Under the direction of Professor Larry Robbins, Ms. Adrianne Daggett will conduct archaeological survey and excavation at two sites near the present-day village of Mosu in northeastern Botswana. This project will investigate subsistence and trade behaviors as well as settlement organization patterns of the Early Iron Age to understand the relationship between the Mosu-area prehistoric farming community and the emerging state-level societies of the time. The project will also investigate whether hunter-gatherers interacted with the Mosu farming community, and if so, how they may have contributed to the regional political economy. The research will take a critical look at the late first millennium AD, a crucial period of southern African prehistory during which complex societies and intercontinental trading networks were emerging. Current understanding of socioeconomic traditions of this time period depends heavily on the spatial modeling of settlement patterns encountered in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, the area generally considered to be the center of cultural developments for this time period. However, these spatial models and their cultural implications have not been systematically evaluated for applicability on a broad regional basis. Mosu is located far from the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, and as such is generally considered a frontier. Comparing subsistence, trade, and spatial patterning of Mosu settlements with those of other contemporary communities, particularly those of the Shashe-Limpopo, will improve understanding of the relationship between populated areas in prehistoric southern Africa as well as of localized processes of social and economic development.
The fundamental value of the research rests on the insight it will provide into processes of cultural interaction and change among traditional societies which differ in multiple ways. Similar interactions are occurring in many parts of the world today and archaeology provides the opportunity to trace interactions over intervals which may span centuries and millennia.
Ms. Daggett will employ surface survey and augur sampling to investigate the extent of archaeological material on and around the two sites, and to inform placement of excavation units on both sites. The survey area, both sites, and important natural features of the landscape, such as water sources, will be mapped with GPS-enabled equipment and this information will be digitized using ArcGIS. Excavations will focus on concentrations of evidence for past subsistence activities, such as cooking hearths, trash middens, and cattle kraals. Ceramic and organic samples will be collected for radiocarbon dating, and soil samples for optically-stimulated luminescence dating. These dates will establish a timeline of occupation for the sites and help to refine understanding of settlement history in the area. Following fieldwork, faunal and botanical remains recovered during excavations will be analyzed to provide information about the dietary habits of the area's prehistoric occupants. Detailed spatial information on finds from the survey and the excavations will be added to the digital ArcGIS database. The resulting GIS will present a framework for spatial analysis of the Mosu-area prehistoric settlement system and provide a basis of comparison for settlement patterns of other contemporary locales in the pre-state southern African regional exchange system.
This research will form the basis of Ms. Daggett's doctoral dissertation. Through careful documentation and promotion of the Mosu area's cultural heritage value, this project will also support the preservation of the Mosu Escarpment, for which the Government of Botswana has applied for UNESCO World Heritage status and which is being considered for tourism development.
Overall finds at Thaba di Masego were far richer than expected based on previous reports from prior research in the general South Sowa area, and has highighted the research potential of the area for understanding Early Iron Age social and economic processes. The presence of glass beads indicates a connection to the Indian Ocean trading network in which many settlements throughout East and Southern Africa participated during the Early Iron Age. Preliminary evidence suggests that manufacture of ceramics and shell beads may have occurred on the site, while the presence of numerous faunal remains and small quanities of carbonized seed clusters, which are quite possibly sorghum or millet grains based on their morphology, provide some indication of the dietary strategies of the occupants of the site. More information will result from the upcoming analyses of the faunal and ceramic assemblages. The work at Thaba di Masego and the surrounding landscape has sparked an interest in an area which many archaeologists researching the Southern African Early Iron Age had previously considered marginal and of little overall importance. Presentations of the preliminary findings at professional conferences have already resulted in substantial positive feedback from, and potential future collaboration with, other scholars. This research has made it possible to view settlements in the South Sowa area in the same comparative framework as other regions of Early Iron Age Africa which actively participated in the subcontinental network of interaction. This reseach has also made it possible to shed light on the specific social and economic strategies pursued by inhabitants of the South Sowa area, instead of continuing to rely solely on models for these behaviors developed out of work in other regions of Southern Africa. In terms of broader impact, Five University of Botswana undergraduate students furthered their archaeological fieldwork training as a result of this experience, including receiving training on techniques new to them such as mapping and grid-based surveying. Additionally, one of these five students gained archaeological laboratory training as described in the 'opportunities for training and professional development' subsection of the Accomplishment section of this report. The fieldwork from this project at Thaba di Masego and surrounding areas also provided the opportunity for two Botswana National Museum guides/ site curators to gain on-site archaeological training. The South Sowa area is a locale in which the Botswana Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism is actively working to cultivate for tourism, specifically cultural tourism and hiking. To date, at least three archaeological sites in the area have begun to be developed for guided, on-foot access by tourists, and a permanent office of the MEWT staffed by two guides and site curators has been established in Mosu. The fieldwork from this project at Thaba di Masego and surrounding areas not only provided the opportunity for these guides/ site curators to gain on-site archaeological training, but will provide additional background information on the prehistory of the area for the guided tours. The presence of the fieldwork project in the area for the three months of the field season also helped raise awareness among Mosu village residents as to the depth of their local archaeological record and the need to treat it as a unique and non-renewable resource.
