Late hunters of western Ethiopia: the sites of Ajilak (Gambela), c. AD 1000–1200

Abstract

The dual model of foragers versus producers is increasingly perceived as inadequate for understanding the complexities of subsistence practices in the past and in the present. A wide spectrum of in-between strategies, falling under the label ‘low-level food production’ (Smith 2001), has been pointed out. Africa has, however, remained mostly outside this debate, despite offering many examples of societies that combine hunting and gathering with food-production, particularly in ecological and cultural borderlands. This paper examines one such society by presenting the first archaeological evidence from the region of Gambela, in the borderland between South Sudan and Ethiopia. Field survey here identified several sites with traces of occupation during the early second millennium AD. One of these sites (Ajilak 6) furnished a large number of faunal remains, most of which derive from wild animals. The exploitation of aquatic resources is also attested. Human remains were found that show traces of manipulation, tentatively identified as evidence for the practice of secondary burial. The sites are interpreted as being related to a low-level food-producing group that was probably ancestral to present-day populations engaging in similar economic activities.

Le modèle dualiste qui différencie les chasseurs-cueilleurs-pêcheurs des producteurs est de plus en plus considéré comme inadéquat quand il s'agit de saisir les complexités des pratiques de subsistance dans le passé et le présent. On sait maintenant qu'il exista une vaste gamme de stratégies tombant entre ces deux pôles; celles-ci sont dénommées ‘production alimentaire de faible niveau’. L'Afrique est cependant restée largement exclue de ces débats, bien que le continent ait connu bien des exemples de sociétés combinant la chasse et la cueillette avec la production, en particulier aux frontières écologiques et culturelles. Cet article examine une de ces sociétés en présentant des premières données archéologiques de la région de Gambela, à la frontière du sud-Soudan et de l’Éthiopie. La prospection y a identifié plusieurs sites ayant des traces d'occupation dans le début du second millénaire AD. L'un de ces sites, Ajilak 6, a fourni un grand nombre de restes fauniques, dont la plupart proviennent d'animaux sauvages. L'exploitation des ressources aquatiques y est également attestée. Des restes humains ont été retrouvés qui montrent des traces de manipulation, possiblement l'indice d'inhumations secondaires. Nous interprétons ces sites comme étant liés à un groupe qui produisait, à faible niveau, de la nourriture, probablement les ancêtres des populations actuelles engagées dans des pratiques de subsistance semblables.

Keywords:

• Ethiopia
• South Sudan
• Nilo-Saharans
• low-level food production
• hunter-gatherers

Acknowledgements

We thank Víctor M. Fernández for providing crucial references and advice and the Authority of the Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Ethiopia and the authorities of Gambela for providing permits and support for fieldwork. Teresa Sagardoy, Álvaro Falquina, Xurxo Ayán, Carlos Nieto, Yonathan Sahle and Tesfaye Tekalign collaborated in the fieldwork. We should also like to thank Teresa Taboada, Cruz Ferro and Ignacio de la Torre for their help identifying lithic raw materials. We are grateful to Michael Brass for his helpful comments and two anonymous referees for criticisms and suggestions that helped improve the article. Funding was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Culture through its Archaeology Abroad Programme.

Notes on contributors

Alfredo González-Ruibal is an archaeologist with the Institute of Heritage Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council. One of his main topics of research is the archaeology and ethnography of the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland and more particularly the relationship between indigenous communities and the State.

Carlos Marín Suárez holds a PhD on prehistoric archaeology from the Complutense University of Madrid and is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of the Republic, Uruguay (UdelaR).

Manuel Sánchez-Elipe is a PhD candidate at Department of Prehistory of the Complutense University of Madrid. His research focuses on the West-Central African Iron Age and funerary archaeology.

Joséphine Lesur is an archaeozoologist, Maitre de Conferences at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Her research deals with the origin and diffusion of herding in the Horn of Africa and in Egypt as well as the exploitation of animal resources by humans during the Holocene.

Candela Martínez Barrio is an archaeologist with an especialisation on physical anthropology. She has worked extensively on human remains from the Spanish Civil War.

Notes

1. The Kwama, who are related to the neighbouring Gwama, call themselves Sith Shwala today (González-Ruibal in press).