Pastoral Neolithic sites on the southern Mbulu Plateau, Tanzania

Abstract

As part of a larger project examining the introduction of herding into northern Tanzania, surveys and excavations were conducted at the southern edge of the Mbulu Plateau, documenting the presence of Narosura ceramics dating to the early third millennium BP, as well as a Later Stone Age occupation dated via ostrich eggshell to the tenth millennium BP. This marks the southernmost extent of the Pastoral Neolithic in eastern Africa. The paucity of sites attributable to early herding in this area may be due to a lack of survey in landscapes likely to have been preferred by livestock owners and to extensive contemporary cultivation in those same areas. Links can be drawn between the study area and previously documented sites with Narosura materials near Lake Eyasi, and between the study area and obsidian sources in the Lake Naivasha area of the Rift Valley, making the plateau and its surroundings a potentially promising area for further research.

Une nouvelle série de prospections et de fouilles dans la partie méridionale du plateau de Mbulu a été effectuée dans le contexte d'un projet de recherche sur l′introduction du pastoralisme au nord de la Tanzanie. Ces travaux ont conduit à la découverte de céramique de Narosura datant du commencement du troisième millénaire BP et d'une occupation du Later Stone Age datée sur des coquilles d’œuf d'autruche au dixième millénaire BP. Ces données marquent l′extension la plus méridionale du néolithique pastoral en Afrique de l′Est. Le manque de sites attribuables à cette période dans cette zone peut s′expliquer en partie par la prospection insuffisante dans les paysages qui auront été préférés par les premières populations pastorales, et par l'agriculture intensive dans ces zones aujourd'hui. Des liens peuvent maintenant être proposés entre le territoire que nous avons prospecté et, d'une part, les sites connus présentant de la tradition Narosura près du lac Eyasi, et d'autre part les gisements d'obsidienne près du lac Naivasha, dans la Vallée du Rift. Ceci fait du plateau de Mbulu une zone prometteuse pour l’étude des premières populations adaptées au pastoralisme.

Keywords:

• Pastoralism
• food production
• Pastoral Neolithic
• Later Stone Age
• East Africa

Acknowledgments

Our work was carried out under research permits issued by the Antiquities Division and the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) of Tanzania. Funding was provided by a Wenner-Gren International Collaborative Research Grant (No. 111) and a National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration Grant (No. 9059-12). Radiocarbon dates were provided by Dr Hong Wang of the Illinois State Geological Survey and obsidian characterisation by Mr Pasi Heikkilä of the University of Helsinki and Dr Steven Shackley of the University of New Mexico. We thank Mr Ferdinand Mizambwa (Antiquities Division, Tanzania) for his support and enthusiasm throughout the fieldwork, as well as the staff and students of Ufana Secondary School for their hospitality. We are especially thankful to eleven students from the University of Dar es Salaam for their devotion to the project. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the fact that three anonymous reviewers put considerable time and effort into comments that have improved the quality of this paper. Any errors or omissions are our own.

Notes on contributors

Mary E. Prendergast is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain. Her research focuses on Holocene subsistence strategies and forager-food producer relationships. She has conducted fieldwork and zooarchaeological analyses in Kenya and Tanzania since 2005.

Audax Z.P. Mabulla is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Dar es Salaam. His research interests include modern human origins, foraging and pastoralism, rock art and cultural heritage management. He is co-director of the Olduvai Palaeoecological and Palaeoanthropological Project and also co-directs fieldwork in the Serengeti and in the Eyasi Basin.

Katherine M. Grillo is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Her research interests centre on the material culture of African pastoralism. She has conducted ethnoarchaeological research in Samburu, Kenya, and is currently co-director of the Later Prehistory of West Turkana Project.

Lee G. Broderick is a zooarchaeologist and ethnoarchaeologist based at zooarchaeology.co.uk and a postgraduate researcher at the University of York. He has a particular research interest in pastoralism as well as in taphonomy and palaeoecology, including the interaction of environment and subsistence. He has conducted fieldwork in Mongolia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa.

Agness O. Gidna is Senior Curator in Palaeontology at the National Museum and House of Culture in Dar es Salaam. Her research focuses on vertebrate taphonomy and Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution, with a current project studying carcass modification by modern African felids and implications for studies of early human subsistence behaviour.

Oula I. Seitsonen has been studying the archaeology of northern Tanzania since 2002 and specialises in lithic and XRF analyses and the use of Geographical Information Systems. He is the directing archaeologist of Arkteekki Ltd, Finland, and currently works at the Archaeological Museum, University of Stavanger, Norway.

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has worked with African faunas since the 1970s and is a member of the Committee of Honour of the International Council of Archaeozoology.

Notes

1. Individual dates in this paper are presented as uncalibrated years BP or calibrated years BC/AD within the 2-sigma range, using the SHCal04 curve in OxCal Version 4.2 (McCormac et al. 2004). Date ranges before present (e.g. 3500-2000 BP) are intended to provide a general framework and do not imply precision.