Tim Forssman
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 643626 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Tim Forssman |
| NOMBRES | Tim |
| APELLIDO | Forssman |
| FIRMA | FORSSMAN T |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Mpumalanga |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7664-8207 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 30 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 76 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 30 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2014 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Entangled Pasts
Thulamela
Thulamela was the centre of an African kingdom that flourished during the mid-second millennium AD. Research carried out in the 1990s, however, is incomplete and under-reported, and knowledge of the settlement is largely assumed or based on published scraps of information and borrows heavily and uncritically from research at what are thought to be similar state centres. Thulamela remains an enigma. In this paper, we present the story of Thulamela…
The stratigraphic context, chronology, and cultural sequence at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
Hall and Smith’s (2000) excavations at Little Muck Shelter in the late 1990s uncovered a Later Stone Age sequence purported to span the last 2000 years. They identified four occupation phases that included what they called workshop phases when resident foragers were crafting vast amounts of goods for the purpose of trade with nearby farmers. In return, foragers obtained domestic items, ceramics, metal and glass beads. Despite the site’s distinct …
The design and implementation of a new travelling museum initiative to bring heritage to people in Southern Africa
Traditional museums are faced with many challenges in Africa. One of these is the public's ability to access museum collections as well as heritage sites. This problem is worsened where physical barriers, such as distance, and financial constraints inhibit people's ability to view, visit, and engage heritage, resulting in a growing void. To overcome this, we developed and are testing a travelling museum initiative that presents the findings of an…
Worked bone and shell from forager and farmer sites in the Limpopo Valley
In southern Africa, worked bone and shell have been found in both forager and farmer contexts dated to the last two thousand years. Foragers and farmers worked animal bone and shell into tools and personal objects, yet the range of tool types and possible activities in which the tools were used remains poorly understood. This paper presents the results of a morphological and use-trace analysis of 287 bone, shell and ostrich eggshell objects from …
Ostrich eggshell beads from Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
Hunting and gathering communities in southern Africa produced ostrich eggshell (OES) beads for personal ornamentation, trade and exchange, and various forms of symbolism. OES beads convey information related to not only technological processes, but also social histories, making them useful tools for investigating these processes in the archaeological record. In the middle Limpopo Valley, hunter-gatherers produced beads from periods that predated …
Ostrich eggshell beads
Foragers Downstream of Mapungubwe
In recent decades, interest in the Later Stone Age of the Mapungubwe region has increased. Here, we present the results of an investigation from a shelter downstream from Mapungubwe called Skirbeek. The shelter is in a sandstone koppie (tor) adjacent to another that was occupied in the 19th century a.d. by a Venda community. Radiocarbon results show three primary occupation phases in the mid-Holocene, final millennium b.c., and mid–late 2nd mille…
Assessing ostrich eggshell bead production at Little Muck Shelter
Turning South African History Upside Down
A focus on the colonial period has created a foreshortened history of South Africa which has been further blinkered by the reification of national boundaries. This perspective has limited the understanding of deeper and wider historical processes that moulded society’s past and present. It gives pride of place to cultural, economic and political influences that spread northward from the southernmost tip of Africa. But it ignores the reality that …
The End of the Later Stone Age in the Middle Limpopo Valley, Central Southern Africa
Using aerial survey to record new sites in the Keimoes kite landscape of South Africa
The recent identification of kite sites on the Keimoes landscape, in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, has shed light on how past populations built and utilised low stone structures to funnel and capture game. By strategically identifying and using certain aspects of the surrounding landscape, in conjunction with key design aspects, local groups maximised hunting proficiency. With this contribution, we revisit the Keimoes landscape to c…
Macro use-wear identifiers on lithic scrapers and behavioural shifts at Little Muck Shelter, SLCA
The arrival of farmer groups in southern Africa, from the early first millennium CE, is thought to have influenced forager behavioural patterns. Understanding these behavioural shifts are important not only to examine how foragers adjusted their ways of living to accommodate new opportunities, but also their contributions to local economies. In the Shashe-Limpopo confluence area this is of particular interest because it was here that southern Afr…
Identifying use-wear distributions on sewing needles
Foragers during a period of social upheaval at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, fo…
Approaching Identity in Southern Africa over the Last 5000 Years
Southern Africa’s past five thousand years include significant shifts in the peopling of the subcontinent. Archaeological approaches tend to characterize this period following these changes. This includes the appearance of herding and food production on a landscape that only hosted hunting and gathering, the arrival of new and competing worldviews and settlements systems, the local development of complex and state-level society that involved mult…
Social Landscapes of Euphorbia Kop
Holocene foragers in southern Africa were mobile, stone-tool-using, hunting and gathering communities that lived in rock shelters and in the open in temporary campsites. From the early 1st millennium a.d., farmer groups migrated into southern Africa and introduced domesticated crops, livestock, and metal technology into the region and lived in fixed homesteads. Differences in the material culture and residential habits of these two communities ar…
An Archaeological Contribution to the Kalahari Debate from the Middle Limpopo Valley, Southern Africa
Southern Africa’s Later Stone Age and Hunter-Gatherer Ethnography
Reviews of southern Africa’s Later Stone Age (LSA) have seen many different iterations. Generally, however, they summarize the technocomplex from its earliest industry until it ceases to be recognizable in the archaeological record, summarizing the variety of research topics, questions, and approaches. Binding much of this together, despite the diaspora of studies, is the use of ethnography to understand past hunter-gatherer lifeways. This resour…
An Introduction to the Stone Age Archaeology of the Polihali Dam Area, Mokhotlong District, Lesotho
Much of Lesotho’s cultural heritage has been studied as a result of dam developments. Where dams have been built, heritage studies have provided crucial data for improving our understanding of local archaeological sequences. Ahead of the construction of the Lesotho Highland Development Authority’s ( LHDA ) new Polihali Dam in Lesotho’s Mokhotlong District and following the recommendations of a heritage assessment ( CES 2014), a large-scale five-y…
Identifying the animal species used to manufacture bone arrowheads in South Africa
A pilot investigation into forager craft activities in the middle Limpopo Valley, southern Africa
The space of flow at Telperion Shelter
Telperion Shelter is a multi-component rock art site in western Mpumalanga, South Africa. The shelter’s back wall contains the artwork of Bushman foragers, Kheokhoe herders, Sotho-Tswana farmers and South African War-period (1899–1902) occupants, amongst more recent graffiti. Thus, the site was used by culturally disparate communities who left their mark on the wall. The site presents an interesting space to examine place-making over the last sev…
Foragers and trade in the middle Limpopo Valley, c. 1200 BC to AD 1300
In the middle Limpopo Valley of southern Africa, wealth acquired from international trade contributed to the development of social complexity in farmer society. However, foragers were present from before the appearance of exotic goods, c. AD 900, until at least the decline of southern Africa’s first state-level society, Mapungubwe (AD 1220–1300), and both witnessed and took part in regional socio-political developments. The appearance of local an…
Technological, Functional and Contextual Aspects of the K2 and Mapungubwe Worked Bone Industries
Identifying the animal species used to manufacture bone arrowheads in South Africa
A Geoarchaeological Study of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene Levels at Canteen Kopje, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Canteen Kopje, situated in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, has two main archaeological deposits: alluvial gravels and a mantle of overlying fine sediments known locally as the “Hutton Sands.” This paper focuses on the fine sediments, the three industries contained within them, and the interface with the underlying gravels in an attempt to clarify their formation and transformation. A Fauresmith assemblage is found at this interface; i…
Technological, Functional and Contextual Aspects of the K2 and Mapungubwe Worked Bone Industries
Foragers and trade in the middle Limpopo Valley, c. 1200 BC to AD 1300
In the middle Limpopo Valley of southern Africa, wealth acquired from international trade contributed to the development of social complexity in farmer society. However, foragers were present from before the appearance of exotic goods, c. AD 900, until at least the decline of southern Africa’s first state-level society, Mapungubwe (AD 1220–1300), and both witnessed and took part in regional socio-political developments. The appearance of local an…
The Spaces Between Places
Our understanding of the Later Stone Age (LSA) on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape has until now been fairly limited. However, it is a landscape upon which foragers witnessed and partook in agriculturalist state formation between AD 900 and 1300, altering their cultural behaviour to suit their changing social and political topography. Nowhere else in southern Africa were foragers part of such developments. For this project a landscape approach wa…
How Important was the Presence of Elephants as a Determinant of the Zhizo Settlement of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape
The initial settlement of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape by Zhizo ceramic-producing farmers around AD 900 is said to be linked to the large elephant population that the region once supported. Elephant ivory was used in the Indian Ocean trade network to obtain exotic trade goods such as glass beads and cloth. However, there has been no attempt to determine whether the local elephant population was large enough to support such trade endeavours. I…
