Kweneng is an extensive agglomeration of Late Iron Age stone-walled structures in the central int... more Kweneng is an extensive agglomeration of Late Iron Age stone-walled structures in the central interior of southern Africa. Its oldest structures are from the 16th century, while its main occupation dates to the 18th and the early 19th centuries. Stone towers are distinctive architectural features of Kweneng. In order to place the stone towers of Kweneng in context, a classification of the various types of Late Iron Age stone platforms is presented in this paper. The spatial distribution and different characteristics of the numerous stone towers confirm the idea that Kweneng was built in three phases. Two questions are addressed: who built the towers and what for? As concerns their function, it had previously been suggested that the stone towers were granary bases. This remains a valid hypothesis and the evolution in the architectural complexity of granary bases may reflect increased centralised control of grain stores during the course of the Little Ice Age. On the basis of oral histories and the architectural character of the stone-walled compounds in which the towers are found, their builders can be identified as Bakwena. Interestingly, the stone towers are always paired with another type of structure, the corbelled stone hut. These latter structures seem to be a foreign architectural element at Kweneng. The pairing of the stone towers and the corbelled stone huts may have symbolised the interaction of two different cultures.
Unusually large ash heaps are a remarkable Late Iron Age feature of Kweneng, near Johannesburg. T... more Unusually large ash heaps are a remarkable Late Iron Age feature of Kweneng, near Johannesburg. They are not randomly distributed across the site. What can a spatial analysis of their distribution tell us about their significance? Our results show that the prominent ash heaps of Kweneng are principally associated with only one of the three styles of stone-walled architecture found at this site. They also show that the ash heaps were associated with wealth in cattle. Furthermore, there is a clear spatial association with stone lined avenues or roads, possibly cattle drives. The spatial analysis indicates that the prominent ash heaps of Kweneng were not seen as ordinary household rubbish dumps. We propose that they were a cultural innovation that by the terminal phase of occupation at Kweneng had become a significant part of a vast stage where the extraordinary wealth of this Sotho-Tswana city was displayed. Built of a supernaturally potent substance, the prominent ash heaps elevated and displayed the elite of Kweneng along the route of the cattle processions, which daily celebrated the wealth of the polity. Online view-only version at https://rdcu.be/c0TZe
This is a report on test pits excavated in two compounds in Kweneng North, South Africa. The resu... more This is a report on test pits excavated in two compounds in Kweneng North, South Africa. The results suggest that the compounds were abandoned peacefully, unlike the catastrophic abandonment of compounds in Kweneng Central and Kweneng South. Samples, however, are small and the results need to be verified with further work.
In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological 'cult... more In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological 'cultures' and their attribution to the antecedents of contemporary ethnic groups has been a common practice for a long time. Ethnoarchaeological studies from other parts of Africa and beyond have shown that the matter is complex and that stylistic and technological boundaries in ceramic distributions can reflect different kinds of social boundaries under different circumstances. To expand on these findings and make them locally relevant, a large-scale ethnoarchaeological study of 41 potters in southeastern Botswana aims for a better understanding of ceramic technological style and boundary relations. Here, we present and explain only the results concerning the boundaries in the forming and shaping stage of ceramic vessel manufacture. We conclude that learning networks explain the visible boundaries in the technological style of forming and shaping pots in southeastern Botswana today; language and ethnic affiliation do not. Boundaries in the other stages in the operational sequence of pottery manufacture, such as clay sourcing and preparation , vessel surface treatment and decoration, firing and finishing, will be presented in a series of further publications.
