Introducing "Project Piedemonte": Between the Maloti-Drakensberg and the Great Escarpment in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This new project aims to map mobility patterns and social networks from prehistory to historical times in the western piedmont of the Maloti-Drakensberg, South Africa. It also considers the relationships between archaeological and rock art sites, and how rock art relates to seasonal or transhumance patterns in the region. Investigation of the piedmont in this part of southern Africa offers the opportunity to explore three important topics. The first is the use of landscape: the piedmont is situated in the grassland biome that has seen little research into its Middle Stone Age levels. The second is Later Stone Age seasonal mobility and landscape exploitation. The third topic is the detailed investigation of social interactions, occupations, and continuity and change over time. Depositional sequences in the piedmont are rich and encompass the Middle Stone Age, the Later Stone Age, contact between Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers and precolonial livestock-keeping communities, and the colonial and historical periods. This presentation will introduce the project aims and objectives, share some preliminary results from two prospection surveys, research conducted on the rock art, and a “catch and release” study of some of the Stone Age archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32604