Sheep (Ovis aries) of Venda speakers during the second millennium AD in South Africa

Abstract

Little remains known about the physical size of local sheep from southern Africa during the distant past. Early Venda speakers settled in the region during the middle of the second millennium AD, and an early site associated with them, Mutokolwe B, yielded 11 complete metapodia of sheep. This is the largest find of this nature in the southern African region for farming communities. The fauna from Mutokolwe B dates to between AD 1450 and 1550. Measurements of archeological sheep bones can help tease apart questions of breed development and socio-economic organization in the past. We used these metapodials to calculate the shoulder height of sheep. Sheep from Mutokolwe B ranged between 61.69 and 71.17 cm in shoulder size (average 66.28 cm), which is similar to other local sheep breeds such as the Nguni found in South Africa. In addition, the size of the sheep from Mutokolwe B falls within the variation of modern sheep found in southern and Eastern Africa.