Early Pastoralists in Tanzania: Mobility and the Seasonal Round

Summary

First developing around 8,000 years ago, pastoralism in Africa has continued as a flexible and dynamic mode of subsistence. One key feature of this dynamism is mobility, which is crucial for many East African pastoralists today to access seasonally available pasture and water. In areas of unpredictable rainfall, mobile pastoralism permits more people to live in dry lands than do other subsistence strategies. How the earliest herders in Tanzania used the landscape is still relatively unknown. Recent excavations at Luxmanda provide detailed information about early pastoral lifeways in Tanzania. Situated at the southern edge of Tanzania’s Mbulu Plateau, Luxmanda is the earliest and most southern known Pastoral Neolithic site, thus providing an intriguing example of pastoral mobility strategies as herding initially took hold in Tanzania. We present the first isotopic analyses of ancient livestock in Tanzania. Carbon and oxygen stable isotope data from sequentially sampled cattle and caprine teeth provide a record of seasonal herding practices. Strontium isotopes clarify movements across distinct geologies, providing a nuanced picture of both herding over the seasonal round and possible livestock exchange among pastoral groups. Finally, these analyses throw more light on the nature of the spread of pastoralism in Africa.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20756