ABSTRACT

By the turn of the second millennium AD, farmer societies in southern Africa’s middle Limpopo Valley were undergoing significant economic, political and social transformations that ultimately led to the development of state-level society at Mapungubwe. This included the appearance of social hierarchies, élite groups, trade wealth, craft specialisation and a royal leadership system. Whereas this farmer sequence has been relatively well-studied, forager histories, and their involvement in associated socio-economic systems, are scarcely acknowledged, despite their presence before, as well as during, the farmer-occupation period. Foragers are instead seen as passive or even inactive in local economies and thought to begin ‘disappearing’ after AD 1000. In opposition to these views are recent results from excavations carried out at Little Muck Shelter showing that a forager presence continued into the second millennium AD and that those living at the site were engaged in trade with farmers during the process of state formation. We show this by presenting the distribution of cultural material throughout the site’s occupation and a sample of stone tools and trade items dating from before 2000 BP to AD 1300. Specifically, diagnostic stone artefacts persist into the contact period and until Mapungubwe’s appearance that are morphologically consistent with those from before the BC/AD transition. The occurrence of traded glass beads, ceramics and ostrich eggshell beads also increases and peaks in the second millennium AD, showing continued engagement with the local market economy. Evidence from the shelter demonstrates the contributions that indigenous hunting and gathering communities made during the rise of the Mapungubwe state, when trade wealth came to mark social élite groups, a period that can be characterised as one of social upheaval.

摘要

到公元第二个千年之交，南部非洲林波波河谷中部的农民社会正在经历重大的经济、政治和社会变革，最终导致马蓬古布韦国家级社会的发展。这包括社会等级制度、精英团体、贸易财富、工艺专业化和皇家领导系统的出现。尽管这一农民序列已得到相对充分的研究，但觅食者的历史以及他们对相关社会经济系统的参与却鲜为人知，尽管他们在农民占领时期之前和期间都存在。相反，觅食者在当地经济中被视为被动甚至不活跃，并被认为在公元 1000 年后开始“消失”。与这些观点相反的是最近在 Little Muck Shelter 进行的挖掘结果表明，觅食者的存在一直持续到公元第二个千年，并且生活在该地点的人们在国家形成过程中与农民进行贸易。我们通过展示整个遗址的文化材料分布以及从公元前 2000 年到公元 1300 年的石器和贸易品样本来展示这一点。具体而言，诊断性石器一直存在到接触期，直到 Mapungubwe 的出现在形态上是一致的与 BC/AD 过渡之前的那些。交易的玻璃珠、陶瓷和鸵鸟蛋壳珠的出现也在增加并在公元第二个千年达到顶峰，表明与当地市场经济的持续接触。