Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
Katherine M. Grillo, Mary E. Prendergast, Daniel A. Contreras, Tom Fitton, Agness O. Gidna, Steven T. Goldstein, show all Pages 102-120 | Published online: 02 Mar 2018 Download citation https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1431476
ABSTRACT
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted to rockshelters and special purpose sites. This paper presents results of surveys and excavations at Luxmanda, an open-air habitation site located farther south in Tanzania, and occupied many centuries earlier, than previously expected based upon prior models for the spread of herding. Technological and subsistence patterns demonstrate ties to northerly sites, suggesting that Luxmanda formed part of a network of early herders. The site is thus unlikely to stand alone, and further surveys are recommended to better understand the spread of herding into the region, and ultimately to southern Africa.
Introduction
Pastoralism, a way of life centered around the herding and management of livestock, has been a mainstay of eastern African economies for more than three thousand years. Cattle pastoralism is well suited to semi-arid environments with unpredictable shifts in water and pasture, and in many parts of prehistoric Africa, flexible herding systems developed long before farming (Marshall and Hildebrand 2002 Marshall, F., and E. A. Hildebrand. 2002. “Cattle before Crops: The Beginnings of Food Production in Africa.” Journal of World Prehistory 16 (2): 99–143.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]). The evidence from Africa contrasts with classic examples of the so-called Neolithic Revolution in the Middle East, East Asia, and parts of the Americas, where agriculture is seen as driving a transition from foraging toward more complex forms of (sedentary) social life (but see, for example, Zeder [2011 Zeder, M. A. 2011. “The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East.” Current Anthropology 52 (S4): S221–S235.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]). In these areas, archaeologists have a wealth of information on village life, food production and consumption, and social behaviors such as communal feasting or other ritual practices. These topics are understudied for smaller-scale mobile societies, where emphasis has largely been on explaining foraging and pastoralism as ecological adaptations (for a critique, see Makarewicz [2013 Makarewicz, C. A. 2013. “A Pastoralist Manifesto: Breaking Stereotypes and Re-conceptualizing Pastoralism in the Near Eastern Neolithic.” Levant 45 (2): 159–174.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]).
Lack of discussion about pastoralist societies is often attributed to the ostensible invisibility of mobile communities, who maintain relatively few possessions and thus presumably leave few traces in the archaeological record. Throughout the world, investigations of mobile pastoralism have by now generated a significant corpus of archaeological data (Honeychurch and Makarewicz 2016 Honeychurch, W., and C. A. Makarewicz. 2016. “The Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadism.” Annual Review of Anthropology 45 (1): 341–359.[Crossref], [Google Scholar]). Ethnoarchaeological work (Biagetti 2014 Biagetti, S. 2014. Ethnoarchaeology of the Kel Tadrart Tuareg: Pastoralism and Resilience in Central Sahara. New York: Springer.[Crossref], [Google Scholar]; Carrer 2015 Carrer, F. 2015. “Herding Strategies, Dairy Economy and Seasonal Sites in the Southern Alps: Ethnoarchaeological Inferences and Archaeological Implications.” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 28 (1): 3–22.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]; Wright 2016 Wright, J. 2016. “Households Without Houses: Mobility and Moorings on the Eurasian Steppe.” Journal of Anthropological Research 72 (2): 133–157.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]) continues to aid in the interpretation of the often substantial and archaeologically recognizable remains left behind, particularly at habitation sites. Advances in biomolecular research are revolutionizing our ability to understand pastoralist subsistence systems (Dunne et al. 2012 Dunne, J., R. P. Evershed, M. Salque, L. Cramp, S. Bruni, K. Ryan, S. Biagetti, and S. di Lernia. 2012. “First Dairying in Green Saharan Africa in the Fifth Millennium BC.” Nature 486 (7403): 390–394.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]) and herd management practices (Janzen 2015 Janzen, A. 2015. “Mobility and Herd Management Strategies of Early Pastoralists in South-Central Kenya, 3000-1200 BP.” Ph.D. diss., University of California – Santa Cruz. [Google Scholar]).
Figure 4. Groundstone artifacts from Luxmanda; A) ovoid grinding stones recovered in situ in Unit 2; B) “axe” found on the surface; C) stone bowl fragment found on the surface.
quote:Originally posted by Ish Gebor: Let me guess, it was a back migration, right?
There's a relativeny new study about the Naruak where they unveil multiple skulls from the great lakes region. What we see is that morphological similarities between some great lakes Africans and Nilers and even Ancient Maghreb's predated the spread of pastoralism. If we get DNA it'll be some interesting shit...
Posts: 1781 | From: New York | Registered: Jul 2016
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quote:Originally posted by Ish Gebor: Let me guess, it was a back migration, right?
There's a relativeny new study about the Naruak where they unveil multiple skulls from the great lakes region. What we see is that morphological similarities between some great lakes Africans and Nilers and even Ancient Maghreb's predated the spread of pastoralism. If we get DNA it'll be some interesting shit...
Sure sounds interesting.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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posted
The fact that the Luxmanda Culture has ties to other cultures further north is nothing surprising. Just a couple months ago Evergreen cited a paper on this topic: Who were the Nataruk people?
The real question is what do the experts make of the identity of these northerly Africans? Recall that among the earliest human remains of Sub-Sahara just prior to and the beginning of the Holocene was Gamble's Cave in Kenya in the same vicinity under discussion and we know how those crania were classified. The makers of the Capsian are less well known physically than the makers of the Ibero-Maurusian. They are Mediterraneans, whose lighter build contrasts with the robustness of the Mechta people. Probably the Berbers are their descendants, with a possible admixture of the Mechta element in some places.
The oldest remains of Homo sapiens sapiens found in East Africa were associated with an industry having similarities with the Capsian. It has been called the Upper Kenya Capsian, although its derivation from the North African Capsian is far from certain. At Gamble’s Cave in Kenya, five human skeletons were associated with a late phase of the industry, Upper Kenya Capsian C, which contains pottery. A similar association is presumed for a skeleton found at Olduvai, which resembles those from Gamble’s Cave[…] The skeletons are of very tall people. They had long, narrow heads, and relatively long, narrow faces. The nose was medium width; and prognathism, when present, was restricted to the alveolar, or tooth-bearing, region. Many authors regard these people as physically akin to the Mediterraneans, hence the label of ‘Caucasoids’ (or European-like) generally attached to them. [Jean Hiernaux, "The People of Africa"]
Then you have the Naivasha skull found near Lake Naivasha.
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