory 16: 197–235. de Maret P (1999) The power of symbols and the symbols of power through time: probing the Luba past. In: McIntosh SK (ed.) Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa, pp. 151–165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Klieman KA (2003) ‘The Pygmies Were Our Compass’. Bantu and Batwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 CE. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Lanfranchi R and Clist B (eds.) (1991) Aux origines de l’afrique centrale. Libreville/Paris: Centre Culturel Francaise de Libreville, Se´pia. Lavachery P (2001) The Holocene archaeological sequence of Shum Laka Rock Shelter (Grassfields, Western Cameroon). African Archaeological Review 18: 213–248. Lavachery P, MacEachern S, Bouimon T, et al. (2005) Kome´ to Ebome´: archaeological research for the Chad Export Project, 1999–2003. Journal of African Archaeology 3: 175–193.

Mbida CM, van Neer W, Doutrelepont H, and Vrydaghs L (2000) Evidence for banana cultivation in central and animal husbandry during the first millennium BC in the forest of southern Cameroon. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 151–162. Vansina J (1990) Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Series. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Zangato E (1999) Socie´te´s Pre´historiques et Me´galithes Dans le Nord-ouest de la Re´publique Centrafricaine. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Great Lakes Area Augustin F C Holl, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary earthwork Any early structure built from a mound or bank of earth, often created as fortification. forager Someone who hunts for food or provisions. iron smelting A process of heating and melting iron ores and concentrates and then separating the desirable molten metals such as copper from other elements. kingdoms Peak periods of development in ancient history.

The Interlacustrine area is flanked on both east and west by important freshwater lakes; Lake Victoria, L. Tanganyika, L. Kivu, and L. Albert. It is stretched over the eastern boundary of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Northern Tanzania, and the western fringe of Kenya. Several important Stone Age sites have been excavated at Matupi cave, Katanda sites of the Semliky valley, as well as Munyama cave in Uganda. Late Stone foragers using microliths were spread out in small groups over this vast area. The arrival of iron-using Bantuspeaking farmers in the first millennium BC triggered significant long-term increase in settlement size and density. The volcanic soils in this highly humid area are fertile, productive, and support some among the highest population density of Africa today. Evidence for iron smelting dating from the first half to the middle of the first millennium BC (900–500 BC) is documented at Gasiza I and Mirami III in Rwanda and the BuHaya region in Northwestern Tanzania. These Urewe farming communities were later joined by livestock herders from the Nile watershed. Bananas and other Southasian species took root and prospered in the fertile Interlacustrine zone. Bananas, one of the Malayo-Polynesia plants, were thought to have

AFRICA, CENTRAL/Sudan, Nilotic 5

reached Africa during the first millennium BC or very beginning of the first millennium AD. Bananas (Musa sp.) phytoliths from a core drilled at Munsa in Uganda and dated to the fourth millennium BC point to an earlier than thought introduction (see Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Sudan, Nilotic). The Great Lakes region and the Savanna-land south of the equatorial rainforest witnessed the development of complex chiefdoms and kingdoms during the second millennium AD. In the Great Lakes region, the development at Ntusi, Munsa, Bigo, Kibiro, Mubende, and other earthworks sites is remarkable. Large-scale cattle husbandry is documented at Ntusi. Kibiro witnessed an impressive intensification in the production of salt from the local brackish springs. An agricultural colonization took place in western Uganda. However, tracing the precise evolutionary trajectory of any of the Great Lakes, past polities is still hampered by the lack of sustained long-term archaeological research and terminological uncertainties. Archaeological survey, and the analyses of the ceramic material collected was used by Robertshaw to develop a model of the development of social complexity. Four areas, Nyantungo in the west, Kibale in the north, Munsa/ Kakumiro in the Northeast, and Kasambya in the southeast, were sampled to document variations in settlement patterns and pottery shapes, design, and decoration. Most of the surveyed sites (>90%) are small homesteads/hamlets measuring less than 1 ha in size. Large sites without earthworks seem to have been positioned at defensive locations. While, with a certain range of variation, earthworks sites may have been part of small and competing polities. After the sixteenth century AD, these rival and competing polities came to be united under the rulership of the Bito dynasty that created the Nyoro kingdom in Western Uganda. Rwanda and Burundi on the western side of the Interlacustrine zone also developed rival but small chiefdoms. In general and all over the Lacustrine zone, iron working was strongly associated with rulership. See also: Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Sudan, Nilotic; Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas.

Further Reading Connah G (1996) Kibiro: The Salt of Bunyoro, Past and Present. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Ehret C (1998) An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Lejju BJ, Robertshaw P, and Taylor D (2006) Africa’s Earliest Bananas? Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 102–113. Reid A (1997) Lacustrine states. In: Vogel JO (ed.) Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, pp. 501–507. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. Robertshaw P (1994) Archaeological survey, ceramic analysis, and state formation in Western Uganda. The African Archaeological Review 12: 105–131. Robertshaw P (2003) Explaining the origins of state in East Africa. In: Vogel (ed.) East African Archaeology: Foragers, Potters, Smiths, and Traders, pp. 149–166. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Schoenbrun DL (1998) A Green Place, A Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender, and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th Century. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Sudan, Nilotic Kathleen Nicoll, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Acheulian Designating, or of, a Lower Palaeolithic culture characterized by skillfully made bifacial flint hand axes. artifact Any object manufactured, used, or modified by humans. Common examples include tools, utensils, art, food remains, and other products of human activity. Aterian A stoneworking tradition that is considered an evolved style of the Palaeolithic of North Africa; it includes distinctive tools with shanks (i.e., tangs) for mounting to a handle, and basically worked leaf-shaped points. calcareous Containing calcium carbonate minerals. chert A very fine grained rock formed in ancient ocean sediments. It often has a semi-glassy finish and is usually white, pinkish, brown, gray, or blue-gray in color. It can be shaped into arrowheads by chipping. It has often been called flint, but true flint is found in chalk deposits and is a distinctive blackish color. dispersal The process in which an organism spreads out geographically. flint A hard, brittle microcrystalline form of quartz commonly found in sedimentary limestone or in chalk deposits, or otherwise any kind of stone that can be flaked. lithic Stone tools or projectiles. lithic scatter A spatially discrete, though sometimes extensive, scatter of lithic artifacts recovered from the surface, for example, by fieldwalking, rather than from a particular archaeological context. megalith An arrangement or structure of extremely large stones, possibly aligned. microlith Small tools that may be any of a variety of shapes, and which have been produced from microblades. These are too small to have been used without hafting, some were set edge to edge in a groove in a bone or wood shaft and so served as cutting tools, while others would have been functional as barbs. Neolithic Refers to the first era of village farmers in any region. nomad A member of a group of people who move according to the seasons from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land.

6 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) Quaternary geologic age-dating technique used to determine the depositional age of sediments by considering mineral grains as dosimeters that ‘accumulate’ energy over time as a function of natural environmental radiation. The technique is based on the solid-state properties of mineral grains rather than isotopic decay of constituent elements (like K–Ar or radiocarbon dating). pastoralism The form of agriculture specifically known as animal husbandry; it includes the tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It also contains a mobile element, moving the herds in search of fresh pasturelands and water resources. Pleistocene A geologic period, usually thought of as the most recent Ice Age, which began about 1.8 million years ago and ended with the melting of the large continental glaciers creating the modern climatic pattern about 11 500 years ago. pluvial A term commonly used to refer to a time period characterized by increased precipitation and reduced evaporation, resulting in enhanced moisture conditions. prehistoric The period prior to written records for a given area; note that the absolute date for the prehistoric period varies from place to place. social complexity Refers to patterns in society at levels from the individual to the group, as it relates to various human adaptive systems both comprising and surrounding a society. Complexity can refer to the rituals, culture, and practices of communities, regional systems, or empires. stratified A term that refers to sediments with primary (undisturbed) characteristics, that have been deposited or laid down in successive layers. Often the succession of layers can provide a relative chronological sequence, with the earliest at the bottom and the latest at the top.

Today the central African landscape west of the Nile River is hyperarid, with <10 mm annual rainfall; the modern Saharan region generally lacks sufficient surface water to sustain nomadic pastoralism, and settlement is localized around permanent oases and wells. The prehistoric records discovered in the desert landscape are sparse (Figure 1), and sites are commonly associated with ancient sources of water, including streams, springs, and lakes relict from ‘pluvial’ time periods of enhanced rainfall. Palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that the region has remained arid with occasional semi-arid periods when the region received around 300 mm annual rainfall, and the Sudano-Sahelian vegetation zone extended northward. The changing climatic conditions and ready availability of water resources were key factors in determining when this marginal region could sustain life and cultural activities. The geoarchaeological record informs the emerging spatial and temporal reconstruction of the alternate aridification and peopling of the Sahara since the Later Pleistocene, the period
250 000– 10 000 years ago.

A Brief History of Explorers and Archaeologists Some of the first artifactual finds from the region called the ‘Western’ or ‘Libyan’ Desert and ‘the

Sudan’ were documented by Ralph A. Bagnold and members of the Long Range Desert Group, a British army unit active during World War II. In the 1930s, excavations on Lake Qarun-Fayum and the Kharga Oases by Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardiner provided the first integrated investigations into the prehistory and palaeoenvironment of the region; ironically these women were not granted membership into the Royal Geographical Society, although their reports have stood the test of time and paved the way for later researchers. Field studies in the 1970s by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition discovered some important stratified sites of Middle Stone Age–Early/Middle Palaeolithic typology, which predate the last phase of glaciation. Aterian artifacts at the site at Bıˆr Tirfawi, for example, are interstratified with calcareous lake beds that likely date to the period 125 000–90 000 years ago. Farther to the north, the Dakhleh Oasis Project has studied the remains of several prehistoric periods (Aterian through Graeco-Roman) since the 1980s. Acheulian hand ax finds older than 300 000 years were documented in the Bıˆr Kiseiba and Selima Sand Sheet regions by Smithsonian Institution researchers conducting fieldwork in the 1990s. Today, various international teams of scientists continue to decipher prehistoric archives from the Gilf Kebir, the defunct former tributaries of the Nile in northern Sudan, the Tibesti and Fezzan, and the Niger and Chad Basin.

The Fossil Record Although the Fayum is famous for its Oligocene fossil ape-like primates such Aegyptopithecus, no hominid fossils have been discovered from the broader region. Isolated Late Pleistocene lithic scatters and workshops exist, but related skeletal remains are extremely rare from Saharan North Africa. One of the most significant finds dating to the Middle Palaeolithic is an early anatomically modern human (H. sapiens sapiens) skeleton discovered along the Nile Valley
250 miles south of Cairo. At Taramsa, an anatomically modern child (aged 8–10 years) was deliberately buried in an open-air chert extraction site, which places the skeleton in direct context with worked tools and the quarry rock. A series of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from correlative eolian sands suggests an age for the burial between 49 800 and 80 400 years ago, with a mean age of 55 000. As one of the few well-dated sites in the region, Taramsa provides insight regarding origin of modern humans as preserved within the Nilotic region, one of the likely passageways ‘Out of Africa’ as modern humans dispersed from East Africa to Eurasia.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic 7

32⬚ Mediterranean Sea

30⬚

Cairo Fayum EGYPT

28⬚

Nile River

Great Sand Sea

Taramsa

26⬚

Kharga Dakhleh Gilf Kebir LIBYA

Bîr Sahara

24⬚ Bîr Tirfawi Kiseiba Nabta

22⬚

Selima Sand Sheet

Gebel Uwien'at

20⬚

SUDAN

CHAD

18⬚

16⬚ Wadi Howar White Nile

map scale

200 km E 24⬚

Blue Nile

after Nicoll, 2001 28⬚

32⬚

Figure 1 Location of key sites mentioned from the northeastern Sahara, an area covering 92 000 000 km, and including the Western Desert of Egypt, northwest Sudan, and the adjacent parts of Libya and Chad, which together are about the size of western Europe.

Geoarchaeological Records from the NE Saharan Region Spatiotemporal patterns of prehistoric occupation suggest changes in the loci where people congregated, possibly as a function of changing water resource availability over time as the environment fluctuated between a habitable savanna and an inhospitable desert. The earliest occupation is associated with the artifacts of the Acheulian tradition of the Lower Paleolithic, and these finds are commonly associated

with groundwater-fed lakes, springs, and streams (wadis) with headwaters at higher elevations in the Plateaux escarpments. The chronology is inferential and not well constrained, but likely spans the period before 500 000 to 300 000 years ago, and is distinct from the Acheulian tradition of the Nile Valley. The archaeological record of the Middle Palaeolithic is better known, and several sites contain in situ living floors and diverse faunal assemblages, which reflect favorable climatic conditions. Much of

8 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic

the Middle Palaeolithic chronology is relative, and is based on taxonomic comparisons with diagnostic artifacts defined in units dating from 250 000 to
38 000 BP. The two oldest units, the Mousterian and the Aterian, occur in both the Western Desert and Nile Valley, but the comparative local economic patterns are markedly different. Lithics and faunal remains recovered from valley sites suggest reliance on fishing and Bos hunting. Alternately, in the Western Desert, hunting of large game was preferred over the capture of smaller animals. Large groundwater-supported lakes at Bıˆr Tirfawi and Bıˆr Sahara were favored settlement locales, although other environmental settings also were exploited and reoccupied. Within the Western Desert, the Aterian technocomplex is associated with the latest Pleistocene wet period, which preceded a long hyperarid episode that persisted until the early Holocene. The precise duration of the hyperarid interval remains unconstrained. There is no evidence for local rainfall or spring activity in the region west of the Nile between
40 000 and 11 000 BP, and human activity was confined to the valley, as preserved in Khormusan variants of the latest Middle Palaeolithic and other Late Palaeolithic complexes. The region beyond the Nile Valley was not reoccupied until the onset of suitable climate conditions
12 000 BP, when effective precipitation was enhanced due to the incursion of monsoonal rains from tropical Africa. Occasional rains created seasonal ponds and sustained vegetation that attracted game and people to a region that was otherwise desert. Savanna grasses, trees, and bushes enabled the subsistence of hares, gazelle, and a few small carnivores. Even during the Early Holocene climatic optimum
11 000–5500 cal BP, however, the region remained quite dry and drought prone (see Africa, South: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers). Characteristic tools and microliths, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads are present at wadis, springs, and small depressions known as pans and playas, places where rainwater ponded after storms. Most of the terminal Paleolithic/Neolithic assemblages are located alongside water features fed solely by rainfall.

Neolithic Pluvials and the Emergence of Social Complexity: Examples from Nabta Playa Evidence across the northeastern Sahara suggests discrete phases of Neolithic activity during the Holocene climatic optimum. The sequence at Nabta Playa

reveals three wet–dry phases bracketed by radiocarbon dates. The accompanying stratigraphic and cultural record reflects critical transitions from foraging to food production strategies involving domestication and animal husbandry, and points toward emerging traditions of social complexity. The first settlements at Nabta Playa date between 11 000–9300 cal years ago, and include herders of domesticated(?) cattle who carried distinctive ceramic vessels decorated with wavy impressed patterns; this pottery is among the oldest known in Africa. In a similar manner to modern West African peoples, the Nabtans may have regarded their cattle as economic units of power, social status and prestige, as well as ‘walking larders’ that supplied milk and blood, rather than meat. Once the playa dried up, people migrated to areas with more water, possibly to the Nile in the east or areas further south (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa). After 9000 years ago, larger settlements were established at Nabta; small huts were arranged in straight lines, and walk-in wells were dug to supply the Nabtan residents with enough water to stay for longer periods. People survived on a number of wild edible plants (sorghum, millets, legumes, tubers, fruits) and small animals, including hares and gazelles. Around 8800 years ago (7800 BP, uncalibrated), pottery was produced locally. Around 8100 years ago, there is evidence for the domestication of larger animals, goats and sheep (see Animal Domestication). Between 8000 and 7000 years ago, Nabta was abandoned during two major droughts. As hyperarid conditions developed, the water table dropped, deflation persisted, and conditions became uninhabitable. The people returning to Nabta after the droughts were a complex society with an enhanced degree of organization and control, possibly centered around some ritualistic belief system associated with livestock. Excavated items supporting this inference include sacrifices of young cows and their burial in clay-lined and roofed chambers covered by stone slabs. Nabtans also constructed 25þ complex building structures with surface and subterranean features, including a shaped stone that could represent the oldest sculpture in Egypt. They also erected megaliths, alignments of large stones, and an astronomical ‘calendar circle’ like Stonehenge that marked the solstice at 6500 BP. Another significant find near Nabta is the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt. A series of richly furnished graves date to
6400 and 6000 radiocarbon years BP (uncalibrated), and demonstrate patterns of local pastoralists who practiced transhumance during

AMERICAS, NORTH/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 9

the later Neolithic period. In this manner, the Nabtan culture once again reflects that Saharan people had affliations with, and profound effects upon, the incipient Egyptian civilization that emerged from the Nile Valley as the region progressively aridified. See also: Africa, North: Nubia; Sahara, Eastern; Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa; Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers; Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Animal Domestication.

animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Indian Ocean trade Monsoon based trade linking the Indian sub-continent with coastal regions of east Africa and the southern African hinterland. slash-and-burn agriculture The cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock, or for a variety of other purposes. Zimbabwe Culture Refers to the states and material culture linked with the ancestral Shona speakers between AD 1100 and 1900. Mapungubwe is the earliest Zimbabwe Culture State, followed by Great Zimbabwe, and the Torwa-Changamire and Mutapa states. Drystone walls (known as Dzimbahwes – houses of stone), built using the precise placement method (without mortar) are the best known manifestation of this culture.

Further Reading Burroughs WJ (2005) Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kuper R and Kro¨pelin S (2006) Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa’s Evolution. Science 313: 803–807. Midant-Reynes B (1992) The Prehistory of Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell. Nicoll K (2004) Recent environmental change and prehistoric human activity in Egypt and northern Sudan. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 561–580. Phillipson DW (1998) African Archaeology, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rice M (2003) Egypt’s Making. The Origins of Ancient Egypt 5000–2000 BC, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) (1995) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge. Wendorf FA and Schild RA (1980) Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara. New York: Academic Press.

Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, Tshwane, South Africa Shadreck Chirikure, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary agro-pastoral A mode of production that combines field culture and husbandry with the use of pasture areas. colonization The act or process of establishing a colony or colonies. Colonization encompasses all large-scale emigrations of an established population to a ‘new’ location, such as immigration, the establishment of expatriate communities, and the use of guest workers. hunter-gatherer society A society whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and

Introduction The Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent regions (Figure 1) form part of the southern African subcontinent, south of the Zambezi, north of the Limpopo Rivers. In physiographic terms, it is part of High Africa, with elevations ranging from 500 to more than 2500 m above sea level. A moist savannah woodland biome dominates the plateau, and gives way to a dry woodland scrub further west, which becomes the Kalahari semidesert. The climate is largely tropical, although the higher escarpments to the east could be described as montane (see Africa, South: Kalahari Margins).

Hunter-Foragers Stone tools attributed to the Oldowan, Acheulian, and post-Acheulian traditions represent evidence of hominid/hominoid hunter-forager activity in southern Africa. Homo sapiens or early modern humans populated this region from the Middle Pleistocene up to about 40 000 years ago. They are associated with the development of abstract forms of human behavior such as the use of ochre, ostrich egg shell containers, and distinctive stone tool technologies. Tool assemblages representative of the Bambata (Stillbay) tradition have prepared cores, rare crescents, bifacial and unifacial points, denticulates, and multifaceted striking platforms. Related traditions include Tshangula and Zombepata in the western and northern parts of the plateau. Similar developments occur in the adjacent Zambezi valley, in the Batoka gorge and the Gwembe Valley. The emergence of modern humans 40 000 years ago witnessed a change toward advanced stoneworking techniques, evidenced by microlithic technologies. Such tools robustly assisted humans to cope with increasingly colder climatic conditions culminating with the Last Glacial Maximum around 18 000 years ago. Also, they were adapted to the complex hunting and gathering practices that developed since then.

10 AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

Kadzi

MUTA

Zombepata Mutota

PA ST

Zvongombe

e

llag

t Vi

r Swa

ATE Nhunguza

Zambezi

, Diana s Vow

900 1200

Redcliff

Sawmills

Danamombe

TORWA STATE Gokomere Great Zimbabwe

Bambata

12

00

Khami

INDIAN OCEAN

Tshangula

90

0

MAKGADIKGADI PANS Schroda Mapungubwe 0

200 km Key Middle/late stone age sites

First millennium CE agro-pastoral sites

State capitals

Figure 1 Map of the Zimbabwe plateau showing archaeological sites associated with important cultural developments from the Middle Pleistocene.

An important development during the terminal Pleistocene and continuing into the Holocene relates to hunter-forager artistic and ritual traditions. These are paintings and engravings, found in caves, rock shelters, and open spaces. This ‘art’ is a product of shamanistic rituals and ceremonies connected with healing and rainmaking (Figure 2). Some of this art played a role in instructive teachings during certain ceremonies such as initiation, while other art may have expressed the local cosmological world of myths and symbolism. Some depict intergroup rivalries or conflicts. A majority of the art was authored by San hunter-gatherers, and depicts paintings dominated by the eland, an animal important to their ritual life. Other painting traditions are attributed to herder Khoekhoen and Bantu agro-pastoralists, and these continue into recent historical periods.

Early Herders In the western regions of the plateau and adjoining Kalahari sandveld, sheep, goats, and cattle were known earlier than the permanent settlements associated with the first crop farmers, and have been recovered in some later Holocene forager-hunter contexts. They date 2000–3000 years ago and, given the absence of their wild prototypes, may have been introduced in the region from further north. Events associated with early pastoral societies in the region are attributed to ancestral San and Khoekhoen communities, whose languages are related to those of some hunter-forager groups in eastern Africa. The spread of their language and other aspects of culture are, however, still in dispute. The archaeological horizons of sites with Bambata pottery have no signs of

AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 11

Figure 3 Example of pottery made by agro-pastoralist farmers between cal CE 400 and 600. This Happy Rest potsherd was recovered from an extensive village site on the margins of the plateau in the Tswapong Hills of Botswana. Photo: P. Fredrikson.

Figure 2 Late Stone Age rock art from Diana’s Vow, in eastern Zimbabwe. The painting depicts a Shaman in trance. Photo: P. Taruvinga. (National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe).

experimentation like those in northern parts of the continent. Presumably, processes of complex interaction and shifting identities between resident hunterforagers and pastoralists and hunter-herders have formed the archaeological record that we see. The depiction of domestic animals on rock art not only attests to some of these events, but also signifies their importance in early pastoral economies (see Animal Domestication).

Agro-pastoral Communities Settled farmers identified with the speakers of ancestral Bantu languages were established in much of southern Africa, including the Zimbabwe plateau by the early first millennium CE. Their origins lie somewhere in the northern Equatorial rain forests. It remains unclear how they spread over much of the region in a fairly short period of time. The process may have involved ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture whereby after few years, communities would abandon a piece of land due to marginal fertility of the soils, and move on to another. This process is dated from the third century BCE and continues throughout the first and early second millennium CE, attesting

to the expansion and spread of farming activities and iron production in southern Africa. Archaeological sites yielding well-fired, thickbodied ceramics decorated with either grooved or comb-stamped designs identify the expansion and spread of agro-pastoral societies (Figure 3). Most sites exhibit metalworking, the keeping of livestock, and pole-and-daub structures of permanent settlement. This pottery has been recovered from the Lake Victoria interior and coastal regions of eastern Africa, much of central Africa, the northern highveld and the eastern coastal zones of South Africa. This pottery is identical in both structure and design. Archaeologists have ascribed it to traditions or cultures which are further divided into time segments (phases), and geographical areas (facies). On the Zimbabwe plateau, such traditions include Gokomere-Ziwa, Zhizo, Kadzi, and Chinhoyi and they are all associated with early farming and iron-using communities who grew Bambara groundnuts, cucurbits, sorghum, and cow peas. They supplemented these with wild grasses and plant foods, wild animals, and marine resources. Cattle were very important in the sociopolitical and economic organization of these societies. This significance was expressed through a binary-coded settlement system known as the Central Cattle Pattern. Residential units surrounded cattle byres, which were the domain of men. Archaeologists unveiled this settlement pattern at Tabazingwe in western Zimbabwe, Kgaswe on the margins of the Kalahari and Schroda in northern South Africa (see Plant Domestication). From CE 600, these early farmers established large village settlements in the plateau and adjacent areas. Mainly situated along fertile agricultural soils and river basins, village sites covered areas averaging at least 5 ha in extent. Archaeological evidence from sites

12 AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

such as Kadzi and Swart Village in northern Zimbabwe, Schroda in the Limpopo Valley, and various sites in the Tswapong Hills of Botswana attest to these villages as hubs of religious, economic, and political activities. Craft specialization was well developed as shown by the ubiquity of concentrated remains of iron- (Figure 4) and ivory-working. This was strongly interwoven with the development of intraregional trade and the integration of the Zimbabwe plateau area into the world system through the Indian Ocean long-distance trade that connected the interior

Figure 4 Multiple fused tuyeres from a possible specialist iron smelting village, Tswapong Hills, Botswana.

of southern Africa with parts of Asia and the Persian Gulf. In this long-distance trade network, local products including ivory and iron were exchanged for exotic goods such as glass beads.

The Development of Social Complexity and the Zimbabwe Culture States During the late first millennium CE, intensive agricultural production and long-distance trade saw the rise of powerful elites who dominated the economy and politics of the region. The interplay of these factors with ideology and ritual led to the establishment of the early states or kingdoms. Mapungubwe, located in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin is but one example. Mapungubwe has dry-stone-walled areas that housed the elite on the hilltop. Ritual objects were used as insignia for political office while prestigious gold objects and glass beads expressed their wealth. Craft specialization was a hallmark of these early kingdoms with metal-working, bead-making, and weaving flourishing. After close to a century of prospering, environmental degradation and shifting trade opportunities occasioned the rise of a more powerful system at Great Zimbabwe some 300 km to the north. After eclipsing Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe controlled long-distance trade with the Indian Ocean

Figure 5 Photograph of the Great Enclosure and Valley enclosures at Great Zimbabwe.

AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 13

while the Swahili traders acted as intermediaries in a world system that linked widely separated geographical areas of the world. Local products such as gold, cattle, agricultural produce, and ivory, among others, were exchanged for exotic Persian wares, Chinese blue-on-white porcelain, and glass beads. The power and wealth of the ruling elite was invested in very impressive dry-stone-walled structures, the largest stone structures south of the Egyptian pyramids (Figure 5). Religion was important in the governance of the state and the recovery of skillfully made soapstone birds and ritual objects demonstrates this. The existence of abundant exotic and status goods at Great Zimbabwe when contrasted with the paucity of craft manufacturing evidence adduces that the elites controlled the distribution rather than primary production of goods. Such mechanisms were well supported using tributary modes of production. In a question of history repeating itself, the factors largely responsible for the rise of Great Zimbabwe led toward its demise. A rapidly deteriorating environment and the shifting trade routes led to the emergence of two successor states, the Mutapa in the north and Khami in the southwest by the end of the fifteenth century. The Mutapa state occupied the northern Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent Zambezi valley lowlands. Archaeology and oral history attest to a continuation of Great Zimbabwe influence. Early Mutapa kings had access to large and exploitable quantities of alluvial and hydrothermal gold, which became an important part of the economy of the state. The gold wealth was invested in monumental architecture and former Mutapa capitals – Zvongombe, Mutota, Kasekete, and Nhunguza – were built in the architectural styles of Great Zimbabwe. The predatory activities of merchant capital represented by the Portuguese traders became the Mutapa’s nemesis. The state ceased to be a significant political player by the late eighteenth century, and by the nineteenth century, was clearly just a mere chiefdom, largely subservient to Portuguese whims. Another successor state to Great Zimbabwe developed at Khami in the southwestern plateau area. The Torwa state was built and operated along the lines of Great Zimbabwe with the kings living on elaborate dry-stone-walled terraces and in enclosures.

Long-distance trade was an important part of the state and exotic goods have been recovered there. A civil war and Portuguese meddling sounded the death knell to the state leading to the rise of the Rozvi-Changamire state based at Danangombe in the late seventeenth century. The Rozvi-Changamire state was an important political entity, which at one time played the power broker in the Mutapa state. One of its leaders Changamire Dombo is credited with expelling the Portuguese from the plateau, for their gluttonous and belligerent behavior in the Mutapa state. Like most states that arose on the plateau, civil wars caused by succession disputes gradually weakened the state. Successive groups of Nguni people leaving southeastern Africa hastened the collapse of the state with the Ndebele occupying the vacuum arising from the aftermath. On its part, the Ndebele state was highly militarized to prevent annihilation by numerically superior opponents. Using advanced methods of warfare, they managed to subjugate some groups on the plateau. However, the influx of guns from the Portuguese meant that such groups could resist the Ndebele whose state ended with the colonization by the British South Africa Company in CE 1890. See also: Africa, South: Kalahari Margins; Animal Domestication; Modern Humans, Emergence of; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Beach DN (1994) The Shona and Their Neighbours. Oxford: Blackwell. Huffman TN (1996) Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Pikirayi I (2001) The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline in Southern Zambezian States. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press. Pwiti G (1996) Continuity and Change: An Archaeological Study of Farming Communities in Northern Zimbabwe, AD 500–1700. Studies in African Archaeology 13. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology, Uppsala University. Walker N (1995) Late Pleistocene and Holocene HuntersGatherers of the Matopos: An Archaeological Study of Change and Continuity in Zimbabwe. Studies in African Archaeology 10. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology, Uppsala University.

14 AFRICA, EAST/Ethiopia and Eritrea

AFRICA, EAST Contents Ethiopia and Eritrea Foragers Madagascar and Surrounding Islands Swahili Coast The Horn of Africa

Ethiopia and Eritrea Augustin F C Holl, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Aksum A kingdom formed from at least the first century AD in southwestern Ethiopia which developed into an empire including northern Ethiopia, Sudan, and southern Arabia. forager Someone who gathers food or provisions, especially forcibly. Horn of Africa A peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. Tigray The northern-most of the nine ethnic regions (kililoch) of Ethiopia.

Paleontological and Stone Age research is particularly dynamic in Ethiopia. Major Australopithecus sites are found along the Ethiopian part of the East African Rift Valley, from the Omo Valley in the south to the fossils’ bearing formations of Djibouti in the Northeast. Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands are nonetheless considered as important centers of African plant domestication and agricultural innovation but archaeological research on this and related topics, even if seriously improved during the last two decades, is still lagging behind. Teff (Eragrostis teff ), noog (Guizotia abyssinica), as well as finger millet (Eleusine coracana) are part of the locally domesticated plants grown in association with Near Eastern crops such as wheat, barley, chick pea, lentil, and fava bean. Food-producing societies combining agricultural production with livestock husbandry lived in the lowland and Eritrean plateau as well as Tigray from the Middle Holocene onward. During the first millennium BC, South Arabic culture and influence expanded across the Red Sea and took roots in Ethiopian highland areas of Eritrea and Tigray. Archaeologically, this new situation is indicated by

the sudden appearance of writing, monumental stone architecture, and sculpture. Iron technology may have been part of this new ‘cultural package’ that triggered the sixth to seventh century BC process of urbanization in Highlands Ethiopia. Urban centers emerged at such places as Yeha surrounded by at least 30 other known sites among which the Hawelti–Melazzo complex. Yeha grew out of an earlier mixed farming village and became the main urban center of the Daamat kingdom in the fifth to fourth century BC. It was a relatively small town, 7.5 ha in size, with however spectacular stone monuments, the temple, and the Great Beal Gebri. The former is a massive rectangular building, 18.5 m long, 15 m wide, with preserved plain walls measuring 11 m in height. The latter consists of a series of square-section massive monolithic pillars that may have been part of a cultic complex with some affinities to the Moon Temple at Marib. The Daamat kingdom collapsed during the later part of the first millennium BC but very few is in fact known about the causes and consequences of its demise. Smaller polities emerged. Stelae were used to mark elite burials, and exchanges seem to have been predominantly with the Nile Valley. Aksum was one of these small polities that developed in the area during the later part of the first millennium BC and the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Aksum appears to have been settled in the first century AD. A few centuries later, in the third–fourth century AD, it achieved regional primacy, controlled great amount of wealth, developed a centralized monarchical system, adopted Christianity as state religion, and launched an extensive expansionist policy. As suggested by Phillipson and Anfray, Aksum’s political control extended at several times to regions beyond the modern borders of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Large areas of southern Arabia were ruled from Aksum at intervals between the third and sixth century AD. It is likely that Meroe in the Sudanese Nile Valley was conquered by an Aksumite army under King Ezana, but the nature and consequences of this episode remain poorly understood.

AFRICA, EAST/Foragers 15

The town of Aksum, at the foot of two hills, Beta Giyorgis in the west and May Qoho in the east, was extended in a deep gorge oriented north–south. The surrounding land was rich, water abundant, building stone ubiquitous. The town itself was stretched along approximately one mile west–east with its width along the north–south axis measuring no more than 500 m. Massive architectural complexes have been excavated. Some were storage facilities, elite residences, and religious buildings. Elite and royal burials carved in the bedrock and marked by lavishly sculpted stelae were located in a central position overlooking the rest of the town complex. The largest stelae appear to mark the graves of the kings of Aksum immediately prior to their adoption of Christianity in the midfourth century. These stelae are the most remarkable monuments of the Aksum ‘skyline’. Now fallen and broken, the largest of these, was originally 33 m long, and 520 tons in weight, probably the largest single block of stone which people anywhere, at any time, have attempted to stand on end according to Phillipson (see Africa, East: Foragers; The Horn of Africa). Very early in its history, Aksum became a trade hub linking the Red Sea to the Nile Valley and the Roman world from the north to the rest of the continent. It was visited by merchants from Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and even India. Adulis was its main and only harbor on the Red Sea. The economic growth and expansion of the Romans was one of the key factors for the quick pace of development of Aksum as a thriving economic metropolis. At the peak of its power and influence, the core of the ‘Aksumite civilization’ extended over a territory measuring 300 by 160 km, from 13 /17 latitude north and 38 /40 longitude east, with an access to the Red Sea at Adulis. Aksum kingdom collapsed during the eighth century AD partly because of the success and fast expansion of Islam and its corollary political and economic isolation in a predominantly Muslim world. The overexploitation of local resources, intensive erosion of the deforested land, as well as a short arid spell may have accelerated the depopulation and demise of the Aksumite metropolis in the eighth–ninth century AD. See also: Africa, East: Foragers; Madagascar and

Surrounding Islands; Swahili Coast; The Horn of Africa; Asia, West: Arabian Peninsula; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Anfray F (1990) Les Anciens Ethiopiens: Siecles d’Histoire. Paris: Armand Colin.

Bard KA, Coltorti M, DiBlasi MC, Dramis F, and Fattovitch R (2000) The environmental history of Tigray (northern Ethiopia) in the Middle and Late Holocene: A preliminary outline. African Archaeological Review 17: 65–86. Brandt SA (1984) New perspectives on the origins of food production in Ethiopia. In: Clark JD and Brandt SA (eds.) From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa, pp. 173–205. Berkeley: University of California Press. Brandt SA (1986) The Upper Pleistocene and Early Holocene prehistory of the Horn of Africa. The African Archaeological Review 4: 41–82. Butzer KW (1981) Rise and Fall of Axum, Ethiopia: A geoarchaeological interpretation. American Antiquity 46(3): 471–495. Phillipson D (1998) Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press. Phillipson D (2000) Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia, 1993–1997. London: The British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Foragers Sibel Barut Kusimba, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Eburran An East African obsidian industry of the central Rift Valley, Kenya. forager Someone who hunts for food and provisions. hunter-gatherer A member of a people subsisting in the wild on food obtained by hunting and foraging. Later Stone Age The third and final phase of Stone Age technology in sub-Saharan Africa, dating from more than c. 30 000 years ago until historical times in some places. Middle Stone Age The second part of the Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa, dating from c. 150 000–30 000 years ago and roughly equivalent to the Middle Paleolithic elsewhere in the Old World. Pastoral Neolithic A general term for the pre-Iron Age food-producing societies of East Africa.

Introduction The concept of the forager is derived from ethnographic examples of hunting-and-gathering people. These lifeways are based on the exploitation of wild plant foods and in Africa, ethnographic cases include people from the Botswanan Desert, the San, and also various Central African groups associated with tropical forests. Archaeological hunter-gatherers are different from ethnographic examples, even in the same environments. Because of the diversity of cultures bundled under the hunter-gatherer rubric, rejection of the term ‘hunter-gatherer’ has been suggested. It is possible that our trusted cubby holes

16 AFRICA, EAST/Foragers

for ‘hunter-gatherers’, ‘pastoralists’, or ‘farmers’ misrepresent a prehistoric world frequently less economically specialized than that of the ethnographic present. Nevertheless, few would argue that terms like huntergatherer be rejected. Instead, we can try to appreciate how environment and history have created variability in hunting-and-gathering societies. Three basic time periods of African Foragers will be reviewed in East Africa, including the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and transition to food production.

Middle Stone Age To some archaeologists, Middle Stone Age (MSA) shows the gradual accumulation of the modern hunter-gatherer repertoire. The repertoire, as far as the MSA is concerned, might include: diversity in the style of lithic artifacts and projectile weapons, backed microliths and composite tools, bone tools and bone points, hunting success, exploitation of fish, and other smaller resources which could represent the beginnings of a broad-spectrum or intensification process in the case of evidence of fishing, land use patterns characterized by a San-like aggregation and dispersal and repeated occupation of rock shelters, cultural use of space and activity areas within sites, increased artifact trade, and the making of beads and use of ochre. These behaviors and artifact types are thought to be related to ways of thinking, including symbolic behavior, innovation, and planning that are ‘modern’, in the sense that they are associated with Homo sapiens. At Blombos Cave on the southern coast of South Africa, MSA levels dating to 77 000 years ago have yielded more than 30 worked bone awls and points and 8000 pieces of worked ochre, two of which are incised with parallel lines as well as beads. However, other sites of the African MSA also show evidence of artifact design and geographic diversity; use of microliths, backed tools, and hafted tools; hunting proficiency; worked bone; fishing, mollusk gathering, and small animal procurement; and use of symbolic artifacts such as beads and ochre. The MSA is characterized by Levallois and other prepared core methods of stone tool manufacture. A common tool type in the East African MSA is the Stillbay point, or points from discoidal core reduction. Important MSA sites include the ones in Northern Tanzania, such as Nasera Rockshelter and Mumba Rockshelter, Mumba Hohle, Olduvai Gorge, and a recent excavation from Loiyangalani near Olduvai Gorge, where bone artifacts and fish bone have been reported. Southwestern Tanzania also has MSA localities reported along the Songwe River. In Kenya, sites have been found in the Kenya Rift Valley, including Prospect Farm and Lukenya Hill, and in

Ethiopia at Porc Epic Cave and Aduma. The East African MSA is rarely found with ostrich eggshell beads, as reported from Mumba and the Loiyangalani site, but is quite often associated with the so-called ‘Kenya Stillbay’ industry which includes small and large points which may be spear points.

Later Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is marked by the transition from the discoidal and Levallois core reduction methods to leptolithic or small tools. The sequence of LSA lithic industries at Lukenya Hill, Kenya documents the appearance and increasing proportions of time of microlithic tools, also associated with modern human behavior. Other early LSA sites show increasing use of bone tools, the exploitation of fish using specialized technology, and the use of bored stones for plant food gathering. LSA sites also contain early evidence of artifacts related to personal adornment. Often these are blade tools. Lukenya Hill contains at least five early LSA archaeological sites, including GvJm 62, GvJm 46, GvJm 22, and GvJm 16. Analysis of these sites shows that the proportions of microlithic tools and the use of nonlocal obsidian from the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, about 150 km from Lukenya Hill, increase over time. Other important early LSA sites include Enkapune ya Muto, whose assemblages show that ostrich eggshell beads, hafted microliths, and small round steep scrapers similar to those made at GvJm62 were made and used there (see Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers). Other significant LSA industries are found in the Eburran Industry of the Central Rift Valley in Kenya. The Eburran Industry represents hunter-gatherers well-adapted to Rift Valley highlands and lake basins in East Africa, who used abundant obsidian to make microlithic tools and hunted a variety of ungulates associated with woodlands and forests. After 3000 BP, many Eburran sites appear to be associated with the origins of food production, in particular the keeping of goats, such as at the site of Enkapune ya Muto. LSA people are also associated with fish exploitation and the making of pottery, as evidenced in the Kansyore midden sites of Lake Victoria.

