ABSTRACT

This paper, one of three focused on Early Iron Age (EIA) sites of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, provides descriptions and analyses of two sites, Mat82 and Matlapaneng, on the southern margin of the Delta and of a small contemporary hunting-fishing camp at Qogana in its eastern middle reaches. The relationship of these sites to others, particularly in the areas of the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers and Victoria Falls, is examined in detail. Pottery recovered from the Delta sites is shown to be a western expression of the eastern Kalundu Tradition. Optical petrographic analyses of 26 sherds from Mat82, Matlapaneng and Qogana compared with 60 sherds from Chobe-Victoria Falls sites, plus clays from most lithological exposures in these regions, confirms that most of the Mat82 and Matlapaneng sherds can be associated with local southern Delta clays, while five have fabrics comparable with Chobe-Victoria Falls clays and sherds, documenting that these Matlapaneng sherds are from vessels made in, and imported from, that region. While the distribution of finds at Matlapaneng displayed a higher concentration of lithic artefacts on the site’s outer margins with a corresponding higher pottery concentration in the centre, all areas have the same representation of lithic tools, débitage, pottery fabrics and décor motifs and proportions of wild game to domestic animals, thus providing no evidence for a herder/hunter or inner/outer space dichotomy in residence or subsistence activities. This trio of sites, then, provides a further lesson regarding the archaeological erasure of mistaken isolationist tenets in southern African archaeology in which peoples have been automatically segregated according to the material inventory of the sites at which they lived.

摘要

本文是关注博茨瓦纳北部奥卡万戈三角洲早期铁器时代 (EIA) 遗址的三篇论文之一，提供了对位于三角洲南缘的两个遗址 Mat82 和 Matlapaneng 的描述和分析，以及一个小型当代狩猎渔场在其东部中游的Qogana营地。这些地点与其他地点的关系，特别是在乔贝河和赞比西河以及维多利亚瀑布的交汇处，都得到了详细的审查。从三角洲遗址中回收的陶器被证明是东部卡伦杜传统的西方表现形式。对来自 Mat82、Matlapaneng 和 Qogana 的 26 个碎片进行光学岩相分析，与来自 Chobe-Victoria Falls 遗址的 60 个碎片以及来自这些地区大多数岩性暴露的粘土进行比较，确认大多数 Mat82 和 Matlapaneng 陶片都与当地的南部三角洲粘土有关，而五种具有与乔贝-维多利亚瀑布粘土和陶片相当的织物，证明这些 Matlapaneng 陶片来自该地区制造和进口的船只。虽然 Matlapaneng 的发现分布显示该遗址外缘的石器制品浓度较高，中心的陶器浓度相应较高，但所有区域都具有相同的石器工具、压痕、陶器织物和装饰图案以及野生比例家畜的游戏，因此没有提供证据证明在居住或生存活动中存在牧民/猎人或内部/外部空间二分法。那么，这三个网站，