A revised chronology for pastoralism in southernmost Africa: new evidence of sheep at c. 2000 b.p. from Blombos Cave, South Africa.

A revised chronology for pastoralism in southernmost Africa: new evidence of sheep at c. 2000 b.p. from Blombos Cave, South Africa. New excavation at Blombos Cave Coordinates: Blombos Cave is a cave in a limestone cliff on the Southern Cape coast in South Africa. , in the southern Cape of South Africa South Africa,Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. ,and new radiocarbon dates for its sequence further illuminate thechronology of pastoralism PastoralismArcadiamountainous region of ancient Greece; legendary for pastoral innocence of people. [Gk. Hist.: NCE, 136; Rom. Lit.: Eclogues; Span. Lit. in southern Africa, and the relations betweenpottery-using and shepherding.Sheep in southern AfricaSheep, not indigenous to southern Africa, were first introduced bypastoral people before 2000 b.p. (Klein 1986; Webley 1992; Sealy &Yates 1994). A number of routes for the introduction of stock tosouthernmost Africa have been proposed. Stow (1905) and Cook (1965)favour a westerly route from Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, toNamibia and along the southwest coast to the Cape [ILLUSTRATION FORFIGURE 1 OMITTED]. From linguistic evidence, Elphick (1977) traces theorigins of southern African pastoral peoples to the 'CentralBush' speakers in northern Botswana, with a southern movement tothe Orange River, thence thence?adv.1. From that place; from there: flew to Helsinki and thence to Moscow.2. From that circumstance or source; therefrom.3. Archaic From that time; thenceforth. a split westwards and southwards, with both'groups' ultimately occupying the Cape littoral littoral/lit��to��ral/ (lit��ah-r'l) pertaining to the shore of a large body of water. littoralpertaining to the shore. [ILLUSTRATIONFOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED].No one model is correct if there were multiple introductions alongvarious routes at different times (Klein 1986; Sealy & Yates 1994).Whatever the route, clearly pastoralism was introduced to thesouthernmost Cape from the north. Chronologically, then, the suite ofradiocarbon dates from southern Africa sites containing sheep shouldreflect this southward movement.Until recently this appeared not to be the case: the oldest dates forsheep, obtained for the layers in which they occurred, centred around2000 b.p. at both the southernmost sites and in the more northerlyregions (cf. J. Deacon 1984: 276-7; Klein 1986: 6-7; Sealy & Yates1994: 59-62). The oldest reliable dates (cf. Sealy & Yates 1994:59-60) for sheep in the northwestern Cape are from/Ai tomas (Webley1992a) and Spoegrivier (Webley 1992a; 1992b) dated at 1980[+ or -]120b.p. and 1920[+ or -]40 b.p. respectively [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2OMITTED]. Sites in the southernmost Cape with early sheep dates fallwithin the same period, notably Die Kelders, 1960[+ or -]85 b.p.(Schweitzer 1974; 1979), Byneskranskop 1, 1880[+ or -]50 b.p.(Schweitzer & Wilson 1982) and Nelson Bay Cave, 1930[+ or -]60 b.p.(Inskeep 1987). Inskeep (1987: 258), raising doubts about the early datefor sheep at Nelson Bay Cave, pointed to the unreliability of datingsheep bone by association with dated units. A sheep bone, recovered froma Nelson Bay Cave layer radiocarbon dated at 193060 b.p., was submittedfor direct dating by AMS AMS - Andrew Message System which dated the bone to 1100[+ or -]80 b.p.(Gowlett et al 1987; Inskeep 1987).Recently the accuracy of the 'indirect' method of datingsheep was queried by Sealy & Yates (1994). They submitted sheepbones from dated layers at four sites in the Cape for direct AMS dating.With the exception of one site, Spoegrivier, the oldest direct date theyobtained for sheep in the Cape is from Kasteelberg A, 1630[+ or -]60b.p. Sealy & Yates (1994: 64) cautiously interpret this new evidenceas 'consistent with a west coast route' and suppose 'wemay be starting to detect a southerly progression of stock'.As archaeological evidence has supported the simultaneous arrival ofpottery and sheep at the Cape, these two elements have seemed a'package' brought to the region by migrating herder groups(cf. Deacon 1984; Klein 1986). [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] At c.2000 b.p. pottery is frequent in southern African sites (cf. Deacon1984: 276-7; Klein 1986). A number of authors record that 'earlydates for pottery are more common than those for sheep' (e.g.Deacon 1984; Klein 1986; Mazel 1992; Sealy & Yates 1994: 64). Takingaccount of the new 'direct' dates indicating the appearance ofsheep in the southernmost Cape at c. 1600 b.p. and the well-recordedpresence of pottery at c. 2000 b.p., Sealy & Yates (1994: 63),suggest that sheep and pottery may not have constituted a'package' that arrived together.New direct dates for sheep bones from Blombos Cave in thesouthernmost Cape (Henshilwood 1995) indicate that sheep were present ataround 2000 b.p. A small quantity of pottery from the same stratigraphic stra��tig��ra��phy?n.The study of rock strata, especially the distribution, deposition, and age of sedimentary rocks.strat layers suggests that the introduction of sheep and pottery werechronologically related.Blombos Cave: sheep and pottery datesBlombos Cave is situated in a coastal cliff at the southern end ofthe Riversdale Plain [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. During 1992, 3cu. m of Later Stone Age deposits were excavated at the site. Two sheepbones, one each from Layers 5 & 6 