Early Herding Practices in Tanzania Revealed through Strontium Isotope Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "African Archaeology throughout the Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

East African pastoralists today rely on extensive social networks through which livestock are exchanged to maintain herds. The role of such animal exchange networks among ancient pastoralist communities can be revealed through stable isotope analysis. Pastoral Neolithic sites are broadly distributed across southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Luxmanda is the largest and southernmost known Pastoral Neolithic site, and its early date signals a rapid expansion of PN herding groups across the region. Here we present the first strontium isotope data from livestock from Tanzania, which clarify how the earliest herders in Tanzania used the landscape, as well as their participation in livestock exchange networks with herders elsewhere. Strontium isotope ratios from sequentially sampled livestock teeth are generally high and extremely variable, reflecting the region’s diverse geology. However, one cattle specimen exhibits highly distinct 87Sr/86Sr ratios compared to other livestock at the site, suggesting this non-local individual arrived through exchange. The individual closely matches those from some Kenyan PN sites which were herded on much younger geologies, and it may be possible that cattle were a medium of exchange used to maintain connections with herders elsewhere. However, we caution that additional research is needed, especially in northern Tanzania.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• African Archaeology throughout the Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24566