The Transition to Food Production The problem of the transition from hunting and gathering to food production has been approached by examining how economies changed through diffusion and innovation of domesticated plant and animal species and the interactions of hunters and others who were herders/farmers. Many reviews of the

AFRICA, EAST/Madagascar and Surrounding Islands 17

origins of domesticated plants and animals in Africa have emphasized on the early and indigenous development of food production, the impact of cattleborne disease, patterns of indigenous development and diffusion, the role of arid and unpredictable environment, and the evidence of early domesticated plant foods in Africa. Several scholars have compared the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherers and food producers, both from the perspective of understanding the process of the adoption of food production and understanding hunter-gatherer–food producer interaction. Important cases of food-producer/farmer interaction include that of Eburran and Pastoral Neolithic sites in the Central Rift Valley, that indicates the association of Eburran sites with domestic stock and in lower altitude locations, which presumably reflects interaction with plains pastoralists; the Tsavo case of southeastern Kenya, where hunter-gatherers known as the Waata persisted until the twentieth century by exchanging hunted meat and ivory tusks with Oromo and Wambisha pastoralists; and the case of montane hunter-gatherers variously known as Okiek or ‘Ndorobo’ whose interaction with Maasai and other pastoralists involved exchange of honey and meat for agricultural products and animal secondary products. See also: Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Great Lakes Area; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers; Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient.

Further Reading Andah B (1993) Identifying early farming traditions of West Africa. In: Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns, pp. 240–254. London: Routledge. Bellwood P (2004) The First Farmers: Origins of Agricultural Societies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Bollig M (1987) Ethnic relations and spatial mobility in Africa: A review of the peripatetic niche. In: Rao A (ed.) Kolner Ethnologische Mitteilungen Volume 8, The Other Nomads: Peripatetic Minorities in Cross-Cultural Perspective, pp. 179–228. Cologne: Bohlau Verlag. Burch ES (1998) The future of hunter-gatherer research. In: Gowdy J (ed.) Limited Wants, unlimited Means: A Reader in HunterGatherer Economics and the Environment, pp. 201–217. Washington, DC: Island Press. Cronk L and Dickson B (2000) Public and hidden transcripts in the East African highlands: A comment on Smith (1998). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20: 113–121. diLernia S and Manzi G (1997) Before Food Production in North Africa. Forli, ABACO. Henshilwood C and Marean C (2003) The origin of modern human behavior: Critique of the models and their test implications. Current Anthropology 44: 627–652.

Kent S (1996) Cultural Diversity among Twentieth Century Foragers: An African Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kuhn S and Stiner M (2001) The antiquity of hunter-gatherers. In: Panter-Brick C, Layton R, and Rowley-Conwy P (eds.) Hunter-Gatherers, An Interdisciplinary Perspective, pp. 99–142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schrire C (1980) An inquiry into the evolutionary status and apparent identity of San hunter-gatherers. Human Ecology 8: 9–32.

Madagascar and Surrounding Islands Douglas William Hume, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Bantu language Group belonging to the Niger-Congo family. By one estimate, there are 513 languages in the Bantu grouping. Borneo Located at the center of the Malay archipelago and Indonesia. Administratively, this island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Madagascar Island Nation in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is home to 5% of the world’s plant and animal species (more than 80% of which are indigenous to Madagascar).

Current archaeological research in Madagascar is concerned with a relatively narrow band of time from approximately 2000 year BP, the generally accepted period of first contact, to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the advent of historical records and European contact. Although the peopling of Madagascar is arguably a recent event, little is known regarding the early settlements. The lack of archaeological evidence is due to a variety of factors: quick environmental decomposition of sites, sparse use of sites by transient populations, and lack of funding to research the area. Other forms of evidence, such as linguistics, and genetic and ethnological data, are also used to develop the chronology of events during the settlement of Madagascar. Though early arguments postulated that the first Malagasy inhabitants were from one origin, historical, linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence suggests multiregional influences from Southeast Asia, East Africa, South Asia, and the Near East. A hybridization of many

18 AMERICAS, NORTH/Madagascar and Surrounding Islands

influences is therefore probable, in which several waves of settlement/colonization occurred and each group introduced or reintroduced technologies or other cultural traits. Prior to settlement, maritime people, who were exploiting the area’s offshore resources, visited Madagascar and traders used Madagascar for temporary shelter and restocking of supplies. As trading became more important, the camps’ temporal and spatial existence increased over time. This temporary nature of the early settlements contributes to the difficulty in tracing the sequences of events from first settlement to permanent settlements and finally a formation of a distinct Malagasy culture. Linguistically, there has been difficulty in deciphering the origin of the Malagasy language due to movement of people, the number of Malagasy dialects created, and the inability to define a protoMalagasy language. Through comparative linguistics, analysis of loan words, and the phonology, morphology, and vocabulary of the Malagasy language suggest two possible origins: the Barito Valley of Borneo and the Bantu language of Eastern Africa. Genetic analysis shows that both East African and Indonesian gene frequencies are evident within the general population at approximately equal ratios throughout Madagascar. The introduction of the sickle cell gene indicates an infusion of genes from people of central or east Africa, north of Zambezi. The ethnological evidence connecting Madagascar and other cultures such as Southeast Asia, Africa, India, and the Near East that have similar traits is ambiguous. Many similarities are better explained by environmental constraints than by direct linkage with a specific group. There are examples of shared knowledge; for example, growing of millet in dry areas of Madagascar is thought to have been borrowed from East Africa and the growing of rice in wetter areas borrowed from Indonesia. Madagascar has had exposure to a variety of cultural traits, but the existence of a cultural trait does not imply genetic relationships, but may rather result from either direct or indirect trade between two genetically distinct groups. The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity in Madagascar are the four radiocarbon-dated dwarf hippopotamus (Choeropsis madagascariensis) femurs that show human modification. The femurs, found in southern Madagascar (Lamboharana and Ambolisatra), yielded two reliable dates, 1970  60 and 1740  50 years BP. What has been most puzzling in Madagascar’s ecological history is the extinction of Madagascar’s megafauna, such as the dwarf hippopotamus, approximately 2000 years ago. Although a

catastrophic fire event, calamitous drought in southern Madagascar, first-contact overkill, introduction of cattle, and hypervirulent disease have all been blamed for the extinction of Madagascar’s megafauna, it is more likely that the causes worked in synergy: the introduction of exotic and invasive species, climatic changes, and arrival of humans caused these extinctions. Another early archaeological site in Madagascar is Sarodrano, 1490  90 years BP. However, this early date is questionable due to site disturbance and further study of the site is impossible due to its destruction by a cyclone. Other early settlements dated to the ninth–tenth centuries AD include the following: Irodo (Tafianatsirebeka) – a northeastern coast settlement that produced shellfish, farming, and chloro-schistite vessel production and trade; Andransosoa – a southeastern inland cattle pastoralist; and Talaky – a southern coastal fishing village. During this early period (first to tenth century AD), only traces of transient visits have been found, which may be a reflection of the limited areas surveyed along Madagascar’s coast and not a measure of what settlement sites are actually there. After AD 1000, permanent occupation sites along the entire Madagascar coast and one central highland site have yielded evidence of rice agriculture, bovid herding, fishing, iron smelting, and local trading, but no direct link to Southeast Asia, East Africa, South Asia, or the Near East. In addition, it cannot be determined if the economic and technological diversity in evidence from sites of this period is the result of in situ evolution or imported from another area. From the twelfth century AD, the settlements in the west began to grow to significant size and duration. Mahilaka was the first major port in the region; its decline in the fourteenth century AD was followed by settlements developing along the east coast. Cores taken from lakes and bogs from this time have found fluctuating levels of grassy and brushy vegetation along with arboreal pollen, showing a negative correlation. This indicates a variable deforestation by anthropogenic means and therefore a variable human population concentration and rate of environmental modification. By the fourteenth century AD, the archaeological evidence indicates a relatively uniform cultural pattern in the southern region. It is currently unknown what caused this explosion of settlements during this period of history in Madagascar. Settlements during this period were associated in clusters surrounding a central site, which may have been the political and/or social elite. In addition, trade goods originating in South China, Southeast Asia, the Near East, and Europe are evident

AMERICAS, NORTH/Swahili Coast 19

throughout Madagascar by this time, indicating increased external contact. Of the polities that emerged during the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, only the Merina of the central highlands of Madagascar has the archaeological evidence to suggest the formation of a state. In particular, a hierarchy of a capital, subsidiary centers, villages, and hamlets along with frontier military sites provides evidence that a state level system was needed for control, because the level of control needed for these sites is more than a loose political unit could manage. During this period, the effects of European trading enabled the earliest written accounts of the Malagasy political situation to be recorded. With the advent of European trading, political power became subject to the control of trade goods and some kingdoms (e.g., the Bara) collapsed while others increased their influence (e.g., the Sakalava). Beginning in the sixteenth century, several groups were heavily involved in trade with the Europeans (mostly French, Dutch, and Arabs). Others (e.g., Tandroy, Karembola, and Mahafaly peoples in southern Madagascar) were not actively involved in trade, yet still received European goods by importing them through their neighbors. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the beginnings of what has been termed the ‘Bara state’ collapsed due to disputes between the sons of the dead ruler and, subsequently, the interior Maroserana ruler, Andriamanely, captured the area and installed his family members as local rulers. The southern kingdoms of Madagascar did not consolidate their power and remained divided from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The result was their lack of political influence on interior and northern groups. Whether groups were in direct trade with the Europeans or received goods through indirect trade, the impact of the goods that the Europeans brought to Madagascar was felt throughout the island. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Sudan,

Nilotic.

Further Reading Deschamps H (1972) Histoire de Madagascar, 4th edn. Paris: Berger-Levrault. Dewar RE (1984) Extinctions in Madagascar: The loss of the subfossil fauna. In: Martin PS and Klein RG (eds.) Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 574–593. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. Dewar RE and Wright HT (1993) The culture history of Madagascar. Journal of World Prehistory 7: 417–466. Marks S and Cray R (1975) Southern Africa and Madagascar (c.1600–c.1790). In: Gray R (ed.) Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, p. 384–468. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pearson MP (1997) Close encounters of the worst kind: Malagasy resistance and colonial disasters in southern Madagascar. World Archaeology 28: 393–417. Wright HT and Rakotoarisoa JA (2004) The rise of Malagasy societies: New developments in the archaeology of Madagascar. In: Goodman SM and Benstead JP (eds.) The Natural History of Madagascar, pp. 112–119. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Swahili Coast Adria LaViolette, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary caliphate The Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. city-state A region controlled exclusively by a city, usually having sovereignty. colonialism The extension of a nation’s sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced. urbanism The study of cities – their economic, political, social and cultural environment, and the imprint of all these forces on the built environment.

The many towns and hinterland communities of the Eastern African coast share broad cultural commonalities that emerged in the first millennium AD, in what came to be called Swahili civilization. The Swahili coast extended along some 2500 km, from modern Somalia to Mozambique and incorporating Kenya’s Lamu archipelago, Tanzania’s Pemba, Unguja (Zanzibar), and Mafia Islands, the Comoros Archipelago, and northwestern Madagascar. This expanse corresponds with the western edge of the monsoonal wind system, facilitating travel and communication on the coast itself and among ports along the Indian Ocean rim. The pre-Swahili history of the coast is known largely through archaeological research, augmented by rare documents and interpretations drawn from historical linguistics. In the centuries prior to the founding of Swahili settlements, the coast was home to an array of smallerscale societies subsisting on pastoralism and mixed farming and fishing, and who shared archaeological and linguistic connections with interior peoples. The use of Urewe and Kwale ceramics in both areas exemplifies shared lifeways of coastal and interior regions in the Late Stone and Early Iron Ages.

20 AMERICAS, NORTH/Swahili Coast

Archaeological work at pre-/proto-Swahili sites dating to the first centuries AD, such as Unguja Ukuu in Tanzania, provides evidence of relatively small mixed farming settlements, some with impressive trade ties beyond the coast. The first written document pertaining to the coast is a merchants’ guide, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The Periplus was written in AD 40 by a Greek sailor, who wrote of trade along the Red Sea, Eastern African, and Indian shores while on a Roman ship. He references places such as Rhapta, the Romans’ southernmost port of trade, thought to have been on the central Tanzanian coast. Rhapta is described as under the authority of the governor of Muza in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, but subsequent historical and archaeological evidence have not confirmed this depiction. Exported goods listed included ivory and rhino horn from the interior and nautilus and turtle shell from the coast, while imports included metal implements, glass, and some foods. Another, second-century source is Ptolemy’s Geography, a Graeco-Roman compendium containing sailing coordinates for coastal locations. Both documents are consistent with archaeological evidence that some coastal Early Iron Age populations were engaged in trade and social relations with Mediterranean and Indian Ocean societies. The documentary record is then largely silent until the late first millennium, when Arab and other accounts begin. By the sixth to tenth centuries AD, archaeological evidence reveals a distinct coastal Swahili lifeway. Its characteristics included: (1) use of Tana Tradition or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics; (2) technologies such as iron smelting and boat construction; (3) the building of mostly rectangular earth-and-thatch houses; (4) household economy based on millet agriculture, husbandry, and fishing; (5) obtaining imported goods including glazed ceramics, glassware, metal jewelry, and stone and glass beads from the Persian Gulf and beyond; and (6) conversion to Islam from the eighth century onward. Few of these traits are exclusive to the coast but the combination emerged as characteristically coastal, and ultimately Swahili. The settlement of the coast by people with this archaeological signature marks a transition from the previous mosaic of coast and interior groups, although the early Swahili maintained many cultural practices of the pastoral and farming/fishing peoples on the coast and hinterland from whom they were derived. Nearly all known Swahili settlements were on or within 20 km of the coast. Islam grew to great importance in Swahili life. The earliest evidence to date for its practice is from the excavation of an eighth-century timber mosque at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago. A series of mosques of increasing size and formality were subsequently superimposed. This sequence attests to contacts

between proto- or early Swahili with Muslim traders or missionaries. Earlier understandings of the formation of Swahili society presumed that Arab and Persian immigrants colonized and converted coastal people for the purpose of developing trading opportunities. However, archaeological and linguistic evidence now points convincingly to the African origins of Swahili culture, while still acknowledging that some immigration and an openness to select foreign influences was fundamental to Swahili life. By the ninth century, economic connections between Eastern Africa and the Middle East had grown in scale to include the export of thousands of slaves from the interior. The slaves were transported through coastal centers including Unguja and Pemba to destinations in modern-day Iraq where they labored on drainage projects at the head of the Gulf of Basra. In AD 868, a massive uprising, the Zanj Revolt, weakened the Caliphate based in Basra and led to a downturn in interest in slaves from Swahili sources. The revolt indicates the presence and influence of Africans in Asia at that time, but more research is needed to understand the full texture of this influence. The spiritual transformation of the Swahili coast had sweeping effects, but these were neither uniform nor rapid. Representatives of several Islamic sects gained influence in different areas. Conversion did not eliminate but rather incorporated local spiritual practices. By c. AD 1200, however, all large Swahili settlements and many smaller ones featured stonebuilt mosques as centerpieces of Islamic practice and community organization. The wealth and power of Swahili towns waxed in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, as measured by the scale and number of settlements, material culture, and expanding trade relationships to the interior and along distant Indian Ocean shores. Building in stone became the hallmark of the most elite dwellings and public and ritual structures. In the ninth century, Swahili elites adopted a method of mortared and plastered limestone construction that originated on the Red Sea shores. The resulting architecture – elaborated, multistoried, more permanent than earth and thatch – may have been critical to anchoring relationships of certain Swahili lineages with foreign traders, a practice seen ethnohistorically and which contributed to the prosperity of towns and regions at large. However, earth-and-thatch houses continued to characterize villages, and were even common within the new larger settlements marked by elite stone buildings, called ‘stonetowns’. While stone architecture became the basis of initial reconstructions of Swahili society, contemporary archaeological research is investigating the full range of Swahili houses and public buildings in town and countryside.

AMERICAS, NORTH/The Horn of Africa 21

Many Swahili settlements have been described as urban (even ‘city-states’ or ‘states’) (see Civilization and Urbanism, Rise of; Urban Archaeology) marked by complex relations between centers and their surrounding regions. These centers differed in their internal class structures and political styles. Coastal regions became more distinct from one another with localized historical trajectories. The shared visual icons of Swahili stonetowns are compelling, but should not overshadow these important differences between regions along the coast. Major stonetowns that have been investigated archaeologically include Shanga, Manda, and Gede in Kenya; Chwaka, Ras Mkumbuu, Tumbatu, and Kilwa in Tanzania; and Mahilaka in Madagascar. Certain towns created epic histories, passed down orally and ultimately formalized as written chronicles, such as those known from Pate and Kilwa. The chronicles, as well as other sources, often discuss sociopolitical relationships: the ties between Swahili and interior peoples, marriage alliances with Indian Ocean families, acts of generosity by local leaders to their populations. Life in the stonetown polities continued but with intensified farming, fishing, craft production, Islamic practice, and long-distance trade. Gold obtained from Zimbabwe Plateau (see Africa, Central: Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas) societies became a leading export from the coast, along with ivory, iron, animal products, and mangrove poles. Imports featured glazed ceramics from East, Southeast, and Southwest Asia; a range of personal items such as beads and other jewelry; cloth; and religious texts. Coins were minted in some of the largest centers. Rock crystal and other stone was worked into beads and traded, and iron and copper alloys were produced locally. From the sixteenth century onward, the effects of European and Arab colonizers became increasingly felt. The Portuguese reached the Swahili coast for the first time in 1498. Their presence in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is known from documentary sources, and architectural remains in Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, and on Pemba and Unguja. The construction of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1593 was the most striking presence the Portuguese achieved in this period. They were defeated there in 1697 after a long siege, ending the first phase of their colonialism on the Swahili coast. Portuguese settlement and cultural impact is not well understood at present and future study is warranted. At a regional level, their aggressive intrusions in the Indian Ocean contributed to the long-term decline of Swahili autonomy and power. Sections of the Swahili coast came under attack from Omani Arabs immediately after the Portuguese were defeated, such that from 1498 onward the Swahili

struggled against colonialist incursions of various scales and levels of success. Swahili urban and rural life prevailed, although disruptions in long-distance trade and losses of regional autonomy weakened the strength of the entire coast and its ties to the interior and the Indian Ocean. The Swahili coast was not united under a single political authority until the Omani Sultanate colonized it in the early nineteenth century. See also: Africa, Central: Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas; Civilization and Urbanism, Rise of; Urban Archaeology.

Further Reading Allen J de V (1993) Swahili Origins. London: Heinemann. Chami FA (1994) The Coast of East Africa in the First Millennium AD: A Study of the Iron Working Farming Communities. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. Chittick HN (1974) Kilwa: An Islamic Trading City on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Croucher S (2006) Plantations on Zanzibar: An Archaeological Approach to Complex Identities. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Manchester. Freeman-Grenville GSP (1962) The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First Century to the Early Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon. Garlake PS (1966) The Early Islamic Architecture on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Horton MC (1996) Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Settlement on the Coast of East Africa. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Horton M and Middleton J (2000) The Swahili. London: Blackwell. Juma A (2004) Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar: An Archaeological Study of Early Urbanism. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. Kusimba CM (1999) The Rise and Fall of Swahili States. Walnut Creek: AltaMira.

The Horn of Africa Rahul Oka, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA Chapurukha M Kusimba, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Early Common Era Refers to the period between 100 BC and 100 CE that witnessed a significant increase in interregional and transoceanic trade linking the Indian Ocean world, East and Central Asia, and the Mediterranean and also the rise of stable empires and states in Asia, Southern Europe, and Africa. vertical archipelago effect First described in the Andes but also in the Himalayas and Hawaii; rapidly changing elevations

22 The Horn of Africa within a relatively small lateral area causes highly variable yet circumscribed environment and leads to the development of interdependent and exchanging settlements along the vertical landscape practicing a wide variety of subsistence activities.

The Horn of Africa is a cultural area comprising the modern nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Archaeological research over the past century shows an unbroken sequence of human occupation from the Middle Stone Age to the present. It has also been blessed with a unique location: on the crossroads of Asia and Africa, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and offering easy land access between western ports on the Red Sea and the Nile River. Epigraphic evidence from Egypt identifies this region as Punt and an active trading partner of Egypt during the reign of Queen Hapshetsut. Archaeological evidence suggests that the trade links between the Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean world (Egypt) as well as Southwest Asia can be traced as far back as 2500 BC. The Horn of Africa boasts greater geographical diversity than any other area in Africa: from the baking plains along the Eritrean and Somali coasts, the largest and highest land plateau, the cooler Ethiopian highlands, the lowland tropical Nile headwaters to the north, and the arid dry lowlands to the northwestern, western, and southwestern regions along the borders with Sudan and Kenya. The wider range of geographic and hence climatic variability creates a ‘vertical archipelago’ effect allowing for a larger variety of sustainable resources and related subsistence activities, and the contemporaneous development of a regional exchange network between settlements. The Somali Coast (that includes the actual ‘horn’ or the jutting coastal plain along the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean), the Eritrean (and Djiboutian) Coast along the Western Red Sea, and the Ethiopian highlands have thus been interconnected from earliest times and this regional exchange has played a great role in the development of social complexity in the Horn from 800 BC onward. The Horn of Africa is also the region of many ‘firsts’ and ‘onlys’. Important food crops such as teff, ensete, finger millet, nug, and coffee were first domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands and this is the only region in sub-Saharan Africa to use domesticated cattle and the plow for agricultural purposes. ‘Geez’ is one of the three indigenous writing systems in Africa and was developed during the development of the Aksumite polity. This region is also home to a two millennia long development of incipient state formation in sub-Saharan Africa: from Aksum (also

called Axum) (second century BC to ninth century CE), Zagwe (tenth century to fourteenth century CE), Solomonid (fourteenth century to seventeenth century), and Amharic Gondar (seventeenth century to twentieth century). The monarchs of these polities have practiced and hailed themselves as the ‘protectors’ of Christianity from the conversion of King Ezana of Aksum in CE 330, to the Amhara kings of the twentieth century, making the Ethiopian highlands the longest-lived Christian-ruled area in the world. Consequently, much focus of historical research has been on this indigenous adoption of and syncretic processes affecting Christianity, regarding the aforementioned highland states as islands of Christianity pitted against indigenous religions and later against Islamic incursions from the coasts. This paradigm is now being challenged as the positive contributions of traditional African religions and Islam are being acknowledged, as are the impacts of nonChristian peoples of the Horn, including the Somali, the Oromo (formerly called the Galla), the Afar, and the Saho. Recent historical and archaeological work on the antiquity and spread of Islam has underscored the role played by Asian and African Islamic traders and settlers in Red Sea ports, including Adulis, Massawa, the Dahlak Islands on the Eritrean Coast, and Berbera, Zeila, Ras Hafun, and Mogadishu on the Somali Coast. The Dahlak Islands, Adulis, Berbera, and Ras Hafun have been active since the Early Common Era and played a significant role in the rise of Aksum and the latter highland polities. Trade goods recovered in both the coastal ports as well as Aksum (and subsequent states) include products from South Asia (glass beads, coins, cloth), Rome (ceramics, amphorae), Egypt, and even China (iron, porcelains, silk). In return, the highland and coastal ports provided infrastructure for secondary production and regional and transoceanic trade in food grains, animal products such as elephant and hippopotamus tusk ivory (raw, cut, and carved), skins and hides, precious stones, rock crystals, gold, slaves, beeswax, and gum Arabic. Emergent trends and future directions of archaeological research seem to favor this regional approach for understanding social complexity. The rest of this essay will summarize the recent archaeological–historical work along the three zones of the Horn of Africa: (1) the Northern Coast along the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (Eritrean, Djiboutian, and northern Somali Coasts); (2) the Southeastern Somali Coast, also known as the Benadir Coast (along the northwestern Indian Ocean); and (3) the Eritrean– Ethiopian highlands. The bulk of archaeological work in the Horn has concentrated on the highlands but

The Horn of Africa 23

there have been a few projects working on the coasts, tied into the larger coastal archaeological projects further south along the East African coast.

Northern Coast The northern coast of the Horn of Africa is characterized by the ports of Adulis, Massawa, Saad-Din, Berbera and Zeila, as well as the Dahlak Islands off the coast of Eritrea. Excavations at these sites have also underscored the importance of the northern coast as the forum for contacts with Southern Arabia as far back as the second millennium BC. Analysis of similarities in material culture as well as evidence on constant interaction suggests an interdependent development of complexity on both sides of the Red Sea, especially in the pre-Aksumite period. The ports of Adulis and Massawa were significant for the external connections of the emerging Aksum polity during the Early Common Era and show evidence of Aksumite and southern Arabian interactions and trade. Artifacts recovered include gold, ivory, and a human skeleton in chains or manacles suggesting the existence of slave trade. The Dahlak Islands were sources of tortoiseshell and ambergris, but also were known pirate bases and hence played an important role in controlling the Red Sea trade until their conquest in the tenth century CE. The ports of Zeila and Saad-Din show intensive merging of agricultural and pastoral activities by providing specialized infrastructure for pastoral exchange and trade as well as being important centers of transoceanic trade. The north coast was regarded as part of the territory controlled by the given highland polity. However, regardless of hinterland influence, these ports were probably semi-autonomous. From the eighth century, Islam started to spread across the Horn but found its strength in the coastal ports of the northern coast. The aforementioned ports as well as new ports such as Aydhab and Suakin (further north) were part of coastal Islamic polities of Shewa, Falasha, Gojjam, and Damot (late ninth century and tenth century) and Ifat (Yifat) (eleventh century CE) are usually seen as engaging in conflict with the highland Christian polities of Zagwe. It is clear from recent analysis that the religious conflict did not significantly affect the trading relationships as the highland states continued to use the aforementioned ports for their commercial and diplomatic activities. Trade continued even during the conflicts between the Ethiopian polity and the emergent Islamic states of Adal and Harar between and through the fourteenth century to sixteenth century CE. The territorial conquest of most of the Horn by Imam Ahmad bin Ibrahim al-Ghazi or Ahmad Gran˜ of Harar between

CE 1529 and 1543 was brought to an end by the arrival and action of the Portuguese acting as coreligionist partners of the Ethiopian state of Gondar. Though the late first and early second millennium periods have undergone historiographic scrutiny, largely through the lens of the Christianity versus Islam conflict, this and the subsequent periods have not been subjected to significant archaeological research, especially in the hinterland.

Benadir Coast Archaeology of the Benadir zone has also been confined to the coastal area and to the large ports. The bulk of this research has concentrated on Ras Hafun and Mogadishu. Presence of South Asian, ‘Mesopotamian’, Roman, Early Sassanian, and Egyptian ceramics suggests that Ras Hafun was active in the Early Common Era trade. However, the main trading port on the Benadir Coast was the city of Mogadishu and the articulated settlements of Brawa, Merca, Warsheikh, and Kismayo. While most of the other ports on the Somali coast have declined, the Mogadishu port cluster is still active and formed the basis for ongoing trade between the hinterland and coast of southern Somalia from the seventeenth century to the present. Unlike the northern coast, there was no hinterland polity associated with the ports on the Benadir coast until the sixteenth century CE. Analysis of imported Persian, Indian, Egyptian, and Chinese trade wares in these ports suggests that Mogadishu, Brawa, and Merca arose between the ninth and tenth centuries within a similar context as the ports further south along the Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Mozambique coasts: The coastal settlements were articulated with hinterland agricultural and pastoral groups. The ports provided forums for exchange of hinterland and overseas products. The elites of Mogadishu and other ports were linked through kinship, blood-brotherhood, and marital alliances with hinterland pastoral and agricultural groups and depended on these for protection. It is not inconceivable that the trade boom and demand for African products c. CE 1500 led to the rise of the Islamic Ajurann Confederacy (CE 1500–1700) and state development among the Somali in the Benadir hinterland. This period is also known for major demographic movements in the Benadir hinterland, including the migration of the Oromo pastoralists and their wars with the Somali to the northeast and the Amhara to the north in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, leading to their southerly migration over the next two centuries. Not only did these migrations precipitate political changes in the Horn of Africa but also central and eastern Africa.

24 The Horn of Africa

Ethiopian–Eritrean Highlands

Summary

The bulk of archaeological excavations in the Horn has focused on the highlands, where the ‘firsts’ and the ‘onlys’ are concentrated, particularly on the site of Aksum–Tigray in the northern Ethiopian–Eritrean highlands. Though the early and mid-twentieth century efforts focused on the stelae, monumental architecture, artwork, and epigraphic research to reconstruct the development of the Aksumite state from the Early Common Era to its demise in the late first millennium CE, recent work has focused on tracing the beginnings of pre-Aksumite settlement. The early development of complexity in the Ethiopian highlands has now been tentatively traced to the early first millennium BC and interactions with the Hadramaut and Southwestern coast of Arabia have now been traced to the second millennium BC. Archaeo-botanical and zoological approaches have also moved away from mere establishment of antiquity to understanding the regional and evolutionary context of plant and animal domestication in the Horn of Africa. In particular, recent work in South Asia dates the African domesticates to 2000 BC. Not only does this suggest the deep antiquity of interconnections between the Horn of Africa and Asia but also the larger transregional context of domestication involving transfer of ideas, products, and technology. Current reconstructions of the demise of Aksum vary from blaming the declining climate conditions from the mid–late first millennium CE to the emergence of Islamic power along the northern coast from the late eighth century, concentrated in the ports of Massawa, Adulis, the Dahlak Islands, and Zeila. The latter argument has also been made for the fall of the subsequent polities of Zagwe, the Solomonids, and Gondar. However, it is clear that there are multiple and path-dependent causes for the decline of the highland polities and these need to be explored further in a regional context. Recent archaeological and historiographic approaches have aimed at understanding the post-Aksum polities beyond just establishing king-lists and reigning periods. The difficulty presented to researchers interested in the latter settlement and political history of the highlands is the shift in settlement organization and political infrastructure. Whether in response to conflicts with Islamic polities such as Adal and Harar and/or pastoral groups such as the Somali and the Oromo, climate, and environmental changes, the elites of Zagwe, Gondar, and the Amhara moved their capitals periodically, making their archaeological signatures ephemeral and difficult to locate.

Apart from being the home of many ‘firsts’ and ‘onlys’ in Africa, the Horn of Africa has also played an important role in the development of global, commercial, and religious processes over the last two millennia. Due to the problems in navigability of the Red Sea north of Aydhab and Suakin, traders seeking routes to the Mediterranean had two choices: make port at Mocha or Jeddah and take the overland routes up the western coast of Arabia or make port at the Eritrean ports and take the shorter overland route to the Nile and sail up the Nile to Alexandria and Aleppo. The continuity of ports and the overland routes in the Horn attest to the significance of the second passage for Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade. Though the religious conflict in the Horn is far more complex than a simple picture of isolated Christian highland versus the traditional hinterlands, the Islamic lowlands, and/or the coast, it is also true that these divisions played a role in the generation of larger conflicts such as the jihad of Imam Ahmad Gran˜ and the Portuguese involvement, as well as the major Oromo and Somali migrations. It could also be argued that the nineteenth-century Mahdist revolt in Sudan was linked to similar and concurrent processes in the Horn of Africa. Current sociopolitical situations are not conducive to archaeological research, especially along the coasts and immediate hinterlands of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Even so, future projects (especially those focused on regional approaches and on late first and second millennium developments) will prove immensely significant in understanding the role played by the Horn in the development of African and global modernity. See also: Africa, East: Ethiopia and Eritrea; Foragers; Madagascar and Surrounding Islands; Swahili Coast; Africa, North: Nubia; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Ahmed HS (1996) Exchange, Trade, and the Development of Urbanism in Somalia. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International. Fattovich R (1990) Remarks on the pre-Aksumite period in northern Ethiopia. Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23: 1–33. Insoll T (2003) The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jama AD (1996) The Origins and Development of Mogadishu AD 1000 to 1850: A Study of the Urban Growth along the Benadir Coast of Southern Somalia. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 25 Kapteijns L (2000) Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. In: Levitzion N and Pouwels R (eds.) The History of Islam in Africa, pp. 227–250. Oxford: James Currey. Munro-Hay S (1991) Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. Pankhurst R (1998) The Ethiopians. Oxford: Blackwell. Phillipson D (1998) Ancient Ethiopia. London: The British Museum.

Schmidt P (2006) Historical Archaeology in Africa. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press. Tamrat T (1990) The Horn of Africa: The Solomonids in Ethiopia and the states of the Horn of Africa. In: Ki-Zerbo K and Niane DT (eds.) General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century, pp. 169–180. Berkeley, CA: James Currey; Paris: UNESCO.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY Paul J Lane, University of York, York, UK

Introduction

ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Historical archaeology first emerged as a distinct subfield of the broader discipline in North America during the mid-twentieth century. However, many of the definitions and approaches that now dominate the field are not entirely suited to the African continent. This is partly because in many areas, especially away from the coastal zones, the temporal depth of documentary sources is fairly limited, and a European presence in these areas only dates from the nineteenth century. A key feature of historical archaeology, regardless of which definition is preferred, is that it seeks to integrate and interrogate both strictly archaeological types of sources (such as artifactual, ecofactual, structural, and architectural remains and their contextual, spatial, and temporal associations and characteristics), with other nonarchaeological sources that can be broadly defined as ‘historical’. In this respect, a useful distinction can be made between ‘external’ and ‘internal’ sources. By the former is meant sources produced by outsiders, either as direct observers, or as often in African contexts, transcribers and copiers of verbal accounts provided by others. Thus, examples might include the large number of published first-hand accounts of voyages of discovery and exploration in Africa by different individuals of European origin that begin to appear from c. CE 1500 onward, and especially after 1800; the numerous official documents produced by the different European colonial powers that are now lodged in archives in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere; the records kept by different trading companies, ship captains, and others engaged in commercial activity; personal diaries and letters written by European missionaries, explorers and administrators; and also the various pre-1500 CE descriptions and guides to parts of Africa written in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Chinese. By internal sources is meant the range of historical sources produced by, in this case, different African

Glossary Atlantic slave trade The sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and around the Atlantic ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa, to the New World. colonialism A practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. contract archaeology Archaeological work carried out on behalf of, and paid by, a commercial firm or public body in advance of land development that has the potential to impact on archaeological remains. emporium A trading center. entrepoˆt A port through which exports and imports pass, and thus links a coastal zone with its hinterland. genealogical reckoning A way of establishing a chronology based on the history of the descent of families and which typically assumes that each generation represents between twenty to thirty years, hence, for instance a family tree that names six generations could cover between 120 and 180 years of history. hieroglyphic symbols Hieroglyphic symbols are a form of writing which uses little pictures to represent actions or things. historical archaeology Historical archaeology is a branch of archaeology that concerns itself with ‘historical’ societies, that is, those that had systems of writing. Holocene An epoch of geological time that began 10 000 years ago and is the second and current epoch of the Quaternary period. littoral The stretch of land adjacent to a coast, in other words, a coastal belt. metaphor An implied comparison, normally expressed as a figure of speech, between two things that are not normally treated as if they have anything in common; an extension of this process can lead to the development of a symbol, whereby the comparison is no longer implied and the second term comes to stand for the first, as in a cross being a symbol of Christianity. slavery a social-economic system under which certain persons – known as slaves – are deprived of their personal freedom and compelled to provide their labor or services. writing system A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.

26 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

societies. Most obviously, these include the oral traditions and histories, myths, and personal memories that have been transcribed by professional historians and anthropologists. However, there also exist various texts written in the local vernacular for certain parts of the continent, as well as some indigenous writing systems, notably the Vai script developed in what is now Liberia, the Nsibidi script found in Cross River State, Nigeria, and the Barnum hieroglyphs that occur in Cameroon. Just as archaeological sources are subject to a wide range of processes that can affect their formal, spatial, biochemical, and contextual characteristics which may influence the integrity of the scientific information they carry, so too can oral, textual, and documentary sources be subject to a wide range of factors that may introduce different kinds of bias and selectivity (see Historical Archaeology: Methods). For the African continent, both the specific and general value of oral traditions as reliable sources of historical information have been discussed at some length and various methods of source criticism devised. There is also widespread recognition of the need for detailed source criticism when handling documentary and archival sources. In terms of the latter, racial bias is obviously one factor, but many others also came into play. Equally, European perceptions of and attitudes to Africans were by no means uniform, varying between individuals, different nationalities, and different kinds of sources.

Attempts to Verify Classical Texts In common with other parts of the world, much of what might be considered historical archaeology on the African continent has been concerned with the verification of various written historical sources, especially those concerning the pre-modern era. Outside of Egypt and Nubia, where texts written using the hieroglyphic script first emerged in an archaic form perhaps as early as 3400–3200 BCE, the main areas where this has been attempted are Libya and adjacent parts of North Africa, the East African Swahili coast, and Sudanic West Africa. In the former two areas, the primary relevant texts are those written by Greek and Roman authors (although for more recent centuries, Arabic sources are also of value), while for West Africa, the earliest documentary sources derive from the writings of Arabic scholars such as Ibn Batuta and Al Bekri. In all three areas, scholars have tended to give primacy, until recently, to the available written sources, with the result that certain misrepresentations and distortions within these texts assumed the status of historical fact (see Writing Systems). Perhaps the best-known example of this concerns the use by successive generations of archaeologists of

the text known as The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which probably dates to around CE 40. The Periplus includes a description of a sea voyage along the East African coast from a trading emporium known as Opone just south of the Somali Peninsula, to the ancient town of Rhapta, as well as details of some of the products exported from Africa, that included ivory, ambergris, and slaves. As these were mostly nondurable raw materials for which evidence is unlikely to be preserved in archaeological contexts except under special circumstances, the text provides valuable information about the trade. Understandably, it has been used from an early stage in research on the Swahili coast to supplement the evidence gleaned from archaeology of the wide range of durable products that were being imported. The Periplus contains much less information about the societies that occupied the East African coast, apart from descriptions of various landmarks and other ports that lay along this route. Some of the topographic features of the coast, such as the Lamu archipelago and Mount Kilimanjaro, are readily identifiable from the descriptions, and using these in conjunction with the sailing directions that are also provided, scholars have sought to link some of the known archaeological sites with the various ports and settlements named in the Periplus and the other important early text, Claudius Ptolemy’s Geography (c. CE 150). Few if any of these, including Rhapta, however, have been identified unambiguously. Moreover, the two texts provide conflicting information about the geographical location of several of the places named, making it especially difficult to derive an accurate topography of the East African littoral during the late first millennium BCE to early first millennium CE from these sources alone. Thus, for instance, Pemba or Zanzibar would be the best estimates for the location of the island of Menouthias based on the information given in the Periplus, whereas the coordinates given in the Geography would place this island much further south in the vicinity of Madagascar. This discrepancy, in turn, has a bearing on the possible location of Rhapta. From the description provided in the Periplus, Rhapta lay about 88 miles to the south of Menouthias, which would place it near Bagamoyo or Dar es Salaam in modern Tanzania. Whereas, in the Geography, Rhapta is said to lie far to the north of Menouthias situated on a small island set in a river, which could be a reference to the Lamu archipelago close to the modern border between Kenya and Somalia. In view of such problems, scholars no longer regard the Periplus and Ptolemy’s Geography as detailed guides to site locations, but instead as valuable, but ambiguous, testimony to the existence of long-distance trading links between East Africa and the Mediterranean world in the first few centuries of the Christian Era.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 27

Uses of Oral History in African Archaeology One aspect of historical archaeology in sub-Saharan Africa that distinguishes it from comparable work in many other parts of the world, particularly North America and Europe, is the greater integration of oral histories. This is partly because the growth of scholarly study of the oral history and traditions of African societies coincided with a rise in interest in the later Holocene archaeology of the continent, and especially that concerning the origins and spread of food production, metal-working, urbanism, and complex political systems. As part of this intellectual trend, the use of such traditions became a common component of most archaeological surveys, principally as a means of providing an overview of the more recent history of the area under investigation. Moreover, a particular characteristic of a great many oral traditions concerning different African societies is the emphasis placed on migration as the primary driving force of social change. The first generation of Africa’s historians to be trained in the Western academic tradition were thus often keen to see their archaeological counterparts provide material verification that the routes and stopping places described in the oral accounts, were indeed associated with the settlement histories of specific ethnic groups. It is rare however, to find unequivocal confirmation of this kind in the archaeological record, and attempts to link the various oral traditions with specific archaeological sites commonly encounter several difficulties. One region where archaeological investigations were initially guided by oral histories but subsequently generated a complete rethinking of the historical and metaphorical significance of these is the Great Lakes area of East Africa. Here, several important archaeological sites have long been associated in oral traditions with an elite known as the Bacwezi. According to at least one set of traditions, the Bacwezi had been the historical rulers of a large region centered in the lush grasslands of western Uganda, which, by calculating from genealogical data, would appear to have existed sometime during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries CE. A number of extensive complexes of ditched earthworks, including the sites of Bigo, Munsa, Kibengo, and Kasonko, are known from this area. During the 1950s and the 1960s, various archaeological campaigns were undertaken at some of these in an attempt to provide a clearer understanding of their date and function, and their link with the Bacwezi dynasty. The discovery at Bigo of an enclosure similar in form to that found at some of the later royal capitals in Uganda, and a suite of radiocarbon dates from the

site suggesting occupation between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries CE, led to the conclusion that Bigo was indeed the capital of the pastoral Bacwezi kingdom, and that the other sites were part of the same political system. Reappraisals of these investigations, however, have called into question many of historical interpretations that were used to guide the archaeological excavations, and highlighted some of the more general problems associated with trying to substantiate oral traditions archaeologically. Moreover, the results of more recent field investigations at Munsa and Kibengo indicate that despite some superficial similarities these not only differ from one another but also from Bigo, in terms of their site inventories and material culture traditions. Thus, rather than belonging to a single state, each of these sites probably represents the center of an independent polity that was in competition with its neighbors over resources and control of the local populace. Other scholars have argued that the Bacwezi ‘myth’ must be seen as a symbolically loaded, metaphorical account of trends in the region’s history and changing power relations, rather than as a literal description of actual historical events and relationships. In the Kagera region of northwest Tanzania, for instance, oral traditions link the more recent, immigrant Bahinda ruling dynasty with the Bacwezi, and indicate that the power and authority of the Bahinda clans was generally associated with control over ironworking, rainmaking, and fertility rites. However, genealogical reckoning places the period of Bacwezi rule up to 20–25 generations ago and thus significantly earlier than has been estimated from the Ugandan traditions. Moreover, excavations at Katuruka, the former capital of Rugamore Mahe, one of the Bahinda rulers of the Kiamutwara kingdom during the seventeenth century CE, led to the discovery of iron smelting remains associated with the very beginnings of settled farming in the region and dating to around 500 BCE. Although similar remains of early farming and iron smelting communities were found at many of the other ritually important places within the historical topology of the Bahinda landscape, in other respects there was a lack of direct settlement continuity as evidenced by typological differences between the early farming (or Early Iron Age) ceramics and those associated with the second millennium CE kingdoms. On the basis of this, it has been suggested that whereas the Bacwezi may have been indigenous rulers of smallscale polities during the first millennium CE or possibly earlier, later leaders, unconnected with Bacwezi, subsequently manipulated traditions and appropriated the archaeological remains of the Bacwezi’s evident iron smelting abilities to legitimize their own assumption to power.

