Livestock use in the Limpopo Valley of southern Africa during the Iron Age

Abstract

Socio-political developments in the Limpopo Valley are of considerable interest to Iron Age archaeologists and some have suggested a pivotal role for cattle within this context, especially during the Middle Iron Age. In the past, many faunal assemblages from the region were quantified using the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) only. In this study, the Cattle Index, which measures the ratio of cattle to sheep/goats in a faunal assemblage, is applied to archaeofauna from the Limpopo Valley, as well as to other Iron Age samples for which onlyMNIsare available. The resulting Cattle Indices show that wealth was not based on cattle alone in the Limpopo Valley. Most faunal samples from the Early and Middle Iron Ages are dominated by sheep/goats. However, exceptions occur at KwaGandaganda, Mamba, Bosutswe and Nqoma. During the Late Iron Age, most assemblages are dominated by cattle. We consider potential reasons for the identified Early and Middle Iron Age exceptions, and also for variable livestock numbers in general.