Cahier De Recherches De L Institut De Papyrologie Et D Egyptologie De Lille, 1997
Résumé/Abstract Les fouilles et les collectes de surface menées par le Centre de Recherche sur le... more Résumé/Abstract Les fouilles et les collectes de surface menées par le Centre de Recherche sur le Désert Oriental (CeRDO) sur les rives du Ouadi Elei (Désert Nubien) ont révélé un village des IVe-Ve millénaires av. J.-C. auquel sont associées des tombes. Les vestiges fauniques suggèrent une population pastorale, alors que les fragments céramiques indiquent un contact avec l'Egypte prédynastique et la Nubie. Parmi les découvertes les plus significatives, un bracelet et une fosse, qui pourrait avoir servi à l'extraction minière, ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 0067270x 2012 678654, Jun 1, 2012
The twenty-fifth volume of the impressive series of monographs Africa Praehistorica, edited by Ru... more The twenty-fifth volume of the impressive series of monographs Africa Praehistorica, edited by Rudolph Kuper and published by the Heinrich Barth Institute in Köln, is a detailed report of Heiko Riemer's project at the site of El Kharafish, which was excavated within the framework of the ACACIA research programme that focused on human response to climate change in northeastern and southwestern Africa during the Holocene. The excavation and survey work conducted between 2002 and 2006 throw new light on dating and ...
... in TA Dowson and D. Lewis-Williams (eds.), Contested Images: Diversity in Southern AfricanRoc... more ... in TA Dowson and D. Lewis-Williams (eds.), Contested Images: Diversity in Southern AfricanRock ... Current Anthropology, 31 (1990), 10946; EN Wilmsen and JR Denbow, 'Paradigmatic history of San ... and herders at the Cape over the last 2000 years: a critique', South African ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 03057070 2012 683697, Jun 1, 2012
Pre-colonial stone-walled structures (SWS) are some of the most visible and accessible archaeolog... more Pre-colonial stone-walled structures (SWS) are some of the most visible and accessible archaeological remains in southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe is the best known, but there are many tens or even a few hundreds of thousands of other SWS scattered throughout the subcontinent. What is their origin? Did this architectural style and concept arise from a single source or several independent ones? There are different views on these matters and they are described in the first section of this article. In the second part, I suggest that one of the ...
Abstract: Grinding hollows are found on rocks throughout much of Africa. Several sub-types exist,... more Abstract: Grinding hollows are found on rocks throughout much of Africa. Several sub-types exist, and Nick Walker has recently proposed the term'ellipsoids' to describe those polished grooves, which are U-shaped in cross-section and have a canoe-shaped longitudinal profile. They are the result of a to-and-fro grinding action. Found on horizontal surfaces, ellipsoids are considered utilitarian objects, and many possible grinding functions have been attributed to them. Over a hundred such ellipsoids are recorded on the hill ...
Résumé/Abstract Un précédent article suggérait que vers le milieu du 2 e millénaire av. J.-C. la ... more Résumé/Abstract Un précédent article suggérait que vers le milieu du 2 e millénaire av. J.-C. la population Pan Grave/Medjaou s' était déplacée vers le sud et s' était emparée de l'Atbai. Une hypothèse avait été envisagée que les Medjaou en colonisant la région avaient déplacé les populations indigènes. Hors le style de céramique, aucun changement significatif du système culturel de l'Atbai ne peut être attribué à une invasion des Medjaou autour de 1500 av. J.-C. Les Medjaou auraient pris possession de la superstructure ...
... confidence is that the discrepancy in radiocarbon dates indicates that the initial source of ... more ... confidence is that the discrepancy in radiocarbon dates indicates that the initial source of ... the invisibility of Khoekhoe pastoralists may be that migrations are hard to detect archaeologically ... In their new homeland, their economic impact as expert cheese-makers and veterinarians ...
The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Dec 1, 2009
BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres abov... more BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres above the surrounding plain (Fig. 1). It is situated in the mixed savanna biome (Scholes 2004) in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Acocks (1975) classifies the vegetation as sourish mixed bushveld. The area receives 300-500 mm of rain per annum and numerous streams cut through the plateau.
The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Dec 1, 2009
BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres abov... more BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres above the surrounding plain (Fig. 1). It is situated in the mixed savanna biome (Scholes 2004) in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Acocks (1975) classifies the vegetation as sourish mixed bushveld. The area receives 300-500 mm of rain per annum and numerous streams cut through the plateau.
