The Neolithic of Southern Africa

Abstract

As the exception on the continent, southern Africa has no Neolithic period. In the 1920s, when the term came to mean Stone Age with food production, Neolithic was dropped in South Africa for lack of evidence for farming or herding in Stone Age sites. But since the late 1960s many sheep bones have surfaced in just such sites. Now, the continued absence of a Neolithic may say more about the politics of South African archaeology than about its prehistory. This paper describes food production in the southern African late Stone Age and argues in favor of (re-)introducing the term Neolithic to the subcontinent.

The Hybrid Origin of “Modern” Humans

“…These contact zones may also foster the evolution of overt markers of cultural group membership (McElreath et al 2003). In the recent archaeological past, disruptions such as the spread of agro-pastoralism led to the emergence of innumerable distinct culture-evolutionary pathways, in some cases including the appearance of hybrid subsistence patterns (Sadr 2003). In all of these contexts the outcome of cultural admixture includes evidence for increased variation, new combinations of features, and the production of novelty.…”

Chronology and dynamics of Later Stone Age herders in the upper Seacow River valley, South Africa

“…In the upper Seacow, Sadr (2003) very reasonably (but incompletely) labels all the shelter occupants as hunters-with-sheep, by implication local Bushmen who acquired livestock and pottery through contact with incoming herders. Although prehistoric livestock remains are pathetically few in the shelters (Voigt et al, 1995), they are definitely present and include cattle (Plug et al, 1994).…”

“…Kraal sites with ceramics in the upper Seacow valley. Sites with <34% Cape coastal sherds are attributed toSadr's (2003) category of hunters-with-sheep. Herder sites have >60% Cape coastal sherds.…”

Archaeological evidence for pastoralist land-use and settlement in Namaqualand over the last 2000 years

“…Many sheep bones have been found in Later Stone Age sites but do these sites represent pre-colonial pastoralism in South Africa? Sadr (2003) has argued that in our ''anticipation of finding prehistoric Khoekhoe'' and our presumption that these should resemble the historic records we have been distracted ''from the actual archaeological evidence''. Since sheep and cattle were not domesticated in South Africa, there is a growing consensus among researchers that domestic stock, as well as pottery, was introduced from a centre in Botswana some 2000 years ago (Mitchell, 2002).…”