28 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Africa, Europe, and the Age of Exploration Direct and indirect trading contacts between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have been in existence since at least the first few centuries CE. However, European contacts only intensified from the early part of the fifteenth century. Under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460), various Portuguese-led voyages of exploration to the West African coast took place during the 1430s to 1480s, and in 1487–88, Bartolomeau Dias’ vessel arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, staying there briefly before returning to Lisbon. He was followed a decade later by Vasco de Gama, whose fleet of three ships rounded the Cape in 1497, and moved north along the East African seaboard over the coming months, stopping at Mombasa and Malindi, before setting sail across the Indian Ocean. By c. 1530 there were Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch outposts on the Gold Coast, and by 1652 a Dutch colony at the Cape, by which time Danish and Swedish traders were also active along the West African seaboard. Initially, access to Guinea gold was the main objective behind Portuguese activity along the West African coast and this lead rapidly to the establishment of a fortified settlement on the coast of what is now Ghana in 1482, close to a preexisting Akan settlement. Known initially as Castle Sa˜o Jorge da Mina, the fortress and trading post that grew up around it eventually came to be called Elmina (i.e., ‘the mine’, after its proximity to the gold mines inland). It was the first and largest European trading post to be built in the region. It was captured by the Dutch in 1637, and later ceded to the British in 1872, only to be destroyed the following year by a British military force following a dispute with the local inhabitants over its control. The settlement was then abandoned. There is extensive documentation, in a variety of forms, including maps and illustrations as well as written accounts and archival sources, concerning Elmina. These indicate that over time the population of Elmina became increasingly heterogeneous, as Dyula and Mande traders from further north, along with members of different ethnic groups in Elmina’s hinterland, were drawn to the settlement adding to the indigenous Akan population. At times there was also a sizable slave population, drawn from throughout the region, as well as a range of Europeans of different nationalities and a growing mulatto community. As well as attempting to define the spatial extent and the settlement and architectural history of Elmina, archaeological research at the site has focused on tracing the evidence for cultural change and continuity. Somewhat surprisingly, given the economic importance of Elmina, its role as a

trading entrepoˆt and the increasingly diverse origins of its population, local cultural traditions appear to have been more resilient than might have been expected. Ancestral rituals, the use of space in houses, domestic building technologies, and local foodways, all exhibit considerable continuity over almost 400 years of occupation. This is not to deny change – at the time of its destruction, Elmina was a far more urban, cosmopolitan place linked to the wider world through trade and international politics, and home to new social classes of Africans, than had been the case when the Portuguese arrived. The detailed analyses of artifact and building traditions, burial practices and related evidence, nevertheless, do caution against the simple assumption that significant material culture change, and especially the increased presence of goods of foreign manufacture, necessarily equates with culture change.

The Impacts of Slavery While there is evidence, such as documented at Elmina, that many African societies and cultures were quite resilient in the face of increasing contact with Europeans, the incorporation of these societies into the Atlantic world system that this brought about did have profound changes. In West Africa, one of the main effects was a change in the orientation of trade routes from the older north–south, trans-Saharan axis to an east–west one with a coastal focus. The transSaharan routes had operated for centuries, and were under direct or indirect control of the Islamic empires of North Africa, and, the steady redirection of trade away from these areas had economic consequences there as well. European demands for raw materials and local produce also encouraged intensification of trading and a consequent commodification of local West African economies. These developments, coupled with an increased importation of firearms stimulated changes in the nature of local political systems. These included the establishment of more centralized kingdoms, such as those of Dahomey and Ashante. Gold was rapidly replaced as the main commodity by slaves – it is estimated that at least 11 million Africans were exported from the continent during the Atlantic slave trade until its abolition, and some scholars put the figures even higher (see Enslavement, Archaeology of). In contrast to the amount of historical research on the Atlantic slave trade, the ‘historical archaeology’ of slavery across the continent has only recently begun to be addressed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the low status of slaves and circumstances behind their presence at a site, archaeological investigations at most of the European trading posts on the West

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 29

African coast have typically produced only ephemeral material traces of the trade. At Elmina, the most systematically investigated of all such trading posts, and despite considerable documentary evidence concerning Elmina’s position within the system and over 100 000 artifacts recovered from the excavations, the material testimony of slavery amounts to little more than a few items. The excavation of a slave lodge at the early eighteenth century site of Vergelegen, built as the residence for the governor of Cape Town, South Africa, similarly failed to produce much in the way of material evidence that could be linked to the lives of those who had occupied the lodge, other than the burial of a middle-aged slave woman. Although ongoing research at slave collection points such as Gore´e Island, Senegal, is beginning to recover a wider range of material items, it is possible that the main material culture legacy of Africa’s slaves may reside more in the stylistic traditions that developed in the New World, than in actual artifacts recovered from the different places of collection and embarkation on the African coast. Archaeological studies of sixteenth to eighteenth century CE sites in the interior, on the other hand, frequently offer more concrete evidence for the impacts of slavery on local communities. In parts of Togo, for instance, the increased availability of iron products of European manufacture helped precipitate a decline in what had previously been a flourishing and specialized iron-smelting industry practiced on a large scale. Detailed investigations of the shifting trends in material culture production and consumption in the vicinity of Begho and Banda, west-central Ghana, provide some of the clearest indications of the long-term consequences of the growth of trade and West Africa’s incorporation into the Atlantic world system, and its impact on local material culture traditions. Comparisons between sites and stratigraphic levels that date to the periods before the arrival of Europeans, the initial century of contact (albeit indirect), and subsequent centuries have shown that several significant changes took place. At sites such as Namasa, Begho, Nyarko, and Kuulo Kataa, founded (and in some cases also abandoned) prior to the Portuguese arrival at Elmina, differentiated craft production in iron, pottery, and textiles appears to have developed but was not uniformly distributed between different villages. This uneven distribution was offset by regular exchange of local products between villages, and settlements were linked into the trans-Saharan trade networks. By CE 1590, the cultivation of maize and tobacco, both New World crops, had been incorporated into local farming practices, and stimulated the creation of a new class of locally produced ceramic artifact in the form of clay smoking pipes. At this stage, these exhibit

considerable stylistic diversity, and they may well have served as emblems of certain social distinctions. Localized specialization in textile manufacture was beginning to break down, however, with more households engaging in the craft. Imported glass beads had also become more widely available. By the end of the eighteenth century, industrially produced beads and textiles, with highly standardized forms were steadily replacing their local equivalents, and by the end of the nineteenth century the earlier, stylistically diverse tobacco pipes had been replaced by highly uniform imported clay pipes of European manufacture. New aesthetics of taste also emerged, although in many cases they involved a reworking of older practices.

Archaeology of Colonialism Another strand of historical archaeology in Africa encompasses the issues of ‘colonialism’. This has mostly been approached from the perspective of European expansion, especially in South Africa. This is partly due to the greater numbers of trained archaeologists there, who tend to be better resourced than many of their counterparts elsewhere on the continent (outside of North Africa), and the longer established tradition of contract archaeology which, especially in urban areas, provided an important stimulus to the growth of historical archaeology. It is also because compared with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has a much longer history of European colonialism, commencing with the establishment of a staging-post in Table Bay by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) under Commander Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. Consequently, not only have more traces of colonialism survived, but also there has been a much longer history of transformation of relations between colonial powers and indigenous inhabitants. Since at least the 1970s, the archaeological traces of Dutch, British, and Afrikaaner colonialism have been the subject of increasingly intensive study from a variety of perspectives. The body of material on the historical archaeology of South Africa and the broader region, consequently, is significantly larger than for elsewhere. Subthemes that have been addressed within the region include the archaeology of impact, the creation of distinctive colonial architectural styles, Christian missions, military encounters, industrialization, and class distinctions. Whereas much early work focused on documenting the archaeological remains of the colonizing powers, more recently, attention has been given to documenting the archaeology of the colonized, and the various ways in which African societies resisted or tried to lessen the impacts of colonial rule. Excavations at Oudepost I, a small VOC outpost situated c. 120 km north of Cape Town on the edge of

30 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape, for instance, were explicitly designed to measure the degree of impact on local societies on the frontier of the Dutch colony and the variable nature of interaction between colonized and colonizer. The site was occupied from 1669 to 1723, and structural remains comprised a small, irregularly shaped stone fort, a two-roomed rectangular building that probably served as the main dwelling for the fort’s garrison, and a small rectangular structure of indeterminate function, all built of stone. The excavated remains provide insights into the conditions in such outposts, and the diets and material possessions of the soldiers. The composition of the artifact and faunal assemblages and their spatial patterning also raised issues concerning the nature of the interactions between the occupants of the fort and local indigenous populations, and the identity of those indigenes. The high percentage of wild fauna represented in the assemblage, despite the availability of livestock from colonial centers further south, for instance, led the excavators to challenge the archival evidence and suggest that over time the occupants of Oudepost would have had a significant impact on the wild food base of the surrounding indigenous Khoikhoi population. Although Khoikhoi were principally pastoralists, the material culture recovered from the site was more similar to that found on pre-contact Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites in the region. To the excavators, this further suggested that the colonial presence ultimately undermined the subsistence strategies of local stock-keeping communities, who had always relied on hunting to supplement their diet especially during droughts and other periods of climatic stress, forcing them to abandon herding and into bondage on white settlements and farms. Comparable studies have demonstrated that the impacts of colonialism were sometimes more muted and that new forms of practice often emerged within African societies that helped to subvert colonial ideologies. There is also evidence to suggest that older material practices often proved more resistant than is implied by the available documentary sources. A good example of the latter is provided by recent work on the nineteenth century Tswana towns of Phalatswe and Ntsweng in Botswana. Specifically, despite the existence of documentary and pictorial sources which would seem to imply widespread changes in daily practice as a consequence of Protestant evangelism, it is evident from the material remains of houses, pots, metal tools, and other items, that at least in these contexts members of the local Tswana polities retained a degree of control over their material world, and were able to accommodate the new religion and direct it toward achieving their own political goals.

Conclusion Historical archaeology as practiced on the African continent is a diverse and varied subfield of the broader discipline. Whereas some favor an emphasis on the integration of oral histories and testimonies with material remains, on the grounds that the former are more authentically indigenous than written texts, others consider that the focus of historical archaeology should be on the consequences of European contact and subsequent colonialism. Between these two poles, there are many other approaches that place greater value on the interpretive possibilities offered by the existence of multiple sources of information about the past for any period, rather than on placing limits on the temporal or conceptual boundaries of the subfield. Others still have observed that the concept of historical archaeology is not only redundant, since all archaeology should be concerned with addressing historical questions, but also serves to reinforce an artificial divide, and the prejudicial baggage that comes with such a distinction, between history and prehistory, which much archaeological practice on the continent seeks to counteract. Rhetoric aside, and whether one uses the appellation ‘historical archaeology’ or not to describe the kind of studies outlined above, two things are abundantly clear. First, recovery and analysis of the archaeological traces of the last 500 years of human activity on the African continent has the potential to provide novel insights into the histories of the continent’s diverse populations, while simultaneously providing an important testament to their successes and failures, their struggles for equity and recognition, and the ways in which they gave meaning to their lives. Some of these insights could perhaps have been gleaned from careful reading of other historical sources, but most could only have been exposed by sustained archaeological research. Without a concept such as ‘historical archaeology’, however defined, to inspire and guide this research it is questionable whether archaeologists would have devoted, and continue to devote, as much attention to these time periods as they clearly deserve. Second, whether investigating the archaeology of the last 500 years or that of earlier time periods, the interpretation of archaeological remains is always enriched when alternative sources are available to interrogate. The challenges archaeologists face are first, how to develop methodologies and theoretical frameworks that are appropriate to each of these different classes of historical information, and second, how to maintain a critical and questioning perspective so as avoid taking too much of that evidence for granted. Many of the studies outlined above indicate how archaeologists have attempted

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to do this, and whether these approaches have stood the test of time or have now been superseded. Whether one considers these types of study as exemplars of historical archaeology, or not, they have clearly made significant contributions to our understanding of the substantive history of different parts of the continent. See also: Africa, West: Villages, Cities, and States; Enslavement, Archaeology of; Historical Archaeology: Methods; Writing Systems.

Further Reading Boone J, Myers E, and Redman C (1990) Archaeological and historical approaches to complex societies: The Islamic states of medieval Morocco. American Anthropologist 92: 630–646.

DeCorse CR (2001) An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Washington: Smithsonian Press. DeCorse CR (ed.) (2001) West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Leicester: Leicester University Press. Edwards DN (2004) The potential for historical archaeology in the Sudan. Azania 39: 13–33. Hall M (1993) The archaeology of colonial settlement in southern Africa. Annual Reviews in Anthropology 22: 177–200. Pikirayi I (1993) Acta Arkeologica Upsaliensis, Studies in African Archaeology 6: An Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State: Towards an Historical Archaeology of Northern Zimbabwe. Uppsala. Reid DAM and Lane PJ (eds.) (2004) African Historical Archaeologies. London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Schmidt PR (2006) Historical Archaeology in Africa. London: Altamira Press. Stahl AB (2001) Making History in Banda: Anthropological Vision’s of Africa’s Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wessler K (ed.) (1998) Historical Archaeology in Nigeria. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

AFRICA, NORTH Contents Egypt, Pharaonic Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic Nubia Sahara, Eastern Sahara, West and Central

Egypt, Pharaonic Thomas Hikade, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Book of the Dead Funerary texts on papyrus or sometimes amulets that were usually placed inside the coffin. The collection of some 200 spells was derived from the earlier Pyramid and Coffin Texts. Called ‘spell for coming forth by day’ by the ancient Egyptians. cartonnage Material made of linen or papyrus mixed with plaster. Cartonnage was most commonly used for mummy masks, coffins, and other funerary equipment. The earliest catonnage mummy masks date to the First Intermediate Period. Coffin Texts Collection of funerary texts written on coffins and introduced during the First Intermediate Period. More than 1000 spells should guarantee survival in the afterlife. Maat Egyptian goddess symbolizing order or connective justice. She is shown as a seated woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

nome Greek term used for Egyptian provinces. Lower Egypt consisted of twenty nomes and Upper Egypt of twenty-two. nomarch Provincial governor of a nome with increasing power and influence from the end of the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid Texts Earliest Egyptian funerary texts that could be found in some royal pyramid chambers and corridors from the Fifth to the Eighth Dynasty. Some scholars have argued that the spells were a description of rituals during the funeral of the king. serdab Arabic word for cellar. It was a chamber inside an Old Kingdom private mastaba-tomb that housed a statue or statues of the deceased but could also be found in the royal mortuary complex of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty. vizier Highest official in the Egyptian administration after the king. The office is first attested in the Second Dynasty.

Introduction In 1798 when Napoleon’s troops landed in Egypt they were accompanied by 167 scientists whose task was to document not only the geography, flora, and fauna of modern-day Egypt but also the remains of Ancient Egypt. With the publication of the

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De´scription de l’E´gypte almost 20 years later, the foundation stone for Egyptology was laid. The expedition by the German Egyptologist Richard Lepsius in 1842–46 to Egypt and Nubia yielded further knowledge about Ancient Egypt. During the first half of the nineteenth century, however, field work in Egypt was still primarily the search for curiosities and treasures and lacked scientific method. It was not until 1881 when W. M. F. Petrie set out to survey the Great Pyramids at Giza and subsequently excavated dozens of sites throughout Egypt with a clear concept and methodology of excavating that Egyptian archaeology truly began. It is the connection of archaeological material and the evidence from thousands of inscribed objects from Ancient Egypt that makes modern Egyptology such an intriguing subject. Today there are more than 300 foreign missions working in Egypt and many countries even have their own national research centers and institutions in Cairo. Early excavation work often concentrated on cemeteries that were easily accessible as they were often situated in the dry sand of the lower desert or cut into the limestone cliffs along the Nile Valley. Thus, Egyptian archaeology is best known from its burials. Yet, in the last decades more and more settlement archaeology has taken place and our knowledge of the daily lives of Ancient Egyptians has been improved widely.

Old Kingdom (Third–Eighth Dynasty, c. 2686–2160 BC) The Old Kingdom, also called the Pyramid Age, is a continuation of the Early Dynastic Period. It was a time of long, uninterrupted economic prosperity and political stability. The central administration was at the capital at Memphis under a vizier who was the highest official. Upper Egypt, the land south of the capital, and Lower Egypt, the Nile Delta to the north, were divided into ‘nomes’ that were governed by nomarchs who maintained strong ties with the court. The state was able to consolidate its borders in the south and north and maintained long-distance trade with the Levant and Nubia. A redistributive economic system with palaces, temples, royal domains, and mortuary complexes served as centers for collecting, storing, and distributing mainly agrarian produce. The long reign of Pepi II (c. 2278–2184 BC) at the end of the Sixth Dynasty has often been seen as a time of stagnation and decline that ultimately brought down the regime of the central government but other factors such as worsening climatic conditions causing droughts and famine may have contributed to the fragmentation of the centralized regime and the growth of regional power in the hands of the nomarchs.

At the top of Egyptian society stood the divine king. His funerary complex became the focus of royal ideology and ignited large-scale building programs never seen before. More than a dozen pyramids, as stairways to heaven for the deceased king, were built close to the capital in the area of Giza and Saqqara. Royal Tombs

Royal tombs of the Early Dynastic Period were built almost entirely of sundried mud-bricks, wood, and reed with the use of stone limited to the interior of tomb chambers and stelae which were large stone slabs with the kings’ name on them. It was at Saqqara in the Third Dynasty that Egypt’s first monumental stone structure was erected for King Djoser (c. 2667– 2648 BC). His funerary complex, including the Step Pyramid and ceremonial buildings, transformed the organic building materials into their limestone equivalent (Figures 1 and 2). The enclosure wall of the complex measured 544  277 m and was 10.5 m high. The Step Pyramid itself, located to the north of a large courtyard measured 121  109 m and its six steps stood 60 m tall. The pyramid was actually begun as a mastaba, the Arabic word for ‘bench’, which the tomb resembled. It was enlarged twice before it was altered into a four-step pyramid and finally augmented to six steps. Underneath the pyramid lay a shaft (7 m square and 28 m deep) culminating in the burial chamber. Originally made of limestone with stars on the ceiling it was later replaced by a granite chamber. Nothing of the king’s interment was found. Also underground was a system of about 400 rooms and corridors, totaling almost 6 km in length. The whole gigantic royal complex at Saqqara symbolizes the focal point of Egyptian society and culture in the Old Kingdom: the divine king. There were at least two more step pyramids of the Third Dynasty before, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under King Snofru (c. 2613–2589 BC), the final design of a true pyramid was realized. The design of the pyramid complex is very standardized. Each has an axis with an east–west orientation, which underlines the structure’s solar aspect. From the valley temple at the eastern entrance (Figure 3), a causeway leads further to the west and ends in the mortuary temple, situated at the foot of the east side of the pyramid. This temple has several chambers including an inner sanctuary furnished with a stela, which is set directly against the pyramid. Despite this standardized pattern, however, no two pyramids were exactly alike. The interior chambers and ascending and descending passages were always different. Starting in the Fifth Dynasty, the walls of these chambers and corridors could be decorated with the so-called Pyramid Texts, a collection of funerary texts of about 800 spells.

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Figure 1 Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (Third Dynasty).

Figure 2 Festival court of Djoser complex at Saqqara (Third Dynasty).

The main building material for the pyramid was limestone although granite was also used for the lower casing blocks. In the pyramid temples basalt was also sometimes used for the floors. Separate smaller pyramids were erected for the queens while higher officials, often blood relatives, were buried in the limestone mastaba tombs in the necropolis nearby. Private Tombs

To date, dozens of Old Kingdom cemeteries have been found throughout the country. The major cemeteries for officials, however, were at Saqqara,

Helwan Dahshur, Giza, and at Abusir, where they could remain close to the king in the afterlife also. While the majority of the Egyptian population was buried in simple pits in the desert sands, the wealthier could afford rock-cut tombs or mastaba tombs. An early mastaba tomb comprised a subterranean structure with a shaft, a burial chamber and store rooms (Figure 4). The store rooms disappeared by the Fourth Dynasty. The superstructure was made of mud-brick or stone and its layout became more and more elaborate with the addition of multiple rooms which effectively turned it into a funerary chapel. Scenes of daily life, mostly related to farming, herding, and craftwork, were depicted on the walls of

34 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Pyramid

Satellite pyramid

Pyramid temple

Causeway

Valley temple

Figure 3 Standard pyramid complex of the Old Kingdom.

Shaft Serdab with statue

Chapel with false door

Facade sealed with casing blocks

Burial chamber with sarcophagus

Figure 4 Mastaba tomb of the Old Kingdom.

these rooms, along with representations of the tomb owner, his relatives, and his household members. During the funerary cult the family could bring their offerings to the deceased which they presented on an altar in front of the false door. In a hidden chamber, called a serdab, a statue of the deceased was placed, thus allowing him to accept these offerings symbolically. An offering formula on the wall next to the false door secured the eternal sustenance of the deceased. Sun Temples and Provincial Temples

A special temple, which was built in addition to the pyramids, developed during the Fifth Dynasty. It was a temple dedicated to the sun god Re. It had similar architectural features to the pyramid complexes including a valley temple functioning as a gate or

entrance and a causeway leading to an upper temple which formed the main focal point of the compound: an obelisk-like structure erected of stone blocks rising up on a pedestal. In one case the pedestal was 20 m high and the obelisk 36 m tall. An open space in front of the obelisk contained an altar where offerings were presented. Located on one side of the large courtyard were magazines and rooms that have been interpreted as slaughterhouses. Parts of the upper temple were decorated with royal jubilee scenes and scenes from nature. The whole structure was surrounded by an enclosure wall. Outside the wall a brick-built model of a solar boat for the god was found. Six sun temples are known from texts but only the ones of King Niuserre and Userkaf from the Fifth Dynasty have been found at Abu Gurob, 10 km southwest of Cairo.

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While royal building activities were concentrated around the capital at Memphis, temples in the rest of the country largely comprised sanctuaries which were built and maintained by local communities. Provincial temples followed no specific design and were often of modest size. The Old Kingdom temple on the island of Elephantine opposite modern Aswan, for example, consisted of mud-bricks enclosing a niche between granite boulders and measured only c. 7  7 m.

First Intermediate Period (Ninth–early Eleventh Dynasty; c. 2160–2055 BC) At the end of the Old Kingdom large-scale royal building programs came to a halt. Yet, with the increasing prosperity of the provinces and a rise in population, it became necessary for the provinces to be administered locally rather than from the royal residence at Memphis, and the nomarchs lived and were even buried in their nomes. Ultimately, the central government collapsed and foreign trade seems to have ceased. The Ninth/Tenth Dynasty established a power basis at Herakleopolis some 100 km upstream from the old capital at Memphis. However, these dynasties never controlled the whole country and civil war broke out. In Upper Egypt Ankhtifi, nomarch of the third nome of Upper Egypt, tried to gain control over neighboring territories by force. The fragmentation of the country and violence only ended when one of these regional rulers, Mentuhotep II, defeated all others and united Egypt again. Based on texts the First Intermediate Period has often been seen as a very unstable period with civil war and even cannibalism caused by famine. A different picture emerges from excavations of cemeteries from the First Intermediate Period, however, which indicates a redistribution of wealth as well as cultural innovations. All the archaeological evidence points to an increased effort to prepare tombs of the deceased for the afterlife rather than a decline in tomb-building caused by economic hardship. In general, mastaba tombs and rock-cut tombs had already become larger at the end of the Old Kingdom and this process continued. Tombs contained several chambers for multiple burials. Grave goods took the form of wooden offering bearers, statues, and even whole miniature copies of workshops. The cartonnage mask, a colored mask made from linen and gypsum to cover the head of the mummy, was introduced. Religious texts, the socalled Coffin Texts, were inscribed on the coffins of the elite and stressed the importance of social ties, these mirroring the change in tomb architecture allowing for multiple burials.

Middle Kingdom (later Eleventh–Thirteenth Dynasty; c. 2055–1650 BC) The Middle Kingdom dates from the victory of Mentuhotep II of Thebes over his rivals at Herakleopolis and the re-unification of Egypt. Initially residing in Thebes, the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1985–1773 BC) moved to a new capital called Amemenhet Itj-tawj, possibly in an area south of the old residence at Memphis, close to the Fayum Oasis. Archaeologists have yet to find and excavate this new capital. Passing on from father to son, the Twelfth Dynasty stayed in power for almost 200 years. The central administration followed in the footsteps of the Old Kingdom with a vizier at the top, a treasury, a ministry for supervising the harvesting and managing of the crops, a ministry for cattle and fields, and a ministry for labor, responsible for the building programs of the state. The king was still the absolute divine ruler but his legitimacy was based on representative theocracy and not on direct rule as in the Old Kingdom. Foreign affairs were dominated by the conquest of Lower Nubia and various raids into the Levant, which brought back Asiatics as slaves. Asiatics also moved voluntarily to the Nile Delta and settled there. Domestically the Twelfth Dynasty is credited with an irrigation program in the Fayum Oasis for new cultivation. Regarding religion, a new concept of the underworld, the kingdom of Osiris, saw the rise of this god. In addition, the concept of Maat (translated often as order or connective justice), a guideline of how Egyptians should live and treat each other, became popular. A wealth of literary texts was composed during the Middle Kingdom, and many of these were later considered classics. The language of these texts, Middle Egyptian, remained in use for sacred texts until the end of the Pharaonic period. All the achievements of the Middle Kingdom made it the ‘classical’ Egyptian age that was revered in later periods. Yet the Middle Kingdom ended in fragmentation when the Thirteenth Dynasty had to give way to pressure from the Hyksos, Asiatic rulers in the eastern Nile Delta, and moved their residence to Thebes in the south. The Mortuary Complex of Mentuhotep II

Under Mentuhotep II a unique mortuary temple was erected in the limestone escarpment of Deir el-Bahri on the west bank at Thebes (Figures 5 and 6). The complex once had a valley temple near the edge of cultivation and from there a causeway more than 1 km long led to a huge court in the west surrounded by a sandstone wall. Inside the courtyard, the discovery of the roots of sycamores and tamarisks in tree pits indicates that an alley once existed here. It was

36 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Figure 5 Mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II at Western Thebes (Eleventh Dynasty).

Bab el-Hosan Upper hall Middle court Central core

Ramp

Alley of trees

Hypostyle hall

Causeway

Amun sanctuary

Lower hall

Figure 6 Mortuary temple of King Mentuhotep II (Eleventh Dynasty).

also in the courtyard that the initial royal tomb, today known as Bab el-Hosan, was found. A ramp at the end of the alley led to a platform topped by a core building and an ambulatory. The core building might have been crowned in different ways. A pyramid (for which there is no archaeological evidence), a mastaba-like structure, or a mound of soil resembling the primeval mound from which the land of Egypt once emerged, are all possible options and would all be in accordance with Egyptian beliefs. A further arrangement of courtyards and a hypostyle hall continued to the west until finally, the sanctuary and the royal tomb itself were cut into the rock escarpment. Foundation deposits in the four corners under the platform and the core building, which consisted of food offerings, ceramic, and wooden models of

people and objects like bread and vessels, as well as mud-bricks with tablets with the royal name on them give an intriguing glimpse into the rituals accompanying the construction of the temple. Middle Kingdom Pyramids

The kings of the Twelfth Dynasty deliberately repeated the Old Kingdom tradition of pyramid building along the desert edge west of the Nile Valley. The new construction method, however, consisted of a mudbrick core with a grid of stone walls. The finish was still done with limestone casing blocks. Although the new construction method was far more economical, it is no indication that the Egyptian kings could not afford solid stone pyramids. Today the limestone casing blocks have been stripped away and the Middle

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 37

Figure 7 Pyramid of King Amenemhat III at Hawara (Twelfth Dynasty).

Kingdom pyramids are in a very bad condition with the mud-brick core exposed to the elements (Figure 7). The Settlement of Lahun

About 1200 m east of the pyramid of Senusret II (c. 1877–1870 BC), W. M. F. Petrie discovered the remains of a pyramid town called Lahun. A pyramid town is essentially the settlement that housed the workmen building the pyramid complex along with the officials overseeing the work. Subsequently, it became the home for those responsible for the royal funerary cult. Lahun was a planned town with a rigid grid system. It included an enclosure wall and a wall that divided the settlement in half. One side contained about a dozen large houses with as many as 70 rooms and covering up to 3000 m2. The other side had more than 200 houses, but their maximum size was less than 200 m2. This size disparity clearly reflects the hierarchy in the town, with a few elite individuals living in luxury while the majority lived in modest dwellings. Based on the size of granaries at Lahun, a population of up to 9000 persons has been proposed, but according to a papyri archive found at the site which sometimes lists six persons per household, the population might have been much smaller. Lahun is also important for the discovery of Minoan sherds and Egyptian imitations of Minoan pottery. Nubian Fortresses

In the wake of its aggressive foreign policy in the south, a string of fortifications were built during the Twelfth Dynasty in order to secure trade routes and to protect the border. According to textual evidence,

Egypt built at least 17 military installations starting c. 100 km south of Egypt’s border at Elephantine. Fifteen of these mud-brick built fortresses were excavated during several rescue campaigns. Following the construction of the High Dam at Aswan, the fortresses now lie beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. The forts are all very close to each other, often only 3–10 km away or just lying across the narrow stretch of the Nile. Their proximity to one another made signaling by smoke or beacon quite simple. There were two types of fortresses: first the plain type which had an almost square layout that bordered the Nile on one side. Some of the outer walls, which measured up to 460  215 m and were more than 5 m thick, contained towers with loop holes for archers and were possibly topped by crenellations. Inside these mud-brick walls, a system of ditches and ramparts formed the first line of defense around the citadel, which had storage facilities and housing for the soldiers and officials. The second type of fortress was built on granite formations which could not be easily leveled. Thus, they had not a straightforward rectangular layout but possessed a more irregular shape.

Second Intermediate Period (Fifteenth–Seventeenth Dynasty; c. 1650–1550 BC) During the Thirteenth Dynasty dynastic stability ended and dozens of kings reigned in quick succession. They came from different lineages and some of them were possibly even of Asiatic origin. Royal mortuary cults for the Twelfth Dynasty kings ceased.

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Yet, contacts with the Levant were maintained and more and more Asiatics came to Egypt. When the central government finally fragmented, several rulers emerged with authority over small kingdoms in the Nile Delta. One group of these rulers, the Hyksos (Rulers of Foreign Lands), of the later Fifteenth Dynasty, gained power, conquered Memphis, and established their residence at Avaris (modern Tell el-Daba) in the eastern Nile Delta. The rulers of the Seventeenth Dynasty in Thebes, the successors of the Thirteenth Dynasty, started what they saw as a ‘war of liberation’ against the Hyksos who had sealed an alliance with the Kushite kings of Nubia and had sandwiched Upper Egypt between the two powers. In a series of battles, the Theban rulers were finally able to defeat the Hyksos and the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose (c. 1550–1525 BC), drove them out of Egypt. The Hyksos Capital at Avaris

Although only limited areas of the Hyksos capital at Avaris have been excavated, they have revealed an occupation that possibly stretches from to the First Intermediate Period to the early Eighteenth Dynasty. The earliest archaeological settlement remains stem, however, from a workmen’s village of the early Twelfth Dynasty. The remains of an enclosure wall that were found to the north led to the assumption that the whole settlement was once surrounded by a mud-brick wall. The settlement was home for more than one thousand people. A hiatus separates this settlement from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty when the site was resettled by Canaanites. The houses had a central wide room typical of a style prevalent in Syria from the fourth millennium BC. Furthermore, there were cemeteries attached directly to the houses, a custom derived from Middle Bronze Age SyroPalestine. Surprisingly, foreign pottery from the Levant makes up only 20% of the assemblage, although burials of males showed that half of them had weapons of Levantine origin and possibly indicate that they were in the service of the Egyptian crown. The layers dating to the Thirteenth Dynasty revealed an Egyptian palace in layout with attached gardens and a cemetery with donkey, goat, and sheep burials. The donkey burials especially are a foreign element in Egypt but are well known during the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. This evidence clearly shows that the administration of the palace was in the hands of Asiatics. By the middle of the eighteenth century BC the site was partially abandoned, most likely due to an epidemic, before being resettled. Foreign ceramics now made up to 40% of the assemblage and the site increased dramatically, covering an area of 250 ha, three times the size of the contemporary city

of Hazor in modern Israel. International trade flourished in the Hyksos period with imports from the Aegean and the Levant. In the Hyksos period, Avaris also had a huge citadel with vineyards and gardens.

New Kingdom (Eighteenth–Twentieth Dynasty; c. 1550–1069 BC) After the expulsion of the Hyksos the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty set out to form one of the most powerful states in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Internal reforms and a restructuring of the administration and military enabled Egypt to march into and occupy foreign territories where she installed her own administration. Dozens of military campaigns in the Levant are recorded by pharaohs such as Amenophis II and especially Thutmosis III, who ruthlessly exercised his imperialistic policy. The eastern desert of Upper Egypt and increasingly Lower Nubia became the classic gold sources of Egypt. Large-scale expeditions were sent out to mine turquoise and copper in the Sinai Peninsula. The southern border of Egypt was set as far south as Gebel Barkal, a trading and religious center near the fourth cataract. Trade relations were maintained throughout the Mediterranean and pottery from Cyprus, Crete, Mycenae, and the Levant can be found at many sites in Egypt. By the time of the reign of Amenophis III (c. 1390–1352 BC), a prosperous, wealthy, and influential Egypt had reached its first New Kingdom zenith. This period, however, also saw domestic turbulence and turmoil arising from the religious reforms of Akhenaten (c. 1352–1336 BC), the son of Amenophis III, who abandoned the old pantheon and installed the god Aten as the sole god for Egypt. Early in his reign Akhenaten severed all links with the religious capital of Thebes and its principal god Amun by relocating the capital to Akhetaten (Horizon of Aten), modern Tell el-Amarna. Worshipping one god only was a profound disturbance for ordinary Egyptians who had always been used to having direct contact with many gods. Consequently, when Akhenaten died, so also died his religion of the Aten. Under Tutankhamun (c. 1336–1327 BC), the first attempts at a religious restoration of the old cults were launched while during the subsequent Nineteenth Dynasty, there ensued an active persecution of the Aten cult. In the administration many civil officials were replaced by military personnel and the army became the most influential domestic power. Internationally, Egypt was faced with the expansionist Hittite empire and they finally clashed at the Battle of Qadesh where the army of Ramses II met theHittite troops of Muwatalli. Ramses II did not achieve his goal of driving the Hittites out of Qadesh and

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the whole campaign ended in a stalemate that resulted in a peace treaty in the twenty-first regnal year of Ramses II. After this Egypt had a relatively calm and prosperous period until the so-called Sea Peoples caused serious turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the thirteenth century BC. First Pharaoh Merenptah (c. 1213–1203 BC) and later Ramses III (c. 1184–1153 BC) had to fight battles against the Sea Peoples on land and at sea in order to secure Egypt’s sovereignty. These international disruptions were too great, however, and combined with internal economic problems Egypt began losing her international power. At the end of the New Kingdom Egypt had to withdraw from the Levant altogether. Tell el-Amarna

The city of Amarna was built on virgin soil and covered an area of about 13  5km (Figure 8). The city was made up of palaces, houses, and temples which had to be built quickly to accommodate the many thousands who were to move there from Thebes. A major royal road running north–south was built and it was flanked by palaces and temples. Some temples like the so-called House of the Sun Disk were up to 750 m long and 230 m wide. They housed hundreds of altars for the offerings to Aten. Palaces were lavishly decorated and spread throughout the city. Private houses were located in the suburbs to the north and south of the Central City. Some larger houses or villas had more than forty rooms covering more than 1000 m2. The standard design was tripartite with two public sections consisting of a vestibule, long hall and central hall. The third section was the private area with bedrooms and bathrooms. Around these villas were clusters of smaller houses. Remarkably, the houses at Amarna differ in size rather than design, and most features were constantly repeated. By no means should Amarna be seen as an organic settlement however, since its standardization was mostly due to the time pressure of building the city. Deir el-Medineh

The workmen’s village of Deir el-Medineh was founded under King Thutmosis I (c. 1504–1492 BC) in order to house the men who built the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Figure 9). It was a state-run community where almost all supplies for daily life were provided by the crown. At its peak the village consisted of some 70 houses alongside the main road and was surrounded by a 6–7 m high enclosure wall. Forty to fifty houses were built outside the compound. An average house had four rooms with an entrance room 40–50 cm below street level. The original houses were complete mud-brick structures without foundations. Later houses had a basement of

stones and sometimes stone walls extending up to 2.5 m in height. The major feature in the entrance area was the mud-brick bench-like structure, possibly a small shrine. The next room had one or two columns and it contained a kind of divan. At the rear were the bedroom, the kitchen, and storage facilities. A staircase also gave access to the roof providing further living space. The inhabitants of Deir el-Medineh were buried in tombs on the hill slope nearby. The tombs had a superstructure with a chapel which was sometimes crowned by a small pyramid and a substructure with a shaft and a burial chamber that was often colorfully decorated. Next to the village around 5000 limestone flakes and broken pottery sherds were found with many inscriptions from the villagers. They consist, among others, of contracts, files of lawsuits, prayers, and school texts. In conjunction with the archaeological evidence and other papyri concerning Deir el-Medineh, the settlement has become the best-known village of the Late Bronze Age. The village was abandoned under Ramses XI (c. 1099–1069 BC) when the Valley of the Kings was also abandoned as the royal burial ground. Luxor and Karnak Temple

During the early New Kingdom building activity was conducted on all major temples such as Karnak and Luxor Temple. Both temples were located in Upper Egypt at Thebes. The temple at Karnak goes back to the time of Sesostris I and was the major cult center for the Theban triad of the gods Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. From the Middle Kingdom until the Thirtieth Dynasty Karnak remained a site under permanent construction as each pharaoh added and extended to this temple called ‘The most select of Places’ (Figure 10). The continuous addition of pylons (tower-like entrance gates), courtyards, columned halls, obelisks, and chapels means that the temple has to be read archaeologically from the inside out with the oldest part not at the front of the first pylon but almost in the middle of the compound. One of the most impressive buildings at Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 papyrus columns rising up to 21 m (Figure 11). The hall was once roofed and illuminated through windows placed high up the wall right under the ceiling. The foundation of the great hypostyle hall goes back to Amenophis III (c. 1390– 1352 BC), but the decoration was initiated under Sety I (c. 1294–1279 BC) and finished under Sety’s son Ramses II (c. 1279–1213 BC). The Great Hall has both raised relief dating to the time of Sety I and sunken reliefs which were generally used on the outside walls to increase the effect of shadow and sunlight. The latter, more economical technique was used during the immense building program of Ramses II.

