Some Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

This Article follows in the series started by Fagan and continued for eastern and southern Africa by Phillipson, Sutton and Soper. The scope remains much the same, covering in time the later part of the Stone Age sequence as well as the Iron Age. Geographically, however, there are some changes: the Sudan has been excluded as it was covered by the recent review of North and West African dates, while a detailed chronological review of francophone Central Africa is in progress and therefore this region has been excluded.

The Persistence of Memory: Nationalism, Identity and the Represented Past. The Ethiopian Experience in a Global Context

“…Extensive archaeological research from the 1970s onwards uncovered the true depth of antiquity and cultural complexity of Bantu peoples' settlement in South Africa (Maggs 1977;Mason 1986;, but the old myths took time to eradicate. The presented past of Apartheid South Africa -contrary to what was happening elsewhere in Africa -emphasised a fragmentation of pasts, it sought to divide rather than unify along ethnic lines, and strongly emphasised migrations; the migration of the Bantu, the migration of Europeans, and then -as if to strengthen the notion of the Boerevolk as God's chosen people -wandering into a promised land, investing the story of the Afrikaaners' Great Trek in the 1830s away from British rule in the Cape with a rich biblical symbolism.…”

Some recent radiocarbon dates from Southern Africa

“…date for Level 2 of the Dikbosch 1 shelter has already been listed in this jfournal. 26 The set of four determinations for Levels 3-6 complete the dating of the deposits (Pta-1067, Pta-1068, Pta-1200, Pta-1288). 27 These all fall within the eleventh and twelfth millennia providing firm evidence for a gap of some 10,000 years between Layer 2 and Layer 3.…”

An archaeological radiocarbon database for southern Africa

“…As their number increased, researchers working in distinct areas of Africa produced regional syntheses of the emerging chronological trends (e.g. Maggs 1977; Hall & Vogel 1980; Parkington & Hall 1987). These studies, however, often provided only minimal details about the radiocarbon measurements themselves and their archaeological contexts, and routinely omitted details such as the precise location of sites.…”