A pilot investigation into forager craft activities in the middle Limpopo Valley, southern Africa
An Archaeological Contribution to the Kalahari Debate from the Middle Limpopo Valley, Southern Africa
A macro-fracture investigation of the backed stone tools from Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana
Macro use-wear identifiers on lithic scrapers and behavioural shifts at Little Muck Shelter, SLCA
The arrival of farmer groups in southern Africa, from the early first millennium CE, is thought to have influenced forager behavioural patterns. Understanding these behavioural shifts are important not only to examine how foragers adjusted their ways of living to accommodate new opportunities, but also their contributions to local economies. In the Shashe-Limpopo confluence area this is of particular interest because it was here that southern Afr…
An Introduction to the Stone Age Archaeology of the Polihali Dam Area, Mokhotlong District, Lesotho
Much of Lesotho’s cultural heritage has been studied as a result of dam developments. Where dams have been built, heritage studies have provided crucial data for improving our understanding of local archaeological sequences. Ahead of the construction of the Lesotho Highland Development Authority’s ( LHDA ) new Polihali Dam in Lesotho’s Mokhotlong District and following the recommendations of a heritage assessment ( CES 2014), a large-scale five-y…
Ostrich eggshell beads
Foragers Downstream of Mapungubwe
In recent decades, interest in the Later Stone Age of the Mapungubwe region has increased. Here, we present the results of an investigation from a shelter downstream from Mapungubwe called Skirbeek. The shelter is in a sandstone koppie (tor) adjacent to another that was occupied in the 19th century a.d. by a Venda community. Radiocarbon results show three primary occupation phases in the mid-Holocene, final millennium b.c., and mid–late 2nd mille…
Foragers during a period of social upheaval at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, fo…
Social Landscapes of Euphorbia Kop
Holocene foragers in southern Africa were mobile, stone-tool-using, hunting and gathering communities that lived in rock shelters and in the open in temporary campsites. From the early 1st millennium a.d., farmer groups migrated into southern Africa and introduced domesticated crops, livestock, and metal technology into the region and lived in fixed homesteads. Differences in the material culture and residential habits of these two communities ar…
How Important was the Presence of Elephants as a Determinant of the Zhizo Settlement of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape
The initial settlement of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape by Zhizo ceramic-producing farmers around AD 900 is said to be linked to the large elephant population that the region once supported. Elephant ivory was used in the Indian Ocean trade network to obtain exotic trade goods such as glass beads and cloth. However, there has been no attempt to determine whether the local elephant population was large enough to support such trade endeavours. I…
The Spaces Between Places
Our understanding of the Later Stone Age (LSA) on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape has until now been fairly limited. However, it is a landscape upon which foragers witnessed and partook in agriculturalist state formation between AD 900 and 1300, altering their cultural behaviour to suit their changing social and political topography. Nowhere else in southern Africa were foragers part of such developments. For this project a landscape approach wa…
A macro-fracture investigation of the backed stone tools from Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana
Technological, Functional and Contextual Aspects of the K2 and Mapungubwe Worked Bone Industries
A Geoarchaeological Study of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene Levels at Canteen Kopje, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Canteen Kopje, situated in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, has two main archaeological deposits: alluvial gravels and a mantle of overlying fine sediments known locally as the “Hutton Sands.” This paper focuses on the fine sediments, the three industries contained within them, and the interface with the underlying gravels in an attempt to clarify their formation and transformation. A Fauresmith assemblage is found at this interface; i…
The application of quick response (QR) codes in archaeology
Foragers and trade in the middle Limpopo Valley, c. 1200 BC to AD 1300
In the middle Limpopo Valley of southern Africa, wealth acquired from international trade contributed to the development of social complexity in farmer society. However, foragers were present from before the appearance of exotic goods, c. AD 900, until at least the decline of southern Africa’s first state-level society, Mapungubwe (AD 1220–1300), and both witnessed and took part in regional socio-political developments. The appearance of local an…
A pilot investigation into forager craft activities in the middle Limpopo Valley, southern Africa
The space of flow at Telperion Shelter
Telperion Shelter is a multi-component rock art site in western Mpumalanga, South Africa. The shelter’s back wall contains the artwork of Bushman foragers, Kheokhoe herders, Sotho-Tswana farmers and South African War-period (1899–1902) occupants, amongst more recent graffiti. Thus, the site was used by culturally disparate communities who left their mark on the wall. The site presents an interesting space to examine place-making over the last sev…