40 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

STELA V TELL EL-AMARNA NORTH CITY

NORTH TOMBS

NORTH PALACE

STELA U

NORTH SUBURB

om

b

T al

y

to

GREAT ATEN TEMPLE

Ro

CENTRAL CITY

GREAT PALACE SMALL ATEN TEMPLE

WORKMENS⬘S VILLAGE MAIN CITY

Nile River

SOUTH TOMBS

Royal Road KOM EL-NANA

MARU-ATEN

STELA N STELA M

0 0

1

2 kms 1 min

Figure 8 Capital of Pharaoh Akhenaten at Tell el-Amarna (Eighteenth Dynasty).

The inner walls were reserved for the depiction of rituals and processions while the outer fac¸ades were decorated with the campaigns of Sety I and Ramses II to Palestine and Syria.

The temples of Karnak and Luxor were linked through a system of roads, each flanked with sphinxes. As with Karnak, Luxor temple was dedicated to Amun or Amun-Ra and dates back to the reign

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 41

Niche

Workroom /bedroom

Shrine Street

Kitchen Reception room

Second room Cellar Cellar

M 01

5

10

15

20

Figure 9 Workmen’s village at Deir el-Medineh (New Kingdom).

Figure 10 View over Karnak Temple from east.

42 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

of Hatshepsut (c. 1473–1458 BC) (Figure 12). The core at the southern end was built under Amenophis III. Under Akhenaten work was interrupted at Luxor but resumed under Tutankhamun (c. 1336–1327 BC).

The giant pylon was erected by Ramses II and decorated with scenes and texts of the Battle of Qadesh against the Hittites. In the first millennium further additions were made by Shabaka (c. 716–702 BC) who built a kiosk outside the temple, and by Nectanebo I (380–362 BC) who embellished the sphinx alley with hundreds of statues. Under Alexander the Great the worship of the emperor was established here and this tradition was continued until the Roman period, when the temple finally became a military camp from the fourth to sixth century AD. While the cult at Karnak focused on the worship of the gods, Luxor temple focused more on the worship of the king and his relationship with the gods. Later on, several churches were built in Luxor temple and in the thirteenth century AD, the mosque of Abu el-Hagag, which is still in use today, was built in the first courtyard. Western Thebes

Figure 11 Great Hall at Karnak (Nineteenth Dynasty).

On the west bank at Thebes in the Valley of the Kings, the New Kingdom pharaohs established their final resting place. As a point of departure from earlier periods, however, the mortuary cult was separated from the king’s actual burial place. Thus, the mortuary temple of each king, with the classic design of a god’s temple with pylons, courtyards, columned halls and inner sanctuaries, was erected at the edge of the river plain. Although the scenes on the walls of these temples show overwhelmingly rituals and cultic activities, they also commemorated historical events such

Figure 12 Luxor Temple from the south with pylon of Ramses II (left), colonnade of Amenophis III/Tutankhamun (right) and the mosque of Abu al-Hagag (center).

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 43

as the Battle of Qadesh of Ramses II and the battle against the Sea Peoples by Ramses III. The tombs consist of a series of descending corridors and chambers cut into the limestone cliff. While earlier tombs have a bent axis, later tombs possess a straight axis echoing the topography of the underworld. The wall decorations show scenes and texts from afterlife books such as the Book of the Dead or the Book of Caverns. Most of the royal mummies were relocated to safer places in the Theban necropolis by the end of the New Kingdom and today many are in the Cairo Museum on display. The most famous tomb in the Valley of the King is that of Tutankhamun. In 1922 it was found largely intact and unplundered and it gives a good insight into the riches that once went into the tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs, especially in view of the fact that this king was a relatively insignificant ruler. In western Thebes thousands of higher and lower officials and priests possessed rock-cut tombs. The standard layout during the Eighteenth Dynasty comprised an open courtyard and possibly a shaft, and it was surrounded by a wall (Figure 13). Inside was a broad hall and a corridor giving the whole a T-shaped form. From here sometimes a sloping passage led to the burial chamber underground. During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties the courtyard often had a pylon and columns while the tomb structure was topped by a pyramid, crowned by a capstone (pyramidion), and attached chapel (Figure 14). A Theban specialty were the so-called funerary cones. They were made of clay and placed on the fac¸ade above the tomb entrance. They were stamped on the top with the name of the tomb owner and his titles. In contrast to Thebes, in the north at Saqqara, tombs of high officials were designed like temples with pylons, courtyards, and columned halls. Scenes of daily life and mortuary rituals characterized the wall decoration at the beginning of the New Kingdom, but over time only religious and mortuary themes tended to prevail.

Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069–664 BC) The Third Intermediate Period comprises the TwentyFirst to Twenty-Fifth Dynasties. The Libyans played a dominating role in the time of the Twenty-First to Twenty-Fourth Dynasties. Their homeland was the Cyrenaica where they originally had an economy based on pastoral nomadism. Major areas of Libyan settlements in Egypt were located between Memphis and Herakleopolis, and in the oases of the Western Desert, but most were situated in the western Delta. While there is no distinct material culture linked to

Frieze of funerary cones

Statue niche

Courtyard

Entrance

Shaft

Courtyard wall

Rock

Figure 13 Early New Kingdom Theban tomb.

Pyramidion

Pyramid chapel

Pyramid

Portico Rock Pylon

Figure 14 Late New Kingdom Theban tomb.

the Libyans in Egypt, their very un-Egyptian names, such as Takelot, Sheshonq, and Osorkon, make it clear that they maintained their ethnic identity. The first king of the Twenty-First Dynasty was Smendes who ruled in the new northern capital at Tanis, while the south was controlled by the High Priest of Amun. Seeing the weakening power and influence of the High Priest in Thebes Sheshonq managed to install his son there and to some degree Egypt was united again under his rule. Subsequently, however, rival dynasties fought for the crown, and in fact the Twenty-Second to Twenty-Fourth Dynasties ruled simultaneously in different parts of the country. Major sites were Tanis, Bubastis, and Sais. Since these Delta sites have been little explored, however, our knowledge is rather poor. The Third Intermediate Period ended with the

44 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, a house of rulers that came from Kush in the South who conquered Egypt and ruled Egypt without rivals from c. 715–656 BC. Tanis

The city is strategically well located in the eastern Nile Delta, just north of the former capital of the Ramesside kings. Many stone blocks were taken from that earlier site to erect the new residence. Even statues and reliefs from the Old and Middle Kingdoms were re-used at Tanis. The new rulers of the Twenty-First Dynasty abandoned the Valley of the Kings and had their tombs built within the sacred precinct of a temple. In general, the idea of lifelong planning for a tomb disappeared and many private and sometimes royal burials were placed in existing New Kingdom tombs or mortuary temples. Nevertheless, the richer burials contained beautifully decorated coffins of the highest quality. When French Egyptologist Pierre Montet started to excavate at Tanis in the 1920s, he was convinced that he had discovered the capital of the Ramesside kings and wanted to find documents and monuments that would confirm the Biblical account of the Exodus. Surprisingly, he came across the royal tombs of the Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Dynasties, which were situated in the large mud-brick enclosure (430  370 m) of the Amun temple. Of the six subterranean tombs, all but the one of the third ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, Psusennes I, were robbed. The tombs were built of stone and mud-brick and were of modest size. The tomb of Psusennes contained not only the body of the king but the mummy of his successor, Amenemope, as well as the body of a general. With a golden mask on his face the king was placed in a silver coffin. This in turn was put inside an anthropoid sarcophagus of black granite which itself was placed in a rectangular chest of pink granite. Many precious objects of silver, gold, and lapis lazuli were discovered at Tanis in the spring of 1939. The outbreak of World War II, however, meant that these treasures are less well known than those of Tutankhamun.

Late Period (Twenty-Sixth –Thirtieth Dynasty; 664–332 BC) The rulers of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, with the help of Assyria, drove the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty out of Egypt and reunited the country. Egypt maintained good connections with Assyria and also established trade contacts with the Levant. Egypt also opened up international trade with the Mediterranean world and with such positive economic prospects, many foreigners made their way to Egypt. King Amosis

(570–526 BC) established flourishing contacts with Greek cities such as Delphi, Corinth, and Samos. In 560 BC Egypt even occupied Cyprus, and Amosis made alliances with Babylon and Croesus of Lydia against the Persian Empire. Many Greek mercenaries were employed by the Egyptian pharaoh and were stationed throughout the country. The kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty made their capital at Sais in the western Nile Delta. Due to the utilization of ancient mud-bricks as fertilizer on fields today and the proximity of the modern village of Sa el-Hagar, few remains of this capital have survived. Nonetheless, recent archaeological work has traced the beginning of the settlement as far back as the fourth millennium BC. In 525 BC Egypt became a satrapy of the Persian Empire. The Persian king Cambyses was crowned as Pharaoh in Memphis and became first king of the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty. Although Persian troops were garrisoned throughout Egypt, the administration remained in the hands of the Egyptians and in general, Egyptian culture and religion remained intact. King Darius even erected a temple in the el-Kharga Oasis in honor of Egyptian deities. Nevertheless, antiPersian sentiments were growing in Egypt and by 405 BC the Persians were driven out of Egypt. Significant building programs stretching from the Delta to the southern border at Elephantine were not resumed until the reign of the founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty, Nectanebo I (380–362 BC), determined to bring back Egypt’s old glory. Between 360 and 342 BC several attempts by the Persians to re-conquer Egypt failed. In 343 BC, however, the Persians were ultimately successful and they ended the rule of Egyptian pharaohs once and for all. In 332 BC Egypt fell prey to Alexander the Great and between 30 BC and 395 AD Egypt was part of the Roman Empire. See also: Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic; Nubia;

Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central.

Further Reading Arnold D (2003) The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. Princeton: University Press. Baines J and Malek J (2000) Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Phaidon Press. Bard KA (1999) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London/New York: Routledge. Bietak M (1996) Avaris, Capital of the Hyksos. London: British Museum Press. Kemp BJ (2006) Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of Ancient Civilization. London/New York: Routledge. Lehner M (1997) The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames and Hudson. Reeves N (1996) The Complete Valley of the Kings. London: Thames and Hudson.

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic 45 Schulz R and Seidel M (eds.) (1998) Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs. Cologne: Ko¨nemann. Shaw I (ed.) (2000) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shaw I (2003) Exploring Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic Fekri Hassan, University College London, London, UK ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Maadi-Buto Twelve sites, named after the type site of Maadi in the western Delta. Naqada A district and town about 30 km north of Luxor on the west bank of the Nile in southern Egypt (Upper Egypt), including villages such as Toukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. Predynastic Period Traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer.

Communities settled along the banks of the Nile from the border with Nubia to the shores of the Mediterranean were brought together 5000 to 4700 years ago to form a single state under the rule of powerful kings, who were later referred to as ‘Pharaohs’. The Egyptian state depended on the agricultural productivity of the Nile Valley and the Delta. Agriculture was introduced in Egypt 2000 years earlier (see Plant Domestication). The earliest food-producing (Neolithic) communities in Egypt were established on the western margin of the Delta at Mermida Beni Salama and around the Faiyum Depression (Figure 1). These sites indicate that wheat and barley were cultivated and that domestic sheep, goat, and cattle were herded. Except for a breed of cattle which was ‘kept’ in the Eastern Sahara around Nabta Playa and Bir Kisseiba, domesticated species of animals and plants were introduced from Southwest Asia. Initially, a small community sheltering in flimsy huts, the inhabitants of Merimda Beni Salama developed into a well-organized community living in a large village with mud huts. Graves were found with the settlements, but grave goods were rare. The repertoire of the last occupation at Merimda which lasted until about 4100 BC included polished dark red/black pottery, bifacial tools, figurines, and other bone, ivory, and shell items. At El-Omari, near Helwan, burials included an individual with a scepter

and valuable grave goods, perhaps indicative of the rise of local paramount chiefs. In Upper Egypt, the earliest food-producing communities are in the Badari region where small encampments, probably of herders, date back to 4400–4200 BC. These sites signal the beginning of the period commonly referred to as the Predynastic. The Badarian Early Predynastic sites contain a variety of brown, red, and occasionally black pottery with a shiny, burnished surface with ripples. This Rippled pottery is produced from very fine untempered Nile silt. The Badarian pottery is a variant of a burnished pottery present in Late Neolithic sites of the Egyptian Sahara. Badarian personal items included hairpins, combs, bracelets, and beads made out of ivory and bone. Palettes were also found. A variety of clay and ivory figurines are also represented in the Badarian. A component of the Badarian is known as the ‘Tasian’ which perhaps represents greater affinities with highly mobile groups that moved between Nubia and the Assyut region via desert routes. South of Badari, in the Nagada region (between Danfiq and Ballas), are numerous Middle and Late Predynastic village settlements and remnants of two towns (North Town and South Town) as well as extensive cemeteries dating from 3800 to 3500 BC. Two archaeological units on the basis of pottery types are identified during that period (Figure 2). The earliest ceramic assemblage zone called Naqada I (or Amratian) is generally characterized by a high frequency of Black-Topped Polished Red and White Cross-Lined pottery. This zone marks the Middle Predynastic dating from 3950 to 3650 BC. It was succeeded by the Late Predynastic Naqada II (also known as the Gerzean), dating from 3650 to 3300 BC, which is characterized by Rough pottery, and marked by the presence of Decorated and Wavy-Handled pots (Figure 3). Naqada I and Nagada II sites extend from Badari to Hierakonpolis. The majority of Predynastic sites in the Nagada region belong to Naqada I. The sites range in size from a few thousand square meters to 3 ha. They represent overlapping occupations of scores of huts in small villages and hamlets in a string along the edge of the former floodplain. Small postholes and the wooden stub of a post suggest flimsy wickerwork around a frame of wooden posts. The abundance of rubble and mud clumps indicates that many dwellings were constructed from local Nile mud and desert surface rubble. The houses contained hearths and storage pits. In some cases graves were dug into the floor of houses. Trash areas were interspersed with domestic dwellings. The houses included animal enclosures as indicated by thick layers of dung. The faunal remains indicate exploitation of cattle, sheep/goats,

46 AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic

Figure 1 Location map of principal Predynastic sites in Egypt.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic 47 Sequence date 80 Nagada IIICD Early dynastic Emergence of unified state ca. 3200 BC Late

72 71

Nagada III A1-A2 Protodynastic Formative stage of unification Late ca. 3300 BC

63 62

Nagada IIcd (Gerzean) Development of regional polities and states 51 Rough

50

43

ca. 3500 BC Decorated

42

Nagada IIab Emergence of petty states ca. 3650 BC

35

Nagada I (Amratian) Wavy handled Formation of provincial polities

34

31 White cross-lined Black polished

30 Black top pottery Polished red

ca. 3895 BC

Figure 2 Changes in the material, form, and decoration of Predynastic–Early Dynastic pottery have been used to generate pottery types and pottery assemblage zones. The absolute chronology of the assemblage zones, Nagada I, II, and III (called after ‘Nagada’, also known as ‘Naqada’ in Upper Egypt), span the period from c. 3950 to c. 3000 BC. This period was characterized by significant political transformations that led c. 3200 BC to the emergence of a unified Egyptian state (please refer to http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk for colored photographs and an excellent introduction to the pottery and other objects found in Predynastic tombs).

and pigs. Hunting was limited. However, fishing and fowling were important. Nagada I and II sites in Upper Egypt reveal pronounced progressive transformation of social organization and increasing complexity (Figure 4). The tombs yielded a rich variety of grave goods including copper objects, flint knives, amulets, stone vessels, pendants, hairpins, combs, and slate palettes. Only a few graves contain large numbers of special goods, and the distribution of grave goods indicates the emergence of tiered social hierarchy by Nagada I. By Nagada II, the elite segregated their burial grounds from those of the commoners. Their graves were larger and well endowed with grave goods (see Social Inequality, Development of). The rise of a local elite was embedded in a religious ideology linked with mortuary rituals as indicated by the standardization of the placement of the dead who were buried in a flexed position with heads to the south facing west. However, there were regional differences in the prevalence of this orientation. The iconography of Nagada II pottery and a variety of

figurines from mud and vegetable substances suggest that the incipient ideology included notions of female– male duality associated with concepts of life, death, and apparently life after death. Centered on grave goods and funerary rituals, the ideological technology of the emerging elite promoted trade within and beyond Egypt for elite mortuary goods. Hierakonpolis in the south was a conduit for trade with Nubia, whereas Maadi and later Buto in the Delta provided trade links with Southwest Asia. During the period when the Nagada I and II pottery types were emerging and spreading in Upper Egypt, communities in the Delta shared a distinct pottery assemblage, referred to as the Maadi–Buto Horizon. By the middle of the Late Predynastic, the pottery types common in Upper Egypt became prominent in the Delta. It is unlikely that this is an indication of a population replacement or a military conquest. It is most probably a result of the adoption by the Delta elite of the funerary ideology and practices of Upper Egypt with its intricate rituals, elaborate burials, and fancy grave goods. This was facilitated by the close

48 AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic

Figure 3 A diagnostic type of pottery (Decorated) that became common in Nagada II (Gerzean). Painted in red over a buff background, the ‘decorations’ show a variety of motifs and themes. Many, as in the case of this pot, show zigzag lines suggestive of water, trees, and boats with many oars and two cabins. These pictorial representations reveal the first steps toward writing and are most probably symbolic of religious beliefs concerning the journey from the land of the living to the land of the dead. Source Petrie WMF (1974) Prehistoric Egypt, London: Aris and Phillips.

Figure 4 Detail from Narmer’s palette (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) showing Narmer, the first or second king of a unified Egypt, in a ceremonial procession. The procession is led by standard-bearers who may represent the domains or main allies of the king. The palette has been interpreted in many ways, but is most likely symbolic of the emergence of a powerful king who commands the Delta and Upper Egypt. The palette also shows well-developed hieroglyphic signs as a part of a writing system that emerged 200 years earlier.

trade links between the two main trade centers of Hierakonopolis and Buto and by the use of boats bypassing overland donkey routes. It appears that the Middle Predynastic was a period of incipient state formation on a regional scale, with

at least two prominent states or petty kingdoms namely Hierakonpolis and Nagada in Upper Egypt, and perhaps several town-principalities in the Delta. By about 3300 BC, Hierakonopolis seems to have extended its power over Nagada so that it began to dominate the area north of Nagada from a new stronghold at Abydos, establishing a far more suitable strategic geopolitical position within a shorter distance from Middle Egypt and the Delta than that of Hierakonpolis at the southern border of Egypt. Considering the narrow floodplain at Hierakonpolis and access to a more extensive floodplain north of Abydos, the leaders of Hierakonpolis would have buffered themselves from droughts which appear to have become more prevalent as Nile flood discharge began to diminish c. 3300–3200 BC, coincident with the transition to hyperarid conditions in the Eastern Sahara. It is also likely that the residents of the desert regions surrounding the Nile Valley and the Delta who struggled through the transition from wetter conditions before 6200 to 4100 BC might have been forced to raid the prosperous villages in the Nile Valley and the Delta giving rise to occasional skirmishes. This would have provided the elite with another legitimizing opportunity – the portrayal of the chiefs as ‘warriors’ smiting enemies. This was expressed in the use of the mace-heads as symbols of authority and in the depiction of battle scenes on commemorative ceremonial palettes. There is also the possibility that some of the ferocious desert warriors were integrated within settled agrarian communities. Given the benefits to small communities either for defense or food security against droughts and food shortages, and for the tendency of elites to aggrandize and strengthen their position through bigger tombs, more and more costly grave goods of rare materials and better artisanship, a trend was set for large political entities like the expanding Hierakonpolitan ‘kingdom’ to get bigger by annexing small polities. This perhaps demanded no or little use of force or intimidation since an alliance with a larger power may be conceived as beneficial to small polities. The transition from the level of regional complexity to that of multiregional complexity, extending from Hierakonpolis to Abydos and perhaps beyond, made it imperative to co-opt regional chiefs and rulers within the demonstrative structures of the expanding kingdom thus attenuating the grip of kinship as a social bond among the elite. This also necessitated syncretic religious ideologies that incorporated a pantheon of regional and local deities. Alliances may have also been fostered by inter-regional royal marriages. This may explain the important role of royal wives in the development of the Egyptian state and the role of women in the ideology of kingship.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 49

Royal wives were perhaps the link between the king and his allies, and their position as mothers of future kings consolidated their role, within religious ideology, as divine mothers. Although the bull might be a more likely religious entity in hunting societies, the cow is perhaps equally important, or even more important, in a herding community. Cow burials were already manifest among cattle keepers of the Eastern Sahara before 5000 BC. Narmer’s palette depicting the king as a bull is surmounted by two large cow heads. During this formative stage of Egyptian kingship, writing was developed within a ritual, royal context and is attested on ivory labels predating Narmer’s palette which carries phonetic signs of his name. Narmer was succeeded by Aha who together with his successors began to lay the foundation of a unified Egyptian state heralding the Dynastic Period. They established an administrative capital at Memphis close to their Delta allies while maintaining Abydos as a religious capital and a royal burial ground. The unification suffered periodic setbacks, especially during the Second Dynasty. By the time Zoser established his reign, he was able to build a monumental steppyramid of unprecedented dimensions as his royal tomb, a clear indication that a mighty Pharaoh ruled

Africa, North/Greek Colonies

over a state society with an elaborate administrative structure. See also: Africa, North: Egypt, Pharaonic; Plant Domestication; Political Complexity, Rise of; Social Inequality, Development of; Writing Systems.

Further Reading Adams B (1988) Predynastic Egypt, Aylesbury: Shire Egyptology 7. Bard K (1999) Predynastic period, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 23–30. London: Routledge. Hassan FA (1988) The Predynastic of Egypt. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 135–185. Hassan FA (1999) Epipalaeolithic cultures, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 15–16. London: Routledge. Hendrickx S, Friedman RF, Cialowicz KM, and Chlodnicki M (eds.) (2004) Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Brussels: Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Peters Publishers. Maisels CK (1999) Early Civilizations of the Old World. London: Routledge. Midant-Reynes B (2002) The Prehistory of Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell. Wenke RJ (1999) Neolithic cultures, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 17–22. London: Routledge.

See: Europe, South: Greek Colonies.

Nubia Donatella Usai, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary African cattle The ongoing discussion about cattle domestication in Africa envisions the existence of an indigenous species, Bos opisthonomous, froh the domesticated form have originated. alternately pivoting stamp technique Pottery decoration technique realized with a comb impressed into the clay and lifted alternately on the extremities of the edge. Bucrania (sing. Bucranium) From greek boVB (cow) and wrani´on (skull). Pise´ Building material composed mainly of mud or clay not molded in bricks.

The Nubian contribution to the Nile Valley cultural development has been considered, for quite a long time, secondary to that of Upper and Lower Egypt (Figure 1). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, strongly influenced by the size and extent of archaeological remains scattered along the Nile, regarded Nubia, at the southern periphery of the Egyptian world, only as ‘a corridor’ to Africa. This ‘middle-land’ was, in fact, the theater for remarkable cultural changes that preluded to the formation of complex societies and were the precursors of the later urban pharaonic theocracy (see Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic). For a more detailed geographic description of the area a distinction between Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia seems to be appropriate. Egyptian Nubia, or Lower Nubia, encompasses the area from Jebel es

50 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

EGYPT Sodmein Cave

Elkab Jebel es Silsila I Cataract

Gilf Kebir Plateau

LOWER NUBIA

Kiseiba Nabta II Cataract

Abka IX

UPPER NUBIA III Cataract Kerma-EI Barga Kawa-R12

SUDAN

IV Cataract

V Cataract

South Dongola Reach

ra

Esh shaheinab

Ghaba kadada

ba

dam VI Cataract

At

uqad

Multaga

M Wadi

Wadi Howar

Kabbashi

Khartoum Hospital Site 10W4 ue Bl le Ni

ile

eN

400 km

Whit

0

Figure 1 Location map of sites mentioned in the text. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Silsila to the frontier between Egypt and Sudan, or the II Cataract, and the Sudanese Nubia, or Upper Nubia, from the II Cataract to the Southern Dongola Reach. It is from the core of this region that new archaeological

data arrive which motivated new thoughts on the overall Nile Valley recent prehistory cultural sequence. The Mesolithic is a key period in the prehistory of man, one when the seeds of the transition from a

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 51

hunting-gathering-fishing economy to food production were laid down. Among the archaeological evidence left by Near Eastern Mesolithic communities are the first permanent structural remains, sometimes related to ritual activities, and faunal assemblages bearing the earliest evidence of domesticated species and cereals remains produced by more systematic gathering activities. This evidence may be interpreted as the beginning of a process that will produce a fully Neolithic economy. The Nile Valley was and is still considered to be peripheral to the areas where this process took its first steps but, without denying a possible contribution to the neolithization of Nile Valley coming from Near Eastern regions, it seems that also Mesolithic Nubians were involved in a process of social and economic changes evidenced, apparently, by successful animal domestication. The Mesolithic population, in Nubia as well as in Central Sudan, is made up by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities that were producing pottery vessels some centuries before their appearance in the Near East where a Pottery Neolithic dates to around 6800 BC. The first discovery of Mesolithic pottery in the Sudanese Nile Valley was made by A.J. Arkell at the Mesolithic site of Khartoum Hospital. Two types of decoration, among others, characterize Mesolithic pottery production: incised Wavy Line (Figure 2) and impressed Dotted Wavy Line (Figure 3). During the years of the Nubian Salvage Campaign (1960–1968) a site, Abka IX, with ‘similar’ material was found also in Nubia and radiocarbon dated 8260  400 BP. At the time the date was considered too old and rejected

because of the high range, but recent archaeological discoveries in much more controlled contexts proved its being reliable. It is now accepted that a ceramic Mesolithic culture behind regional character was widespread along the Nile Valley and adjacent areas, from Central Nubia down to Central Sudan and further south, during the VIII–VII millennium BC. Nothing which can firmly be related to this culture has been found, until now, in the Upper and Lower Egyptian Nile Valley, neither in the adjacent deserts and oases. A VII millennium BC site, Elkab, located in the Nile Valley, between Luxor and Aswan, produced a lithic industry with an Epipalaeolithic character, some bone tools but no pottery. The adoption of pottery technology within Sudanese Mesolithic societies has been correlated with an increased sedentary lifestyle. Until recently no evidence, other than the pottery itself, suggested such a reduction in mobility. Most Mesolithic sites along the Nile Valley have been, in fact, deeply affected by postdepositional natural and human disturbances. Nevertheless, very recent and still largely unpublished excavations revealed semi-subterranean huts at El Barga, in the Kerma Basin, at a seasonal Late Mesolithic site near Khartoum (Figure 4) and pise´ walled dwellings at a VII millennium BC Mesolithic settlement along the left bank of White Nile again south of the Sudan capital. Nile river-versus-desert seasonal movements and vice versa were practiced by the Mesolithic huntergatherer-fishers at the beginning of the Early Holocene when, according to palaeoenvironmental data, deserts, to the west and the east of the Nile, became less inhospitable with the formation of many seasonal water pools.

Figure 2 Sample of Early Mesolithic potsherds with typical Wavy Line incised decoration, realized with a Nile catfish spine. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

52 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

Figure 3 A fragment of Late Mesolithic pottery decorated with Dotted Wavy line impressed pattern. This decoration is realized with the alternately pivoting stamp technique. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 4 Excavation at a Late Mesolithic prehistoric seasonal camp south of Khartoum. The site, 10-W-4, revealed a series of semisubterranean huts with refusal pits. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The pioneering researches conducted by F. Wendorf at Nabta Playa and Kiseiba Plateau sites in the Western Desert, 100 km to the west of the Nile, at the height of the II Cataract, produced the most interesting, although debatable, data concerning these Mesolithic groups. The structures excavated at these desert sites, and the faunal and palaeobotanical assemblages suggest that strictly scheduled seasonal movements may have provided a semi-sedentary life in a sort of residential mobility congruent with pottery production.

Fishing activity, whose practice is strongly evidenced especially in Mesolithic Central Sudan sites, may also have encouraged a less mobile lifestyle. Demographic growth may also have been responsible for an increased territorial control and, as a consequence, of less mobility. It is important to underline that, as suggested for the Near Eastern Mesolithic societies, this increased sedentary way of life may have favored experimentation in animal domestication, as in the case of the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 53

African cattle. Most reliably these first experiments took place in Nubia at the end of the VIII-beginning of the VII millennium BC. The first evidence for cattle domestication comes from different sites in the Nabta–Kiseiba Western Desert. Few fragments of possibly domesticated cattle recovered at these sites date to the beginning of the VIII millennium BC. Some scholars reject this ancient occurrence, for different reasons, not least the questionable contextual associations. The presence of a few domestic cattle bones at Western Desert sites led the excavators to speak of an Early Neolithic phase, but the overall faunal assemblage is made up of wild species suggesting more caution is necessary. However, evidence of domestic cattle was recently found in Sudanese Nubia, in the Kerma Basin, at the Mesolithic site of El Barga and dated to the VII millennium BC. Domestic sheep and goat appeared in the Nile Valley and in Nubia later on, around the VI millennium BC, as witnessed by sites like Sodmein cave in the Red Sea Mountain, Nabta–Kiseiba, in the Western Desert, and El-Barga, in the Kerma Basin. As it is genetically proved that sheep and goats originate in the Near East, it is probably here that we have to envisage influences from outside the valley. Cattle herding became increasingly important in Nubian societies; hence, pastoralism became the basic subsistence economy of these populations. The emergence of cattle domestication seems limited, up to now, to the Nubian region. No evidence has been produced by sites along the Nile Valley north Chronology

Lower-Upper Nubia

7000 BC 6000 BC

Mesolithic (Western Desert-EI Barga)

6000 BC 5500 BC

Early Neolithic (Western Desert-EI Barga)

5500 BC 5000 BC

?

5000 BC 4500 BC

Middle Neolithic A (Kadruka 13-21, R12)

and south of Nubia. Moreover, no evidence of this kind was produced by the many prehistoric sites located in the desert north and south of the Nabta/ Kiseiba region. Central Sudan societies seem to retain their hunting-gathering-fishing economy until the middle of the V millennium BC. When the first Neolithic groups appear in Central Sudan (see Africa, Central: Sudan, Nilotic), they show a material culture which displays strong similarities with that produced by Nubian groups whose socioeconomic structure had already changed to a pastoral one more than a millennium before. If this picture will be confirmed by future archaeological investigations it will be interesting to work out whether the long-lasting Mesolithic social and economic way of life in Central Sudan has been culturally or environmentally determined. Palaeoenvironmental studies documented a climatic deterioration around the VI millennium BC. It affected firstly the Nubian region and only many centuries later the Central Sudan and may have produced, at the same time, an acceleration in subsistence economy transformation in Nubia as well as favoring the maintenance of the hunter-gatherer-fisher subsistence model of Central Sudan Mesolithic populations. At present the Early Neolithic of Central Sudan seems to correspond to the Middle Neolithic of Nubia (Figure 5). Some of the social and cultural aspects of these V and IV millennium BC Neolithic groups are so similar that there is no wonder that all along the valley there were strong and permanent interrelations. Central Sudan

Mesolithic (Khartoum Hospital, Saggai etc.)

Late Mesolithic (Kabbashi, 10-W-4 etc.)

Early Neolithic (Shaheinab, EI Ghaba, Kadero etc.)

4500 BC 4200 BC

Middle Neolithic B (Kadruka 1, R12, Multaga)

4200 BC 3100 BC

?

Late Neolithic (EI kadada)

3100 BC 2700 BC

Pre-Kerma

?

Figure 5 Nubian and Central Sudan chronological sequence according to new data provided by recent excavations in the region. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

54 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

N

G. 110 Figure 6 One of the richest graves excavated at the Middle Neolithic cemetery R12, in Lower Nubia, close to the Egyptian town of Kawa. The body, of an adult male, was covered by 108 objects. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 7 A sample of valuable stone axes recovered at R12 cemetery. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 55

Figure 8 Tools made from animal bones or containers made from a hippopotamus tooth are very common at Middle Neolithic Nubian cemeteries. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9 Caliciform beakers are considered ritual containers as they have been found only in cemeteries. They are characteristics of Nubian and Central Sudan Neolithic. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nubia’s Neolithic is known mainly from the excavation of few of the many mound-like burial grounds dotting the Nubian landscape. These cemeteries produce the image of a ranked society with some form of incipient elite. A few graves (Figure 6), in each cemetery, are accompanied by an exceptional number of objects: pots, stone axes, mace-heads, ivory bracelets, necklaces made of semiprecious stone beads, containers made from hippopotamus teeth and bucrania (Figures 7 and 8). The number of bucrania varies according to the individual’s social position, whether achieved or acquired though kin relationship. Red and yellow ochre was often used to cover the body, which sometimes lay on an animal skin. Some graves also contain complete skeletons of an ovicaprine. One pot, in particular, seems to have had a ritual character. It is the caliciform beaker (Figure 9). This container, decorated in different ways, probably according to different regional tastes, is present only in grave contexts.

Many of the Nubian Neolithic settlements, seemingly, were destroyed by erosion or Nile flooding. They appear, in fact, as dense scatters of archaeological material. The lack of structural remains at Neolithic sites, in contrast with the evidence provided by hundreds of burial grounds sometime of very large size, has been considered as attesting the high mobility of these Neolithic herders and their living in rather ephemeral dwellings. However at Kerma, an extensive excavation revealed the structural organization of a Neolithic village, dating to 4500 BC, witnessed by thousands of postholes. While no stratified deposits survived at the site the study of postholes distribution has made possible the reconstruction of the plan of an otherwise lost ancient and complex settlement.

See also: Africa, Central: Sudan, Nilotic; Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic; Sahara, Eastern; Animal Domestication.

56 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

Further Reading Arkell AJ (1949) Early Khartoum. London: Oxford University Press. Blench RM and MacDonald K (2000) The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics, and Ethnography. London: University College London Press. Guilane J (ed.) (2003) Aux marges des grands foyers du Ne´olithique. Pe´riphe´ries de´bitrices ou cre´atrices? Paris: Editions Errance. Honegger M (2004) Settlement and cemeteries of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic at el-Barga (Kerma region). Sudan & Nubia 8: 14–19. Honegger M (2005) Kerma et les de´buts du Ne´olithique Africain. GENAVA LIII. 239–249.

Salvatori S and Usai D (2004) The cemetery R12 and a possible periodisation of the Nubian Neolithic. Sudan and Nubia 8: 33–37. Usai D and Salvatori S (2005) The IsIAO archaeological project in the El Salha area (Omdurman South, Sudan): Results and perspectives. AFRICA LX (3–4): 474–493. Vermeersch PM (1978) Elkab II: Epipale´olithique de la valle´e du Nil e`gyptien. Leuven: University Press. Wendorf F, Schild R, and associates (eds.) (2001) Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers. Wengrow D (2006) The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Africa, North/Roman Eastern Colonies

See: Asia, West: Roman Eastern Colonies.

Sahara, Eastern

Introduction

Elena A A Garcea, University of Cassino, Cassino, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Aterian A North African tradition with lithic assemblages, often made with the Levallois technology, consisting of side-scrapers and denticulates, as well as end-scrapers, perforators, and burins. Tanged tools and bifacial foliates are considered as the diagnostic features, but other, more frequent, elements include bulbar basal thinning and bifacial retouching. cultivation Any form of human activity that increases the yield of harvested or exploited plants without domestication. delayed return strategy A long-term system of resource exploitation based on delayed and planned consumption, involving food processing and storage. dotted wavy line pottery Ceramic impressed decoration made with a rocker technique using a toothed comb to produce alternately upwards and downwards fans of dotted curved lines. Middle Stone Age (MSA) A specific African age/stage system, which comprises the Early Stone Age (ESA), the Middle Stone Age (MSA), and the Later Stone Age (LSA). European-based terms such as Middle Paleolithic and Mousterian are often used to describe North African industries, even though they relate to specific cultural units and particular stratigraphic positions that do not apply to Africa. pastoralism The economic subsistence strategy that relies on the exploitation of domestic livestock for food production. It implies raising and moving herds for grazing according to seasonal availability of pasture. Western Desert This is a desert located west of the Nile River that occupies western Egypt and eastern Libya. Its main regions are the Great Sand Sea and several oases, including Siwa, Farafra, Baharia, Dakhleh, and Kharga.

The most thorough and detailed studies on the prehistory of North Africa come from the land included within the present borders of Egypt and northern Sudan. The Eastern Sahara is presently almost uninhabited by people or animals, but it has not always been so. The Nile River and the Sahara Desert have affected each other on both cultural and environmental levels and Eastern Saharan populations have often acted as intermediaries between Central Saharans and Nilotic peoples, often even linking populations and traditions between East and North Africa. The Eastern Sahara covers a surface of more than 2 million square km, which is the same size as western Europe, and is often referred to as the Western Desert, being located west of the Nile River. However, the Eastern Sahara also extends east of the Nile River, reaching the coast of the Red Sea, and to the west it extends to eastern Libya.

Environment and Climate in the Eastern Sahara The main geographic features of the Eastern Sahara are the Great Sand Sea and several oases, the main ones being, from north to south, Siwa, Farafra, Baharia, Dakhleh, and Kharga. The Fayum Oasis, which was formerly a lake, has been another very important water reservoir. Unlike in Lower (northern) Egypt, in Upper (southern) Egypt, the flood plain of the Nile is only a few kilometers wide and the desert extends near the river. The desert is not as flat as one may think: mountains and deep depressions exist in several parts,

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern 57

including the Gilf Kebir plateau, south of the Great Sand Sea, which has an altitude of about 2000 m. In spite of the elevated areas, no rivers or streams fed by precipitation, drain into or out of the Western Desert. Nevertheless, the oases live, thanks to freshwater provided by the Nile or local groundwater. Important environmental changes affected the Eastern Sahara during the shifts corresponding to the glacial and interglacial stages in continental Europe. Although there were no glaciations in most of North Africa, the environment dramatically changed as the sea level of the Mediterranean withdrew by up to 70 m and precipitation totally disappeared. Consequently, the Sahara became a hyper-arid desert, drier than at present. During the Penultimate Glacial, corresponding to oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 6, dated between about 186 000 and 127 000 years ago, a series of sand sheets, formed by winds, covered the Eastern Sahara. Later, lacustrine and fluvial sediments were recorded at Bir Tarfawi, indicating the occurrence of lake basins and a moist climate during the Last Interglacial of OIS 5, dated to 127 000– 71 000 BP. Furthermore, a significant drainage network was active during various periods of OIS 5 in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan. The following Last Glacial period of OIS 4, dated to 71 000–57 000 BP, witnessed abrupt climatic changes with the formation of sand sheets again, as clearly shown in the Selima region, across the Egyptian– Sudanese border. The remaining part of the Upper Pleistocene featured a harsh environment and dry climate. Although the climate during OIS 3 (57 000– 24 000 BP) improved, it was not as temperate as OIS 5, and OIS 2 (24 000–11 000 BP) was much more arid than at present. Considerable climatic ameliorations occurred only in the Eastern Sahara at the beginning of the Holocene. Groundwater levels started to rise about 9300 years BP and the aquifers rose to levels as much as 25 m higher than today. Freshwater lakes and swamps formed in the lowlands and a fluvial system developed in the uplands, attracting animals and favoring human occupation in many areas of the Eastern Sahara. Rainfall decreased from south to north, forming lacustrine sediments in the south, below 22 N, and playa sediments between 10 and 22 N. Such favorable conditions lasted until about 6000 years ago, when the landscape started to dry up again and, by 3000 BP, the Sahara became the desert we know today.

and the oases in the Western Desert played an essential role by offering water and food resources to the humans who ventured into a landscape that was much drier than their native land. A series of water springs at Kharga Oasis, central-western Egypt, about 150 km west of the Nile, sustained various Middle Stone Age (MSA) human groups using the Levallois technique and producing side-scrapers, Mousterian points, and some denticulates (Figure 1). A later complex was also found at Kharga Oasis, which included tanged tools and bifacial foliates that could be assigned to the Aterian. Tanged pieces were recorded further southeast, at Wadi Dungul, which seems to be the easternmost Aterian site. In fact, the Aterian, which takes its name from the type of site of Bir el Ater, in northeastern Algeria, is a typical late MSA tradition of the Sahara and the Maghreb and does not occur in the Nile Valley. Lithic assemblages are often made with the Levallois technology and comprise typical ‘Middle Paleolithic’ tools, such as side-scrapers and denticulated, as well as ‘Upper Paleolithic’ tools, such as end-scrapers, perforators, and burins. Tanged tools and bifacial foliates were considered as the diagnostic features, but other more frequent elements include bulbar basal thinning and bifacial retouching. At Bir Tarfawi, in southwestern Egypt, between 175 000 and 70 000 years ago, a sequence of five

The Spread of Early Anatomically Modern Humans Anatomically modern humans are found earlier in southern and eastern Africa then in northern Africa, dating to 250 000 years BP or earlier. The Nile Valley

Figure 1 Map of sites cited in the text.

