Report on excavations at Penge, a first-millennium Doornkop settlement

Abstract

Penge is an Early Iron Age farming settlement in the Sekhukhuneland region of Limpopo Province. Excavations were conducted in 2005 as part of a mitigation process for the expansion of the Penge town waterworks. Ceramic analysis suggests that the site is part of the Doornkop facies of northeastern South Africa. Radiocarbon results place occupation at between the seventh and ninth centuries AD. The faunal assemblage indicates the exploitation of domesticates and game, and the utilization of animal-based raw materials such as worked bone and shell. The data presented here contribute to the chronological, ceramic and subsistence database on early farming communities in the South African interior.