Foragers during a period of social upheaval at Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID6041674
AuthorsTim Forssman (0000-0001-7664-8207, University of Mpumalanga, corresponding author), Siphesihle Kuhlase (0000-0002-8757-8985, University of Pretoria), Chanté Barnard (0000-0002-0389-1625, University of Mpumalanga), Justin Pentz (University of Pretoria)
Year2023
Volume58
Issue1
Pages114-150
Publication date2023-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2023.2182572
OpenAlexW4328126410
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited45

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, forager histories, and their involvement in associated socio-economic systems, are scarcely acknowledged, despite their presence before, as well as during, the farmer-occupation period. Foragers are instead seen as passive or even inactive in local economies and thought to begin ‘disappearing’ after AD 1000. In opposition to these views are recent results from excavations carried out at Little Muck Shelter showing that a forager presence continued into the second millennium AD and that those living at the site were engaged in trade with farmers during the process of state formation. We show this by presenting the distribution of cultural material throughout the site’s occupation and a sample of stone tools and trade items dating from before 2000 BP to AD 1300. Specifically, diagnostic stone artefacts persist into the contact period and until Mapungubwe’s appearance that are morphologically consistent with those from before the BC/AD transition. The occurrence of traded glass beads, ceramics and ostrich eggshell beads also increases and peaks in the second millennium AD, showing continued engagement with the local market economy. Evidence from the shelter demonstrates the contributions that indigenous hunting and gathering communities made during the rise of the Mapungubwe state, when trade wealth came to mark social élite groups, a period that can be characterised as one of social upheaval

Archaeology · Art · Craft · Economics · Economy · Geography · Indigenous · Muck · Opposition (politics) · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Ecology · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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