58 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

lacustrine events indicated the successive expansions of a lake where people could live and hunt a variety of large animals that are now extinct in the area, including gazelle, warthog, and ostrich, living in a wooded savanna with rainfall of 500 mm per year. They produced a typical MSA industry which included some bifacial foliates that were not significant enough to be assigned to the Aterian. Another MSA site was found at Bir Sahara East, not far from Bir Tarfawi, which revealed a long human occupation, as indicated in a long stratigraphic series. As the age of the earliest level associated with the MSA belongs to the early OIS 6, it is clear that human groups were skilled enough to cope with the severe environmental conditions of the Penultimate Glacial in the Sahara. The age of these populations, their development of MSA technologies, and their abilities to adapt to dry environments and live in open grassland suggest that they were fully modern humans. The technological shift from the production of Acheulean to MSA industries, with a correlated replacement by modern humans, occurred in the late OIS 8 and the cultural progression toward modern behavior took place during the MSA.

The Reoccupation of the Sahara after 10 000 Years Ago The Aterian was the latest Upper Pleistocene cultural entity in the Sahara and the Maghreb, but it did not last until the end of the Pleistocene or the beginning of the Holocene at 10 000 BP. The dated stratigraphic series from Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East show that no human occupation survived after 70 000 BP in the Eastern Sahara and other dated sites in the Central Sahara confirm that the region became a hyper-arid desert that had to be abandoned for a very long time, until wetter conditions returned. These populations dispersed around the northern and, possibly, southern margins of the Sahara, definitely disappearing around 40 000 BP, but did not go in the direction of the Nile Valley. Smaller groups with different industries were settled in the Maghreb and the North African littoral between 40 000 and 20 000 BP. Later, between 20 000 and 10 000 years ago, the population considerably increased and produced various technocomplexes in the Maghreb, North African Mediterranean coast, as well as the Nile Valley, but still no human resettlement occurred in any place of the Sahara during this period. At the end of the Pleistocene, around 12 000 years ago, the Nile suffered catastrophic inundations that caused a dispersion of Nilotic peoples toward the Eastern Sahara. During the Early Holocene, water was largely available from the Nile and its tributaries and rains were sufficiently frequent to keep permanent playas located in various places of the Western

Desert, from Siwa Oasis to Nabta Playa. Nevertheless, humid and dry phases still alternated throughout the Holocene. Systematic reoccupation of the Eastern Sahara took place after 10 000 years BP, when the first Early Holocene humid phase supported milder conditions. During the Holocene, humid and arid phases continually alternated, displaying eight humid and eight dry phases from the beginning of the Holocene until today at Nabta Playa. It has been suggested that, after every dry episode, the area was completely abandoned, and new people moved back again into the southwestern desert of Egypt at the onset of humid phases. In the area of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, the earliest cultural horizon of the Early Holocene is the El Adam variant, which is dated between 9500, or possibly 9800, and 8900 BP. The lithic tool-kit includes a large quantity of backed bladelets, struck from single and opposed platform cores, followed by end-scrapers, perforators, and notches. The microburin technique is frequent. Lower and upper grinding stones and ostrich eggshell containers and beads are common. The subsequent variants are El Kortein, dated from 8800 to 8500 BP, and El Ghorab, dated from 8400 to 8200 BP, the latter corresponding to an important lacustrine episode. Scalene triangles become a dominating aspect of the El Ghorab variant and backed bladelets are still frequent. Grinding stones are common and pottery is present, but is still very rare. This cultural unit has some affinities with the Masara phases at Dakhleh Oasis. The latest Early Holocene variant is El Nabta, dated between 8200 and 7900 BP, which flourished during the maximum humid interphase recorded in the area and dated between 8050 and 7300 BP. Burins dominate in the tool-kit, together with continuously retouched tools, backed bladelets, notches, and denticulates.

The Earliest Cattle Herding The North African aurochs (Bos primigenius ssp. or Bos primigenius mauritanicus) is a wild endemic species that could live in the Maghreb and the Nile Valley, but not in the Sahara. Genetic mtDNA evidence has indicated that the ancestors of African and Eurasian cattle separated at least 22 000 years ago. As the Egyptian cattle is morphologically different from the Eurasian humpless cattle (Bos taurus) and the zebu (Bos indicus), the earliest African domestic cattle could not originate from either Europe or Asia, but was domesticated independently. The Eastern Sahara has provided chronological, paleoecological, and linguistic clues to assert domestication of aurochs in the Western Desert, which

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern 59

definitely occurred earlier than in the Nile Valley. The earliest domesticated cattle bones are associated with the El Adam variant and are dated from 9500 BP at Nabta Playa, and from 8840 BP at Bir Kiseiba. As these dates are older than those of the earliest cattle in the Near East, they corroborate the independent domestication of cattle in the Eastern Sahara. Second, paleoecological evidence shows that large herbivores, including cattle, could not survive in a wild state in the dry environment and scarce vegetation of the Eastern Sahara without management by herders, who brought their livestock into the desert oases after the summer rains. Third, linguistic arguments show that the Nilo-Saharan language family had root words related to pastoralism and food production in the languages known in the Eastern Sahara and the Sahelian belt. In the Proto-Northern Sudanic language, there are root words referring to cattle pastoralism that go back to 10 000 years ago, and in the ProtoSaharan-Sahelian language, words for pastoralism, as well as cultivation, date from 9000 years ago. Although domestic cattle existed at Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba beginning from the El Adam variant, remains of wild game were more frequent in the archaeological sites, as cattle were rarely killed, whereas wild animals, such as small gazelle, hare, and occasionally large gazelle, were hunted for meat consumption. Cattle could be exploited for milk and blood, which represented almost inexhaustible supplies for proteins. For these reasons, cattle were defined as a ‘walking larder’. Furthermore, they could have another role, not directly related to diet, but to socioeconomic prestige and property, establishing the first social differentiation based on material possessions.

The Earliest Production and Spread of Pottery The earliest pottery in the Eastern Sahara was found at Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa, dating to the tenth millennium BP. It first appeared at a few sites of the El Adam variant and showed impressed decorations on the outside surface forming simple impressions and dotted zigzags made with the rocker technique. It has been suggested that pottery was unusual when it was first invented and that its function was not related to ordinary use, but to social status, symbolizing luxury possessions. Pottery became more frequent in the El Nabta variant, dated between 8200 and 7900 BP. This increase in ceramic production has been related to an intensified use by larger groups that occupied the area for longer periods. The ceramic decorative types from El Nabta also include a typical Saharan decoration exhibiting dotted wavy lines. This type of decoration appears in the earliest pottery of the Central

Sahara, also dating from the tenth millennium BP, whereas in the Upper Nile Valley it is present, but appears from the middle of the eighth millennium BP, suggesting that it was introduced there from the Sahara. Its occurrence in the Eastern Sahara at a later period than the earliest pottery, but before the Nile Valley, corroborates a west–east movement of some Saharan traditions, such as dotted wavy line pottery. Further considerations on the distribution and spread of early pottery and the populations who produced it come from the Gilf Kebir and the Great Sand Sea. A potsherd from the Wadi el Akhdar in the Gilf Kebir was dated to 9080 BP, whereas another one from the same site was dated to 6400 BP. Other dates obtained on more reliable materials span from 7700 BP. The earliest pottery in the Great Sand Sea is undecorated and dates to 7200 BP. These two areas are in an intermediate position between the Central Sahara and the Nile Valley. As the ecological conditions in the Gilf Kebir were slightly better than in the surrounding lowland areas, even during the phases of climatic deterioration, they could have encouraged contacts with Central Saharan groups and often acted as a ‘refugium’ for populations coming from the Central Sahara. The location of these areas and their availability of resources contributed to the diffusion of Central Saharan traditions toward the Nile Valley, through the Eastern Sahara.

Caprine Herding The origin of caprine domestication in North Africa is different from that of cattle. Domestic caprines were introduced from the Near East as no wild forms of sheep or goat existed in North Africa. Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) is descendant from the Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis), and domestic goat (Capra hircus) originates from the scimitar-horned Capra aegagrus of western Asia. They were brought into North Africa as domesticates around 7000–6700 years ago. Although some zooarchaeologists question the early chronology of cattle domestication in the Western Desert and consider the first uncontroversial dates for domestic cattle in the Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba area at 7700 BP, caprine herding was still later than cattle herding. Even if we take the later date for cattle domestication, it was still earlier in the Western Desert than in the Nile Valley. The earliest domestic caprines appeared in Mediterranean North Africa between 7000 and 6400 years BP, at Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica, Libya), and in the Fayum at the end of the sixth millennium BP. In the Western Desert, they were dated, at Dakhleh Oasis, from 6900 to 6500 BP, and at Sodmein cave, in the Red Sea hills, between 7000 and 6300 BP.

60 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

At Nabta Playa, they appear during the El Ghanam variant, which is dated from 7100 to 6600 BP, although they do not seem to be present from the beginning of this phase. It has been suggested that they were introduced into the Eastern Sahara either directly from the Near East or from coastal North Africa where they arrived from the Levant and from there spread into the Eastern Sahara. Caprines have different herding necessities than cattle: they can survive in drier environments and are better adapted to cope with reduced grazing lands. As a matter of fact, an impoverished environment in the Eastern Sahara is reflected in the significant reduction of living sites dating to the El Ghanam variant and in the increase of dug-out water wells that indicates a lowering of the water table in the region. Herders were forced to develop a highly mobile nomadic settlement pattern, supplementing their diet with the gathering of tubers and fruits. At the same time medium and large size herbivores decreased and gazelle-hunting was reduced and could no longer be the major source of meat.

The Development of Sedentism Several stone-built structures, forming circular huts, were found at Dakhleh Oasis associated with the Masara C cultural unit dated to 8700–8600 BP. They were strategically located on a sandstone ridge that was protected from seasonal floods so that they could be occupied during the wet seasons. The area they occupied was significantly smaller than the territory previously exploited, suggesting a contraction of resources in some selected locations. The Masara C unit has been paralleled with the El Kortein variant at Bir Kiseiba. Furthermore, at both Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa, a complex settlement system with habitation structures was developed during the El Nabta variant, dated to 8200–7900 BP. The largest site at Nabta Playa is E-75–6, which yielded about 20 huts, more than 30 storage pits, 3 wells, and numerous hearths. The huts were either oval or round, with shallow basin floors, encircled with postholes. Their shape suggested that they were built with wooden poles tight in the center at the top of the roof, and the walls were covered by reeds, skins, or mats. The huts contained several hearths that were seasonally reused. The chronology of this site indicated that it remained in use for more than 800 years. Sedentism in North Africa was not a form of preadaptation leading to agriculture. It was a typical strategy adopted by foragers, or forerunning pastoralists as in the case of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, associated with the exploitation of a broad spectrum

of wild resources. These people continually occupied the same sites for long periods of time in restricted areas with concentrated water and food resources. Sedentary lifestyle favored an increased social organization and the rise of sociopolitical complexity with a delayed-return economy. Such an economic strategy implied the intensification of resource exploitation and scheduled consumption with considerable investments of capital, labor, and skills. It was a particularly efficient subsistence practice for North African populations as it allowed them to cope with irregular precipitations and to manage drier periods of reduced rainfall. Scheduled consumption increased awareness of predictable access to locally available food resources and generated techniques of delayed consumption of seasonally available products with the development of storage facilities. As sedentism with a delayed return strategy grew, local wild resources became unable to sustain the increased needs for set-aside provisions, and North African dwellers had to switch to nomadic pastoralism as the only sustainable form of food production in their environment. In the Eastern Sahara, this happened during the El Ghanam variant, when pastoralism became the predominant subsistence base and was extended to caprine herding.

The Origins of Cultivation and Farming The process leading to agriculture was very slow in the Eastern Sahara and farming, progressing inevitably to plant domestication was not the final goal. At least two important stages of selective cultivation without farming or genetic modification were successfully reached. They represent, respectively, cultivation with small-scale clearance and minimal tillage, and cultivation with larger-scale clearance and systematic tillage. Thus, cultivation is an elaborate form of plant exploitation without domestication. At Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, a new economy of intensive plant collection came into being, during the El Nabta/El Jerar humid interphase dated from around 8000 to 7300 years BP. During this period, numerous large, bell-shaped storage pits indicated intensive exploitation and preservation of fruits, tubers, and seeds, including large quantities of wild sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and two kinds of millet (Panicum turgidum and Echinochloa colona). In some particularly favorable years, sorghum may have been cultivated with the de´crue, or dry farming, technique. This system requires sowing seeds over flooded land without irrigation, and collecting with a technique that implies cross-pollination, which, unlike self-pollination, prevents the propagation of the genetic changes typical of domestication. Such a

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technique could have required shaking the harvest into baskets, instead of using sickles or removing the entire plant. At Farafra Oasis, a site in the Hidden Valley was located on the shore of an ancient water basin and exhibited numerous habitation structures with hearths containing numerous plant remains, including burnt cereal grains that have suggested independent protoagricultural activities. Three main occupation phases were identified, the earliest being dated between 7670 and 7320 BP, the second around 6750 BP, and the latest at 6190 BP. Grasses include Brachiaria, Cenchrus, Digitaria, Echinochloa, Panicum, and Setaria, belonging to the millet group, and Sorghum, which represents 40.6% of the paleobotanical samples. The high frequency of Sorghum may be due to the large size of its grains, which could have been preferred for their size and better nutritional properties. Furthermore, Sorghum is particularly suitable for this semidesert environment as it can tolerate hot and dry conditions, as well as salty soils. The area with circular structures, stone-lined hearths, and over 180 plant samples, most of them belonging to Sorghum, was dated between 7100 and 6700 BP. As there are no signs of genetic change, it is most likely that the plants were collected by hand and exploited using soft material artifacts, such as wood, whereas stone tools were only used later. Tamerix and Acacia, which were exploited for fuel, could also have been used the manufacturing of wooden implements. Cultivation practices began in the Western Desert at a significantly earlier date than in the Nile Valley. On the other hand, full domestication of sorghum and pearl millet took place in Africa in a still undetermined time, but not before the fourth millennium BP, whereas barley and emmer wheat were not local domesticates, but imported from southwest Asia into the Nile Valley. They are attested to in the Delta and lower Nile Valley from the end of the seventh millennium BP. However, as they required a humid habitat with constant fresh water, which was not available outside the Nile Valley, they were unsuitable for the Eastern Sahara.

Harris DR (1996) Domesticatory relationships of people, plants and animals. In: Ellen R and Fukui K (eds.) Redefining Nature: Ecology, Culture and Domestication, pp. 437–463. Oxford: Berg. Hassan FA (ed.) (2002) Droughts, Food and Culture. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Hoelzmann P (2001) A palaeolimnological N–S transect through the Eastern Sahara. In: Gasse F, Battarbee R, and Stickley C (eds.) Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa. An International Conference. Aix-en-Provence: Centre des Congre`s. Lanssen-Erz T, Tegtmeier U, and Kro¨pelin S (eds.) (2002) Tides of the Desert: Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolf Kuper. Ko¨ln: HeinrichBarth-Institut. McDonald MMA (1998) Early African pastoralism: View from Dakhleh Oasis (South Central Egypt). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 124–142. Nelson K (2002) Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara, Vol. 2: The Pottery of Nabta Playa. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Stahl AB (ed.) (2005) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. van der Veen M (ed.) (1999) The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Vermeersch PM, VanPeer P, and Moeyersons J (1996) Neolithic occupation of the Sodmein area, Red Sea Mountains, Egypt. In: Pwiti G and Soper R (eds.) Aspects of African Archaeology. Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Studies, pp. 411–419. Harare: University of Zimbabwe. Wendorf F and Schild R (1998) Nabta Playa and its role in northeastern African prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 97–123. Wendorf F and Schild R (eds.) (2001) Holocene Settlements of the Egyptian Sahara: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa. Vol. 1. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press. Wendorf F, Schild R, and Close AE (eds.) (1993) Egypt during the Last Interglacial: The Middle Paleolithic of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East. New York: Plenum Press.

See also: Animal Domestication; Modern Humans, Emergence of; Plant Domestication.

Glossary

Further Reading Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain: The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider. Close AE (ed.) (1984) Cattle-Keepers of the Eastern Sahara: The Neolithic of Bir Kiseiba. Dallas: Southern Methodist University. Garcea EAA (ed.) (2001) Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio.

Sahara, West and Central Barbara E Barich, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aterian Prehistoric culture dating to the middle Palaeolithic (30 000 BC) in the region around the Atlas Mountains, north and west Africa, and Sahara. climatic oscillations Refers to the drastic variation in the Earth’s global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over timescales ranging from decades to millions of years. Tenerian culture Saharan Neolithic culture in the Te´ne´re´ Desert and extending from northeastern Niger into western Chad, Africa, dating from 6500 to 4500 BP.

62 AFRICA, SOUTH/Sahara, West and Central

Western and Central Sahara

animal husbandry, which led to the rise of pastoralism; the rock art works that appeared within the mountains of Tassili n’Ajjer, Acacus, Aı¨r, and Tibesti, and, finally, the first copper metallurgy which is found alongside evidence for social complexity. During the Pleistocene the Sahara underwent several phases of aridity alternating with periods of better climatic conditions, which were related to the

The western and central Sahara, which extends from Libya to Mauritania, enclosing the modern countries of Algeria, Niger, and Mali (Figure 1), was at the center of important cultural phenomena that were of fundamental importance to the history of the entire African continent. Among the most important of such phenomena we can mention the early experiments in

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European glacial phenomena. This was mainly due to the fact that during the glaciations, cold intrusions from the Arctic stopped the tropical monsoon from rising above the equator, thereby blocking the mechanism that brought the rains to the Sahara.

The Beginnings of Human Occupation The oldest documented human occupation in the western and central Sahara belongs to the Acheulean industry. Acheulean hand axes from the now dry basin of the ancient Lake Shati, in southern Libya, have been dated to 125 000 BP, and were deposited during a wet phase (corresponding to the oxygen isotopic stage 5 – OIS 5). An arid phase, seen in dune formation, separates the Acheulean occupation from the first traces of the Aterian, a Middle Stone Age industry whose presence in the Sahara has been dated to OIS 4 (70 000–59 000 BP). The Aterian represents an important occupation phase of the Saharan area by communities that hunted large mammals (buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, antelope), as well as carrying out marginal gathering activities, and who made their temporary bases near water sources, such as springs, lakes, and rivers. It is thought that the Aterian was the last documented occupation of the Sahara before a further very severe arid crisis, contemporary with the Wu¨rm glaciation in Europe, and this caused the Aterian hunters to abandon the area, probably in order to push on toward wetter lands, toward the coast, and the tropical regions.

From Hunter-Gatherers to Food-Producers The Wu¨rm glaciation is evident throughout the large extent of the Sahara as a long arid episode, which reached its peak around 20 000 years ago, causing a severe contraction of human occupation, if not a complete abandonment of the area by human groups. In the Sahara, therefore, the beginning of a marked transformation in lifestyle, a prelude to food production activities, coincided with the return of the rains at the end of Pleistocene (12 000–10 000 BP) and with the resettlement of the region. In the transitional phase between the Pleistocene and the Holocene, cultural groups were strongly based on the exploitation of aquatic resources, a life style that the archaeologist Sutton called ‘aqualithic culture’. In Mali a lacustrine phase, between 8500 and 6900 BP, can be seen in the stratigraphic sections of the ancient lakes that lie next to the extensive dunes. Finely stratified sediments, which contain the remains of aquatic fauna, shells, and diatoms (freshwater plants), are clear signs of the presence of permanent lakes in the

past. The huge cemeteries that have been discovered in the Taoudenni region (Hassi el Abiod, Ine Sakane) have permitted notable observations to be made regarding, in particular, palaeoanthropological characteristics. An important cultural sequence is also evident in the mountainous regions of Algeria, where huntergatherer groups left remains of their material culture, in particular a characteristic pottery type, in temporary camps such as Amekni and Ti-n-Hanakaten. Other human settlements in the central Sahara appear in the area of the modern state of Chad, but are only known from surface scatters and ceramics collected by French and German archaeologists. In contrast, in Libya and Niger there are full stratigraphic sequences that allow the transformation of lifestyle to be studied: from a wide range of environmental exploitation strategies (including hunting, gathering, and fishing activities) to an economy that was specialized in pastoralism (cattle, sheep/goat). The Tadrart Acacus Massif in Libya that, along with the Algerian Tassili n’Ajjer, is one of the most important rock art (see Rock Art) complexes in the Sahara, has provided the various phases in this sequence, allowing light to be shed on the initial stages of domestication, which is not always visible in archaeological research. The lower layers (c. 9100 BP) of Ti-n-Torha East, in northern Acacus, show occasional occupation and a wide range of environmental exploitation strategies – with a strong incidence of plant food linked to the first appearance of ceramics (Figure 2). Other sites, such as Uan Afuda and Uan Tabu, show instead a lesser interest in the exploitation of floral resources and, on the other hand, a greater specialization in the exploitation of fauna. For example, Uan Afuda was laid out as a specialized camp for Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) hunting and herding. In the upper layers (8500–8000 BP), Ti-n-Torha East becomes a real proto-village, with a series of hut foundations built against the rock walls of the wadi that was suitable for the needs of a semi-permanent settlement (Figure 3). The composite sequence obtained from the three sites of Ti-n-Torha (East, North, and Two Caves Shelters) covers the entire period from Early to Middle Holocene (Figure 4). On the basis of material culture and archaeozoological evidence, the author suggests an autochthonous transition model (i.e., a local development model, without external influences) from pre-domestication to forms of incipient domestication. The Libyan situation finds notable parallels, stratigraphic and chronological, to the situation seen in Niger. The first discoveries made here, in the Aı¨r region, were by J. Desmond Clark in the 1970s. A full reconstruction of the regional sequence is due to the subsequent research of J. P. Roset who, in the 1980s, made

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Figure 2 Ceramics with impressed decorations from Ti-n-Torha East (Libya). Photo Barbara Barich, unpublished.

Saharan ceramic production in the Early Holocene. The faunal remains found have been attributed to wild animals and even fish, while the abundance of grinding stones is evidence of the importance of plant gathering. Hydrogeological studies in Niger have shown that an initial climatic recovery with the return of the rains, came at the end of the Pleistocene, around 13 000 years ago. It was then followed by a further dry phase in 9500 BP, just at the beginnings of the Holocene sequence. These data give support to the existence in Niger of a Palaeolithic (or Epipalaeolithic) occupation phase, as had been suggested by J. Desmond Clark. Figure 3 The Ti-n-Torha East settlement (Libya). From Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain – The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.

known the more-or-less contemporary sites of Temet 1 (9650–9450 BP), Ti-n-Ouaffadene (9360–9080 BP), and Adrar Bous 10 (9220–8840 BP), which are all tied to the lake expansion in the wet phase of the Early Holocene. The lithic complex of these contexts, as seen in Temet 1, continues the Epipalaeolithic tradition which, however, is already associated with pottery. The oldest examples have been found in Tagalagal, in the Bagzanes mountains (Aı¨r) and dated to between 9500 and 9200 BP. The Tagalagal ceramics have a variety of forms and well-developed decoration. Among these the ‘dotted wavy line’ decoration is noteworthy, as it is the most characteristic motif of the

Pastoralists and Saharan Rock Art During the 6000–5000 BP period (cal. 5000–4000 BC) the pastoral culture was widespread throughout the central and western Sahara. The presence of pastoralists was everywhere associated with elaborate rock art works that seem to have had, at least partly, the role of marking sacred places, where particular initiation ceremonies were carried out. In Niger, the sites of Dogomboulo in the Fachi area (7100–6600 BP) and Rocher Toubeau (5650–5500 BP), are the first examples of the Tenerian, a pastoral culture of the Middle Holocene. It is characterized by thick bifacial tools, such as gouges (flaked axes), discs, arrow heads, and polished hand axes. The Tenerian economy included animal husbandry, hunting, and gathering of wild cereals. An almost entire skeleton of a domestic ox

AFRICA, SOUTH/Sahara, West and Central 65

Figure 4 Panoramic view of the Auis and Ti-n-Torha wadis, in northern Acacus. Photo Barbara Barich, unpublished.

(Bos taurus), found in Agorass n’Tast, was dated to 6250–5250 BP. In the same area evidence for gathering of wild plant species has been found, imprints in clay vessels show the presence of Brachiaria and Sorghum. The Tenerian reached its peak around 5000 BP and was particularly widespread along the eastern side of Aı¨r, between Adrar Bous and Areschima.

The Spread of Pastoralism in the Late Holocene There is a clear chronological gap in the distribution of pastoral sites outside those areas discussed so far, both toward the Sahel and in the sub-Saharan regions. On the basis of the available data there is no evidence of domesticated animals (see Animal Domestication) on the northwestern edges of the Sahara, in the area between the Algerian and Moroccan lands of Atlas and Aure`s to the north, and Tanezrouft to the south, along the border between Algeria and Mali. This area seems to have been inhabited by mobile groups who continued in the hunting/fishing/gathering tradition (the culture of Hassi el Abiod). Based on this evidence, it can be stated that the northwestern part of the Sahara did not act as a corridor for the movement of domesticated livestock from the north (Aure`s) toward western Africa. In the Middle Holocene (6000–5000 BP) the greatest concentration of pastoral sites, such as the famous Adrar Bous, is seen along the western side of the Te´ne´re´, and it was probably from here that the Saharan pastoralists spread out toward the south and southwest, reaching the Atlantic coast of the western Sahara at Tintan and Chami, the Adrar des

Ifoghas and Tilemsi Valley in Mali, Azawagh Valley in Niger, pushing on to Dhar Tichitt in Mauretania, Kintampo and Ntereso in Ghana, where they introduced sheep/goats and decorated ceramics, developing new dynamics that led to the first agriculture in the region. Between the mid-fifth and the mid-fourth millennium BP (cal. 3500–2500 BC) Niger (Azawagh, the Aı¨r region, Ighazer-Tigidit, and the Termit Massif) saw the immigration of new groups with an organizational structure, including the presence of elites who built monumental tombs; these pastoral warriors were distinct in their palaeoanthropological profile from the previous population. Since the funerary monuments were primarily intended for males, we can argue that they were created for prestigious figures – leaders – within an aristocratic organization similar to a chiefdom. For the groups in the Agadez region there is evidence, from the third millennium BC, for the first attempts at copper metallurgy, which makes that area one of the oldest metalworking centers in Africa. See also: Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Animal Domestication; Rock Art.

Further Reading Aumassip G (2001) L’Algerie des premiers hommes. Paris: Ibis Press. Barich BE (ed.) (1987) British Archaeological Reports, International Series 368: Archaeology and Environment in the Libyan Sahara: The Excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, 1978–1983. Oxford: BAR. Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain – The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.

66 AFRICA, SOUTH/Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Cremaschi M and Di Lernia S (eds.) (1998) Wadi Teshuinat, Palaeoenvironment and Prehistory in South-western Fezzan. Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio. Garcea EAA (ed.) (2001) Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. AZA Monographs N.2. Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio. Hassan FA (ed.) (2002) Droughts, Food and Culture – Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.

Holl AFC (2004) Holocene Saharans, An Anthropological Perspective. London, New York: Continuum. Kuper R and Klees F (eds.) (1982) New Light on the Northeast African Past. Koln: Heinrich Barth Institut. Lequellec J-L (1998) Art rupestre et pre`histoire du Sahara. Paris: Editions Payot. Paris F (1996) Les se´pultures du Sahara nige´rien du Ne´olithique a` l’Islamisation (2 vols.). Paris: Orstom. Tillet Th (ed.) (1997) Sahara – Pale´omilieux et Peuplement Pre´historique au Ple´istoce`ne Superieur. Paris: L’Harmattan.

AFRICA, SOUTH Contents Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers Kalahari Margins Late Holocene Foragers Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Simon Hall and Shadreck Chirikure, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Bantu A large group of related languages spoken over much of sub-Saharan Africa. hunter-gatherer A way of life in which subsistence is based on the hunting of animals and the collection of wild plants rather than settled agriculture. Iron Age The period during which iron was utilized by people from about 3000 years ago, that in Europe, followed the Copper and Bronze Ages. In southern Africa the ‘Iron Age’ was introduced and did not develop from the local Later Stone Age and it was not preceded by a Copper or Bronze Age. Mapungubwe A World Heritage site in northern South Africa at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers. It was the capital of an ancestral Shona-speaking Kingdom that flourished between AD 1220 and 1290 and which had influence over parts of modern-day eastern Botswana and southern Zimbabwe. mixed farming A form of intensive agriculture consisting of domesticated animal and crop production as food sources where the maintenance of soil fertility results from the use of animal manure as fertilizer.

Introduction Archaeological research into the origins of food production in South Africa was only placed on a systematic footing from the 1960s. Radiocarbon dating that helped establish a well-dated 2000-year ceramic sequence was a significant contribution to this shift. The chronology of Early Farmers refuted a dominant apartheid narrative that asserted a shallow time depth for Bantu-speaking farmers in South Africa. Since the early 1990s the exposure of this suppressed archaeology has become an important part of a new democratic history. Research themes over this period have emphasized refining ceramic culture history sequences, settlement patterns and lifeways, and cognitive archaeology using ethnographic models to understand settlement space and the scale of political power (Figures 1 and 2).

The First Mixed Farmers between AD 400 and 1000 The earliest good evidence for full mixed cereal and livestock farming is dated to between AD 400 and 600. Livestock associated with pottery known as Bambata, however, predates unequivocal agropastoralism by 200–300 years and is known from Southwestern Zimbabwe, Botswana, and northern South Africa. This Bambata Pottery is enigmatic and some suggest

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next to rivers on deep alluvial soils. Where preservation allows, villages comprised a central cattle enclosure associated with metal working and ash dumps surrounded by a domestic, ring of huts and granaries. This was surrounded by a domestic ring of huts and granaries. There has been much debate as to whether this settlement layout can be interpreted through an ethnographic model called the Central Cattle Pattern, derived from late ninteenth- and twentieth-century Nguni-speaking ethnography. Huffman argues that cattle were probably socially and politically a key resource, particularly as a medium for bridewealth, from the inception of the early first millennium AD mixed farming ‘package’. Others have suggested that cattle only developed social importance toward the end of the first millennium. Hunter-gatherers were drawn toward settlements and entered into exchange and barter relationships with Early Farmers. Most farmers were selfsufficient in terms of basic livestock, cereal, ceramic, and metal production, but some settlements were larger and others had dumps associated with central cattle enclosures and which contained the debris of prestige craft work and fragments of ceramic helmet

that it is the start of the Early Farmer sequence while others link it to pioneer pastoralists or huntergatherers. It may be part of a general process that resulted in the appearance of early sheep and pottery in the Cape. Whatever the case, food production did not evolve from the local Later Stone Age. A ‘package’ comprising village life, cattle, sheep, and goats, domesticated crops such as sorghum and millet, pottery, and iron and copper metallurgy was introduced from north of the Limpopo River. This is evident because the ceramics are the southernmost expression of a much wider Early Farmer ceramic style found in central and East Africa called the Chifumbaze Complex. The Chifumbaze Complex is the archaeological expression for the complex southward movement of speakers of Bantu languages. Early farmer settlements are only found in the northern and eastern areas of the country (Figure 1). This distribution falls within the summer rainfall region and reflects the rainfall and temperature tolerances of the primary cereal crops, sorghum, and millet. Farmers sought warm, lower altitude tree, and grassland habitats and built their homesteads

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masks. The ethnographic model infers that these central zones were male activity areas and suggest shallow political hierarchies in which some production and ritual were centralized.

The Rise of Social Complexity between AD 900 and 1300 Between AD 900 and 1000, the junction of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers saw a significant shift in political hierarchy within the Zhizo phase. A settlement known as Schroda was far larger than contemporary Zhizo settlements in the region and can be identified as the capital of an emerging chiefdom. This correlates with the intensification of trade links with entrepots such as Chibuene and Sofala on the southeast African coast. The Shashe/Limpopo area supported large elephant herds. Ivory and probably gold were exported where they entered complex trade networks with Swahili, Arab, and Indian centers around the Indian Ocean rim. Many of the thousands of glass trade beads at Schroda originated in Indonesia. At AD 1000, a new ancestral Shona-speaking chiefdom entered the Shashe/Limpopo valley, wrested power from Schroda and intensified trade links with the coast (see Political Complexity, Rise of). A new and larger capital was established at K2 and the number of smaller contemporary settlements increased significantly. Increasing political power and wealth was underwritten through the control of exotic trade goods that now included cloth. This is reflected by changes in the organization of the capital, where the central cattle enclosure was moved out of the town and suggests that political power was no longer

based only on cattle. James Denbow has shown that contemporary Toutswe farmers in Eastern Botswana to the west of K2 were also deeply enmeshed in trade relationships. These extended deep into the Kalahari and connected with the Okavango area of North Western Botswana and both pastoralists and hunter-gatherers were involved in commodity production and exchange. Despite this regional trade, however, Toutswe political hierarchies never matched those of the Shashe/Limpopo because access to exotic trade goods was limited. Early in the thirteenth century, K2 was abandoned and the town moved only 1 km away to Mapungubwe Hill (Figure 2). The status of elites found full expression with their occupation on top of the hill, deliberately separated from the commoner section of the town below. The establishment of the Mapungubwe state initiated the Zimbabwe Culture sequence. This represents a class-based system in which ruling elites, as sacred leaders, centralized political and ritual power, particularly rain making. Gold was assimilated into an elite value system and expressed in the thousands of gold beads, gold-plated rhino, bowl, and sceptre found in the royal cemetery on Mapungubwe Hill (Figure 3). The state extended its control into eastern Botswana though the boundaries are not yet fully established. Agricultural production was extensive, and the distribution of commoner homesteads on the edges of the Limpopo indicates that floodplain agriculture was important. The Mapungubwe State collapsed around AD 1300, possibly because of climatic and political factors. The main continuity in the Zimbabwe Culture was north of the Limpopo River with the rise of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Zimbabwe State that dominated much of present-day Zimbabwe.

Figure 2 Mapungubwe, the capital of the thirteenth-century Mapungubwe state.

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Figure 3 The gold rhino from the royal cemetery at Mapungubwe.

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Figure 4 Distribution of Later Farmers. Taken from Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Later Farming Communities in the Second Millennium AD There is a significant break in the ceramic sequence south of the Limpopo River, dating to the eleventh century AD in present-day Kwazulu-Natal, and in the fourteenth century in the areas just south of the Limpopo River. New ceramic styles and different

settlement preferences mark the appearance of new Bantu-speaking farmers (Figures 4 and 5). The newcomers were ancestral Nguni and Sotho/Tswanaspeakers who initiated the history of the majority of contemporary South Africans. On linguistic and cultural grounds, the origins of these new groups are in East Africa.

70 AFRICA, SOUTH/Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa

Figure 5 The central area of Molokwane, a stone wall western Tswana town dating between the eighteenth century and 1827.

By the fourteenth century, ancestral Sotho/Tswanaspeakers were established in the Limpopo region. By the end of the fifteenth century, they had expanded southwards to the edge of the southern grasslands. In the north, Sotho combined with Shona-speakers who had moved south across the Limpopo River, and by the sixteenth century had intermarried and melded to develop Venda as a language and an identity. Below the escarpment to the east, ancestral Nguni-speakers, known as Blackburn, had first settled the coastal area by the twelfth century AD. From AD 1300 a second phase had developed known as Moor Park. They moved beyond the mixed habitats of the major river valleys and expanded onto the higher grasslands over the escarpment to the west, as well as southwards along the coast to the edge of the viable summer rainfall zone. These Nguni farmers were the first to use dry stone walls to mark homestead boundaries and internal activity areas. Moor Park settlements are frequently found on steep-sided hills that may indicate the defense of agricultural resources in the harsher climatic conditions at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. Climatic downturns may also have encouraged dispersals by Nguni-speakers, one at AD 1600 and another at AD 1700, over the escarpment into the western Sotho/Tswana dominated interior. Here they initially resisted Sotho/Tswana-speakers but were soon culturally assimilated. From the sixteeenth-century, Sotho-Tswana speakers had pushed further south across the Vaal River and onto the grassland habitats of the Eastern Free State and by the seventeenth century had reached the climatic and environmental limits of sorghum and millet farming. The use of dry stone walls to delineate settlements was widespread by this time, particularly on the treeless habitats of the southern grasslands. There is a relatively direct historic relationship

between this archaeology and the ethnographic ‘present’, and analogy allows settlement structure to be ‘read’ in some detail. In addition, as Tim Maggs has shown, this period comes within the reach of oral records which attach specific identities to settlement types and individual settlements. Archaeological evidence, including rock art, ethnohistoric records, and linguistic research show that complex interactions between hunter-gatherers and farmers continued well into the nineteenth century. In the second half of the eighteenth century a process of political centralization gathered momentum among western and eastern Tswana-speakers. The oral records describe considerable tension between competing chiefdoms. The archaeological correlate is the aggregation of homesteads into large towns, some of which were clearly defensive (Figure 5). The first Europeans to visit some of them recorded populations of up to 20 000 people. The factors responsible for political centralization vary between demographic surges, drought, the introduction of maize, and the colonial frontier pushing from the Cape Colony in the south and from the south east African coast. Toward the end of the eighteenthcentury elephant ivory was a major trade item, and competition over ivory, cattle, women, and other resources for local use and trade were intense. The best-known response to colonial pressure came in the early nineteenth century when the Zulu state, under Shaka, rose to power in the east. Colonial historians of early nineteenth-century history blamed Shaka for the mfecane, a period of political instability between the early 1820s and the late 1830s. Revisionist historians see African state formation and increased militarism as a response to colonial pressures of which the Great Trek northwards from the Cape Colony was an inseparable process. With this event, the frontier

AFRICA, SOUTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers 71

started to close and by the end of the nineteenth century South African farmers had all but lost their independence. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Zimbabwe

Plateau and Surrounding Areas; Africa, South: Kalahari Margins; Political Complexity, Rise of.

Further Reading Hall M (1987) The Changing Past: Farmers Kings and Traders in Southern Africa, 200–1860. Cape Town: David Philip. Hammond-Tooke WD (1993) The Roots of Black South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. Huffman TN (1996) Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Leslie M and Maggs T (eds.) (2000) African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 years ago. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 8. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers Andrew B Smith, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

animals (cattle, sheep, goats) or traditional African grains (sorghum, millet) to be found in southern Africa, but how these were transferred is still disputed. It used to be thought that the introduction of domestic food products was initially done by immigrant Iron Age farmers into South Africa, but it is now clear that these farmers only arrived about 1800 years ago, and the sheep bones found mostly in cave sites of the Western and Southern Cape predate their arrival by at least 200 years. The Khoekhoen (‘Hottentots’) are known historically as the herders of the Cape, and were some of the earliest sub-Saharan Africans to be met by European travelers in the fifteenth century. Their wealth in cattle made them a focus of attention, as their animals were used to refresh the ships plying the East India trade. Once sheep were excavated from sites at the Cape dating to 2000 years ago, and especially when excavations began at Kasteelberg on the west coast of South Africa, north of Cape Town, and dates of over 1800 years emerged in association with large numbers of sheep bones, it was immediately assumed that the shepherds were ancestors of the historic Khoekhoen. Today, not everyone agrees with this assumption, so there is some debate on the development of pastoral society in South Africa. There are thus two components to the arguments on the origins of food production in southern Africa: (1) how the animals and plants got there, and by whom; (2) what happened once these commodities arrived and spread to the Cape.

