Plant use in southern Africa’s Middle Iron Age: the archaeobotany of Mutamba

Abstract

Mutamba is a thirteenth-century settlement located on the Soutpansberg Mountains in northern South Africa with links to the regionally important Mapungubwe polity. This paper provides a detailed report of the range and utilisation of archaeobotanical taxa found at Mutamba. This research provides base-line evidence on the little understood, but significant role of plants in southern African Iron Age society. The analysis of 100 randomly selected samples from domestic features yielded 11 identifiable species and two genera. The results provide evidence for a potential crop package made up of finger millet (Eleusine coracana), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) and mung beans (Vigna radiata). Mutamba also contains the first documented example of Vigna radiata as a crop component in South Africa, the first tangible indication for the occurrence of malted grains used in beer brewing and the first archaeological links between Gossypium herbaceum and cotton spinning, previously based only on ethnographic data.