Kweneng is an extensive agglomeration of Late Iron Age stone-walled structures in the central int... more Kweneng is an extensive agglomeration of Late Iron Age stone-walled structures in the central interior of southern Africa. Its oldest structures are from the 16th century, while its main occupation dates to the 18th and the early 19th centuries. Stone towers are distinctive architectural features of Kweneng. In order to place the stone towers of Kweneng in context, a classification of the various types of Late Iron Age stone platforms is presented in this paper. The spatial distribution and different characteristics of the numerous stone towers confirm the idea that Kweneng was built in three phases. Two questions are addressed: who built the towers and what for? As concerns their function, it had previously been suggested that the stone towers were granary bases. This remains a valid hypothesis and the evolution in the architectural complexity of granary bases may reflect increased centralised control of grain stores during the course of the Little Ice Age. On the basis of oral histories and the architectural character of the stone-walled compounds in which the towers are found, their builders can be identified as Bakwena. Interestingly, the stone towers are always paired with another type of structure, the corbelled stone hut. These latter structures seem to be a foreign architectural element at Kweneng. The pairing of the stone towers and the corbelled stone huts may have symbolised the interaction of two different cultures.
Unusually large ash heaps are a remarkable Late Iron Age feature of Kweneng, near Johannesburg. T... more Unusually large ash heaps are a remarkable Late Iron Age feature of Kweneng, near Johannesburg. They are not randomly distributed across the site. What can a spatial analysis of their distribution tell us about their significance? Our results show that the prominent ash heaps of Kweneng are principally associated with only one of the three styles of stone-walled architecture found at this site. They also show that the ash heaps were associated with wealth in cattle. Furthermore, there is a clear spatial association with stone lined avenues or roads, possibly cattle drives. The spatial analysis indicates that the prominent ash heaps of Kweneng were not seen as ordinary household rubbish dumps. We propose that they were a cultural innovation that by the terminal phase of occupation at Kweneng had become a significant part of a vast stage where the extraordinary wealth of this Sotho-Tswana city was displayed. Built of a supernaturally potent substance, the prominent ash heaps elevated and displayed the elite of Kweneng along the route of the cattle processions, which daily celebrated the wealth of the polity. Online view-only version at https://rdcu.be/c0TZe
This is a report on test pits excavated in two compounds in Kweneng North, South Africa. The resu... more This is a report on test pits excavated in two compounds in Kweneng North, South Africa. The results suggest that the compounds were abandoned peacefully, unlike the catastrophic abandonment of compounds in Kweneng Central and Kweneng South. Samples, however, are small and the results need to be verified with further work.
In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological 'cult... more In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological 'cultures' and their attribution to the antecedents of contemporary ethnic groups has been a common practice for a long time. Ethnoarchaeological studies from other parts of Africa and beyond have shown that the matter is complex and that stylistic and technological boundaries in ceramic distributions can reflect different kinds of social boundaries under different circumstances. To expand on these findings and make them locally relevant, a large-scale ethnoarchaeological study of 41 potters in southeastern Botswana aims for a better understanding of ceramic technological style and boundary relations. Here, we present and explain only the results concerning the boundaries in the forming and shaping stage of ceramic vessel manufacture. We conclude that learning networks explain the visible boundaries in the technological style of forming and shaping pots in southeastern Botswana today; language and ethnic affiliation do not. Boundaries in the other stages in the operational sequence of pottery manufacture, such as clay sourcing and preparation , vessel surface treatment and decoration, firing and finishing, will be presented in a series of further publications.
Cahier De Recherches De L Institut De Papyrologie Et D Egyptologie De Lille, 1997
Résumé/Abstract Les fouilles et les collectes de surface menées par le Centre de Recherche sur le... more Résumé/Abstract Les fouilles et les collectes de surface menées par le Centre de Recherche sur le Désert Oriental (CeRDO) sur les rives du Ouadi Elei (Désert Nubien) ont révélé un village des IVe-Ve millénaires av. J.-C. auquel sont associées des tombes. Les vestiges fauniques suggèrent une population pastorale, alors que les fragments céramiques indiquent un contact avec l'Egypte prédynastique et la Nubie. Parmi les découvertes les plus significatives, un bracelet et une fosse, qui pourrait avoir servi à l'extraction minière, ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 0067270x 2012 678654, Jun 1, 2012
The twenty-fifth volume of the impressive series of monographs Africa Praehistorica, edited by Ru... more The twenty-fifth volume of the impressive series of monographs Africa Praehistorica, edited by Rudolph Kuper and published by the Heinrich Barth Institute in Köln, is a detailed report of Heiko Riemer's project at the site of El Kharafish, which was excavated within the framework of the ACACIA research programme that focused on human response to climate change in northeastern and southwestern Africa during the Holocene. The excavation and survey work conducted between 2002 and 2006 throw new light on dating and ...