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Khoisan Herders Glossary farmer Someone who works on or operates a farm. forager Someone who hunts for food and provisions. herder A worker who lives a semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals. Khoekhoen A general name which the herding people of the Cape used for themselves. Khoisan A collective name that originally referred to the linguistic and biological groupings of aboriginal people of southern Africa. It has now taken on a cultural meaning in the popular literature. Soaqua A name given to hunters by the Khoekhoen of the Cape. The word means ‘people different from ourselves’ and became associated with those without livestock, or people who stole livestock.

The Debate on Early Food Production in Southern Africa The arrival of food producers to southern Africa was the end of a long process of gradual dispersal. The route of domestic animals into the subcontinent had to be from the north, as there are no wild progenitors of the

Khoisan people are the aboriginal inhabitants of southern Africa. Although they must have formed a single genetic population at one time, linguistically there are three distinct groups whose click languages are mutually unintelligible. This suggests separation over a considerable period of time. Recent physical anthropological work by Morris has suggested that there are no Khoisan skeletons to be found north of the Zambezi River, so any involvement of Khoisan people with domestic animals had to take place either along the Zambezi, or the rivers systems to the west, such as the Kavango River. This immediately implies the movement of domestic stock to southern Africa by non-South Africans, either farmers or pastoralists coming most probably from East Africa via a tsetsefree corridor (Figure 1), although movement via Angola from the Congo cannot be ruled out. The reason for this lack of clarity is due to large areas of Central Africa being poorly understood archaeologically, and small groups of migrating pastoral people may leave very little signs of their passing

72 AMERICAS, NORTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers

Ngamuriak

Proposed route of sheep circa 2000 B.P. Distribution of ripple-rim ceramics c. 2000 B.P. Bambata Lowland rain forest

Geduld Falls Rock

Distribution of species of morsitans tsetse

Spoegrivier Kasteelberg Die Krans Boomplaas Witklip Die Kelders Blombos

Figure 1 Possible route of movement of domestic stock in Southern Africa 2000 BP. Taken from Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and Origins of the Khoekhoen in Western Cape, South Africa.

(see Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers). Support for an East African connection comes from linguistic work by Ehret which indicates that words for ‘ram’, ‘young ram’, and ‘milk ewe’ in Khoe languages came from a putative East Sahelian language that existed in East Africa. Khoe-speaking hunters still live along the Kavango River in the Caprivi, and the river systems of northeastern Botswana south of the Zambezi. This is also the base of the language spoken by the Khoekhoen of the Cape. Thus, it would appear that the Khoekhoe ancestors probably came from the area of the Kavango and Zambezi. The questions is: when did this happen? One scenario would have domestic sheep arriving in Caprivi via pastoralists or agriculturalists from East Africa and transferred to Khoe-speaking hunters who adopted sheep herding, and who spread southwards, eventually reaching the Cape some 2000 years ago. The initial arrivals were small groups who are difficult to see archaeologically, and it is from this population that the early sheep bones and pottery were transferred to hunters who occupied the small rock shelters (Figure 2). Once the herders became established, and their flocks grew, Smith suggests they used Kasteelberg as an aggregation point for harvesting seals, and at the same time used the fat mixed with ochre in ceremonies.

An alternative is suggested by Sadr that the people inhabiting such sites as Spoegrivier Cave, Die Kelders Cave, Blombos Cave, and Kasteelberg ‘G’ open-site were indigenous hunters of the Cape who occupied these sites before and after the introduction of sheep and pottery, and who obtained sheep via internal exchange systems to become independent herders. This scenario would further suggest that the Khoekhoen, as known historically, were later arrivals at the Cape, and who were the people who introduced cattle and lugged pottery.

Southern African Iron Age Farmers The arrival of Iron Age farmers to South Africa brought the widest range of domestic plants and animals. These people have been divided into three groups; (1) the Kwale branch of East African Urewe Tradition; (2) the Nkope branch of the Urewe Tradition; and (3) the Kalundu Tradition from the Congo. They brought with them ceramics whose designs can be traced further north. They also brought an African language, known as Ntu, which is part of the Niger– Congo family, and has its roots in the Cross Rivers area of West Africa. They introduced iron technology which was crucial for making tools to clear fields in the slash-and-burn system used, and for weapons. Huffman believes that the layout of the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers 73

Figure 2 Excavated sites at Kasteelberg, Vredenburg Peninsular, Western Cape province, South Africa. Taken form Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and the origins of the Khoekhoen in the Western Cape, South Africa.

homesteads, which he calls the Central Cattle Pattern, with huts surrounding the cattle kraal, and with burials in the central cattle area, can trace its origins to the earliest arrivals. Not everyone agrees. Lane is skeptical that such a tradition can survive without change for such a long period. Huffman’s system of decorative symbols on ceramics currently has the strongest voice, and adherents would say the system also carries through to the present.

Relations between Hunters and Food Producers Since the evidence indicates that food production was introduced from the north, and that the ancestors of modern Bantu-speaking farmers also came from the north, we can assume at least a partial connection, certainly as far as domestic plants are concerned. The impact of the arrival of Iron Age farmers some 1800 years ago on the aboriginal Khoisan hunting population along the southeast coast of southern Africa may initially have been minimal, as the first farmers needed to adjust to local conditions. This would have been particularly true of the introduction of cattle which Gifford-Gonzalez says needed to deal with epizootic diseases carried by wild animals, such as buffalo and neonate wildebeest, and which are potentially fatal to cattle. By 1500 years ago, the highveld of South Africa was being colonized, and the biological evidence suggests that aboriginal hunters were subsumed into Iron Age populations as African farmers took wives from among the hunters. This resulted in hypergyny (one-way gene flow), since few hunters could have had access to the cattle

needed for bride-wealth payments to obtain farming wives. At the Cape, the historical evidence hints that hunters (called Soaqua) continued to maintain a separate existence to the Khoekhoen, right up to the colonial period in the seventeenth century. This leads to the Dutch perceived separation of ‘Bushmen’ and ‘Hottentots’, as hunters and herders respectively, with the Khoekhoen being the dominant group. In fact, a description by the governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel, in 1685 epitomizes their relationship: ‘‘We find that these Soaquas are just the same as the poor in Europe, each tribe of Hottentots having some of them and employing them to bring news of the approach of a strange tribe. They steal nothing from the kraals of their employers but regularly from other kraals . . . possessing nothing . . . except what they acquire by theft.’’ The historian Elphick challenged this separation, and suggested by the colonial period there was only one group of ‘Hottentots’, and that the Soaqua were Khoekhoen who had lost their stock through theft or disease, and were on the downward part of a cycle of fortune. The separation between Khoekhoen and Bantuspeaking farmers was ecological. The Cape is a winter rainfall area, so was not available to agriculturalists with summer rainfall crops. Iron Age people never spread to the Cape, leaving the southwest and Atlantic coastal areas open for pastoralism, while in the dry interior the hunters held sway until later in the historic period when deep underground water could be tapped using wind-driven pumps. See also: Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, North: Sahara,

Eastern; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers.

74 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Further Reading Ehret C (1998) An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. Oxford: James Currey. Elphick R (1977) Kraal and Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Gifford-Gonzalez D (2000) Animal disease challenges to the emergence of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological Review 17(3): 95–139. Huffman TN (1980) Ceramics, classification and Iron Age entities. African Studies 39: 123–174. Huffman TN (1986) Iron Age settlement patterns and the origins of class distinction in southern Africa. Advances in World Archaeology 5: 291–338. Lane P (1994–95) The use and abuse of ethnography in Iron Age studies of southern Africa. Azania 29/30: 51–64. Morris AG (2002) Isolation and the origin of the Khoisan: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene human evolution at the southern end of Africa. Human Evolution 17(3–4): 231–240. Sadr K (2003) The Neolithic of southern Africa. Journal of African History 44: 195–209. Smith AB (2005) African Herders: Emergence of Pastoral Traditions. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and origins of the Khoekhoen in Western Cape, South Africa. Oxford: BAR International Series 1537.

Kalahari Margins James Denbow, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

Okavango–Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. In the north, the Okavango Delta, one of the largest inland deltas in the world, provides a counterpoint to the otherwise flat and thirsty sands of the Kalahari sandveld into which it drains. From the Makgadikgadi salt pans to the Limpopo River, greater physiographic relief prevails on the more fertile soils of the hardveld, which today support over 80% of the region’s population. While the climate of the Kalahari has remained relatively stable over the past two millenniums, the archaeological record indicates that a number of important cultural and economic transformations have occurred, first as domesticated livestock were introduced to supplement forager subsistence strategies and, later, as more sedentary agropastoral communities settled the more productive regions of eastern Botswana and along the margins of the Okavango Delta (Figure 1). By CE 1000 changes in the internal dynamics of subsistence production, enhanced by the establishment of local trade networks that carried game products, metal goods, and other valued objects, led to more regional political formations and the appearance of the first chiefdoms (see Political Complexity, Rise of). Connections with longer-distance trade networks in luxury goods that reached, through intermediaries in the Limpopo valley, eastward to the Indian Ocean accompanied these internal changes, eventually underwriting the more complex political and social formations of the historic period.

ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Foragers to Herder-Foragers: 100 BCE–CE 700 Glossary Great Zimbabwe The name given to the remains of stone, sometimes referred to as the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, of an ancient Southern African city, located at 20
160 S 30
540 E in present-day Zimbabwe which was once the center of a vast empire known as the Munhumutapa Empire (also called Monomotapa or Mwene Mutapa Empire). chiefdom Any community led by an individual known as a chief. Chiefdoms are characterized by pervasive inequality of peoples and centralization of authority. Iron Age The stage in the development of any people where the use of iron implements as tools and weapons is prominent. The Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system for classifying prehistoric societies, preceded by the Bronze Age. In sub-Saharan Africa this system must be modified because no Bronze Age comes between the Late Stone Age and the Iron Age. Instead, the Iron Age follows directly from, and in some areas overlaps with, the Late Stone Age.

Introduction This chapter discusses the period between approximately 100 BCE and CE 1700, encompassing those parts of the Kalahari region lying between the

The Appearance of Sheep and Cattle

Beginning around 2000 years ago archaeological data from the Okavango region at sites such as Toteng 1 and Lotshitshi indicate that domesticated cattle and sheep were added in small numbers to the subsistence economy of Late Stone Age (LSA) populations living by hunting, gathering, and, in some cases, fishing. While early dates for herder-foraging in northern Botswana were once viewed with skepticism because of potential problems of association between charcoal samples and the domestic animal bones they were meant to date due to mixing in the loose Kalahari sand, the most recent calibrated AMS (accelerator mass spectroscopy) dates from Toteng, done directly on cattle and sheep bones, place the appearance of both in northern Botswana between 200 BCE and 100 CE. The domesticated animal remains at the site predate levels containing Bambata ceramics by several hundred years, indicating that the economic changes associated with herder-foraging spread independently from pottery making and/or use.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 75

Serondella Tsodilo Hills

Divuvu and Nqoma

Okavango Delta

Lotshitshi

Toteng Hippo Tooth

Makgadikgadi Pans

Tora Nju

Kaishe Toutswe

Bosutswe Botswana

Kgaswe K2 and Mapungubwe

Losé

Gaborone

0 0

50 100 km 50

100 mi

Administrative districts Geographic features Sandveld/ hardveld boundary Figure 1 Selected archaeological sites in northern and eastern Botswana. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bambata Ware

Calibrated dates for the appearance of Bambata ware at Toteng range between CE 215 and 555, which brackets a date between CE 250 and 530 for a few Bambata ceramics from the Late Stone Age site of Lotshitshi near Maun. A bone apatite date of CE 790–1010 for Bambata ware from the site of Hippo Tooth extends this distribution eastward along the Ngami–Botletli River System to the southern edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans (Figure 2). Bambata ware has also been collected from the surface of several other, presently undated, sites in the Makgadikgadi where it accompanies LSA materials. Since cattle and sheep are not indigenous to southern Africa, there has been debate about the ultimate source of these domesticates for hunters and gatherers living below the Kunene–Okavango–Zambezi Rivers. Some argue for a source in the earlier pastoral Neolithic of East Africa, while others propose more western origins – either in the Early Iron Age of northern Angola

and the Congo, or perhaps even the Cameroon. Debate also surrounds the nature of the ceramic assemblages classed as Bambata, with some arguing for indigenous production of these ceramics by local hunter-gatherers while others suggest that the ceramics were obtained through trade with Early Iron Age communities, perhaps even as fragments used for ritual purposes or curiosities rather than as functional vessels. Apart from generalized stylistic resemblances to some ceramics from Benfica in western Angola, however, no presently known Iron Age sites north or south of the Okavango–Zambezi Rivers appear to be definitive. Sources for these early wares are unknown. What is certain is that a diversity of hunting, gathering, fishing, and herding adaptations developed along the rivers, deserts, swamps, and other ecological zones in Botswana at the beginning of the Common Era. Precisely how stone-using foragers and herderforagers interfaced and interacted with arriving agropastoral populations after CE 500 is uncertain,

76 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Figure 2 Bambata ceramics recovered from the LSA site of Hippo Tooth. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

but it is likely that a variety of interactive forms developed that ranged from intermarriage and assimilation, to fleeting interaction and trade and perhaps even competitive or antagonistic relationships – especially along the western parts of the Boteti River where the presence of Khoi-speaking herder-foragers appears to have inhibited Iron Age settlement until 400– 500 years ago. During the mid-nineteenth century, historic accounts indicate that some indigenous Khoe populations in this region, such as the Deti, kept large herds of cattle that might have put them in direct competition with Bantu-speaking agropastoralists for grazing and water rights. Further east, along the southern and eastern margins of the Makgadikgadi salt pans,

Early Iron Age settlements such as Kaishe were well established by the tenth or eleventh centuries; ruins at Tora Nju and other locations extend agropastoral settlement, social stratification, and Zimbabwe hegemony into this region during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Early Iron Age Communities on the Eastern Margins of the Kalahari Between CE 600 and 800 settled communities of mixed farmers and herders appeared along the western and southern fringes of the Okavango and Chobe Rivers at sites such as Divuyu and Serondella, the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 77

southeastern margins of the Makgadikgadi at Kaishe, and in the hardveld of eastern and southern Botswana. Studies of cave sediments in the Tsodilo Hills, along with changes in prehistoric site distributions in central and eastern Botswana over the past 2000 years, suggest that climatic conditions were wetter during the last half of the first millennium CE. While agropastoral communities had considerable overlap with indigenous hunters and gatherers in their use of wild plants and animals, water points, firewood, and other natural resources, they also introduced more intensive systems of land use as fields were cleared for sorghum, millet, cow peas, and a variety of other crops. More regulated systems of land rights were also needed to manage growing herds of cattle, goats, and sheep, with their increased labor, grazing, and water demands. Cattle Wealth and Early Chiefdoms in Eastern Botswana: CE 700–1000

Between approximately CE 600 and 800 most settlements were small, mixed farming communities that combined animal husbandry and agriculture with a significant input from game and wild plants. Ceramic styles link these communities culturally to settlements known as Zhizo in Zimbabwe. Local distinctions in ceramic style, however, suggest they were a separate facies known as Taukome. By CE 700 domestic herds were large enough to leave an easily recognizable imprint on village layout in the form of centralized deposits of unburned and vitrified dung, surrounded by houses constructed of pole and a mixture of dung

and mud known as daga. This pattern recurs widely across southern Africa and is known, as the Central Cattle Pattern (CCP). Over the next 500 years, herds continued to prosper and grow, producing dung deposits over 2 m deep and 60 m in diameter in the centers of some villages. These animals provided the economic capital that permitted social and political differentiation between CE 900 and 1100. Increased social stratification based upon differential holdings of cattle and small stock is reflected in regional settlement patterns as large, long-term settlements such as Toutswemogala (Figure 3) and Bosutswe were surrounded by smaller, more ephemeral satellite communities whose locations shifted when fertile land, firewood, and other productive resources were exhausted. In concert with the increasing scale of political centralization and emerging chiefly authority exercised on a regional level, as reflected in these regional changes in settlement structure, ceramic assemblages become more standardized in form and decoration and are known as the Toutswe tradition (see Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa). Trade in Specularite and Social Differentiation in Northwestern Botswana

Social differentiation based upon intensification of commodity production and wealth accumulation was also occurring at the Tsodilo Hills in northwestern Botswana (Figure 4a and 4b) where intensive specularite mining took off between CE 800 and 1100. Control of the specularite mines at Tsodilo enabled

Figure 3 Aerial view of Toutswemogala showing the characteristic Cenchrus-covered midden that commonly developed in association with the animal kraals at deeply stratified Early Iron Age settlements in the eastern Kalahari. A smaller Cenchrus midden can be seen at the base of the hill. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

78 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Divuyu Nqoma

(a)

DIvuyu

1000 m 500 m

0

Nqoma

10 m

20 m

Location of Iron Age sites in the Tsodilo Hills (b) Figure 4 (a) A view of the ‘female’ hill at Tsodilo taken from the top of the ‘male’ hill showing the locations of Divuyu and Nqoma. (b) Topographic map of the Tsodilo Hills showing the locations of Divuyu and Nqoma. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

the Iron Age occupants at Nqoma to procure unparalleled quantities of iron and copper jewelry. Even glass beads, cowry, and conus shells from the east coast reached the site, making it the most distant inland entrepoˆt in eastern and southern Africa to have obtained luxury goods from the Indian Ocean trade in the first millennium (Figure 5). Finds of Nqoma style ceramics in the lower levels of Bosutswe suggest that at least some of these luxury goods were directed westward through emerging Toutswe chiefdoms rather than following routes along the Zambezi River. By

the beginning of the second millennium, however, specularite sources in eastern Botswana may have replaced those of Nqoma, leading to an attenuation of these trans-Kalahari connections. Perhaps in consequence, Nqoma was abandoned as an elite settlement around CE 1100. East Coast Trade and Early Chiefdoms in East-Central Botswana: CE 1000–1200

Glass beads, marine shells, and even chickens imported from the east coast begin to appear in

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 79

small numbers after CE 800, but apart from the differential distribution of livestock holdings there is little other material evidence for social stratification other than a tendency for the longer-term elite settlements to be established on rocky hilltops. Whether

Figure 5 An eleventh century ivory copy of a Conus shell bead recovered from the excavations at Nqoma. Nqoma, more than 1500 km from the coast, is the most distant interior settlement so far known to have been able to import luxury items such as glass beads and cowry shells from the Indian Ocean. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

rocky hilltops were chosen for defensive purposes, or for their symbolic associations with power and rainmaking, or a combination of both, is not known. Caches of glass beads and other status goods found at small sites such as Kgaswe indicate that access to luxury goods was not restricted to the elite on hilltop settlements and suggest that status differentiation was more fluid than it was to become later. Although more than 60 Toutswe period burials have been excavated, none has been found with distinctively rich grave goods that would attest to more developed class distinctions, such as those that make their appearance after CE 1200 (Figure 6). The presence of central animal kraals (a term now widely used in southern Africa to denote animal pens or byres) at all sites – from the smallest to the largest – during the Toutswe period contrasts with what is found after CE 1200 when only smaller sites continue to be organized according to the CCP. Kraals disappear from elite centers such as Bosutswe, suggesting that an important change in herd management had occurred, with animals being shifted from high-status locations to smaller, commoner settlements. Whether this was in response to ecological difficulties brought about by overgrazing around large centers, or it represents a symbolic shift associated with the establishment of more rigid social hierarchies and class differentiation, is presently unclear. But there is no doubt that new spatial and

Figure 6 Toutswe burial from Bosutswe. Analysis of the skeletal material from Bosutswe indicates a population with better nutritional health than that from Mapungubwe at the same time period. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

80 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Figure 7 The site of Bosutswe on the eastern edge of the Kalahari. The large mound in the center of the site is formed from the remains of substantial elite houses that date to the period after CE 1200 when most of the commoner Toutswe population was moved off the hilltop. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bosutswe Bronze bangle with glass bead Gold bangle

through the wearing of quantities of glass beads, copper and bronze jewelry, and cloth apparel (Figure 8). Metal production, rainmaking, trade in specularite, and other activities imbued with ritual and economic significance become more centralized at elite centers at this time (see Social Inequality, Development of).

Class Formation: Political and Economic Restructuring after CE 1200

2 cm

Figure 8 The elite at Bosutswe used metal jewelry to index their social status. While they were able to acquire small quantities of gold, they were not powerful enough to compete with the elite at Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe for this commodity. In consequence, they turned to the use of high-tin bronze bangles that, if kept polished, mimicked the appearance of gold. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

material coordinates were mapped onto social distinctions and evidence from Bosutswe indicates that the elite now lived alone on the hilltop, spatially separated from their subordinates (Figure 7). They ate from distinctively decorated ceramics patterned after those from Mapungubwe and known as Lose´ ware, and differentiated themselves in other ways

At the beginning of the thirteenth century a political change occurred as the Bosutswe elite living in the center of the hilltop aligned themselves with the elite at Mapungubwe by adopting new ceramic styles that evoked those of Mapungubwe. They further differentiated themselves from their followers by constructing large, double-walled houses with sunken interiors similar to those found at Mapungubwe. Commoners, on the other hand, continued to use Toutswe ceramics until approximately CE 1300. Remains of burned structures containing Toutswe ceramics on top of Boutswe date this period of transition to around CE 1200 and suggest that force may have been involved in the transformation of the hilltop from a Toutswe village, replete with houses and animal kraals, to the secluded residence of a small number of elite families (Figures 9 and 10). Late thirteenth century dates for Toutswe ceramics at CCP villages in the surrounding area suggest that a more rigid system of class differentiation developed that was similar to that now attested between Leopard’s Kopje and Leokwe peoples in the Limpopo valley.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 81

Figure 9 Remains of a burned house containing Toutswe ceramics at Bosutswe. The burning, which dates to the thirteenth century, could suggest that the removal of commoner residences from the hilltop after CE 1200 involved the use of force. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

100 W ceramic seriation 0% 10% 20%

Level 1 2 3 4 5, 6, 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14, 15 Class 1e Class 1f Class 1c

Level 1 2 3 4 5, 6, 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14, 15 Class 12

Class 2b

Class 2a

Class 1a

Class 2c

Class 1b

Class 13 Class 9 Class 6 Class 6b Class 5a

Class 3a Class 7 Class 4a 4b Class 11 Class 8 Class 2d Class 2e Class 3b Class 4d

Figure 10 Changes in ceramics over time at Bosutswe. The dramatic change in ceramic classes above level 4 date to the period when elite residences inspired by Mapungubwe were built at Bosutswe. Ceramics of Class 4d originate in the Okavango region and indicate trade westward across the Kalahari. Classes 4a and 4b, on the other hand, belong to the Leopard’s Kopje and Eiland traditions in South Africa and suggest that changes in trade networks from west to east occurred after CE 1000. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

82 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Imported glass beads, along with locally made gold, bronze, and copper jewelry, were worn by the new Bosutswe elite as an index of their status. The earliest spindle whorls date from this period and suggest that cotton cloth was worn by the elite as another mark of social distinction. Finds of bronze prills, along with the crucibles used in melting copper and with remains of iron forge bases, further suggest that

Figure 11 Agate disks recovered from a fourteenth century cache of more than 100 at Bosutswe. Such stones may have figured in rainmaking and other rituals. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

the Bosutswe elite had centralized control over metal production and exchange. The high tin content of some of the Bosutswe bronze indicates it was locally produced rather than manufactured from reworked Mapungubwe bronze. Metalworking has a well-known association with the spiritual realm in the ethnographic record and smelters, who were often associated in Central African tradition with kingship, played important roles as spiritual mediators and sometimes diviners. Other evidence suggesting that the Bosutswe elite now controlled spiritual resources include the recovery of a cache of over a hundred thin, snow-white agate disks from the floor of an elite structure in the center of the hilltop along with glass beads, bronze bangles, and the canine teeth from at least four hyena – an animal often associated with the supernatural (Figure 11). Such agate disks would not be out of place in contemporary divination kits or rain-controlling paraphernalia and it is possible they served these functions in the past as well. The period between CE 1300 and 1500 saw the rise and then collapse of Great Zimbabwe to the east. While ruins of Zimbabwe type occur northeast of the Bosutswe region, and even to the west along the margins of the Makgadikgadi pans, none are known in the region running from Bosutswe to Toutswe. Bosutswe and other Lose-affiliated sites appear to have been able to maintain their distinct cultural identity while interacting with Zimbabwe communities from which rolled-rim, graphite burnished wares of Zimbabwe style, along with a lead–tin ingot, and other unusual commodities were obtained.

Figure 12 Remains of a large, circular stonewall located on an island in the Makgadikgadi pans. Local Khoe-speaking populations still leave offerings of coins and other objects at the site. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers 83

The Forging of Contemporary Identities: the Proto-Historic Period between 1500 and 1700 The impact of the political restructuring that occurred in the Bosutswe region as Great Zimbabwe and then Khami rose to power is presently poorly known. In the Francistown area south of the Shashi River, the presence of Zimbabwe and Khami stonewalled settlements suggests that political and cultural developments there were closely aligned with southwestern Zimbabwe. Related ruins on the southern and eastern edges of the Makgadikgadi pans, however, suggest a more divergent historical trajectory – one that incorporated Khoe-speaking as well as Bantu peoples into a more complex and multiethnic political matrix (Figure 12). Bosutswe continued to be occupied by households using a cruder form of Lose ceramics. But at the end of its occupation around CE 1700, the remains of seven widely spaced stone-walled ellipses were constructed that probably served as household windbreaks – the hilltop was no longer the preserve of an exclusive elite. Similar stone ellipses are found on hilltops far to the west along the southern margins of the Makgadikgadi, but these are yet to be investigated by archaeologists. Their relationship to the cultural sequence at Bosutswe, and to the Zimbabwe and Khami period ruins in this area is also unknown. In addition, walled-off promontories that dominate the eroded headlands of the sandveld– hardveld boundary between Toutswe, Bosutswe, and the Makgadikgadi suggest that some eighteenth century settlements were sited with defense as a consideration. But the political and economic context of such unrest is uncertain, leaving the historical relationship of these ruins to contemporary constructions of social and cultural identity along the margins the Kalahari tantalizingly close, but unresolved. See also: Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallur-

gists of South Africa; Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Animal Domestication; Political Complexity, Rise of; Social Inequality, Development of.

Denbow JR (1990) Congo to Kalahari: Data and hypotheses about the political economy of the western stream of the Early Iron Age. African Archaeological Review 8: 139–176. Denbow JR (2002) Stolen Places: Archaeology and the politics of identity in the later prehistory of the Kalahari. In: Falola T and Jennings C (eds.) Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Disciplines, pp. 345–374. Transaction Publishers Rutgers: Summerset. Denbow JR and Thebe PC (2006) Culture and Customs of Botswana. Westport: Greenwood Press. Denbow JR and Wilmsen EN (1986) The advent and course of pastoralism in the Kalahari. Science 234: 1509–1515. Huffman TN (2005) The stylistic origin of Bambata and the spread of mixed farming in southern Africa. Southern African Humanities 17: 57–79. Lane P, Reid A, and Segobye A (1998) Ditswa Mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana. Gaborone: Pula Press and the Botswana Society. Leslie M and Maggs T (eds.) (2000) Goodwin Series, Vol. 8: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 years Ago. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Miller D (1996) The Tsodilo Jewellery: Metal Work from Northern Botswana. Rondebosch: University of Cape Town Press. Miller D (2001) Metal assemblages from the Greefswald sites, South Africa: K2, Mapungubwe southern terrace, and Mapungubwe hill. South African Archaeological Bulletin 56: 83–103. Robbins LH, Murphy ML, and Campbell AC (1998) Intensive mining of specular hematite in the Kalahari ca. AD 800–1000. Current Anthropology 39: 144–149. Robbins LH, Murphy ML, Brook GA, et al. (2000) Archaeology, palaeoenvironment, and chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 1085–1113. Robbins LH, Campbell AC, Murphy ML, Brook GA, Srivastava P, and Badenhorst S (2005) The advent of herding in southern Africa: Early AMS dates on domestic livestock from the Kalahari Desert. Current Anthropology 46: 671–677.

Late Holocene Foragers Judith Sealy, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Further Reading Calabrese JA (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. Campbell AC, Denbow JR, and Wilmsen EN (1994) Paintings like engravings: Rock art at Tsodilo. In: Dowson T and LewisWilliams D (eds.) Contested Images: Diversity in Southern African Rock Art Research, pp. 131–158. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

forager Often used synonymously with ‘hunter-gatherer’ (see below). Some authors, following Binford, restrict the term to groups who move frequently to new sources of food or other resources, such as the Kalahari San. Holocene Geological period that extends from the present day back to about 10 000 radiocarbon years, approximately 11 430  130 calendar years BP (between 9560 and 9300 BC). hunter-gatherer Society whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, using foraging and hunting, without significant recourse to the domestication of either.

84 AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers

Introduction Our knowledge of past foragers in southern Africa is geographically uneven (Figure 1). Most work has been done in coastal areas, where the high visibility of shell middens attracts attention, and where wavecut caves and rock shelters provide attractive sheltered camping sites for ancient and modern people alike. A few such areas have been the subjects of intensive study, but the archaeology of large areas of the subcontinent is known poorly, if at all. Despite efforts to correct this bias, our reconstructions continue to be heavily dependent on long sequence cave sites, where good preservation of organic materials allows for study of a wider range of remains than is the case at most open sites. These problems notwithstanding, the study of foraging people in southern Africa offers special opportunities, due to the preservation of a rich archaeological record and to the continuing existence of Khoisan groups, descended from these Late Holocene populations, who pursued a foraging lifestyle into the second half of the twentieth century.

The Mid-Holocene In mid-Holocene times, between about 8000 and 4000 BP, the arid central parts of South Africa were thinly populated, probably because warmer and likely drier conditions made already marginal environments unattractive. People were, however, living in the

coastal areas of South Africa, in the northern parts of the country, and in Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Stone artifact assemblages from this time are characterized by very small, highly standardized artifacts, especially tiny scrapers, and in many places, crescent-shaped ‘segments’ that may have been used in arrowheads and/or as general-purpose small cutting tools (Figure 2). The composition of assemblages changed over time (segments were especially timerestricted) but the small size of the artifacts, the relatively high proportion of retouched pieces, and a preference for fine-grained stone raw material was maintained. In the southern Cape, this tradition is called the ‘Wilton’; these assemblages extend into Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, where other names have been used. The similarity of these microlithic artifact assemblages over long distances shows that people subscribed to a shared set of social norms, at least as far as the accepted way to make tools was concerned. ‘Wilton’ artifacts include types very similar to items collected from recent San or ‘Bushmen’, including ostrich eggshell beads and beaded items, ostrich eggshell flasks, and bored stones used as digging stick weights, among others. Archaeologists are confident that the lifestyles of mid-Holocene foragers shared many similarities with those of people who continued to live by hunting and gathering into the twentieth century. Striking parallels have been demonstrated by David Lewis-Williams and others who have drawn

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Figure 1 Map showing major geographical features of South Africa and sites mentioned in the text.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers 85

Mid-Holocene artifact assemblages are not, however, uniform. Lyn Wadley has excavated two approximately contemporary sites in the Magaliesberg, north of Johannesburg. Jubilee Shelter yielded many standardized, formal, microlithic stone artifacts, often made from carefully chosen, fine-grained stone not available in the immediate vicinity of the site. These were found together with bone tools, ostrich eggshell beads and bead-manufacturing debris, and other items. Cave James contained a very different kind of artifact assemblage with informal tools, made mostly from local raw material, suggesting much more ad hoc manufacture. There were few nonlithic artifacts, and much less evidence of craft activities. Wadley has interpreted this difference as the result of seasonal aggregation and dispersal of hunter-gatherer groups, with formal artifact assemblages and formal rules of behavior characteristic of aggregation-phase campsites.

4000 to 2000 BP Figure 2 Microlithic ‘Wilton’ stone artefacts: segments (top) and scrapers (bottom). Scale in mm.

Figure 3 Rock painting from Game Pass Shelter, Drakensberg, showing eland, large cloaked figures and (at top) small running humans.

from beliefs and practices of recent San communities to gain insight into the world views expressed in the complex and often very beautiful rock paintings found in many mountainous areas of southern Africa (Figure 3). Most of these paintings have not, so far, proved amenable to direct dating, but portable cobbles with paintings on them have been recovered from excavations, and can be dated by association with the levels in which they were found. Some are more than 6000 years old. Rock-painting traditions continued into the last few centuries, as images of colonial settlers and soldiers attest.

After about 4000 BP, populations grew substantially, and the interior of South Africa was re-occupied. In areas where detailed studies have been done, notably the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces and the Thukela River Basin of KwaZulu-Natal, we can see that lower-ranked food sources were added to the diet, including freshwater fish and shellfish, and there was greater emphasis on plant foods. Hilary Deacon has suggested that people may have practiced ‘fire-stick farming’ – burning the veld to promote the growth of geophytes, whose starchy corms were an important food item. These are just the type of changes one would expect if there were more people needing to be fed. In at least some areas, growing population density led to competition for resources, the emergence of more settled, territorial lifestyles and, no doubt, restructuring of earlier networks of trade and communication. At the same time, we also see evidence of increasing regional differentiation in artifact-making traditions. At some sites, microlithic tool-kits persisted, while at others, they were replaced by macrolithic assemblages. In a broad sense, this variation is likely to be one facet of the greater social and economic complexity of the last few millennia, but there is still much to explore in the links between material culture, economy, and identity (see Africa, South: Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Kalahari Margins). These groups may not have been ‘foragers’ in the strict Binfordian sense. Storage pits, a feature of sites in the southern and Eastern Cape in the last few millennia, point to elements of delayed return strategies. Those pits whose contents are preserved seem

86 AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

to have been used mainly to store the oil-rich fruits of Pappea capensis. It is unclear just how economically important these were – the fruit is edible, but the oil was also used as a cosmetic, which may have been its main use. In the Eastern Cape, infants and young children who died were sometimes richly endowed with grave goods, especially ostrich eggshell beads. Simon Hall and Johan Binneman have suggested that these items may have been given in gift exchanges, and/or they may indicate a degree of ascribed status. These features hint at emerging complexity among Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in more productive environments. Mid- and Late Holocene hunter-gatherers were physically similar to their recent Khoisan descendants: small, lightly built people at the most gracile end of the range of documented human variation. Why this should be so is something of a mystery. It has been suggested that recent Kalahari foragers were short in stature because populations had had to adapt to scarce resources, but this clearly does not apply to equally small populations in resource-rich areas of the subcontinent; it is, therefore, probably not a major factor in the Kalahari either. People were particularly short between 4000 and 3000 BP, for reasons that are not yet well understood, but are likely to be linked to competition and conflict associated with increasing population density and the drive to intensify production. Examination of Late Holocene human skeletons has yielded remarkably little evidence of disease or trauma. Accidents or falls that resulted in broken bones or other injuries to the skeleton seem to have been rare. There are a few documented cases of interpersonal violence, all of which date to the third millennium before present – perhaps also related to conflicts to do with the re-configuration of society at that time. Overall, emerging reconstructions of Late Holocene hunter-gatherers indicate a dynamic society, with different trajectories in different regions. As in late hunter-gatherer communities in other parts of the world, there is evidence of ‘intensification’; there is no way of knowing whether this might eventually have developed into domestication, if food production had not been imported into the region.

saw the first iron-using agriculturists, who also kept sheep and cattle, move in during the first few centuries AD. Relations between food producers and foragers were complex, with evidence of interaction ranging across the spectrum from cooperation to clientship to conflict. In time, independent foragers were largely excluded from regions settled by farmers, although they continued to live until very recently in less contested areas.

New Ways of Life

Glossary

The foragers’ world was altered forever around 2000 years ago by the importation of food production from further north in Africa. In the western and southernmost parts of Africa, the first domestic sheep appeared around 2000 years ago, and by 1600 BP herding had become an important new way of life. The northern and eastern parts of the subcontinent

Early Holocene The early part of the geological Holocene period that extends from the present day back to approximately 11 430  130 years BP. forager Someone in search for food, in the context of hunter–gatherer interactions. Middle Stone Age (MSA) Period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.

See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, South: Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Kalahari Margins; Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient.

Further Reading Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip. Hall S (2000) Burial and sequence in the Later Stone Age of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 137–146. Hall S and Binneman J (1987) Later Stone Age burial variability in the Cape: A social interpretation. South African Archaeological Bulletin 42: 140–152. Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pfeiffer S (in press) The health of foragers: People of the Later Stone Age, southern Africa. In: Cohen MN and Crane-Kramer G (eds.) Ancient Health. Gainesville: University of Florida. Sealy J (2006) Diet, mobility and settlement pattern among Holocene hunter-gatherers in southernmost Africa. Current Anthropology 47: 569–595.

Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers Colin A Lewis, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers 87 Late Pleistocene (also known as Upper Pleistocene or the Tarantian). Latter part of the geologic timescale from 1.8 million to 11 550 years BP. Later Stone Age (LSA) Period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age.

Middle Stone Age Parts of southern Africa were occupied by peoples of Middle Stone Age (MSA) cultures during the Birnam Interstadial (35 000 to 24 000 year BP) of the latter part of the Late Pleistocene. Characteristically, the stone tools of the later MSA were triangular and irregular flakes, blades, points, knives, scrapers, and cores, as at Rose Cottage Cave in the Caledon Valley of the Free State, near the Lesotho border (Figures 1 and 2). Comparable tools have been discovered in unconsolidated deposits at Sehonghong in the Senqu (upper Orange River) Valley in Lesotho, in Strathalan Cave B near Maclear in the foothills of the Southern Drakensberg in the Eastern Cape, and elsewhere.

Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age Transition At Sehonghong, tools that are considered transitional between the MSA and the Later Stone Age (LSA) were discovered in deposits dating between 27 500 and 23 000 year BP (Figure 3). These and all other dates are calibrated radiocarbon dates, the sigma ranges are not shown. At Strathalan Cave B longer and

broader flake-blades were produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’ and date to between 28 250 and 27 250 year BP (Figure 4). Occupation floors excavated at Strathalan Cave B and dated to 33 900 and to between 28 250 and 27 250 year BP, contained patches of packed grass that were presumably used as bedding and were located near hearths, as well as twigs, corm scales, other plant debris, and bone fragments (Figure 5). These remains indicate that the inhabitants ate corms of Watsonia as well as other plant foods, and meat derived from rock hyrax (dassies) and from various antelopes including eland, blesbuck, wildebeest, springbuck, and klipspringer. The MSA dwellers of the area probably used fire to stimulate the production of edible corms and to encourage the growth of new and sweet grass in order to attract game to the area. Fire was also important for warmth at a time of deteriorating climate. Strathalan Cave B was occupied at 25 000 year BP but was abandoned by 24 000 year BP, when extremely cold conditions existed in the adjacent Drakensberg during the Bottelnek Stadial, which began 24 000 year BP but ended before 15 000 year BP. Palaeoclimatic conditions are evidenced at altitudes above 1800 m by rock glacier and gelifluction (head) deposits and, although dated less certainly, by moraines and protalus ramparts. No further evidence of human occupation of the Southern Drakensberg exists until 12 000 year BP, when the Ravenscraig rock shelter, near Barkly East (Figure 1), was occupied. Lesotho and the interior

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Figure 2 Stone tools characteristic of the later Middle Stone Age, from Rose Cottage Cave, Free State, South Africa. 1, flake; 2, 3, point; 4, blade; 5, 6, core reduced piece; 7, point with reduced butt; 8, scraper; 9, knife; 10, spall; 11, adze; 12, core rejuvenation flake; 13, blade. Reproduced from L Wadley (1991) Rose Cottage Cave: Background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125–130, with permission from the South African Archaeological Society.

Figure 4 Long and broad flake blades from Strathalan Cave B, produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’: 1, flake-blade; 2–6, retouched flakes; 7, point. Reproduced from Opperman H (1996) Strathalan Cave B, north-eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Evidence for human behaviour 29,000–26,000 years ago. Quaternary International 33: 45–53, with permission of Elsevier/INQUA.

Figure 3 Formal stone tools of the later MSA, Sehonghong, Lesotho. 1–4, scrapers; 5, flake; 6–9, knives. Reproduced from PJ Mitchell (1994) Understanding the MSA/LSA transition: The pre-20 000 BP assemblages from new excavations at Sehonghong rock shelter, Lesotho. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 15–25, with permission from the Board of the Trustees of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown.

AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers 89

of South Africa were apparently unoccupied during the Bottelnek Stadial and earlier part of the succeeding Late Glacial, which lasted from 15 000 until 11 500 year BP.

Areas at lower altitudes and on the coastal side of the Great Escarpment (Drakensberg) were occupied during the Bottelnek Stadial, as at Howison’s Poort near Grahamstown, Nelson Bay Cave near Plettenberg Bay, Melkhoutboom Cave between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, and Boomplaas near Oudtshoorn.

Howieson’s Poort: A Problem Type-Site

Figure 5 Plant remains on an occupation floor dating to 33 900 year BP, Strathalan Cave B. Photographed and reproduced by permission of H. Opperman.

Excavations in a rock shelter in Howison’s Poort (misspelt Howieson’s in the archaeological literature) revealed the presence of artifacts of both MSA and LSA character (Figures 6 and 7) and the whole artifact assemblage was named the Howieson’s Poort industry. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from excavations at the Howieson’s Poort type-site in 1965 (Figure 8) indicated that the artifacts had accumulated between 23 000 and 10 500 years ago (the calibrated dates are here rounded to the nearest 500 years). These dates were initially considered too young, since artifact

Figure 6 Artifacts of mixed MSA/LSA character from the Howieson’s Poort type-site: (a), obliquely backed blades; (b) retouched unifacial points. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

90 AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

Later Stone Age Industries

Figure 7 Segments, such as occur both ‘‘in a restricted time slot in the MSA. . .and in the middle Holocene during the LSA’’ (Deacon, 1995): Howieson’s Poort type-site. They were probably mounted onto handles to form cutting tools. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

assemblages of similar character at Klasies River Mouth and elsewhere in Africa are thought to center on 70 000 year BP. Geomorphological examination of fluvial sediments in Howieson’s Poort, supported by radiocarbon dating, has shown that flood plain deposition began on the floor of the Poort around 10 750 year BP, as fluvial and associated processes reworked sediments from the valley sides in the Early Holocene. This time period was apparently moister than the preceding Late Glacial and Bottelnek Stadial. The sediments at the Howieson’s Poort type-site have not been reworked into the valley floor deposits, presumably due to their favored location within the rock shelter. The stratigraphic layer within which the artifacts occur (Figure 8, layer 4) is the thickest unit at that site and includes roof spalls such as might have taken place under cold and frosty conditions during the Bottelnek Stadial. There is no geomorphological reason to doubt the radiocarbon dates from the archaeological type-site. The Howieson’s Poort industry, at least at the type-site, may be much younger than was previously believed and possibly form part of the LSA rather than the MSA.

Three LSA industries have been widely recognized in South Africa: Robberg, Oakhurst Complex, and Wilton, the last of which is younger than the Early Holocene. Backed tools, scrapers of various sizes, unretouched microlithic bladelets, and bladelet cores are characteristic of the Robberg industry (Figure 9). This industry was identified at Nelson Bay Cave on the Robberg Peninsula (after which it has been named), near Plettenberg Bay, where it post-dates 22 000 but pre-dates 14 000 year BP. The same industry dates from somewhat before 18 000 but ended before 12 250 year BP at Melkhoutboom and from after 24 000 but before 17 000 year BP at Boomplaas. Artifacts typical of the Robberg have also been found at some sites inland of the Drakensberg, as at Rose Cottage Cave where they pre-date 15 000 year BP. The Robberg industry apparently existed more recently in Lesotho and adjacent upland areas than elsewhere in the subcontinent. Non-stone tools associated with the Robberg include bone and ostrich eggshell beads, tortoise-shell bowls and polished bone points. At Nelson Bay Cave the fauna associated with the Robberg industry was animals typical of opencountry, grassy habitats, including giant buffalo, an equine that may have been a quagga, springbok, and alcelaphine antelopes: blesbok/bontebok, wildebeest, hartebeest, and a giant alcelaphine. They indicate that after 22 000 but before 14 000 year BP there were extensive grasslands on the coastal plateau in the Plettenberg Bay area and not the present climax vegetation type of closed evergreen forest. Virtually no remains of sea mammals occur in Robberg industry levels at Nelson Bay Cave, presumably because sea levels were much lower than at present and the cave was therefore located too far from the coast for them to be exploited by its human inhabitants. The Oakhurst Complex is named after a type-site near Wilderness on the southern Cape coast. End, round, and D-shaped scrapers; duckbill scrapers with parallel sides and outward splay toward their terminus; wide-ranging polished stone tools, and few microliths are typical of the complex (Figure 10). At Ravenscraig, in the Southern Drakensberg, Oakhurst assemblages date from 12 000 year BP but are at least 2000 years older at sites that include Bushman Rock Shelter in Mpumalanga. They have also been reported from the south and west coasts of the subcontinent as well as from the Free State, Lesotho, KwaZuluNatal, and elsewhere. The Albany industry is a regional variant of the complex in coastal and adjacent areas, while the Lockshoek industry is a variant in the Karoo.

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Figure 8 View of excavation into deposits of the Howieson’s Poort type-site, showing the position of radiocarbon-dated charcoal samples with their calibrated dates and laboratory analysis numbers. The stratigraphic layers are also shown as is the compass orientation of the section. Layer 4 contained most artifacts. Layer (5) was ‘sand of decomposed bedrock’. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society, but with calibrated dates.

Figure 9 Distribution and characteristic artifacts of the Robberg industry showing bladelet cores and bladelets (left), large and small scrapers and backed tools. Reproduced with permission from Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip.

The Albany industry dates from 14 000 to 10 000 year BP at Nelson Bay Cave, 12 250 to 8000 year BP at Melkhoutboom, pre-dates 17 000 but ended

before 7250 year BP at Boomplaas, and existed before 11 250 but ended before 7500 BP at The Havens Cave in the Baviaanskloof, some 50 km inland from the

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Figure 10 Sites at which the Oakhurst Industrial Complex has been dated, with typical artifacts. After Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip, by permission of HJ and J Deacon, with map after Wadley L (2000) The Early Holocene layers of Rose Cottage Cave, Eastern Free State: Technology, spatial patterns and environment. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 18–31, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

coast west of Port Elizabeth. The Albany industry has also been reported from many sites in the Grahamstown area and elsewhere. Seals were an important source of food during Albany times at Nelson Bay Cave, indicating that sea level had risen and the sea was near the site by 14 000 year BP after reaching a low of 130 m below that of the present during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Other important sources of meat were rock hyrax, Hippotragus spp., grysbok/ steenbok, bushpig, reedbuck, and Cape buffalo. The last reported occurrences of eland and warthog in deposits at the cave, which are associated with Albany industry levels, and the advent of bushbuck, indicate that open grasslands were being replaced by more bushy vegetation, probably as a result of increasingly wet climatic conditions as the Late Glacial was succeeded by the Early Holocene. An increase in bushy vegetation at this time also occurred on the highlands of the Free State, as near Rose Cottage Cave, possibly due to increasingly moist conditions associated with the extension of the summer rainfall region into the area in the Early Holocene. Shellfish were an important part of the diets of Albany industry foragers at Nelson Bay Cave and elsewhere in coastal areas. During Robberg and Oakhurst Complex times the inhabitants of southern Africa were foragers who may have followed seasonal migratory patterns in order to exploit the available food resources, and who occupied established (but temporary) dwelling sites. They probably lived in family/kin groups that varied in size from season to season. The population of the subcontinent, as judged from the number of

sites at which archaeological evidence has been found, was probably thinly spread and low in numbers. Major environmental changes took place during Robberg and Oakhurst Complex times, as earlier in the Quaternary. The detailed response of the human inhabitants of southern Africa to those changes, during the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene, remains to be established.

Acknowledgments Stephan Woodborne and Marc Pienaar of the Quaternary Dating Research Unit in Pretoria are thanked for calibrating dates for this overview. See also: Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers.

Further Reading Deacon HJ (1976) Where Hunters Gathered. South African Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 1, 229 pp. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip. Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120. Inskeep RR (1978) The Peopling of Southern Africa. Cape Town: David Philip. Klein RG (1972) The Late Quaternary mammalian fauna of Nelson Bay Cave (Cape Province, South Africa): Its implications for megafaunal extinctions and environmental and cultural change. Quaternary Research 2: 135–142. Lewis CA (2005) Late Glacial and Holocene palaeoclimatology of the Drakensberg of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Quaternary International 129: 33–48.

AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers 93 Mitchell PJ (1994) Understanding the MSA/LSA transition: The pre20 000 BP assemblages from new excavations at Sehonghong rock shelter, Lesotho. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 15–25. Opperman H (1996) Strathalan Cave B, north-eastern Cape Province, South Africa: evidence for human behaviour 29,000–26,000 years ago. Quaternary International 33: 45–53. Singer R and Wymer JJ (1982) The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Wadley L (1991) Rose Cottage Cave: Background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125–130. Wadley L (1997) Rose Cottage Cave: Archaeological work 1987 to 1997. South African Journal of Science 93: 439–444. Wadley L (2000) The Early Holocene layers of Rose Cottage Cave, Eastern Free State: technology, spatial patterns and environment. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 18–31.

AFRICA, WEST Contents Early Holocene Foragers Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists Villages, Cities, and States

Early Holocene Foragers Joanna Casey, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary terra cotta cigars Flattened, elliptical items made of sandstone or, rarely, clay that are often scored or pecked on one or both sides. They are known only from Kintampo Complex Sites (3000–4000 years ago) in Ghana. Their function has never been determined, but abrasion on many specimens suggests grating or rasping.

The end of the Pleistocene brought dramatic climate change to West Africa. During the last glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere, Africa underwent a period of extreme aridity when the Sahara Desert expanded well beyond its current limits, and savanna and forest zones were compressed toward the coasts. Much of West Africa was unpopulated during this time, but during the early Holocene a humid phase brought plants, animals, and people back to the region. Understanding the Holocene foragers is made difficult by a number of factors. Certainly the archaeological evidence over this vast region is not as complete as one would prefer due to preservation problems and the difficulty of acquiring adequate research coverage. Equally significant is the nature of the data itself. Artifact types such as ceramics, grinding stones, and

ground stone tools that are usually associated with farming communities appear early in sequences, long before there is any evidence for domestic crops. When domestic plants and animals do appear, foraging continues to play an essential role in subsistence activities, and it is often unclear whether we are seeing mixed economies, or the interactions of subsistence specialists. With the return of humidity to the Sahara, there were no major geographical barriers to the movements of people throughout West Africa, yet researchers have tended to specialize in one of three areas: the Sahara, the sahel, or the forests and savannas (see Africa, North: Sahara, West and Central). Although the differences in these areas may be more perceived than real due to a lack of communication among researchers, there is increasing evidence that contact between these regions was infrequent until relatively late in antiquity. The terminal Pleistocene arid episode ended at around 12 000 BP with geological and palynological evidence indicating the appearance of rivers and lakes with their attendant flora and fauna. The earliest evidence for human reoccupation of the Sahara comes from small lithic scatters, characterized by blades and bladelets and sometimes shouldered Ounanian points. Little is known about the people who made the artifacts that are found in the central Sahara, but the resemblance of their artifacts to materials from North Africa suggests that they had a northern origin. At around 9500 years ago, ceramics appear at the sites of Amekni, Ti n Torha, and Tagalagal in the central Sahara (Figure 1). These are the

94 AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers

Hoggar

Ti n Torha Uan Afuda Uan Muhugggiag

Amekni Tibesti

Adrar Bous

Air

Dhar Tichitt Tilemsi Valley Ounjougou Kourounkorokale

Yagala Kamabai

Tagalagal

Lake Chad

Rim Maadaga

Rop Dutzen Kongba

Birimi K6

Yengema Kokasu

Agarade Bosumpra

Sopie

Kpone Bingerville

Figure 1 Location of sites mentioned in the text.

Mejiro Iwo Eleru

Sumpa

Shum Laka

Afikpo Map Area

AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers 95

earliest known ceramics on the continent, indicating that they developed independent of outside influences. Grinding stones are also in abundance at most sites and suggest an intensive use of wild grains. Faunal evidence from all sites indicates exploitation of local fish and game. Selective hunting techniques were used at Ti n Torha, and the penning of Barbary sheep is documented at Uan Afuda. At around 7500 years ago, a short but intense dry period caused a readjustment in many parts of the Sahara. Parts of the eastern and central Sahara appear to have been briefly abandoned, while in other parts people shifted their settlements with the shrinking shorelines of the lakes. In the central Sahara, people increasingly settled around the permanent water sources from which they exploited both aquatic and terrestrial resources (see Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central). Sites from this time are characterized by the presence of bone harpoons, numerous fish bones, and ceramics bearing wavy line motifs. Initially, the broad similarity among the sites led researchers to consider it to be one vast culture complex stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea and lasting for 3000 years. Recent research however indicates that the similarities among the sites are very superficial and can largely be attributed to similar subsistence orientations. Variations in the contributions of various plants and animals, and in the raw materials, techniques of manufacture, and styles of lithics and ceramics indicate significant regional differences that have been obscured by the focus on wavy lines and fish. The return of humidity is marked by pastoralists entering the Sahara. The earliest cattle date to 5950–5700 years BP at Adrar Bous and Uan Muhuggiag, but cattle spread rapidly throughout the Sahara and by 4000 years ago were in the Tilemsi Valley and Mema regions of Mali, and as far south as Lake Chad. Over much of the Sahara, the appearance of cattle, sheep, and goats is not accompanied by a significant change in material culture. While this may indicate the adoption of domestic animals by the settled foragers, it is also likely that the foragers and herders developed reciprocal relationships similar to those witnessed today between farmers, fishers, and herders in the inland delta of the Niger River, and among farmers and herders right across West Africa (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists). Identifying the sites of mobile pastoralists is notoriously problematic because they leave so few remains, and in West Africa it is complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing early domestic cattle from indigenous West African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Domestic animals are attested to by the presence of bovid bones in archaeological sites, but at many of

these sites, wild animals continue to play a crucial role in the subsistence economy. South of the Sahara a different scenario prevails. During the terminal Pleistocene dry phase, forests and savannas continued to exist along the coast and probably as far north as 11 . While the area could have been a refuge for people who had abandoned the Sahara, there is little evidence for this. The post-Pleistocene rise in sea levels may have obliterated the evidence for coastal sites, but it is notable that there is little reliable evidence elsewhere for occupation between 20 000 and 13 000 years BP. Shum Laka, in Cameroon, may be an exception. Here cultural deposits go back 30 000 years, and the environment appears to have seen only minor change during the terminal Pleistocene. The earliest Holocene occupations south of the Sahel contain microliths, although it is sometimes difficult to determine whether individual authors are referring to formed, geometric microliths or simply to the small size of the lithic material. Microliths occur at many early sites in Central Africa, starting at around 40 000 BP, and appear at Shum Laka around 30 000 BP, presenting the possibility that the spread of microliths south of the Sahel came from the east. The earliest microlithic sites in West Africa include Bingerville-Highway (Coˆte d’Ivoire), Iwo Eleru (Nigeria), and Rim (Burkina Faso) which date to 13 000–11 000 years ago. Similar assemblages are found at Maadaga (Burkina Faso), Rop, Afikpo, Mejiro Cave, Dutzen Kongba (Nigeria), and Kourounkorokale (Mali). Some of these sites are overlain by microlithic assemblages bearing ceramics and ground stone tools, a trend that appeared throughout sub-Sahelian West Africa around 6000 years ago and continued until the first millennium AD. Shum Laka and Ounjougou (Mali) have early occurrences of this sort, while Iwo Eleru and Bosumpra (Ghana) are slightly later. Other sites from this period include Sopie, Kokasu (Sierra Leone), Yengema, Yagala, Kamabai (Liberia), Sumpa (Cameroun), Agarade Rock Shelter (Togo), and Kpone Shell Midden (Ghana). Nonmicrolithic occurrences with large format flakes, core tools, and prepared core technologies also occur at a small number of sites south of the sahel from the Late Pleistocene through the midHolocene. These sites were thought to be further evidence for central African affinities, but the wide and patchy distribution of these sites, along with their variability, suggests that they relate to specialized heavy-duty activities and adaptation to poor-quality raw material rather than to cultural migrations. At around 4500 years ago, the climate became arid again, and people started to leave the desert. The most dramatic response to the increasing aridity is witnessed at Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania where cattlekeeping people increasingly fortified their settlements

96 AFRICA, WEST/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists

with stone enclosures and moved closer and closer to the shrinking water sources. Seed impressions on ceramics show an increasing reliance on wild and ultimately domestic millet by 3700 years BP. Some time after 4000 years ago, settlements start to appear in sub-Saharan West Africa. The Kintampo Complex, known only from Ghana, is the earliest of these. Kintampo sites share a material culture characterized by ground stone tools, grinding stones, ceramics bearing comb-stamped decoration, and projectile points styles that resemble those found farther to the north. The fossile directeur of the Kintampo Complex is the ‘terra-cotta cigar’, a flattened elliptical object of unknown function, made from fine-grained sandstone and scored, pecked, and/or abraded on both sides. Individual Kintampo sites have produced fishhooks, beads, and figurines. Reliable subsistence information has been scarce. The best evidence is from K6 Rock Shelter where the assemblage was dominated by wild species with evidence for an increase over time in species that prefer settlements and cleared areas. Much has been made of the domestic animal bones found at some Kintampo sites. While the cattle bones have been dismissed, the bones from one or two domestic caprines have been confirmed at K6. While these bones demonstrate that domestic animals were present during Kintampo, their contribution to the economy is unclear. Domestic millet found at Birimi in northern Ghana indicates that the Kintampo people did cultivate domestic crops, but Kintampo sites are found in diverse ecosystems, some outside of the area in which millet will grow. Furthermore, Kintampo sites are characterized by the presence of tools specific to the extraction of local resources. Both these factors, and the high incidence of wild plant and animal species in Kintampo sites suggest that farming was most likely only a part of a complex subsistence strategy.

Monographs in African Archaeology No. 51; BAR International No. 906. Oxford: Archaeopress. Casey J (2005) Holocene occupations of the forest and savanna. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology, pp. 225–248. London: Blackwell. Cornelissen E (2003) On microlithic quartz industries at the end of the Pleistocene in Central Africa: The evidence from Shum Laka (NW Cameroon). The African Archaeological Review 20(1): 1–24. Garcea EAA (2004) An alternative way towards food production: The perspective from the Libyan Sahara. Journal of World Prehistory 18(2): 107–154. Haour AC (2003) One hundred years of archaeology in Niger. Journal of World Prehistory 17(2): 141–179. Huysecom E, Ozainne S, Kaeli F, Ballouche A, Rasse M, and Stokes S (2004) Ounjougou (Mali): A history of holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara. Antiquity 78: 579–593. Lavachery P (2001) The Holocene archaeological sequence of Shum Laka rock shelter (grasslands, western Cameroon). The African Archaeological Review 18(4): 213–247. MacDonald KC (1997) Kourounkorokale revisited: The Pays Mande´ and the West African microlithc technocomplex revisited. The African Archaeological Review 14(3): 161–200. Mohammed-Ali AS and Kabir ARK (2003) The wavy-line and dotted wavy line pottery in the prehistory of the central Nile and the Sahara-sahel belt. The African Archaeological Review 20(1): 25–58. Muzzolini A (1993) The emergence of a food-producing economy in the Sahara. In: Shaw T, Alexander J, and Opoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, pp. 227–239. London: Routledge.

See also: Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central; Africa, South: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers; Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Animal Domestication.

Neolithic A period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. herders Workers who live a semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, especially in places where these animals wander unfenced pasture lands. cultigens Organisms, particularly cultivated plants, that do not have a wild or uncultivated counterpart. These are species that were domesticated (grown and selected by humankind) from so far back in antiquity, and have undergone such drastic transformation under prehistoric human selection, that the plant ancestry is essentially unknown.

Further Reading Breunig P and Neumann K (2002) From hunters and gatherers to food producers: New archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence from the West African sahel. In: Fekri H (ed.) Droughts, Food and Culture: Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory, pp. 123–155. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Casey J (2000) The Kintampo Complex: The Late Holocene on the Gambaga Escarpment, Northern Ghana. Cambridge

Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists Peter Breunig, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary

West Africa is bounded on the north by the Sahara, on the east by Lake Chad, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Distinctive vegetation zones running in an east–west

AMERICAS, NORTH/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists 97

direction are the result of decreasing precipitation from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahara in the north. Between the tropical rain forest along the southern coastline and the Sahara Desert, the vegetation changes from Guinean to Sudanian to Sahelian savanna. This relatively close proximity of rather different environments and their considerable shift during the last millennia most likely influenced the appearance and development of herders and farmers in West Africa. During early Holocene times, vast areas of the Sahara resembled today’s Sahelian vegetation zone. It is in this region that important cultural innovations like the manufacture of pottery and the development of pastoral economy took place. Whether pastoral beginnings go back to the eighth millennium BC, as presumed on the basis of finds from the eastern Sahara, has been questioned. However, its existence in the central and eastern Sahara during the fifth millennium BC is beyond dispute. At this time, domesticated cattle appeared along with ovicaprids. While cattle might have been domesticated autochthonous, domesticated ovicaprids (sheep and goat) are believed to come from the Near East, because the fossil record and modern biogeography both indicate that their wild progenitors never lived in Africa. After a flourishing period, the Saharan livestock herders were affected by the final desiccation of the Sahara caused by the southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. As a consequence, herders migrated into the moister southern regions. Archaeological data indicate that they started expanding into West Africa at around 2000 BC. Formerly existing disease barriers like the tsetse belt also shifted further south so that the vast grasslands in West Africa became suitable for pastoral occupation. The migration from the Sahara to West Africa is conclusive for several reasons. First, the dates for the earliest evidence of cattle get younger the more southerly the sites are located. Then, since the earliest domesticated animals have no local counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa, they must have been imported to West Africa. Finally, in some cases, the cultural material from the Sahara and the new homeland further south show similarities. How far farming and the beginning of plant cultivation were part of these migrations is one of the most important questions of sub-Saharan archaeology. With regard to the location of the wild progenitors of the African cultigens and theoretical considerations on the cultural context of initial farming, the southern Sahara is seen as the key area where the most important food crops of sub-Saharan Africa, pearl millet and sorghum, were originally cultivated.

Like anywhere else on earth, the appearance of herders and farmers with their food-producing economy constitutes a fundamental break in the prehistory of West Africa. Its occurrence is considered the prelude to a new era classified as the ‘West African Neolithic’. Herders and farmers are represented differently in the archaeological record. While the pastoral activities of herders are generally less visible, farmers and their sedentary communities usually produce abundant archaeological remains. Contrary to other Neolithic centers in the world, for instance, the Near East, the African evidence indicates a considerable time gap between the appearance of herders and farmers. However, this ‘cattle before crops’ pattern is not very pronounced in West Africa. Here, in most cases, domesticated animals and plants (see Animal Domestication; Plant Domestication) appear almost simultaneously or with only a slight time difference. The early food-producing communities must have met favorable conditions in West Africa, because both herding and farming activities spread very rapidly in manifold ways. One of the areas where comparably intensive research on early herders and farmers has been carried out is the Tichitt–Walata escarpment in Mauritania (Figure 1). The dry-stone architecture and the considerable size of the villages along the escarpment are unique among contemporaneous settlements in West Africa. Not only is it the northernmost food-producing complex in West Africa, but recent investigations have also shown that the area is among the earliest evidence of farming activities, dated to about 1800 BC. Another example for an early agropastoral society is the Kintampo culture in Ghana, located in the forest fringe and woodland savanna zones. The Kintampo people settled in rock shelters or hamlets consisting of huts spread over areas of up to 2 ha. They possessed domesticated animals, in particular sheep/goat and probably cattle, and cultivated pearl millet. In addition, there is evidence for the exploitation of the oil palm and a range of wild resources typical for the environment of the forest fringe and woodland savanna. Whether Kintampo emerged as a result of Saharan migration or represents a case of local intensification is discussed controversially. The floodplains and margins of the Inland Niger Delta constitute another focal point of agropastoral origins in West Africa. This region was home to a variety of cultural groups with different economic adaptations, appearing in the archaeological record during the second and early first millennium BC. One group is known as the Kobadi Neolithic of specialized fishers without domestic livestock or cultigens. Other groups have

98 AMERICAS, NORTH/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists

Figure 1 West Africa: geographic zones and archaeological areas mentioned in the text.

pastoral components, for example, Ndondi Tossokel, which originated from the Tichitt tradition in Mauritania or Winde´ Koroji. Early food-producing groups can also be found in the Sahelian zone of the Chad Basin in northeast Nigeria. Mobile herders arrived here in the early second millennium BC and became sedentary farmers or agropastoralists as documented by numerous village-like settlements dating from about 1500 BC onwards. In addition to such key areas of early food production, there are regions of marginal significance, where traces of herding cannot be detected by archaeological means or only appeared after the farming economy had established. After a period of prospering development in the second millennium BC, the early herders and farmers apparently were faced with a crisis in the first millennium BC, probably stimulated by another severe drought. In many regions, cultural sequences faded away and gave way to completely new developments. Among the economic innovations of the first millennium BC were new cultigens. While pearl millet was the only cultivated plant before, other important crops such as sorghum, African rice, cowpea, bambara groundnut, and okra as well as agro-forestry activities appeared between 500 BC and AD 500. They formed the basis of a productive Iron Age subsistence system where food security was more predictable than before. During the same period, large settlements, partly fortified, and site-size hierarchies emerged, followed by the development of urban centers, social

stratification, and inter-regional trade during the latter half of the first millennium AD. As a concomitant phenomenon of increasing cultural complexity, craft specialization is supposed to have developed during the first millennium BC (see Craft Specialization). Different concepts of craft specialization are discussed. Some accordant aspects highlight that craft specialization requires an economy able to produce surplus commodities in order to support craftsmen. It also intensifies the inequality among the members of a community, and thus favors the development of rank or class systems. But apart from these theoretical considerations, it is important to identify the existence of craft specialization in the archaeological record. Craft specialization can appear at the household level, as a form of part-time specialization concerning objects of daily use such as pottery, bone tools, mats, and basketry. In West Africa, this form of specialization possibly originated among the early herders and farmers of the second millennium BC, or even earlier in a hunter-gatherer context. A more complex craft specialization beyond the household level appears to have developed only during the first millennium BC. From this period onwards, evidence for concentrations of manufacturing by-products in specific sections of settlements is found. Another important innovation of the first millennium BC is iron metallurgy. While its origin and spread in sub-Saharan Africa is a matter of a longrunning debate, there is no doubt about its technological advancement and the demand for specialists to

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 99

conduct iron smelting and processing. Together with early iron metallurgy, art appears as another impressive case of craft specialization. Undoubtedly, the earliest art of West Africa, the expressive terracottas of the Nok culture in central Nigeria, were created by specialists belonging to a stratified society and not by herders and farmers as a result of leisure activities. As a conclusion, the first millennium BC was a period of crises, discontinuities, and innovations with paramount importance for subsequent times. Fundamental economic, technological, and social changes took place and were the basis for developments which led to the formation of civilizations and empires only a few centuries later. See also: Animal Domestication; Craft Specialization; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Breunig P and Neumann K (2002) Continuity or discontinuity? The 1st millennium BC – Crisis in West African prehistory. In: Lenssen-Erz T, Tegttmeir U, Kro¨pelin S, et al. (eds.) Africa Praehistorica 14: Tides of the Desert. Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolph Kuper, pp. 491–505. Ko¨ ln: Heinrich-Barth-Institut. Holl AFC (1998) Livestock husbandry, pastoralisms, and territoriality: The West African record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 143–165. MacDonald KC (1996) The Winde´ Koroji complex: Evidence for the peopling of the eastern Inland Niger Delta (2100–500 BC). Pre´histoire et Anthropologie Me´diterrane´ennes 5: 147–165. Magnavita C, Kahlheber S, and Eichhorn B (2004) The rise of organisational complexity in mid-first millennium BC Chad Basin. Antiquity 78, no. 301, project gallery. http://antiquity.ac. uk/projgall/magnavita/index.html. McIntosh SK (2001) West African Late Stone Age. In: Peregrine PN and Ember M (eds.) Encyclopedia of Prehistory 1, Africa, pp. 323–338. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Munson PJ (1971) The Tichitt Tradition: A Late Prehistoric Occupation of the Southwestern Sahara. PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Neumann K (2005) The romance of farming: Plant cultivation and domestication in Africa. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology, pp. 249–275. Malden: Blackwell. Smith AB (1992) Pastoralism in Africa: Origins, Development and Ecology. London: Hurst. Stahl AB (1993) Intensification in the West African Late Stone Age: A view from Central Ghana. In: Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, pp. 261–273. London: Routledge. Van Neer W (2002) Food security in Western and Central Africa during the Late Holocene: The role of domestic stock keeping, hunting and fishing. In: Hassan FA (ed.) Droughts, Food and Culture: Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory, pp. 251–274. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Watson DJ (2005) Under the rocks: Reconsidering the origin of the Kintampo tradition and the development of food production in the savanna-forest/forest of West Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 3(1): 3–55.

Villages, Cities, and States Susan Keech McIntosh, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary flotation Use of water to separate plant materials from archaeological deposits. Holocene A geological epoch covering the period from the retreat of the ice sheets at the end of the last glacial period between 11 000 and 12 000 years ago to the present. lineage A group tracing descent from a common ancestor.

In West Africa during the later Holocene, villages occupied by multiple family or lineage-based groups appeared, enabled by new subsistence technologies, including agriculture, that increased output and supported a larger number and density of people. Greater sedentism, either seasonally or year round, is reflected by labor investment in durable construction technologies and large quantities of items that are not easily portable, such as grindstones and pottery. Although the development and spread of village life associated with food production has been a source of interest and detailed investigation in the Near East since the 1950s, comparable studies in West Africa involving excavation and recovery of archaeobotanical samples are relatively recent and rare (see Paleoethnobotany). Our understanding of early village life and subsistence in West Africa is therefore fragmentary at present and likely to change significantly as new data become available. This applies equally to the development of cities and states (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists). The earliest unambiguously identified villages in West Africa were built between 3500 and 2500 BP (1800–800/400 cal BC) on the 60–100 m high escarpment (dhar) that extends for c. 400 km from Tichitt to Walata and Nema in southeast Mauritania (Figure 1). These settlements had multiple, dry-stone-walled compounds large enough to accommodate several huts or houses, granaries, and livestock (Figure 2). Some of the dhar settlements are extremely large, measuring 30–95 ha, with 200–600 compounds, suggestive of towns or central places in an emergent urban/ political hierarchy (Figure 3).These agropastoralists hunted, herded cattle, sheep and goats, and cultivated pearl millet, a drought-tolerant African cereal that was first domesticated in the Sahel of Mauritania or Niger, according to DNA analysis.

ALGERIA

Atakor

TASS ILI

SAHARA

TEGDAOUST

Senegal

JA

mb

ig

er

ia

Ba

N

GUINEA-BISSAU

ni

JENNEJENO

FUTA JALLON

CHAD Lake Chad

MOUHOUN BEND

HAUSA

BURKINA FASO

LIBERIA

NIGERIA

BIRIMI

SIERRA LEONE

IVORY GHANA COAST Lake Volta

GAJIGANNA ZILUM KURSAKATA GE ME

KANO

Lake Kainji Nig er

NOK

OLD OYO

nue

Be

IFE

MANDARA MOUNTAINS

YORUBA EDO BENIN CITY

Ch ari

ne go Lo

GUINEA

BENIN

Ga

KAWKAW

TOGO

GAMBIA

GHANA

ME MA IN L N A DE IGE ND LT R A

SENEGAL

NIGER BEND

KUMBI SALEH

NIGER

AI R

MALI NEMA

TAKRUR

MSV

LIBYA

R RA AS AD IFOR S E D

MAURITANIA

TICHITT

AC

TROPIC OF CANCER

AC U

100 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

CAMEROON Mount Cameroon

2000 m 1000 m 500 m 0m

COUNTRIES SITE

NATURAL FEATURES AND REGIONS Lakes and Rivers EARLY STATE

Figure 1 Sites and regions mentioned in the text.

Figure 2 Dry-stone compound walls at the site of L’ouedi (c. 900 BC) atop the Tichitt escarpment. ã P. Munson.

At the village settlement of Birimi in northern Ghana, pearl millet was also cultivated by 3500– 3000 BP, and was the dominant plant species recovered from flotation samples. Three dozen burnt clay house floors have been mapped in this extensive

site belonging to the Kintampo complex. Further south in central Ghana, Kintampo is also associated with the appearance of villages and subsistence intensification involving oil palm exploitation. In northeastern Nigeria, on the Bama Deltaic soils that once

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 101

Figure 3 Plan of walled compounds at Dakhlet el Atrouss, one of the largest villages on the Tichitt escarpment. ã R. Vernet.

bordered Lake Chad, small, ephemeral pastoralist camps occupied between 3500 and 3000 BP were replaced by larger, more sedentary settlement mounds up to 7 ha in extent occupied by agropastoralists who cultivated pearl millet. Several of the mounds have been excavated and over 100 have been surveyed and identified as part of the Gajiganna complex. As the shore of Lake Chad retreated after 3000 BP, settlers moved onto the newly exposed lakeplain in northern Nigeria and Cameroon and southern Chad, and established village settlement mounds (e.g., Kursakata, Mege) with a subsistence economy based on herding, fishing, and millet cultivation. To the northwest, older Gajiganna settlement mounds were abandoned, and larger, fortified villages with extensive storage pits, such as Zilum, were built in the same area (Figures 4 and 5). It seems that with the appearance of iron c. 2500–2200 BP and the addition of new domesticates, such as African rice and fonio, permanent village settlements were established in the Mema and Inland Niger Delta of Mali (Ja, Jenne-jeno), and in the Nok area of Nigeria, where first millennium BC sites with stone walls have recently been found. Village settlements were well established in many areas of West Africa by the first millennium AD. In some of these areas of early village settlement, sites continued to expand and develop center-andhinterland articulated systems of urban character. The Inland Niger Delta and its margins have been the focus of considerable fieldwork on these systems, which frequently involve closely clustered mound sites on the floodplain. At Ja, and in the Me´ma, the development of larger-scale settlement systems is claimed to have occurred in the first millennium BC.

At Jenne-jeno, it seems to date to the mid-first millennium AD (Figure 6). Clustered settlement mounds are not restricted to the Middle Niger; they have also been documented on the Mouhoun Bend in northern Burkina Faso in the first millennium AD. Based on excavations and survey at the mounds of the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex (Figure 7), it has been suggested that the distinct mounds were inhabited contemporaneously by different groups of functionally integrated economic specialists who resisted assimilation into a single town settlement. In this scenario, political power was weakly centralized, a view that is at odds with earlier theories that locate cities exclusively within state systems. The field research necessary to fully evaluate this hypothesis is still in its early stages. The development of new ideas about urban origins in West Africa has occurred at a time of increasing interest by archaeologists in the nature of the premodern city. It is now understood that many earlier ideas about urbanism, such as V. G. Childe’s wellknown trait-list of essential features that included writing and monumental architecture, were developed with reference to Western sequences of historical development and excluded much of sub-Saharan Africa from consideration. Investment in monument building, for example, is now seen to be a common, but not inevitable aspect of early cities. The absence of monumental architecture in large areas of West Africa likely reflects lack of suitable building materials (such as stone) in some areas and the prevalence of extensive, slash-and-burn agricultural systems that required settlement relocation after several decades, thus working against permanent installation of

102 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

Figure 4 Magnetic anomalies at Zilum show a ditch and rampart encircling the settlement, plus hundreds of large pits. Courtesy of P. Breunig and C. Magnavita.

Figure 5 Outline in section of a large storage pit at Zilum. ã C. Magnavita.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 103

Figure 6 Aerial view of the settlement mounds in the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex. Jenne-jeno is in the foreground. The town of Djenne´ is on the upper left. ã R.J. McIntosh.

E

NN

JE

- Ancient sites 0

km 1.0

BANI R .

JENNEJENO

Figure 7 Plan of the settlement mounds of the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex.

populations at one location for long periods. In some areas, the location of the capital city frequently shifted. Ecological constraints linked to a value system that conceived of space as social (rooted in kin groups and genealogical proximity), rather than as a particular physical place, produced some early African urban

configurations that looked quite different than the cities of the West. The vast system of earthen embankments (iya) demarcating settlement boundaries in the YorubaEdo region of Nigeria is a prime example of a very non-Western configuration. Over 16 000 km of

104 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

UTE IYA Ikokhan

Ihovbor Oria

Idumwowina Ute Ugbowo

0

1 km

N

Urora

Uselu

Lwogban Aduwawa

Uzama villages

Ohovbe 1

Oregbeni old canoe port

Ogbesan

palace

BENIN CITY

Ikpoba Stream

Ihimwirin Ugbeku

0

5

10 km

Figure 8 Map of earthworks (iya) around Benin City and Ute in southwestern Nigeria. From Darling P (1984) Archaeology and History in Southern Nigeria: The Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan, p. 89. Oxford: BAR, ã P. Darling.

embankments enclosing more than 500 interconnected settlements in a 6500 km2 area have been mapped around Benin City (Figure 8). These systems enclosed villages/towns/capitals and the agricultural lands that supported them. The total vertical height of ramparts, measured from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank, generally ranged from 3 to 9 m, and occasionally up to 20! The massive labor inputs required to create them imply that substantial populations were involved. Initial construction is thought to have

begun in the later first millennium AD, and multiple episodes of wall construction have been documented at the early city-state of Ife, which had inner and outer embankments enclosing an area of 20 km2. Neither the chronology, settlement layout, nor the political organization of most of these enclosured settlements has been documented, with the exception of Ife, Old Oyo, and Benin City. At the center of each of these three cities was an extensive palace inhabited by a powerful divine king, with a marketplace opposite.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 105

In northern Nigeria, fired brick city walls up to 20 km in length surrounded the cities and towns of Hausaland from at least the sixteenth century, but their antiquity has not been investigated archaeologically (see Cities, Ancient, and Daily Life). Historical written and oral sources speak to us of powerful kings, states, and trading empires in the late first/second millennium AD in both savanna and forest. The archaeological research needed to illuminate the early development of these polities and to provide details on the forms of political economy, and the social and religious institutions they incorporated is still in its infancy. Ritual practice involving lifelike brass heads depicting royalty was important at Ife, and clearly involved sophisticated craft specialists attached to the royal families. Ife’s role as a powerful ritual center may have been an important key to its growth and influence. In other areas, such as the early states of Takrur, Ghana, and Kanem, trade may have been the most influential factor. In the first millennium AD and even earlier, copper moved considerable distances from sources in the Sahara and southeastern Nigeria. Salt almost certainly moved long distances as well along trade networks that extended east–west and north–south. Ultimately, as pack camels became widely used in the desert, and with the arrival of the Arabs in North Africa in the seventh century, regular, trans-Saharan trade routes were established. These extended deep into West Africa to the sources of gold, incorporating earlier exchange networks. Trade entrepots and political centers, such as Tegdaoust (probably the site of Audaghust, mentioned by early Arab authors) and Kumbi Saleh (presumed to be the capital of Ghana), developed on the southern margin of the desert, strategically placed to service and to levy taxes on the trade. There is a great deal that we still do not know about the earliest emergence of towns and states in West Africa, including detailed comparative chronologies and contexts, specific historical trajectories, associations between degree of urbanization and specific political forms, and the nature of relations

between towns and their hinterlands as well as among interacting polities. That research is sure to continue to provide some surprises, including significant discoveries in unsuspected areas. Archaeologists have only begun to reconstruct the rich and diverse history of complex societies in West Africa. See also: Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers; Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Cities, Ancient, and Daily Life; Paleoethnobotany.

