Foragers and trade at Little Muck Shelter, middle Limpopo Valley

Abstract

Southern African trade has primarily been examined through farmer archaeological sequences. One reason for this approach is that trade opportunities along the East African coastline, and the subsequent appearance of trade wealth in the interior, are thought to have been a factor that prompted structural changes within farmer communities. For example, in the middle Limpopo Valley trade was one of the main factors that led to the emergence of a state-level society at Mapungubwe Hill, c. AD 1220. Foragers, who were present during this period, are generally not considered participants of, or contributors to, the socio-political and economic changes that occurred on the southern African landscape. However, research at shelter sites such as Little Muck and Dzombo challenges the notion of foragers’ exclusion from the regional economy. Instead, evidence suggests an intense forager involvement in the socio-economic landscape. The presence of trade wealth at these shelters, its continued growth alongside forager occupation, and its impact on forager society remains under-developed. But recent analyses on the appearance of exotic goods, local trade goods and craft production processes at Little Muck provide a better understanding of the shelter’s resident forager community and their participation in local trade economies throughout the first millennium AD. This is associated with a notable intensification and specialisation of craft goods until around AD 900, where after the expansion of regional and international trade networks around AD 1000 coincided with a rapid decline in forager-associated sequences at the shelter. These findings also show a different use of Little Muck compared to other forager-occupied sites, particularly Dzombo, and demonstrate variable access to wealth. And while it is unclear to what extent foragers contributed to larger socio-economic structures across the landscape, it is evident that foragers, at least at Little Muck, were economically resilient and actively participating in the local market throughout the first millennium AD. Challenging doctrines surrounding foragers, particularly their exclusion from local and international economies, allows for a more nuanced, regional perspective and emphasises the role that southern Africa’s indigenous communities occupied within the broader socio-economic landscape of the first millennium AD.