With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. James Denbow and an international team from the United States, Botswana, and South Africa will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research in eastern and central Botswana. The team brings together specialists in ceramic and lithic analysis, multi-stable isotope analysis, archeo-zoology, optical petrography, and metallurgical analysis to address the impact of intra- and intercontinental trade and climate change and their impact on processes of ethnic and state formation. Three deeply stratified sites will be excavated, each spanning the important period between CE 900 and 1600 when the first regional states of Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe developed from earlier chiefdoms based on control over cattle. While these large centers controlled the flow of gold, ivory, and other luxury commodities from the interior to the coast, little is known about how they impacted the political and social dynamics of regional settlements on their margins. The excavations will provide the first detailed knowledge of how such relations were negotiated between emerging states and smaller sub-regional polities. The research is particularly important because earlier excavations at Bosutswe produced tentative evidence that commoditized inter-continental slavery may have impacted the region as early as CE 1000. This would have had profound implications on the social and political development of the sub-continent, casting new light on the political economy of early state formation. It would also impact in profound ways our historical understanding of ethnogenesis in the region. Multi-stable isotope and trace element analyses will be used to identify and track movements of people and goods across the region. The sites to be excavated, Bosutswe, Kaitshe, and Lose, lie in significantly different environments astride one of the only well-watered routes from the East Coast into the far interior. Because each of the sites spans the entire period of state formation in southern Africa, they are ideal for testing questions about climatic, economic, and political changes over time. The sites are unique in this respect and will thus contribute importantly to new understandings of how social and political relationships were negotiated rather than imposed in a sub-continental context otherwise dominated by the large centers such as Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe. The intellectual merits of the research include an in-depth investigation of the social and political impact of interaction and trade along an important trade corridor from the Indian Ocean to the far interior. This may have included the earliest evidence of commoditized slavery found in southern Africa. Not only will the project produce data to test how climate change, varying economic strategies, and different physiographic conditions affected land use decisions, it will investigate how economic and social relationships were negotiated between agro-pastoralists, foragers, and herder-foragers living these in differing environmentals. Broader impacts include training of undergraduate and graduate students from Botswana, South Africa and the USA, thereby enhancing their scientific preparation and abilities. University and Museum colleagues in Botswana will benefit from opportunities to expand their training needs and experience, helping them to meet their educational and heritage management responsibilities.