Identifying the animal species used to manufacture bone arrowheads in South Africa
Southern Africa’s Later Stone Age and Hunter-Gatherer Ethnography
Reviews of southern Africa’s Later Stone Age (LSA) have seen many different iterations. Generally, however, they summarize the technocomplex from its earliest industry until it ceases to be recognizable in the archaeological record, summarizing the variety of research topics, questions, and approaches. Binding much of this together, despite the diaspora of studies, is the use of ethnography to understand past hunter-gatherer lifeways. This resour…
An Introduction to the Stone Age Archaeology of the Polihali Dam Area, Mokhotlong District, Lesotho
Much of Lesotho’s cultural heritage has been studied as a result of dam developments. Where dams have been built, heritage studies have provided crucial data for improving our understanding of local archaeological sequences. Ahead of the construction of the Lesotho Highland Development Authority’s ( LHDA ) new Polihali Dam in Lesotho’s Mokhotlong District and following the recommendations of a heritage assessment ( CES 2014), a large-scale five-y…
An Archaeological Contribution to the Kalahari Debate from the Middle Limpopo Valley, Southern Africa
Approaching Identity in Southern Africa over the Last 5000 Years
Southern Africa’s past five thousand years include significant shifts in the peopling of the subcontinent. Archaeological approaches tend to characterize this period following these changes. This includes the appearance of herding and food production on a landscape that only hosted hunting and gathering, the arrival of new and competing worldviews and settlements systems, the local development of complex and state-level society that involved mult…
Social Landscapes of Euphorbia Kop
Holocene foragers in southern Africa were mobile, stone-tool-using, hunting and gathering communities that lived in rock shelters and in the open in temporary campsites. From the early 1st millennium a.d., farmer groups migrated into southern Africa and introduced domesticated crops, livestock, and metal technology into the region and lived in fixed homesteads. Differences in the material culture and residential habits of these two communities ar…
The End of the Later Stone Age in the Middle Limpopo Valley, Central Southern Africa
Using aerial survey to record new sites in the Keimoes kite landscape of South Africa
The recent identification of kite sites on the Keimoes landscape, in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, has shed light on how past populations built and utilised low stone structures to funnel and capture game. By strategically identifying and using certain aspects of the surrounding landscape, in conjunction with key design aspects, local groups maximised hunting proficiency. With this contribution, we revisit the Keimoes landscape to c…
Macro use-wear identifiers on lithic scrapers and behavioural shifts at Little Muck Shelter, SLCA
The arrival of farmer groups in southern Africa, from the early first millennium CE, is thought to have influenced forager behavioural patterns. Understanding these behavioural shifts are important not only to examine how foragers adjusted their ways of living to accommodate new opportunities, but also their contributions to local economies. In the Shashe-Limpopo confluence area this is of particular interest because it was here that southern Afr…
Identifying use-wear distributions on sewing needles
Foragers during a period of social upheaval at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, fo…
Ostrich eggshell beads from Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa
Hunting and gathering communities in southern Africa produced ostrich eggshell (OES) beads for personal ornamentation, trade and exchange, and various forms of symbolism. OES beads convey information related to not only technological processes, but also social histories, making them useful tools for investigating these processes in the archaeological record. In the middle Limpopo Valley, hunter-gatherers produced beads from periods that predated …
Ostrich eggshell beads
Foragers Downstream of Mapungubwe
In recent decades, interest in the Later Stone Age of the Mapungubwe region has increased. Here, we present the results of an investigation from a shelter downstream from Mapungubwe called Skirbeek. The shelter is in a sandstone koppie (tor) adjacent to another that was occupied in the 19th century a.d. by a Venda community. Radiocarbon results show three primary occupation phases in the mid-Holocene, final millennium b.c., and mid–late 2nd mille…
Assessing ostrich eggshell bead production at Little Muck Shelter
Turning South African History Upside Down
A focus on the colonial period has created a foreshortened history of South Africa which has been further blinkered by the reification of national boundaries. This perspective has limited the understanding of deeper and wider historical processes that moulded society’s past and present. It gives pride of place to cultural, economic and political influences that spread northward from the southernmost tip of Africa. But it ignores the reality that …
Archaeology (24 obras) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (24 obras) · Geography (24 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 obras) · History (14 obras) · Biology (10 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (9 obras) · Ecology (9 obras) · Engineering (8 obras) · History (8 obras)