Isotopic Evidence for Diets of Prehistoric Farmers in South Africa

Abstract

Economies based on plant and animal husbandry are relatively recent occurrences in southern African prehistory. Prior to about 2000 B.P. southern African populations were hunter-gatherers, with emphasis on different kinds of terrestrial or marine resources, depending on the region. The diets and subsistence bases of hunter-gatherers along the western and southern coastal margins have received a great deal of attention (e.g. Deacon 1976; Parkington 1976; Klein 1978, 1981; Schweitzer 1979; Sealy 1986; Sealy and van der Merwe 1986, 1988; Inskeep 1987); the lifeways of hunter-gatherers in the interior have received less attention. Major changes occurred at about 2000 B.P., or shortly thereafter, with the emergence of various food-producing groups in South Africa. Mixed farmers appeared in parts of the relatively wetter eastern side of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, manufacturing characteristic ceramics, practising iron metallurgy and raising domestic animals (ovicaprines and cattle) and cereal crops (millet and sorghum). This complex of traits is generally known as the Iron Age. At about the same time, or soon after, ovicaprines and cattle appeared in the drier western parts of the country, herded by pastoralist groups. These animals are not indigenous to southern Africa, and hence must have been imported from more northerly parts of the continent. The extent to which this process involved migration of human populations (Smith 1983, 1986), or the the spread of a new way of life among existing groups (Schrire 1980,1984), remains unresolved. Recent research on food producing communities has been summarized by Maggs and Whitelaw (1991).