Changing Lifeways in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, Southern Africa: Towards a History of Innovation and Belief in the Late Second Millennium AD

Rachel King,Lara Mallen,Adelphine Bonneau,David Pearce

doi:10.5334/ai-384

Abstract

Changing Lifeways in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, Southern Africa: Towards a History of Innovation and Belief in the Late Second Millennium AD

Highlights

Despite their environmental and geo-political marginality, southern Africa’s MalotiDrakensberg Mountains (Figure 1) have been a significant locus of cultural creativity over the last two millennia
In this long view of the last two millennia in the Maloti-Drakensberg, archaeological evidence tends to cluster at two points in the chronological sequence: the mid-to-late first millennium AD when hunter-gatherer contact with agriculturists effloresces, and the nineteenth century when the mountains became a notorious ‘nest of thieves and vagrants’ (Theal 2002: V, 208)
To achieve the chronological resolution and material detail needed to address these questions, we have considered a diverse range

Summary

Introduction

Despite their environmental and geo-political marginality, southern Africa’s MalotiDrakensberg Mountains (Figure 1) have been a significant locus of cultural creativity over the last two millennia. In this long view of the last two millennia in the Maloti-Drakensberg, archaeological evidence tends to cluster at two points in the chronological sequence: the mid-to-late first millennium AD when hunter-gatherer contact with agriculturists effloresces, and the nineteenth century when the mountains became a notorious ‘nest of thieves and vagrants’ (Theal 2002: V, 208).

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Conclusion