Geo-ethnoarchaeology study of the traditional Tswana dung floor from the Moffat Mission Church, Kuruman, North Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Dung has been a very important material in human history. To date, large portions of the world rural population continue using it as construction material, fuel, and fertilizer. A few ethnographic and archeological studies show that dung has also been used for ritual practices in domestic and sacred places. Nevertheless, finding unambiguous evidence of ceremonial use of dung in the archeological record is a major methodological challenge. In fact, the use of dung for domestic purposes such as flooring, plastering, and fueling may produce evidence similar to ritual practices. Correct contextualization of the evidence is thus paramount for the identification of the use of dung in ritual practice and resolve any equifinality derived from other activities. Ethnographic studies of domestic and ritual use of dung may provide the isolation of contextual and analytical parameters useful for the identification of ceremonial use of dung in antiquity. The aim of this paper is hence the geo-ethnoarchaeological characterization of the dung floor built according to the Tswana people tradition in the Moffat Mission Church in Kuruman, South Africa. Macroscopic and microscopic geo-archeological parameters such as erosion features, slope angle, microfabric organization, mineral and organic composition, and relative sorting and orientation of plant fragments are described. The significance of these parameters for the identification of archeological dung floors in domestic and sacred space is discussed. Particularly significant appears to be the particle size distribution and orientation of the dung fibers. In the Tswana floor, these fabric characteristics are very distinct when compared to the one described for livestock enclosure in other ethnographic and archeological contexts. Nevertheless, no clear-cut distinction between the use of dung in domestic and ritual spaces can be achieved solely through the compositional analysis. On the other hand, to be noted is the peculiar shallow-channeled topography of the church floor originated from foot traffic “channeled” along constrained pathways delineated by the immovable disposition of the church’s furniture and ceremonial routines. It thus appears that the possibility of mapping erosional patterns of archeological floors (in addition to their compositional analysis) may offer archeologists an extra tool to distinguish between (dung) floors of ceremonials contexts and of domestic environments.