... in TA Dowson and D. Lewis-Williams (eds.), Contested Images: Diversity in Southern AfricanRoc... more ... in TA Dowson and D. Lewis-Williams (eds.), Contested Images: Diversity in Southern AfricanRock ... Current Anthropology, 31 (1990), 10946; EN Wilmsen and JR Denbow, 'Paradigmatic history of San ... and herders at the Cape over the last 2000 years: a critique', South African ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 03057070 2012 683697, Jun 1, 2012
Pre-colonial stone-walled structures (SWS) are some of the most visible and accessible archaeolog... more Pre-colonial stone-walled structures (SWS) are some of the most visible and accessible archaeological remains in southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe is the best known, but there are many tens or even a few hundreds of thousands of other SWS scattered throughout the subcontinent. What is their origin? Did this architectural style and concept arise from a single source or several independent ones? There are different views on these matters and they are described in the first section of this article. In the second part, I suggest that one of the ...
Abstract: Grinding hollows are found on rocks throughout much of Africa. Several sub-types exist,... more Abstract: Grinding hollows are found on rocks throughout much of Africa. Several sub-types exist, and Nick Walker has recently proposed the term'ellipsoids' to describe those polished grooves, which are U-shaped in cross-section and have a canoe-shaped longitudinal profile. They are the result of a to-and-fro grinding action. Found on horizontal surfaces, ellipsoids are considered utilitarian objects, and many possible grinding functions have been attributed to them. Over a hundred such ellipsoids are recorded on the hill ...
Résumé/Abstract Un précédent article suggérait que vers le milieu du 2 e millénaire av. J.-C. la ... more Résumé/Abstract Un précédent article suggérait que vers le milieu du 2 e millénaire av. J.-C. la population Pan Grave/Medjaou s' était déplacée vers le sud et s' était emparée de l'Atbai. Une hypothèse avait été envisagée que les Medjaou en colonisant la région avaient déplacé les populations indigènes. Hors le style de céramique, aucun changement significatif du système culturel de l'Atbai ne peut être attribué à une invasion des Medjaou autour de 1500 av. J.-C. Les Medjaou auraient pris possession de la superstructure ...
... confidence is that the discrepancy in radiocarbon dates indicates that the initial source of ... more ... confidence is that the discrepancy in radiocarbon dates indicates that the initial source of ... the invisibility of Khoekhoe pastoralists may be that migrations are hard to detect archaeologically ... In their new homeland, their economic impact as expert cheese-makers and veterinarians ...
The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Dec 1, 2009
BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres abov... more BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres above the surrounding plain (Fig. 1). It is situated in the mixed savanna biome (Scholes 2004) in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Acocks (1975) classifies the vegetation as sourish mixed bushveld. The area receives 300-500 mm of rain per annum and numerous streams cut through the plateau.
The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Dec 1, 2009
BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres abov... more BACKGROUND The Makgabeng is a semi-arid but wooded sandstone plateau rising about 200 metres above the surrounding plain (Fig. 1). It is situated in the mixed savanna biome (Scholes 2004) in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Acocks (1975) classifies the vegetation as sourish mixed bushveld. The area receives 300-500 mm of rain per annum and numerous streams cut through the plateau.
The Europeans who landed on the shores of the South African Cape from the late 15th century onwar... more The Europeans who landed on the shores of the South African Cape from the late 15th century onwards encountered local herders whom they later referred to as the Hottentots (now known as the Khoekhoe). There are written references to the settlements and livestock of these pastoralists, but archaeologists have not had much success in discovering any such sites. This absence of archaeological evidence for recent Khoekhoe kraals has been interpreted by some scholars as an indication for a general archaeological invisibility of nomadic pastoralist sites. This article reports on the archaeology of an extensive, low density surface spread of artefacts, KFS 5 (Western Cape), which possibly represents a Khoekhoe kraal dating to the time of the first contact with Europeans. Data are compared to other archaeological evidence of cattle pens in southern Africa and the issues of the visibility of prehistoric and historic kraals are re-addressed.
