Phytoliths and livestock dung at early iron age sites in southern Africa

South African Archaeological Bulletin

Volumn 64, Issue 189, 2009, Pages 45-50

  Badenhorst, Shaw ^a,b  

^a Transvaal Museum   (South Africa)

^b UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Cattle; Central cattle pattern; Dung; Goat; Phytoliths; Sheep; South African iron age

Indexed keywords

EID: 70849090339     PISSN: 00381969     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Badenhorst, S. 2006. Goats (Capra hircus), the Khoekhoen and pastoralism: current evidence from southern Africa. African Archaeological Review 23: 45-53
2. Badenhorst, S. 2008. Subsistence change among farming communities in southern Africa during the last two millennia: a search for potential causes. In: Badenhorst, S., Mitchell, P. & Driver, J.C. (eds) Animals and People: Archaeozoological Papers in Honour of Ina Plug: 215-228. Oxford: British Archaeological Series 1849
3. Badenhorst, S. & Plug, I. 2003. The archaeozoology of goats, Capra hircus (Linnaeus, 1758): their size variation during the last two millennia in southern Africa (Mammalia: Artiodactyla: Caprini). Annals of the Transvaal Museum 40: 91-121
4. Brown, A. 1990. The faunal remains from the Early Iron Age site of Broederstroom. Unpublished B.A. (Honours) thesis. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand
5. Buduram, P. 2004. Genetic characterization of southern African sheep breeds using DNA markers. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State
6. Bullock, D.J. 1985. Annual diets of hill sheep and feral goats in southern Scotland. The Journal of Applied Ecology 22(2): 423-433
7. Burchard, I. 1993. Pastoralists and African ecology: questions for archaeologists on the effects of burning and dung deposition. Azania 28: 130-133
8. Carrión, J.S., Scott, L., Huffman, T. & Dreyer, C. 2000. Pollen analysis of Iron Age cow dung in southern Africa. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 9: 239-249
9. Castle, M.E. & Macdaid, E. 1972. The decomposition of cattle dung and its effect on pasture. Journal of the British Grassland Society 27: 133-137
10. Cilliers, F. 2006. Biogas Design and Operational Manual. Pretoria: Agricultural Research Council, Institute for Agricultural Engineering
11. De Wet-Bronner, E. 1994. The faunal remains from four Late Iron Age sites in the Soutpansberg region: Part 1: Tavhatshena. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 33-43
12. Denbow, J.R. 1979. Cenchrus ciliaris: an ecological indicator of Iron Age middens using aerial photography in eastern Botswana. South African Journal of Science 75: 405-408
13. Denbow, J.R. 1986. A new look at the later prehistory of the Kalahari. Journal of African History 27(1): 3-28
14. Denbow, J.R., Smith, J., Ndobochani, N.M., Atwood, K. & Miller, D. 2008. Archaeological excavations at Bosutswe, Botswana: cultural chronology, paleo-ecology and economy. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 459-480
15. Deshler, W. 1963. Cattle in Africa: distribution, types, and problems. Geographical Review 53(1): 52-58
16. Elliott, R.C. & Fokkema, K. 1961. Herbage consumption studies on beef cattle. Part I. Intake studies on Afrikander and Mashona cows on veld grazing - 1958/9. Rhodesian Agricultural Journal 58: 49-57
17. Fauvelle-Aymar, F-X., Sadr, K., Bon, F. & Gronenborn, D. 2006. The visibility and invisibility of herders' kraals in South Africa, with reference to a possible early contact period Khoekhoe kraal at KFS 5 (Western Cape). Journal of African Archaeology 4: 253-271
18. Fewster, K.J. 2006. The potential of analogy in post-processual archaeologies: a case study from Basimane ward, Serowe, Botswana. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12: 61-87
19. Ford, J. 1971. The Role of the Trypanosomiases in African Rcology: a Study of the Tsetse Fly Problem. Oxford: Clarendon Press
20. Garg, V.K., Yadav, Y.K., Sheoran, A., Chand, S. & Kaushik, P. 2006. Livestock excreta management through vermicomposting using an epigeic earthworm Eisenia foetida. Environmentalist 26: 269-276
21. Giblin, J. 1990a. Trypanosomiasis control in African history: an evaded issue? Journal of African History 31(1): 59-80
22. Giblin, J. 1990b. East Coast Fever in socio-historical context: a case study from Tanzania. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 23(3): 401-421
23. Greenfield, H.J. & van Schalkwyk, L. 2003. Intra-settlement social and economic organization of Early Iron Age farming communities in southern Africa: a view from Ndondondwane. Azania 38: 121-137
