TALK: Early Iron Age animal resources and trade in the Kruger National Park

Early Iron Age animal resources and trade in the Kruger National Park

By Dr Annie Antonites (Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria)

New research at an Early Iron Age settlement in the Kruger National Park has revealed the existence of a trade-hub in the interior. The site, located on the banks of the Letaba River, first came to archaeologists’ attention in the 1980s but its significance was only realised during renewed excavations in 2021 and 2022. Several interesting finds were recovered during the two field seasons, which show that this site is one of the earliest in the southern African interior with trade links to the East African coast, and the Indian Ocean world at large. Imported glass trade beads as well as pieces of pottery from the Near East, suggest that the Letaba community participated in coastal trade networks from at least the 8th or 9th centuries AD. There is also evidence for local cotton spinning and metalworking. Careful study of the hundreds of kilograms of excavated bone refuse shows specialised hunting of large game such as gira ffe, buffalo, zebra and blue wildebeest. The skins and meat of these animals were probably traded along local and coastal networks and the leftover bones were used as raw material to make arrow points. In this talk, I will discuss the archaeozoological data and its implications for understanding the development of early international trade links between Africa and the larger Indian Ocean World.