Les Européens qui accostèrent en Afrique du Sud à partir de la fin du XVe siècle rencontrèrent des éleveurs qu'ils appelèrent Hottentots (et qui sont aujourd'hui connus sous le nom de Khoekhoe). Nombre de sources écrites évoquent l'habitat et le bétail de ces éleveurs, dont aucun site n'a cependant été clairement identifié par les archéologues. Cette absence de documentation archéologique a parfois permis de conclure à l'invisibilité archéologique des pasteurs nomades. En jaugeant les faits à l'aune des recherches archéologiques conduites en Afrique australe sur les enclos à bétail, cet article livre l'étude d'un site présentant une nappe de matériel étendue et de faible densité, KFS 5 (Western Cape), qui constitue peut-être la trace matérielle d'un kraal khoekhoe datant de la première période de contact avec les Européens. Cette découverte suggère que de tels kraals sont donc bel et bien visibles archéologiquement.
LiDAR coverage of Kwenneg shown in hillshade visualization against contour map of the Suikerbosra... more LiDAR coverage of Kwenneg shown in hillshade visualization against contour map of the Suikerbosrand area.
Kweneng designates a dense aggregation of stone-walled structures in the western foothills of the... more Kweneng designates a dense aggregation of stone-walled structures in the western foothills of the Suikerbosrand massif, some 35 km south of central Johannesburg in South Africa. The hundreds of Molokwane-style homesteads, large livestock enclosures, monumental ash-heaps, stone towers and other impressive architectural features have been brought to light using Airborne Laser Scanning technology, and attest to the economic wealth and political importance of this pre-colonial capital during its classic phase of occupation. Earlier episodes of social, economic and political complexity in southern Africa (e.g., Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe…) were related to commerce in the Indian Ocean network. Of interest is that no evidence of any contact with the Indian Ocean, or indeed with Atlantic commerce, has been found in association with Kweneng and nearby ruins. With a complete architectural and settlement sequence from a formative phase in the sixteenth century to its peak in the early nineteenth century, Kweneng can shed light on the rise of urbanism among pre-colonial Batswana populations. This poster aims to introduce the viewers with the layout and architecture of Kweneng.
Geometric morphometrics is an effective tool for analysing differences in lithic shapes. The stat... more Geometric morphometrics is an effective tool for analysing differences in lithic shapes. The statistical accuracy achieved by employing this technique is significantly higher than previous forms of traditional morphometrics. When applied to images of Later Stone Age tanged arrowheads from southern Africa, this tool helped define stylistic boundaries. This study involved a sample of 72 tanged arrowheads from 22 sites, most of which are located in the upper Orange River Basin. Several analyses, including Principle Component Analysis and Canonical Variate Analysis, were conducted using the geometric morphometrics program “MorphoJ”. This particular free source software was especially useful in its ability to visualise the statistical results in numerous forms and from their interpretation in addition to drawing on the concepts of isochrestic and emblemic style, two major territorial units have been recognised in southern African pre-Colonial hunter-gatherer groups,
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Online view-only version at https://rdcu.be/c0TZe
Online view-only version at https://rdcu.be/c0TZe
Les Européens qui accostèrent en Afrique du Sud à partir de la fin du XVe siècle rencontrèrent des éleveurs qu'ils appelèrent Hottentots (et qui sont aujourd'hui connus sous le nom de Khoekhoe). Nombre de sources écrites évoquent l'habitat et le bétail de ces éleveurs, dont aucun site n'a cependant été clairement identifié par les archéologues. Cette absence de documentation archéologique a parfois permis de conclure à l'invisibilité archéologique des pasteurs nomades. En jaugeant les faits à l'aune des recherches archéologiques conduites en Afrique australe sur les enclos à bétail, cet article livre l'étude d'un site présentant une nappe de matériel étendue et de faible densité, KFS 5 (Western Cape), qui constitue peut-être la trace matérielle d'un kraal khoekhoe datant de la première période de contact avec les Européens. Cette découverte suggère que de tels kraals sont donc bel et bien visibles archéologiquement.