24. Greenfield, H.J. & Miller, D. 2004. Spatial patterning of Early Iron Age metal production at Ndondondwane, South Africa: the question of cultural continuity between the Early and Late Iron Ages. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 1511-1532
25. Hall, M. 1986. The role of cattle in southern African agropastoral societies: more than bones alone can tell. In: Hall, M. & Smith, A.B. (eds) Prehistoric Pastoralism in Southern Africa: South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 5: 83-87
26. Hall, M. 1987a. Archaeology and modes of production in pre-colonial southern Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 14: 1-17
27. Hall, M. 1987b. The Changing Past: Farmers, Kings and Traders in Southern Africa, 200-1860. Cape Town: David Philip
28. Hammond-Tooke, W.D. 1965. Segmentation and fission in Cape Nguni political units. Africa 35(2): 143-167
29. Hayden, B. 1995. Pathways to power. Principles for creating socioeconomic inequalities. In: Price, T.D. & Feinman, G.M. (eds) Foundations of Social Inequality: 15-85. New York: Plenum Press
30. Holden, C.J. & Mace, R. 2003. Spread of cattle led to the loss of matrilineal descent in Africa: a coevolutionary analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 270(1532): 2425-2433
31. Huffman, T.N. 1982. Archaeology and ethnohistory of the African Iron Age. Annual Review of Anthropology 11: 133-150
32. Huffman, T.N. 1989. Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations. African Archaeological Review 7: 155-182
33. Huffman, T.N. 1990. Broederstroom and the origins of cattle-keeping in southern Africa. African Studies 49: 1-12
34. Huffman, T.N. 1993. Broederstroom and the central cattle pattern. South African Journal of Science 89: 220-226
35. Huffman, T.N. 1998. The antiquity of lobola. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 57-62
36. Huffman, T.N. 2001. The central cattle pattern and interpreting the past. Southern African Humanities 13: 19-35
37. Huffman, T.N. 2004. Beyond data: the aim and practice of archaeology. South African Archaeological Bulletin 59: 66-69
38. Huffman, T.N. 2007. Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
39. Johnston, H.H. 1884. On the races of the Congo and the Portuguese colonies in western Africa. Journal of the Anthropobgical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 13: 461-479
40. Kuper, A. 1982. Wives for Cattle. Bridewealth and Marriage in South Africa. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
41. Landsberg, J., Stol, J. & Müller, W. 1994. Telling the sheep (dung) from the goats. The Rangebnd Journal 16(1): 122-134
42. Lane, P. 1994/1995. The use and abuse of ethnography in the study of the southern African Iron Age. Azania 29/30: 51-64
43. Longhurst, W.M. 1954. The fecal pellet group deposition rate of domestic sheep. The Journal of Wildlife Management 18(3): 418-419
44. Maggs, T.M.O'C. 1984. The Iron Age south of the Zambezi. In: Klein, R.G. (ed.) Southern African Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments: 329-395. Rotterdam: Balkema
45. Maggs, T.M.O'C. 1994/95. The Early Iron Age in the extreme south: some patterns and problems. Azania 29/30: 171-178
46. Mather, E. & Hart, J.F. 1956. The geography of manure. Land Economics 32(1): 25-38
47. Mitchell, P.J. 2002. The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press
48. Nader, G., Tate, K.W., Atwill, R. & Bushnell, J. 1998. Water quality effects of rangeland beef cattle excrement. Rangelands 20(5): 19-25
49. Newman, E.I. 2002. Medieval sheep-corn farming: how much grain yield could each sheep support? Agricultural History Review 50(2): 164-180
50. Niamir, M. 1991. Traditional African Range Management Techniques: Implications for Rangebnd Development, Report of the Overseas Development Institute. London: Overseas Development Institute
51. Nielsen, D.B. 1997. Observations on Pasture Management and Grazing. Salt Lake City: Utah State University Electronic Publishing AG 502
52. O'Connor, T. 2000. The Archaeology of Animal Bones. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing
53. Oliver, R. 1982. The Nilotic contribution to Bantu Africa. Journal of African History 23(4): 433-442
54. Pearsall, D.M. & Piperno, D.R. (eds) 1993. Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
55. Peter, B. 2001. Vitrified dung in archaeological contexts: an experimental study on the process of its formation in the Mosu and Bobirwa areas. Pub: Botswana Journal of African Studies 15(1): 125-143
56. Phillipson, D.W. 2005. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
57. Plug, I. 1981. Nanga: an Early Iron Age cattle herding community in the Machili Valley, Zambia. Archaeologia Zambiana 20: 17-19
