The effects of burrowing activity on archaeological sites: Ndondondwane, South Africa

Abstract

Burrowing activity is a widely recognized source of site modification. Most taphonomic studies of burrowers emphasize their destructive aspects on the archaeological record. Excavations at Ndondondwane, South Africa, suggest burrowing activity is destructive in some ways, but may also preserve cultural behavior. Drawing on both direct and indirect sources of evidence, we discuss how burrowing activity by rodents, earthworms, and termites can inform about pedogenic and depositional processes at archaeological sites and both preserve and destroy evidence of intra-settlement patterns and early African cultigens. Specifically, we demonstrate the limited effect of earthworms on site stratigraphy, how the localized activity of termites have preserved casts of early African cultigens, and how the ability of archaeologists to distinguish the devastating effects of rodent burrowing from remains of architectural features have permitted important inferences about social and ritual life in early African farming communities. ᭧

Interpreting, dating, and reevaluating the botanical assemblage from tell Kedesh: a case study of historical contamination

“…2 mm) as discussed by Stein (1983). Bioturbation caused by burrowing of pedofuna (invertebrates, including insects and crustaceans) in anthropic sediments has received little attention because these small animals do not alter substantially the archaeological stratigraphy and their effects are hard to recognize in the field (Fowler et al, 2004). Rodent burrowing activities can normally be recognized in the field, and the material coming from these areas can and should be isolated.…”

Preserving the palaeoenvironmental record in Drylands: Bioturbation and its significance for luminescence-derived chronologies

“…The effects of terrestrial bioturbation have been highlighted by archaeologists (e.g. Wood and Johnson, 1978;Frolking and Lepper, 2001;Fowler et al, 2004), geographers (e.g. Johnson, 2002), soil scientists (e.g.…”

On the nature of daga houses, kraals, metallurgy and intra-settlement spatial organization of EIA settlements in southern Africa: a response to Whitelaw

“…The ceramics are so similar between all of the phases at the site that it is likely that the smelt took place either during or very soon after abandonment of the main settlement (a few weeks, months, but probably within a year or two) (Fowler 2002;Greenfield 2006;Greenfield and Miller 2004). Otherwise, how could the Middle Horizon fence, that Whitelaw makes reference to, still be standing during the Upper Horizon, especially in such a termite-ridden environment (Fowler et al 2004)? Clearly, only a brief span of time passed between these laterally displaced deposits (Loubser 1393).…”