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3OMITTED], were dated at the Oxford Laboratory by AMS (TABLE 1). Thesheep bones were dated at 1960[+ or -]50 b.p. (Layer 5) and 1880[+ or-]55 b.p. (Layer 6). One charcoal sample and three shells from BlombosCave, Layer 5 were dated at the CSIR CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (Ghana)CSIR Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India)CSIR Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research , Pretoria (TABLE 1). A smallquantity of pottery was found in this layer. The dates for Layer 5 arebetween 1840[+ or -]50 b.p. and 1940[+ or -]50 b.p.A revised chronology?The Blombos Cave dates indicate that sheep had been brought to thesouthernmost Cape by around 2000 b.p. Comparably early'direct' dates for sheep have not been obtained at other sitesin the region. The new sheep dates do not decide whether sheep wereintroduced by a western or eastern route, or both. If the first herdergroups were small, and highly mobile, moving rapidly across the Caperegion, they would have left few remains of sheep declaring their datesand pattern of movement. Archaeological evidence for pottery in thesouthernmost Cape at c. 2000 b.p. is better. If pottery and sheep werebrought to the Cape at the same time, why does pottery have a higherarchaeological profile than sheep?Die Kelders, in the southwestern Cape, has the best example ofpottery at c. 2000 b.p., with nearly 1000 sherds recovered in Layer 12,dated to 1960[+ or -]85 b.p. (Schweitzer 1979). Relatively smallquantities of pottery occur in other southernmost Cape sites dating toaround 2000 b.p., including Nelson Bay Cave (Inskeep 1987: 152),Byneskranskop 1 (Schweitzer 1979: 92-3), Blombos Cave (see above) andsites elsewhere in the Cape (cf. J. Deacon 1984; Klein 1986). Potterysherds should preserve well and, unlike sheep, are easily identified.Small pottery sherds, like small bones, may be highly mobile within asite (cf. Gifford-Gonzalez et al. 1985), and are most likely to migratedownwards. Pottery from Cape sites is dated by association with thelayer in which it is found and, as Inskeep (1987) and Sealy & Yates(1994) have shown, this method is not reliable; this concern affectsNelson Bay Cave, Byneskranskop 1 and Blombos Cave where only smallquantities of pottery occur in layers dated at c. 2000 b.p. Sheep bonemay not preserve well due to chemical action; sheep bones damaged duringbutchering or food preparation may be hard to identify (Klein &Cruz-Uribe 1984: 86).If the picture is restored of sheep and pottery beingcontemporaneous, they may not have formed part of a 'package'brought to the region by Khoikhoi herder groups constituted in the waydescribed in historical documents. Finely made pottery recovered fromthe early layers at Die Kelders (Schweitzer 1979; Klein pers. comm.) andpossibly Boomplaas (H.J. Deacon et al. 1978) suggests ancientpottery-making skills were brought to the Cape. The 'bowlform' earthenware from these two sites may represent the craft ofthe earliest potters in the Cape, a skill that may have been lost oradapted.During the following 400 years the practice of stock-keeping andpottery manufacture gradually increased within the region by the arrivalof further pastoralists and acculturation acculturation,culture changes resulting from contact among various societies over time. Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one culture from another, or the relative fusion of separate cultures. amongst indigenes. When, after1600 b.p., stock-keeping became well established in the Cape, sheep werethe main domesticates with cattle also present (cf. Deacon 1984; Klein1986; Sealy & Yates 1994). The origins of Khoikhoi herders at thesouthernmost Cape may Cape May,city (1990 pop. 4,668), Cape May co., S N.J., on Cape May peninsula and the Atlantic Ocean; settled in the 1600s, inc. 1857. One of the nation's oldest beach resorts, it became known in the mid-19th cent. relate to the early arrivals of pottery and smallstock between 2000 b.p. and 1600 b.p., but the traits typicallyassociated with large Khoikhoi herding groups, such as are documentedfor the historical period including hierarchical groups structures, clanaffinities and territorial control (cf. Deacon 1984; Klein 1986; Smith1990a; 1990b), may only have developed more recently.Acknowledgements. Richard Klein, Kathy Cruz-Uribe and Graham Averykindly identified the sheep bones. I thank Richard Klein, Peter Nilssen,John Parkington, Judy Sealy and Royden Yates for reading and commentingon drafts of this paper. Financial support for this project came fromthe University of Cape Town Coordinates: “UCT” redirects here. For other uses, see UCT (disambiguation). , Cambridge Overseas Trust, Centre forScience Development and the Overseas Research Students Award Scheme. TheBlombos Cave sheep bones were radiocarbon dated by the ResearchLaboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art The Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art is a laboratory at the University of Oxford which develops and applies scientific methods to the study of the past.As of 2005, the Laboratory is directed by Prof. Mark Pollard. at Oxford University.ReferencesCOOKE, C.K. 1965. Evidence of human migrations from the rock art ofsouthern Rhodesia, Africa 5: 263-85.DEACON, H.J., J. DEACON, M. BROOKER & M.L. WILSON. 1978. Theevidence for herding at Boomplaas Cave in the southern Cape, SouthAfrican Archaeological Bulletin 33: 39-65.DEACON, J. 1984. Later Stone Age people and their descendants insouthern Africa, in R.G. 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