58. Plug, I. 1983. Appendix IV: The faunal remains from Taukome, a Zhizo site in Botswana. In: Denbow, J.R. (ed.) Iron Age economics: herding, wealth, and politics along the fringes of the Kalahari Desert during the Early Iron Age: 257-287. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Bloomington: Indiana University
59. Plug, I. 1988. Hunters and herders: an archaeozoological study of some prehistoric communities in the Kruger National Park. Unpublished D.Phil. dissertation. Pretoria: University of Pretoria
60. Plug, I. 1996a. Domestic animals during the Early Iron Age in southern Africa. In: Pwiti, G. & Soper, R. (eds) Aspects of African Archaeology: 515-520. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Press
61. Plug, I. 1996b. Seven centuries of Iron Age traditions at Bosutswe, Botswana: a faunal perspective. South African Journal of Science 92: 91-97
62. Plug, I. 2000. Overview of Iron Age fauna from the Limpopo Valley. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 8: 117-126
63. Plug, I. & Voigt, E.A. 1985. Archaeozoological studies of Iron Age communities in southern Africa. In: Wendorf, F. & Close, A. (eds) Advances in World Archaeology 4: 189-238. London: Academic Press
64. Powers, A.H., Padmore, J. & Gilbertson, D.D. 1989. Studies of late prehistoric and modern opal phytoliths from coastal sand dunes and machair in northwest Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 27-45
65. Pandey, V. 2007. Analysis and modeling of cattle distribution in complex agro-ecosystems of south Florida. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Gainesville: University of Florida
66. Ramsay, K., Harris, L. & Kotzé, A. 2000. Landrace Breeds: South Africa's Indigenous and Locally Developed Farm Animals. Pretoria: Farm Animal Conservation Trust
67. Reitz, E. & Wing, E.S. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
68. Robertshaw, P.T. 1990. Early Pastoralists of South-west Kenya. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa, Memoir 11
69. Rollins, D., Bryant, F.C. & Montandon, R. 1984. Fecal pH and defecation rates of eight ruminants fed known diets. The Journal of Wildlife Management 48(3): 807-813
70. Rovner, I. 1971. Potential of opal phytoliths for use in paleoecological reconstruction. Quaternary Research 1(3): 345-359
71. Rovner, I. 1999. Phytolith analysis. Science 283(5401): 488-489
72. Sager, M. 2007. Trace and nutrient elements in manure, dung and compost samples in Austria. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 39: 1384-1390
73. Schapera, I. (ed.) 1953. The Bantu-speaking Tribes of South Africa. An Ethnographic Survey. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
74. Shand, C.A. & Coutts, G. 2006. The effects of sheep faeces on soil solution composition. Pbnt and Soil 258: 135-148
75. Smith, A.B. 2008. Is absence of evidence, evidence of absence? Problems in the archaeology of early herding societies of southern Africa. In: Barnard, H. & Wendrich, W. (eds) The Archaeology of Mobility; Old World and New World Nomadism: 264-279. Los Angeles: University of California Press
76. Strydom, P.E. 2008. Do indigenous southern African cattle breeds have the right genetics for commercial production of quality meat? Meat Science 80: 86-93
77. Tshabalala, P.A., Strydom, P.E., Webb, E.C. & de Kock, H.L. 2003. Meat quality of designated South African indigenous goat and sheep breeds. Meat Science 65: 563-570
78. Voigt, E.A. & Plug, I. 1984. Happy Rest: the earliest Iron Age fauna from the Soutpansberg. South African Journal of Science 80: 221-227
79. Welbourne, R.G. 1975. Tautswe Iron Age site: its yield of bones. Botswana Notes and Records 7: 1-16
80. Welch, D. 1982. Dung properties and defecation characteristics in some Scottish herbivores, and an evaluation of the dung-volume method of assessing occupance. Acta Theriologica 27(15): 191-212
81. White, E. 1960. The distribution and subsequent disappearance of sheep dung on Pennine Moorland. Journal of Animal Ecology 29(2): 243-250
82. White, K.A. J. & Hall, S.J.G. 1998. Behaviour of lambs (Ovis dries) in relation to spatial patterns of defecation on a pasture. Journal of Zoology 245: 111-117
83. Whitelaw, G. 1993. Customs and settlement patterns in the first millennium AD: evidence from Nanda, an Early Iron Age site in the Mngeni Valley, Natal. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 5: 47-81
84. Whitelaw, G. 1994. KwaGandaganda: settlement patterns in the Natal Early Iron Age. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 6: 1-64
85. Whitelaw, G. 2005. Comment on Greenfield and Van Schalkwyk's article on Ndondondwane, Azanm, 2003. Azanm 60: 122-127
86. Williams, P.H. & Haynes, R.J. 1995. Effect of sheep, deer and cattle dung on herbage production and soil nutrient content. Grass and Forage Science 50: 263-271