Further Reading Andah B (2003) Genesis and development of settlements in the Guinea and savanna regions. In: The Development of Urbanism from a Global Perspective, electronically published by Uppsala University. http://www.arkeologie.uu.se/afr/projects/ BOOK/Andah/Andah.htm. Casey J (2005) Holocene occupations of the forest and savanna. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction, pp. 225–248. Oxford: Blackwell. Connah G (1980) Three Thousand Years in Africa : Man and His Environment in the Lake Chad Region of Nigeria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Connah G (2001) African Civilizations, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Darling P (1984) Archaeology and History in Southern Nigeria: The Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan. Oxford: BAR. Holl A (1986) Economie et Socie´te´ Ne´olithique du Dhar Tichitt. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. Holl A (2002) Land of Houlouf: Genesis of a Chadic Polity, 1900 BC–AD 1800. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Museum. LaViolette A and Fleisher J (2005) The archaeology of sub-Saharan urbanism: Cities and their countrysides. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction, pp. 327–352. Oxford: Blackwell. McIntosh RJ (2005) Ancient Middle Niger: Urbanism and the Self-Organizing Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McIntosh SK (ed.) (1995) Excavations at Jenne´-Jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali), the 1981 Season. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ogundiran A (2005) Four millennia of cultural history in Nigeria (ca. 2000 BC–AD 1900). Journal of World Prehistory 19(2): 133–168.

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AGENCY Tamara L Bray, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary habitus Concept originally introduced by Marcel Mauss but later to become closely associated with work of Pierre Bourdieu; can be understood as those aspects of culture that are anchored in the body or daily practices of individuals, groups, societies, and nations, including the totality of learned habits, bodily skills, styles, tastes, and other non-discursive knowledges. modernity Term used to describe the condition of being ‘modern’; typically viewed as the historic period beginning in the nineteenth century associated with the Enlightenment, notions of progress, and the quest to rationally understand, master, and live comfortably in the world that came to dominate western thought and action of this era. new archaeology See ‘processual archaeology’. post-processual archaeology A movement within archaeology developed in the late twentieth century in reaction to perceived sterility of processual archaeology; label indicates both an engagement with postmodernism, its parent theory, as well as emergence from processual archaeology; rather than signifying any new orthodoxy, post-processualism encompasses a diversity of approaches, including structural-symbolic, contextual, feminist, phenomenological, and Marxist archaeologies; while differing in significant ways among themselves, what these different post-processual approaches share is a rejection of the idea of scientific objectivity, recognition of the indeterminacy of archaeological data, and the relevance of one’s standpoint or position with regard to the interpretation of the past. practice theory Seeks to explain the relationship between human action, on the one hand, and the extant system, or structure, on the other, by focusing on how the system shapes practice and how practice changes or reproduces the system. processual (new) archaeology Refers to both a phase and a theoretical orientation in American archaeology that dominated the field in the 1960s and 1970s; emphasized a systemic and adaptive view of culture, the search for general laws to explain human behavior and culture change, a positivist approach to science, and the rigorous use of the scientific method. praxis Understood as a theory of knowledge concerning people’s practical engagement with the world that has Marxist roots. structuration Concept and theory developed by Anthony Giddens in an attempt to reconcile fundamental dichotomies bedeviling the social sciences (e.g., agency vs. structure, subjective vs. objective, and micro vs. macro perspectives); approach focuses not on individual actors or the social totality but rather on social practices ordered across space and time that bridge these realms. structure Refers to a particular and complex organization of relations that both enable and constrain agency and social action. systems theory A trans-disciplinary meta-theory that gained currency in archaeology in the early 1960s; sought to discern rules governing the behavior of complex entities conceptualized holistically as configurations of interacting parts; provided a nomenclature for describing the organization and interdependence of any given configuration of parts connected and joined together by webs of relationships.

Introduction Over the past 20 years, agency has become an important concept in the toolbox of archaeological theory. Understood generally, if rather simplistically, as emphasizing the role of the individual in the creation of social conditions and outcomes, agency theory has had a common-sense appeal to archaeologists from a variety of theoretical backgrounds. With the collapse of consensus regarding a unitary approach to the past that has left in the wake of processual archaeology, agency theory became de rigueur in the discipline beginning in the late 1980s. As various scholars have noted, however, the concept of agency has been uncritically adopted by many as ‘good to think with’. As a result, there is considerable ambiguity surrounding the notion of agency as used within archaeology. Generally speaking, ‘agency’ may be understood as an umbrella term for the more subject-centered approaches to archaeological inquiry. The focus in agency theory is on the individual, human action, intentionality, and indeterminacy. While the concept has been fairly malleable in the hands of archaeologists, there are a few common elements within its various constructions that help to define a general sense of the term. These include a recognition of the importance of actions and motivations of agents; the idea that agency must be a socially significant quality of action rather than being simply reducible to action itself; that social life is materially and historically enabled and constrained; and that agency and structure exist in a dialectic relationship. Overall, agency may be understood as a key element in action-oriented social theory that views people as active agents in prehistory.

General History of Concept The significance of the concept of agency for social analysis and theory was most thoroughly explicated by Anthony Giddens. A sociologist by training, Giddens’ work was not aimed at anthropologists, yet his ideas held strong appeal as his account of agency was seen as a way of overcoming various two-headed monsters with which anthropology had wrestled for years. Among these ‘‘central problems’’, to use Giddens’phrase, were the relationships between structure and agency, society and the individual, free will and determinism, and social change versus social reproduction. In his writings, Giddens investigated the concept of agency in relation to structure, action, and power. These terms and notions comprise the core elements of

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a new orientation that began to emerge in anthropology in the 1970s, which came to be labeled ‘practice theory’. The roots of contemporary practice theory can be traced to Marx, his concern with production, and the idea of praxis. The notion of praxis may be understood as a theory of knowledge concerning people’s engagement with the world. In seeking to explain the relationship(s) between human action and systems or structures, e.g., how the system shapes practice and how practice changes or reproduces the system, practice theory provides for an ‘actionoriented’ account of social organization. Within this framework, structure (or the system) is understood as both the medium and the outcome of action. In other words, structure is the unintended outcome of the agent’s bringing about of effects at the same time that it is the medium through which those effects are achieved. As such, structures do not exist at any point in time or space but are always in a process of becoming (rather than being). This process of becoming is what Giddens refers to as ‘structuration’. Power, and the social relations through which it is manifest, are directly related to the agent’s transformative capacity, or her ability to produce form through work upon the world. Power is a necessary implication of the logical connection between human action and transformative capacity. In an insightful analysis of emerging theoretical trends in anthropology written two decades ago, Sherry Ortner identified practice (or praxis or action) as the key symbol of a newly developing disciplinary paradigm. She suggested that the interest in practice theory noted in the early 1980s related to increasing disenchantment with the normative views of culture and societies that had held sway within the discipline for generations. Highlighting the work of Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, and others, she outlinedhow the study of practice was not to be viewed as an antagonistic alternative to the study of systems or structures but rather as a necessary complement to such work.

History of Use in Archaeology As with most things theoretical in archaeology, interests in agency first took hold in anthropology and subsequently trickled down. Like many elements of the post-processual program that emerged in archaeology in the 1980s, concern with the role of human agency can be traced directly to dissatisfaction with various tenets of the new archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s. Given the systems-theory framework within which processual archaeology was constructed, its empirical orientation, and its principal concern with long-term processes, there was little room for the individual

or intentionality in archaeological investigations of this period (see Processual Archaeology). In the wake of the various critiques of behavioralism, ecosystems, and cultural evolutionary theory that were subsequently developed, a variety of alternative, post-processual approaches began to coalesce around an explicit concern with individual agents and agency. As a reaction to the functional and deterministic emphases of the new archaeology, agency was initially conceived in opposition to the view of prehistoric peoples as simple pawns in some highly orchestrated game. It took as its starting point the idea that humans are able to monitor the effects of their actions and act in novel and creative ways as opposed to being simple stimulus-response reactors caught up in larger, pre-existing sets of processes and systems. Among the different post-processualists contributing to an interest in agency-oriented questions in archaeology were the structural-symbolic, feminist, and Marxist contingents. Others who followed a more continuous trajectory from processual archaeology to the present and maintain a strong neoevolutionary bent have also embraced the concept of agency. Given the range of interest in the idea of agency as a useful explanatory device, it is little surprise that the concept has developed in so many different directions within the field.

Practice and Agency in Archaeology The concepts of practice and agency are closely bound up in the literature and often seem to be used interchangeably. While human agency is necessarily realized through practice, the notion of practice cannot be simply reduced to action because it has a strong element of political and social significance built into its definition. In practice theory, social agents are typically understood as individuals with goals, intentions, and subjectivities who operate within materially and historically given circumstances only partly of their own making. People are assumed to be competent and knowledgeable social actors who may conduct their daily affairs and relations both in strategic and intentional ways, and in routinized, nondiscursive ways. Their actions have both intended and unintended consequences. In the dialectical relationship between the structure within which social actors operate and the consequences of their action, or agency, both structure and agent are continuously and interactively remade. Several key terms are found within the lexicon of practice theory, the most important among these being agent, agency, structures, and structuration. Agents are the active subjects, the individuals, and social collectivities whose actions are typically understood to be purposive, determined, and knowledgeable. Agents enact

108 AGENCY

rather than possess agency and do so in the context of the socially, materially, and historically given structures of daily life. Agency is the dynamic process through which people construct and express their identity, participate in social life, and materially shape their existence. While agency constitutes a form of involvement with the world expressed through the material practices of mindful agents, it is important to note that not all agents possess the same skills, competence, knowledge, awareness, or foresight. Agency is best understood not as a thing but rather as a quality of many things and the relationships among these. The structures within which agents and agency operate are constituted by the principles and resources that orient social conduct, including the cognitive and cultural ordering of the world. The structures that shape human agency are visible only through the effects of that agency as translated into social action. In the mutual interdependence of structure and agency, or what has sometimes been called the duality of structure, the structural properties of a system are seen as both the medium and the outcome of the social practices they organize and orient. The concept of structuration, or the process of a structure’s becoming through the action and agency of knowledgeable actors, describes this recursive relationship and underscores the virtual quality of structures, which do not exist at any point in time or space but rather exhibit tendencies in action. The idea of structuration refers to ‘‘the ongoing production, maintenance, and transformation of societal institutions as well as the material, social, and symbolic conditions within which people exist and through which they reproduce and transform themselves’’ (Dobres 2000: 133). Archaeologists who take practice theory as their analytical framework tend to divide into one of two camps fissuring along the dimension of intentionality. On one side are those who view the intentionality of agents and their actions as the key aspect of agency. Within this school of thought, individuals are typically assumed to act strategically to advance their own interests. The social agents in these scenarios tend to be portrayed as rational actors interested in maximizing some element of their economic, political, or symbolic capital, their motives often taken to be autonomously constructed and universal. An extreme version of this view informs some of the Darwinian and evolutionary ecology approaches that have adopted the concept of agency. At the other end of the spectrum are those who stress the nondiscursive qualities and unintended outcomes of mindful human action as most significant. From this perspective, what agents want or intend is often irrelevant to the real social consequences of

their actions. The most important effect is rather seen to be the unwitting reproduction of the social structures within which agency is enacted. While it is recognized that social agents do often act with explicit intent and goals, it is simultaneously understood that they also often act in routinized, habitual ways in the course of everyday life. Acknowledgement of both kinds of agency in archaeological investigation comes closest to the theoretical concerns and analytical frames developed by Bourdieu and Giddens. As various scholars have noted, the study of agency cannot be separated from a study of structure. Agency only exists in a dialectical relationship to structure. In other words, one cannot talk about the agency of individual social actors without simultaneously taking into account the cultural background of those actors and the cultural structures within which those actors operate. While agency and structure are analytically distinct, they are nevertheless entwined each can be seen as the product of the other when viewed at different points in time. To understand human agency in the past, it is critical that archaeologists engage the mutuality of structure and agency, focusing equally on the antecedent historical conditions – the habitus from which the actor draws, as well as on individual action and intent.

Archaeological Studies Using the Agency Theory In North America, archaeologists have utilized practice theory and the concept of agency in a variety of research contexts ranging from the study of prehistoric technologies to concerns with the emergence of social inequality to the negotiation of social identities. Various recent studies of the Mississippian period and the rise of chiefdoms in the American bottomland, for instance, have made explicit use of agency theory in attempts to explain the transition from egalitarian to hierarchical societies in this region. Archaeologist Timothy Pauketat, who emphasizes the mutually enabling and constraining nature of the relationship between practice, agency, and structure in his work at the site of Cahokia, offers a particularly good example. In looking to explain the construction of the enormous mounds that characterize Mississippian centers and the massive amounts of labor they represent, he focused on the interests and agency of different segments of society. He argues that the practices associated with mound building were based in a pre-existing social structure but that as the scale and materiality of these practices changed, so too did the structures within which they were enacted. The end result for the Mississippian peoples was the

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hardening of social differences, the emergence of a hereditary elite, and the creation of a powerful chiefdom – unforeseen consequences of the interplay of agency, practice, and structure. In another archaeological study focused on the politics of identity and resistance, Stephen Silliman explores the role of agency in interpreting indigenous responses to the colonial enterprise in nineteenthcentury California, emphasizing both the agency of the native population and the material practices of everyday life. Archaeological excavations at the Mexican land-grant site of Rancho Petaluma in northern California produced a wealth of both westernmanufactured and traditional native goods that were found in close association with one another across the site. Attending to the large quantities of lithic debris and stone tools recovered, the investigator argued that the continuing reliance on this category of material culture represented a political choice on the part of native residents – one that speaks to processes of contestation and negotiation as well as the agency of native peoples within the changing structures and practices of everyday life. Focusing on the role of lithics as material agents, he concludes that their presence at this historic period site signified a conscious strategy on the part of indigenous workers to activate or solidify precolonial identities and associations.

Critiques of Agency Theory in Archaeology One of the most important critiques of agency theory to date has been the anti-essentialist argument brought to bear by feminist scholars in particular. Most often, the active agents with whom our models of prehistory are populated are conceived as a homogeneous lot having similar basic traits, skills, and goals. Typically, these agents are constructed as essentialized acultural, ahistorical, and atomistic beings with rational, capitalist, cost/benefit analyzing impulses. As Joan Gero notes, though it is not often articulated, it also seems to be commonly assumed that since these individuals have agency by definition, they are gendered male and colored powerful. In answering this critique, some have called for historicizing the notion of agency, identity, and the individual by situating these notions in their own unique culture historical context. A taking to heart of the dialectical relationship within which agency and structure exist would seem to obviate this problem as structures are not uniform across time or cultural space and hence we would not expect agency to be either. As is true for most forms of archaeological interpretation, agency-centered models are also vulnerable

to the projection of our own values onto the past. Such concern has been expressed with regard to the inherent emphasis placed on the autonomy of the individual and individual agency in practice theory. Various scholars have suggested that such an orientation simply mirrors contemporary western society and politics. Similarly, while the issue of having and constructing personal identities is a pervasive theme of modernity, it has not necessarily been so prevalent a concern in other times and places. From an epistemological standpoint, the privileging of agency as the most significant element in theories of social change necessarily grants individuals and their self-interested actions primacy at the expense of other modes of social interaction such as empathy or concordance. In sum, the uncritical application of agency theory in archaeology runs the risk of reproducing, if not naturalizing, the political relations and asymmetries that structure our present lives. Another point of concern revolves around the tendency to conflate agency with the actor and thus assume that evidence of agency is evidence for individuals or subjects in the archaeological record. It has been noted that while agency is a socially significant quality of action, it must be understood as both more and less than mere action. As with gender studies, becoming caught up in the search for individuals risks displacement of what should be the primary objectives of identifying and understanding the contexts, structures and intersubjective dynamics through which agents expressed themselves. The task is not so much to recover agency archaeologically as to recognize that human agency is inherent in the material remains. As Marcia-Anne Dobres has repeatedly pointed out, we do not have to find individuals in order to theorize about processes of agency in prehistory. Many scholars have argued for the central importance of agency in archaeological interpretation and the productive utility of working within this paradigm is attested by numerous recent studies. It should be clear, however, that the study of agency cannot be divorced from the study of the structures, systems, and habitus within which past lives were lived. It is also clear that archaeologists need to generate more nuanced understandings of agents and agency by incorporating concerns with social heterogeneity, gender, and identity into their analytical frameworks. Agency-based theories also need to broaden the concept of the individual beyond the liberal western sense of ‘free agents’ to include a more relational perspective. Agency should not be understood as simply located within bounded human bodies but rather within the wider sets of human relationships that make up the social person.

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Beyond human agency, such a theoretical orientation also holds much promise for furthering our models and understandings of material culture. Given that social agency is not co-terminous with the human body, we may begin to consider how objects, as material extensions of the agency of those who produced them, participate in this system of social relationships. Following Alfred Gell’s pioneering work in this area of investigation, we may begin to think about how personhood is augmented, extended, and distributed among the many objects fashioned and employed in social action. See also: Engendered Archaeology; Evolutionary Archaeology; Philosophy of Archaeology; Postprocessual Archaeology; Processual Archaeology.

Further Reading Bourdieu P (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dobres M-A (2000) Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) (2000) Agency in Archaeology. London: Routledge. Gell A (1998) Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Gero J (2000) Troubled travels in agency and feminism. In: Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) Agency in Archaeology, pp. 34–39. London: Routledge. Giddens A (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory. Berkeley: University of California Press. Giddens A (1981) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Vol.1: Power, Property, and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press. Giddens A (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of a Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Johnson M (1989) Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8(2): 189–211. Ortner S (1984) Theory in anthropology since the sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26: 126–166. Pauketat T (2000) The tragedy of the commoners. In: Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) Agency in Archaeology, pp. 113–129. London: Routledge. Saitta D (1994) Agency, class, and archaeological interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13(3): 201–227. Silliman S (2001) Agency, practical politics, and the archaeology of culture contact. Journal of Social Archaeology 1(2): 190–209.

AGRICULTURAL FIELDS, IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY M G Elgar, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary anthrosol A soil horizon created by human activities such as cultivation, irrigation, middening or mining. biolipid A hydrocarbon-containing organic compound derived from plants or animals that is relatively stable over time. Analysis of biolipid residues may be used to help identify the original source of decayed plant or animal material. bioturbation The disruption and mixing of soils and sediments by organisms, especially by burrowing or boring (e.g., roots, earthworms), which has the effect of homogenizing the original strata. lynchet A bank of earth commonly formed at the edges of fields from plowing. midden A prehistoric refuse deposit that may contain artifacts as well as organic remains such as plants, bones and shell. plaggen soil A surface anthrosol formed by long-term manuring and mixing of the soil, usually from cultivation. soil micromorphology The study of soil morphology by microscopic methods, usually by studying thin-sections under a polarizing microscope.

Introduction The study of agriculture incorporates natural variables (e.g., climate, geology) with cultural variables (e.g., technology). The off-site emphasis of field systems requires different methodological and theoretical frameworks to the overall study of agriculture. Detailed investigations of fields reveal the practices behind agricultural production and contributes to understanding human agency and long-term human– landscape interactions. These inquiries also place agriculture in its ecological setting revealing relationships between fields, topography, and environmental conditions. For instance, we frequently find terraces in hilly regions, whereas irrigation networks are found in arid lands. Practices of this kind transform natural land into agricultural substrates following culturally defined blueprints. Alterations to the landscape – landscape modifications – are generally enduring and are frequently cumulative in their impacts. These qualities lend regional investigations of fields to questions of agricultural intensification and the long-term maintenance of farming systems.

AGRICULTURAL FIELDS, IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY 111 Table 1 Methods and applications for the study of agricultural fields by scale of analysis Scale

Primary methods

Archaeological features

Human practices

Region/ Landscape

Aerial photography Geographic Information Systems Pedestrian survey Published maps (e.g., political, property, geological, soil) Regional palaeoclimate reconstruction Remote sensing Satellite imagery

Field systems: walls, raised or ridged fields, terraces, lynchets, leveled land Water management: irrigation channels, aqueducts, drainage, water storage features Occasionally: furrows, plow marks

Adaptation to local conditions Degree of landscape modification Extent of bounded land General production capacity Land units where field units visible Water management and catchment area

Garden/Field

Architectural analysis Feature mapping Pedestrian survey

Architectural style Artifact assemblages (e.g., hoe tips) Construction materials Dimensions of field features such as raised platforms or furrows Evidence of reconstruction

Cultural associations Construction techniques and material sources Landscape history (construction, remodeling, abandonment) Planning Tillage methods

Seed bed

Coring and excavation Botanical: pollen, phytoliths, macrobotanicals Dating methods Geoarchaeology: bulk soil analyses (e.g., organic matter, nutrients, particle size, biolipids); soil micromorphology

Exposed soil to reveal: plowzone, amendment and depletion, anthropogenic soils, plow features Botanical remains Buried artifacts, crop, furrow and irrigation features Dates of architectural features Infilling and disruption of irrigation features Soil properties

Climate change Crops Cultural associations Long-term landuse impacts Soil amendment (e.g., burning, fertilization, middening), Soil depletion or overuse Tillage methods

Field system research strategies are scalar and three levels of analysis are considered here: (1) regional/ landscape, (2) garden/field, and (3) the seedbed (Table 1). These strategies are not exhaustive and the primary literature offers additional approaches.

Identifying Field Systems Intensive agriculture frequently involves the construction of landscape architecture such as field walls, terraces or lynchets, raised or ridged field features, and irrigation systems (e.g., canals, aqueducts, wells, water storage features) (Figure 1). These features enclose natural land, aid crop production, and engender land tenure. Field boundaries may appear in political and property maps and, as they are frequently maintained for generations, historical maps may identify archaeological fields in regions with long agricultural histories. Aerial photography and satellite imagery capture landscape architecture where it is still standing or is near the surface and modern vegetation is minimal (Figure 2). Remote sensing (e.g., ground-penetrating radar, magnetrometry) can identify subsurface field systems, particularly buried field walls and irrigation features. Geological and soil maps help evaluate natural resources. The value of these proxy records should be evaluated through reconnaissance and

survey of actual field systems on the ground. Geographical information systems (GISs) are employed to integrate these multiple spatial data sets, speed mapping of landscape architecture, and calculate the cultivated area. Irrigation systems rely on natural rainfall and hydraulic patterns, which should underpin their archaeological investigation. Changing water tables and tectonics may complicate the reconstruction of irrigation systems and need to be addressed in field investigations. Abandoned irrigation features can be excavated to help deduce why they failed (e.g., gradual silting up, catastrophic infill). In a study that critically applies many of the methods highlighted here, Tony Wilkinson (2003) investigated Near Eastern agricultural landscapes and the role of irrigation. Divergent agricultural adaptations were identified in the rain-fed northern uplands and the irrigated fields of southern Mesopotamia. Reflecting the role of agriculture in complex polities, this study provided insight into different configurations of community organization, political inequality, and authority systems. This exemplifies the potential contribution of field system research to central questions in archaeology. The identification of extensive agriculture (i.e., swidden or slash-and-burn) provides a greater challenge to archaeologists. Scarce landscape architecture

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Figure 1 Inca terraces at Moray, Peru.

Figure 2 Aerial photograph of a Later Bronze Age field with plaggen A horizon defined by dark soil mark at Welland Bank Quarry, south Lincolnshire, UK. Copyright Charles A. I. French.

limits the utility of aerial images and maps. Short occupation may leave little trace on the soil. When abandoned, extensive fields may blend into the surrounding uncultivated ecology. In some instances, burning and fertilization alter vegetation and soils aiding in identification. In other instances, rare constructed features within areas of swidden cultivation support the identification of cultivated areas.

Gardens and Fields Pedestrian survey, feature mapping, and assessment of architecture are used to study gardens and fields.

Ideally, a statistically representative number of fields will be selected for study from the total cultivated area. Variations in elevation, topography, architecture, and associations to other archaeological features should be considered in field selection. As in other kinds of architecture, variations in design, construction materials, and quality of field architecture can provide information into such issues as planning, labor, and prestige. The collection of artifact assemblages from fields may shed light on farming implements and cultural associations. The surface vegetation in old fields is another line of evidence as it often differs from adjacent uncultivated land.

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The Seedbed

Crops

In ancient fields, excavation and coring reveal the seedbed (plowzone or A horizon), which may be on the modern surface or buried. Agricultural soils are impacted by soil type, environment, crops, cultivation regime (e.g., intensive or extensive), tools, and cultural traditions. Geoarchaeological techniques are employed to determine the fertility and stability of palaeosols. Common bulk soil analyses include quantification of crop-limiting nutrients (e.g., organic matter, phosphorus, nitrogen), soil particle size, and magnetic susceptibility. Intact soil blocks are analyzed through soil micromorphology (thin section analysis) to reveal preservation conditions by identifying soil structure, the distribution of soil constituents, and bioturbation. Geoarchaeological analyses of fields are best compared to uncultivated lands for accurate assessment of human impacts. Triplicate replication of soil conditions (i.e., collecting samples from three fields with similar physical settings) further controls for variations across agrarian landscapes (Figure 3). When preservation is outstanding, excavation may unearth anthropogenic features such as plow marks and furrows (cf. Figures 2, 4a, and 4b). Differences in soil color, nutrient concentration, and soil particle size are used to identify land-use impacts. Long-term soil management is seen from the development of plaggen soils, dark nutrient-rich anthropogenic soils resulting from repeated applications of fertilizer-like dung (Figure 5). In arid regions, nutrients such as phosphorous may be retained for millennia. In contrast, overuse and erosion are revealed by reduced concentrations of silt, clay, and soil nutrients when field soils are compared to uncultivated controls.

Studies of cultigens often originate in settlements where macrobotanical remains indicate the consumption and use of cultivated plants (see Plant Domestication). In contrast, macrobotanical remains excavated from within fields are only reliable from intact palaeosols because of the potential for modern contamination, augmented by industrial tillage, bioturbation, and organic decay. Pollen and phytoliths may be more stable in fields and can provide in situ confirmation of cultigens when recovered from secure contexts. Phytoliths are preserved under different conditions than pollen and may also reflect different crop species than pollen (see Phytolith Analysis; Pollen Analysis). Regional palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, contemporary agronomic studies, and surface vegetation provide additional insight into ancient cropping regimes. Increasingly, research into cultigens combines several methods with attention to sampling and preservation conditions. Dating

Bioturbation, poor preservation of macrobotanicals, and modern disturbance also impact dating strategies. Dating may be further complicated by the sequential use of fields for different activities (see Dating Methods, Overview). Buried contexts under standing features, such as field walls or aqueducts, may provide secure contexts for recovering datable material. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is increasingly used to date humic acids in soil (see Luminescence Dating). Surface and excavated artifact collections from gardens and fields provide additional chronological information.

Figure 3 Schematic of triplicate sampling pattern (S ¼ sample collection point). Copyright Chris Stevens.

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Figure 5 Plaggen soil in terraced field (highlands of Yemen). Copyright Charles A. I. French.

Figure 4 Thin sections of soils from ancient fields. (a), Plow marks in well-preserved buried palaeosoil, Welland Bank Quarry, south Lincolnshire, UK. Copyright Charles A. I. French. (b), Bioturbated palaeosoil from a pre-Columbian terrace (Paca, Peru).

Agriculture, Landscape, and Society Field system research reveals the human ingenuity behind food production systems adapted to diverse ecosystems. For instance, tropical adaptations include Asian rice paddies, Mesoamerican chinampas, and raised fields in South America. Each system provides a signature on the landscape. This can be illustrated by rice paddy fields which are made by leveling and walling to pond water, dramatically changing natural topography and soils. In contrast, responses to arid lands, limited by water and soil nutrients, are seen in an array of different technologies. For instance, abandoned grid-like landscape features in Arizona were found through an intensive multidisciplinary study to have produced agricultural crops in a desolate landscape. Cultural and environmental contexts are therefore essential components of field system research. Additional lines of evidence may be found in art, historic documents, and modern correlates. Egyptian

farming methods are recorded in art and hieroglyphs (e.g., collections of the British Museum). The Romans employed centurion field systems and recorded field allocations. Experimental farming with replica tools and old crops provide heuristic models to reconstruct annual yields, labor requirements, and soil responses to different treatments (e.g., the experimental Butser Ancient Farm, United Kingdom). Ethno-archaeological studies with nonindustrial farmers provide further data for reconstructing crop rotation cycles, labor allocation, and natural constraints on farming. Research methods for off-site agricultural landscapes reflect analytical scale, environmental conditions, field architecture, and palaeosol preservation. Ground reconnaissance to verify published data in maps and aerial images provides a baseline for regional studies and also detailed assessments of individual fields. Field system research is multidisciplinary and often requires specialist research methods to provide evidence for specific cultivation practices.

Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Charly French and Chris Stevens for permission to use figures. See also: Dating Methods, Overview; Geoarchaeology; Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction, Methods; Phytolith Analysis; Plant Domestication; Pollen Analysis; Soils and Archaeology.

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Further Reading Doolittle WE and James AN (2004) The Safford Valley Grids: Prehistoric Cultivation in the Southern Arizona Desert. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Hastorf CA (1993) Agriculture and the Onset of Political Inequality before the Inka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goldberg P and Richard IM (2006) Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Miller NF and Gleason KL (1994) The Archaeology of Garden and Field. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Thomas K (ed.) (1990) Soils and early agriculture. World Archaeology 22(1). Wilkinson TJ (2003) Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

AGRICULTURE Contents Biological Impact on Populations Social Consequences

Biological Impact on Populations Patricia M Lambert, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary bioarchaeology The study of the human biological component of the archaeological record. dental attrition The wearing or grinding down of teeth. fertility Birthrate of a population. malocclusion Abnormality in the way the teeth of the upper and lower jaw fit together. morbidity Disease rate, proportion of diseased to healthy in a population. morphology Shape, form. mortality Death rate of a population. occlusal Chewing surface of a tooth. palaeopathology The study of disease in former/ancient times as evidenced in human remains from archaeological contexts. robusticity Expression of relative size and strength of bones or teeth, or of a skeleton more generally, for example, increased robusticity of long bones.

Introduction Questions concerning the biological impacts of the economic transition from foraging to farming have formed a central focus of research in bioarchaeology since the late 1970s. Researchers examining this transition have generally compared diet, health, and workload of mobile/semimobile forager antecedents and later sedentary agriculturalists to identify differences

and therefore changes associated with the adoption of an agricultural mode of subsistence. The groundbreaking volume, Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, published in 1984, represents the first major effort to gather together such studies from a number of world regions to address questions concerning the impetus for and biological consequences of agriculture. Much of the research available at that time focused on skeletal samples from the Americas, particularly North America, and these studies still predominate in the literature. However, research efforts over the intervening years have expanded this geographic purview to include different types of agriculture and agricultural transitions in many world regions. As research accumulates, some general trends are emerging in certain aspects of health and workload, but it is also becoming apparent that the ‘transition’ and consequent health impacts were not uniform in all times and places, or even unidirectional. This growing awareness of variability in the agricultural experience has led to an increasing research emphasis on how different environmental and behavioral correlates of agriculture influence the skeletal markers used to reconstruct the different lifeways and health impacts associated with this economic transition.

Osteological Evidence for Dietary Change One of the important challenges of studying the transition from foraging to farming has been documenting the timing and nature of this transition. Traditionally, archaeologists have studied palaeobotanical, faunal, and artifactual evidence to document the types of

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food resources available and presumably consumed by people at a particular locale. Bioarchaeology adds a different dimension to the study of diet and dietary change through the analysis of the biological impacts different subsistence regimes had on the teeth and bones of ancient practitioners (see Osteological Methods; Paleopathology). Dental indicators and bone chemistry are the most important lines of skeletal evidence for diet. These are discussed in greater detail below. Reconstructing Diet from Dental Indicators

Figure 1 Carious lesions in the mandibular molars of a farmer from North Carolina. 100 90 80 % molars with cavities

A number of dental indicators are used to gain insights into the nature of foods consumed. These include dental disease (dental caries, periodontal disease, alveolar abscesses, and antemortem tooth loss), tooth wear, chipping, dental calculus (plaque), and patterns of dental occlusion and associated craniofacial robusticity. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive and indeed are often interrelated. This discussion focuses on worldwide patterns of three indicators that have proven particularly useful for assessing changes in diet: dental disease, dental wear (attrition), and craniofacial morphology. Dental caries is a disease process caused by the bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates, which produces acids that erode tooth enamel (Figure 1). Because caries-causing oral bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans thrive on carbohydrates, dental caries is more prevalent in individuals and populations consuming carbohydrate-rich foods (Figure 2). Such foods tend to be more heavily processed and thus do not have the cleansing properties of greens and other fresh foods that require heavy chewing, which also contributes to dental disease. Cereal food production in particular is a primary factor in declining dental health with the transition to agriculture; grains are valuable cultigens because they store well, but properties such as hard texture and low water content that enhance storage result in the need for hulling, grinding, and/or cooking before consumption. Highly processed foods stick to the teeth and feed the oral bacteria such as S. mutans that adhere to tooth surfaces. Although changes in dental disease with the advent of agriculture are far from uniform, a general trend toward increasing dental caries and antemortem tooth loss is evident in both New and Old World contexts. In the New World, maize is the most important cause of increasing rates of dental disease due its relatively high sugar content, and observed changes in dental health throughout the Americas are often marked when people make the shift from foraging to maize farming. For example, this pattern of declining

Southeast farmers Southwest farmers California fisherpeople

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Figure 2 Comparison of dental caries rates in foragers and farmers.

dental health with agricultural intensification has been documented in northern Chile and coastal Peru in South America, in Mesoamerica, and in various regions of North America including the Southwest, Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Hence, an increase in dental disease has often been used as a proxy measure of corn consumption and the shift to maize agriculture in New World contexts. In the Old World, the agricultural base was often more diversified, potentially including several grains or legumes and domesticated animals; the consequences to dental health were correspondingly more varied. In the Levant, for example, there is little evidence for increasing prevalence of dental caries at the Neolithic transition, though a considerable decline in

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dental health is evident later in the agricultural sequence. On the other hand, when prehistoric farmers (wheat, rice, barley) of western India made the reverse transition to foraging, there was a substantial reduction in dental caries prevalence, evidence for the cariogenic nature of the agricultural diet there. Overall, dental health decline is more prominent than stasis or improvement in the Old World, but the changes are not uniform or generally as severe as those documented in the New World. It should also be noted that other diets can also result in an increase in dental disease, so it is important to seek corroborating evidence that agricultural products were responsible. For example, on the offshore islands of the Santa Barbara Channel, California, a region where agriculture never took hold prehistorically, early inhabitants had relatively high rates of dental caries that subsequently declined through time. It is uncertain what led to dental disease in this environment, but one possibility is the consumption of sugary roots and tubers, a hypothesis supported by the presence of digging apparatus in archaeological sites of the time. In Portugal, foragers had fairly comparable rates of dental disease relative to later agriculturalists, probably due to the consumption of cariogenic wild foods such as sticky fruits and honey. These cautionary tales illustrate the importance of multiple lines of evidence in reconstructing diet and identifying agriculture from visual examination of teeth. Unlike dental caries, dental wear shows a decline in most world regions with the transition to agriculture. This is because processed foods are softer and require less chewing, which reduces the loss of enamel on the occlusal surfaces of teeth, although use of sandstone mortars and metates for processing grain crops may introduce grit into these staple foods and lead to increased wear. The form of dental wear also tends to differ between foragers and farmers: the worn molars of foragers tend to be flat, whereas those of agriculturalists tend to be angled and often have a cupped appearance attributed to the consumption of softer foods. This change in degree and type of wear is evident at the foraging–farming transition in the southern Levant, for example, although wear rates tend to track the stage of transition and earlier farmers show more comparable wear to foragers than later farmers. Other dental signs of an agricultural diet observed in skeletal series worldwide include a reduction in the size of the jaw and concomitant malocclusion of teeth. Chewing hard-textured foods tends to stimulate growth of the jaw bones, producing jaws that can accommodate the permanent teeth. Soft-textured foods require little chewing, on the other hand, resulting in narrower dental arches, tooth crowding, and

misalignment of teeth. In consequence, facial form tends to change with the transition to agriculture, with agriculturalists having less robust facial features than their forager antecedents. This pattern is evident in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, in the Balkans region of central Europe, in the Nile Valley of Africa, and in the southern Levant region of the Middle East, where a reduction in craniofacial robusticity is evident from the Natufian to Neolithic transition with the adoption of agropastoralism. Bone Chemistry

Studies of bone chemistry have added an important dimension to the study of diet and dietary transitions because they provide an independent line of evidence and document the relative importance of certain types of food for individuals and populations. Stable isotopes of several elements (carbon, nitrogen, strontium), as well as a number of trace elements (e.g., barium, calcium, strontium, zinc), have been used to track changes in diet. These elements are important components of the foods we consume and are incorporated into our bone tissues during normal bone growth and maintenance. The two elements that have proved to be most useful in bone chemistry research on dietary transitions and agricultural origins are carbon and nitrogen. Each element has two stable forms (stable isotopes) that differ in proportion according to types of foods consumed. Carbon-13 (13C) is a very small proportion of the total carbon in foods (12C predominates), but is more abundant in tropical cultigens (C4 plants) such as corn, millet, and sorghum, and in coastal and estuarine sea grasses due to the manner in which carbon is incorporated into the tissues of these plants. Consumers of these foods also have relatively more 13 C in their bone (and dental) tissues than those consuming most other foods (plants that follow the C3 photosynthetic pathway and the animals that consume them). Nitrogen-14 (14N) is the more common form of nitrogen, but 15N is relatively more abundant in marine versus terrestrial food chains and also tends to concentrate up the food chain. When carbon and nitrogen values are used in combination, it is possible to derive more nuanced interpretations of diet and dietary change because it becomes possible to differentiate marine resources such as fish and sea mammal meat from terrestrial plant resources like corn, and thereby identify the role of cultigens in the diet. Stable isotope studies have probably been more important for documenting the agricultural transition in the New World than Old World due to the primary importance of a single, C4 grain crop (maize), and the rarity of domesticated animals that led early Americans to depend more heavily on this storable

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cultigen. For this reason, carbon-13 enrichment can generally be taken to reflect a transition to maize agriculture in most American contexts, except in coastal regions such as those of the Georgia Bight or southern Peru, where nitrogen values are needed to differentiate corn from marine foods. Studies of stable isotopes from several midcontinental regions in North America have also shown, however, that the timing and duration of this economic transition were far from uniform, and these differences are likely important for understanding extant and emerging data on the health consequences of farming in the New World. Peoples of the Old World had a number of important grain crops, most of them C3 plants (e.g., wheat, rye, barley, rice), although millet and sorghum were tropical cultigens important in some regions and time periods. Here, the shift toward enriched carbon-13 values signals either the increasing use of millet and/ or sorghum, or increased emphasis on marine foods. In northern China, for example, 13C values indicate a substantial emphasis on millet (13C enrichment) during the Neolithic that later shifted to rice and wheat (decrease in 13C) and more recently to maize (13C enrichment). A shift in coastal regions of the Old World from enriched to less-enriched carbon-13 values, on the other hand, may signal increased emphasis on C3 cultigens such as wheat, barley, rye, or rice, as has been documented in Neolithic samples from coastal Scandinavia and Greece.

Changes in Patterns of Health and Disease with Agriculture Reconstructing Health from Osteological Indicators

A number of skeletal indicators are used by bioarchaeologists to reconstruct patterns of health and disease associated with agricultural transitions. These include linear enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis/cribra orbitalia, periosteal lesions, juvenile and adult stature, and mortality patterns. Linear enamel hypoplasia refers to depressed bands that form in tooth enamel when childhood growth is disrupted by nutritional insufficiency, infectious disease, or other significant stressors that interrupt the metabolic process (Figure 3). These dental markers serve as a general indicator of health during infancy and childhood. Porotic hyperostosis refers to porous lesions of the cranial vault and eye orbits (cribra orbitalia) that form in response to iron deficiency anemia, although in recent years palaeopathological research has demonstrated a link between porous cranial lesions and scurvy (Figure 4). These lesions also tend to form in childhood due to dietary deficiencies or blood loss

Figure 3 Enamel hypoplasia in a maxillary canine tooth. Photo credit: Korri D. Turner, Soil Systems, Inc.

Figure 4 Cribra orbitalia.

due to parasites and bacterial infection, and thus provide another but more specific indicator of childhood health experience. Periosteal lesions (Figure 5) are plaques of bone that form on external (cortical) bone surfaces when the connective tissue that covers bone (the periosteum) becomes separated from the cortex due to various biological processes. Although there are numerous conditions that can cause these lesions (e.g., trauma, scurvy, vascular disease), bacterial infection is among the more prominent, and periosteal lesions therefore tend to be viewed (albeit not quite correctly) as a proxy measure of infectious disease experience. In combination, these lesions provide a reasonably good measure of childhood stress levels, particularly when used in a comparative framework. Periosteal lesions can also provide information on the disease and injury experiences of adults. Stature estimates based on long bone measurements and mortality patterns based on age distributions of cemetery samples have also been used to

AGRICULTURE/Biological Impact on Po