Bosutswe Landscapes: Defining African Complexity through Spatial Archaeometry

Summary

This multi-component project addresses how societies in Iron-Age Botswana (550-1650 CE) experienced the change from small, rural-centered life to centralized power based on increasing involvement in trade across the Indian Ocean. How this change occurred remains a central focus, with increasing pressures on the environment in this desert-margin landscape a likely contributing factor. It features the Bosutswe region, situated on the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert, where the site of Bosutswe has been well studied but surrounding sites are almost entirely unknown. These smaller, even ephemeral sites were drawn to the magnet of opportunity that Bosutswe provided: temporary camps for traders and hunter-gatherers, and smaller homesteads inhabited for a few years or possibly generations. The project includes low-altitude aerial and geophysical survey of two small ground sites and a hilltop site, Mmadipudi Hill, located within 4km of Bosutswe associated with the beginning of this transition period. The data from the drone-based platform, including thermography and a photogrammetrically-produced digital elevation model was compare to on-the-ground geophysical surveys including electromagnetic induction (EMI), ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry and targeted test excavations.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage