1-chapter11

Cambridge Histories Onlinehttp://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/

The Cambridge History of Africa

Edited by J. Desmond Clark

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521222150

Online ISBN: 9781139054553

Hardback ISBN: 9780521222150

Chapter

11 - Early food production in sub-Saharan Africa pp. 770-829

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521222150.012

Cambridge University Press

CHAPTER 11

EARLY FOOD PRODUCTION INSUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Considering the important contribution which the introduction andspread of food-production techniques have made to the subsequentdevelopment of African culture and history, it is particularly unfortunatethat the available evidence by which these processes may be illustratedis sparse and its significance and meaning frequently inconclusive. Thisis not the place to discuss in detail the methodology of interpreting suchevidence; suffice it to point out that most African prehistorians nowappreciate the necessity of insisting upon the recovery of physicalremains of domesticated animals or cultivated plants before foodproduction in a given context can be regarded as proven. Theexperience of their colleagues elsewhere, particularly in the Near Eastand in south-east Europe, has shown them that there are virtually noaspects of material culture alone which are themselves incontrovertiblyindicative of farming practice. Gone are the days when the Africanprehistorian could glibly imply the presence of food-production tech-niques from the occurrence of pottery or of ground stone tools.Pastoralism and food cultivation, although they often spread together,are not invariably linked, as many recent and contemporary Africansocieties clearly attest.

Seddon (1968) has neatly categorized the various types of evidencewhich are available for illustrating the spread of food production. Theseare as follows:

(1) direct archaeological evidence: i.e. the identifiable remains,recovered from stratified contexts, of domesticated animals or plants

(2) indirect archaeological evidence: such as rock paintings andother artistic representations of domesticates or cultigens, or items ofmaterial culture which imply the presence of food-producing techniques(care must be exercised in the interpretation of artifacts of this lastcategory since in remarkably few cases is the evidence conclusive)

(3) secondary or non-archaeological evidence, based on botanical,zoological, linguistic or ethnographic data. Use of such data ofteninvolves the projection back into the past of recent observations fromnon-historical disciplines. In addition to the obvious dangers inherent

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EARLY FOOD PRODUCTION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

in the unsupported use of such arguments, it is only rarely that therelevant evidence may be tied in to an archaeological sequence. Theresults of these investigations thus frequently remain in vacuo, withoutreference to their historical or cultural context, or to an absolutechronology.

In chapter 9 Harlan has summarized the botantical evidence for theearly domestication of plant food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Thischapter therefore concentrates on the corresponding cultural evidenceand on that for animal domestication. In view of the paucity of theavailable data, the method adopted has been to present a general accountof the archaeology of the several regions of sub-Saharan Africa overthe period which saw the introduction of food-production techniques.Particular emphasis is placed upon the various pieces of evidence whichspecifically indicate food production (Seddon's category 1), while theindirect and secondary evidence is more briefly summarized withrespect to each area.

One form of secondary evidence for the spread of domestic cattle onwhich undue reliance has sometimes been placed relates to the extentof tsetse-fly infestation. This has clearly been a major factor limiting thedistribution of cattle but, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the formerextent of the fly-belts remains a virtually unknown quantity except inarid or semi-arid zones, which were presumably free from infestation.Today, Glossina mostly occurs (but is by no means ubiquitous) in areasgenerally falling within the following climatological limits: temperaturesbetween 20 and 28 C, relative humidity between 50 and 80% and anannual rainfall between 70 and 170 cm. However, arguments based onthe present distribution of Glossina must remain tentative in view of theextremely rapid and extensive changes in the areas of infestation whichare known to have occurred within the recent past. The only Africancattle naturally immune to trypanosomiasis are the humpless shorthornsof the West African coastal regions; similar cattle are attested fromGhana late in the second millennium BC and it may be assumed that,as in the case of most African wild animals, their high degree ofimmunity is due to their long exposure. In other areas of Africa thereis, however, no evidence for the development of completelytrypanosomiasis-immune breeds of cattle; and the constantly changingdistribution of tsetse-fly infestation must have played an important,albeit undetermined, part in influencing the spread of cattle-herding.

It is within the context of the Later Stone Age societies that techniquesof food production make their first appearance in the archaeological



record over much of sub-Saharan Africa. The major exception to thiswas in central and eastern Africa, roughly between latitude 50 S and theTropic of Capricorn, where the Early Iron Age peoples appear to havebeen responsible for the introduction and spread of farming techniques.

The food-producing communities of the Later Stone Age aresometimes differentiated from their predecessors under the heading'Neolithic', a term which has given rise to considerable confusionthrough lack of adequate definition. The term as originally used inEurope referred to those Stone Age (i.e. pre-metallurgical) industrieswhich were distinguished from their forebears by the presence ofground stone artifacts and of pottery; it was generally believed that themakers of these industries were also set apart by their knowledge offood production. Subsequently, use of the term 'Neolithic' as thusdefined was applied to prehistoric cultures in most areas of Africalying north of the Equator and in some regions even further south. Thisusage, initiated at a time when primary evidence for prehistoric Africaneconomies was almost totally lacking, was of necessity based only uponconsideration of artifacts.

It is now apparent that in both Europe and Africa there is no reasonto regard the spread of food production and of' Neolithic' artifacts asconcurrent. Indeed there are abundant instances on both continentswhere their separation may be conclusively demonstrated. During the1960s the tendency in Europe was to use the term ' Neolithic' to referto pre-metallurgical food-producing societies, irrespective of theirmaterial culture. In more recent years, with the advent of an increasinglyaccurate radiocarbon-based absolute chronology, the term is graduallyfalling out of use altogether. In Africa, particularly in the sub-Saharanregions, its continued use has given rise to considerable confusion, sincechanging European usage has given the term economic implicationswhich are rarely supported by adequate evidence. There is basicdisagreement among African archaeologists as to whether or not theterm 'Neolithic' should continue in use in the context of the prehistoricsuccession of sub-Saharan Africa; and, if so, in what sense it should beemployed. It has therefore been thought best not to use the term in thediscussion which follows (except in quotation marks), at the risk ofindulging in occasionally cumbersome circumlocutions.

Attention was drawn in chapter 6 to the difficulties which areencountered in attempting to ascertain the functions for which variousclasses of Later Stone Age artifacts were intended. The same point mustbe emphasized here with regard to the ground and polished stone

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implements which, in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, have been heldto be indicative of the practice of a food-producing economy. Themajority of these artifacts resemble axes or adzes; and in many casesit may well be that these conventional names give a reasonableindication of the purposes to which the tools were put. Experimentshave shown that such tools are reasonably effective for the felling oftrees and for other wood-working functions, but, so far as this writeris aware, no comprehensive controlled experiments have been conductedspecifically to compare the edge-damage sustained by ground stonetools used for these and other purposes with that observed on actualprehistoric specimens. In this context it should be noted that inKaramoja, north-eastern Uganda, such ground stone' axes' are currentlyused in the alteration of horn profiles of domestic cattle and goats(Wilson 1972). Another purpose for implements of this type whichimmediately suggests itself is digging; and some authorities, particularlyin West Africa, have attempted to differentiate typologically betweenground stone 'hoes' and 'axes'. Others, realizing that such distinctionsare at present largely subjective, have fallen back upon the non-committalterm 'celt'. In many of the industries described in this chapter, use ofsuch a non-functional nomenclature has much to recommend it; ingeneral, however, the terminology followed here is that adopted in theoriginal description of the various aggregates concerned.

The narrative which follows is arranged on a regional basis following,with minor exceptions, the order established in chapter 6. The regionalsurveys continue the accounts of the respective Later Stone Agesuccessions which were there presented, and for most areas they arecontinued up to the inception of the local Iron Age. For south-centraland part of southern Africa a somewhat different approach has perforcebeen adopted, involving a summary of the spread of food-productiontechniques through and beyond the milieu of the Early Iron Agesettlement. Although the Early Iron Age Industrial Complex is describedat length in volume 2 of this History, it has been found convenient todiscuss here its part in the transmission of food production to southernAfrica. The archaeological evidence for the initiation of food productionin South Africa, although also falling outside the main chronologicalrange of the present volume, is likewise discussed in this chapter.Because of the uneven distribution of archaeological research in thesub-continent and the inconclusive nature of much of the primaryevidence for food production, the picture here drawn is in places hazyand incomplete. A probable effect of the uneven quality of the available

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information is the overemphasis of the part played by certain relativelywell-investigated food-producing communities in the transmission oftheir techniques to other areas. (The Later Stone Age food producersof the Rift Valley and adjacent areas of southern Kenya and northernTanzania are a case in point.) The present chapter should be read asa direct sequel to chapter 6 and the reader is warned that the divisionof material between the two chapters has been, of necessity, somewhatarbitrary, and that a certain amount of overlap has been unavoidable.

WEST AFRICA

Archaeological Survey (f ig. I I . I )It was noted in chapter 6 (p. 422) that the widespread mode 5 aggregatesof West Africa were enriched, generally around the fourth or thirdmillennium BC, by the appearance of previously unknown traits,principally pottery and ground stone artifacts. There is no evidence thatthe inception of food production in this area predates the appearanceof these so-called ' Neolithic' traits and it is consequently at the timeof the latter event that the present narrative commences.

In Senegal, known sites of this period are virtually restricted to thecoastal areas. The largest number of known occurrences is in the Dakarregion. The typology of the microliths suggests that the industry hassome Saharan affinities, but the term 'Neocapsian', by which it isfrequently known, implies a specific affinity which has not beensatisfactorily demonstrated. In addition to the microlithic chipped stonematerial, most sites have also yielded grindstones, stone bracelets, smallground stone celts and finely decorated comb-stamped pottery. A dateof the late second millennium BC for such an aggregate near Thies hasalready been noted (chapter 6, p. 418). There are indications that theculture represented by these sites may have continued into comparativelyrecent times, but no firm evidence on this point is yet available. In theabsence of faunal remains or other primary evidence, there are no certainindications as to whether or not food production was practised in thiscoastal region in pre-Iron Age times (Corbeil, Mauny and Charbonnier1951, Descamps and Demoulin 1969, Vaufrey 1946).

In southern Senegal, between the Gambia and the border ofGuinee-Bissau, the extensive shell-middens beside the estuary of Casa-mance have recently been reinvestigated. A final Later Stone Age phaseof occupation, dated to between 200 BC and AD 200, is characterizedby pottery with wavy-line decoration. It is stratified beneath the Iron

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St Loui

CAWa/VThiesDaka"

Nhami _^

Pita.0 . O j a l o n

Kakimbon. / " ^ "*MontKakouli *

500

10

1000 km

0 10

Fig. M.i Western sub-Saharan Africa, showing sites mentioned in the text.

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Age levels which represent the most intensive exploitation of theCasamance oyster beds (Linares de Sapir 1971). A comparable pre-IronAge phase of settlement at the Saint Louis shell-middens in northernSenegal is now known to date back as far as the fourth millennium BC.

Most accounts of Later Stone Age and ' Neolithic' occurrences in theRepublic of Guinea are old and the detail inadequate. Consequently,only a most general description of the material can at present be given.Celts, of varied types, and stone ' hoes' are widespread. In some areasof Guinea and in parts of Sierra Leone, it appears that the associatedchipped stone artifacts were not of microlithic type, as at the caves nearPita and, further to the south-west, at Mont Kakoulima. In the south,near Conakry, the evidence from Kakimbon Cave suggests that groundstone artifacts were locally being made before the introduction ofpottery.

From several areas of Guinea, such as Fouta Djalon, have beenrecovered (generally in poorly documented contexts) large asymmetricalbifaces, core-axes or ' hoes', celts, side- and end-scrapers, backed bladesand tranchets. Comparable material has been described from Guinee-Bissau, as at Nhampassere. In the north of Guinea the so-called' Neolithic' aggregates show clear similarities with those from Senegal,while sites in the south more closely resemble those from further east;but there is no clear boundary which can be demonstrated between thetwo culture-areas (Delcroix and Vaufrey 1939, Holas and Mauny 1953,Joire 1952).

The most widespread complex of industries in West Africa duringthe last four millennia BC is that generally known as the 'GuineaNeolithic'. It extends through the savannah from Guinee-Bissau toCameroun and southward into the forests fringing the coast, where itsdistribution is unevenly known due to the difficulties facing archae-ological exploration and research in the dense forest areas. Publisheddata on the complex are, however, inadequate to demonstrate its unity.Indeed there are indications that the industrial diversity of the earlierLater Stone Age aggregates continued until the inception of the localIron Age.

With remarkably few exceptions, sites and aggregates of the ' GuineaNeolithic' have not been thoroughly described (for references seeDavies (1967, pp. 180-216)). In general terms, these aggregates containmicroliths, chipped stone' hoes', ground stone celts and pottery. Stonebeads and arm-rings are also frequently encountered. Considerableregional variation is hardly surprising in view of the wide distribution

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of the relevant sites. It is most apparent in the typology of the celts andof the pottery, but no adequate survey of the distributions of the varioustypes has yet been undertaken except in limited areas; for a generalaccount of the pottery see Mauny (1972). Valuable evidence concerningthe regional and chronological subdivisions of the ' Guinea Neolithic'could doubtless be obtained from a study of the typology anddistribution of the celts and arm-rings from the various factory siteswhich are recorded, of which those in the Oueyanko valley near Bamakoin Mali and near Cape Three Points in south-western Ghana areprobably the best known.

The celts have received a disproportionately large amount of attentionand many have been collected and described. Considerable variety hasbeen observed in the typology of West African celts (fig. 11.2.12) butinsufficient data are yet available on their geographical and chronologicaldistributions and on the archaeological associations of the various typesto permit the emergence of a meaningful overall view. Davies (1967,pp. 190-201) has proposed a preliminary classification which recognizesa broad similarity in the edge-ground celts distributed throughout theforest and woodland savannah from Guinea to Cameroun, spreadingalso southwards to Mboko Songo near Brazzaville and to the sites oflower Zaire which are discussed in greater detail below. The second typecomprises celts ground lengthwise over their entire surface. Greatlyelongated specimens of these are sometimes encountered, particularlyin the Ivory Coast. Celts of the third type are large and cylindrical, beingshaped by pecking prior to grinding; they appear to be largely restrictedto Dahomey (modern Republic of Benin) and Upper Volta and thecountries to the east.

The later phases of the Later Stone Age in Sierra Leone are bestknown from the Kamabai and Yagala rock-shelters (Atherton 1972,Coon 1968), but many details remain obscure. The inception ofmicrolithic industries here may coincide with the first appearance ofpottery and of ground stone tools; these events are dated to around themiddle of the third millennium BC. This 'Guinea Neolithic' evidentlycontinued until the introduction of iron in about AD 700. The arrivalof iron appears to have been accompanied by a change in the prevailingpottery styles; the affinities of the new style are considered to be withthe Lake Chad area; and it is noteworthy that the inception ofiron-working in Sierra Leone appears to have been broadly contem-porary with the corresponding event at Daima in the Lake Chad basinof north-eastern Nigeria. The introduction of iron at Kamabai and

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1 Celt from Segou2 Celt from Eboinda, Ivory Coast3-7 Artifacts from Bosumpra(3-4 Microliths; 5 Scraper; 6 Celt;7 Biconically pierced stone)8-9 'Hoes' from Aiyinabirim10-20 Artifacts from Ntereso(10 Barbed bone point; 11 Bone fish hook;

2 cm

12 Celt; 13 'Terracotta cigar'; 14 Rockerstamp decorated pot; 15-16, 18 Scrapers; 17Petit tranche!; 19-20 Arrowheads)21-7 Artifacts from Karkarichinkat(21-3 Grooved and stamped pottery; 24-5Arrowheads; 26 Drill; 27 Scraper)28 Chipped celt from Bamenda29-30 Celts from Uele basin

(Nos. 1-2, 8-20 and 28 after Davies (1967), 3-7 after Shaw (1944), 21-7 after Mauny (1955) andSmith (1974) and 29-30 after van Noten (1968).)





Yagala was followed by a decrease in both the quality and the quantityof stone-tool-making, but some ground stone artifacts continued in useinto the early years of the present millennium.

Accounts of the Later Stone Age of the Ivory Coast are limited tonotices of isolated finds of celts, stone 'hoes', microliths and pottery,which do not permit any meaningful distinctions to be made betweenthese and finds from adjacent areas. The only excavated occurrences areat coastal shell-mounds which contain pottery and ground stoneartifacts, and are dated from the second millennium BC well into theChristian era (Mauny 1973).

Davies's work in Ghana has resulted in the accumulation of far moredata for the 'Guinea Neolithic' there than is yet available inneighbouring countries. There are indications that the introduction ofcelts and ' hoes' may have preceded that of pottery, but the absolutedates for these events may only be extrapolated from evidence obtainedelsewhere. There are as yet few complete, excavated aggregates pub-lished from Ghana, and only one dated sequence other than thosereferred to the 'Kintampo culture'. The latter complex is usuallyregarded as intrusive into the general ' Guinea Neolithic' culture-area,and is therefore discussed separately.

The most detailed description of an inventory of the 'GuineaNeolithic' in Ghana or elsewhere is that from Bosumpra Cave nearAbetifi (C. T. Shaw 1944). When compared with material from earlierLater Stone Age sites, the microlithic industry appears to show areduction in the use of small discoid cores, and there is a correspondingincrease in blade production (fig. 11.2.3-7). At other sites, finely madearrow-points including some tanged types also make their firstappearance at this time. The industry is dominated by crescents, a highproportion of which are deep or of petit trancbet type. Scrapers, backedblades, minimally retouched points and possible burins all occurthroughout the sequence but are less frequent. Celts and pottery, whichare also present throughout, are much less frequent in the lower levels.Small biconically-pierced stones were found; the perforations were only3 mm in diameter and their purpose remains unknown. The pottery wasfor the most part from simple vessels, lacking everted rims, oftendecorated with simple stamped designs. The occupation of Bosumprais dated from at least as early as the middle of the fourth millenniumBC until Iron Age times (Smith 1975).

In the Ghana forests, Davies has briefly noted concentrations ofscattered' hoes', celts and apparently contemporary artifacts spread over

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areas several kilometres in extent, such as those at the foot of theAwudome range in Transvolta and around Aiyinabirim, west ofWiawso (fig. 11.2.8-9). These are in fertile regions and may indicateformer forest clearings, possibly for agriculture. They are attributed tothe 'Guinea Neolithic'. Around Benin in Nigeria, 'hoes' and celts aresimilarly found on buried land-surfaces below stands of apparentlyprimary forest (Allison 1962, Davies 1967, p. 205).

The most detailed sequence of this period in Ghana is that from theKintampo region (Flight 1972). This begins with the Punpun phase(formerly known as the Buobini culture), which is dated from approxi-mately 1700 to 1400 BC, but is thought to have begun earlier. Themicrolithic quartz industry is associated with elaborately decoratedpottery, stabbing and cord-impression being the techniques mostfrequently used. Animal bones show that, with the possible exceptionof the dog, no domestic animals were kept. Seeds of wild Celtis sp. arethe only vegetable food positively identified.

In the fourteenth or fifteenth century BC occurred an abrupt culturalbreak which heralded the appearance of the ' Kintampo culture'; it isthought that this event may represent the arrival of new people, perhapsfrom the north or west. Davies (1967, p. 222) has suggested that theKintampo industries may have been derived from the Saharan' Neolithic' of the middle Niger region. In Ghana, the distribution ofthe' Kintampo culture' appears to be restricted to the forest margin andthe southern part of the savanna woodland. The pottery shows littleor no continuity with that of the preceding phase, being decoratedprincipally by means of a toothed comb 'walked' over the dampsurface of the clay. The resultant designs show clear similarities withthose from southern Saharan sites. There are well-made small groundstone celts, stone arm-rings and grooved stones which were perhapsused for shaping beads, and quartz lip-plugs. The chipped stoneindustry is essentially microlithic but includes unifacial tanged arrow-heads. Probably the most characteristic artifacts are elongated objectsof sandstone with a flattened oval cross-section, deeply scored on bothfaces, which generally show signs of subsequent abrasion. The purposeof these rasps, which are extraordinarily numerous, has been the subjectof some controversy. They closely resemble objects used in Egypt andelsewhere in recent times for scrubbing hard skin from the feet; butShaw (1971) has suggested that they may have been used for 'gratingsome very hard kind of food such as yams'.

Remains of small domestic cattle and goats were found at the

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Kintampo K6 site, alongside bones of wild species. The dwarf goatsappear comparable to those from the Nile Valley site of Esh-Shaheinab,discussed below. The small cattle are considered to be perhaps 'notdissimilar to modern West African Shorthorn breeds' (Carter and Flight1972). The vegetable remains from Kintampo K6 included husks ofoil-palm nuts {Elaeisguineensis) and cowpeas, but it is not certain whetherthese were cultivated or wild.

The 'Kintampo culture' appears to have continued until about1150 BC, being followed after a gap in the sequence by the Bwihweliphase. This phase is dated to the first century BC and appears to bedistinct from both the' Kintampo culture' and the succeeding local IronAge.

Probably closely related to the 'Kintampo culture' is the fishingsettlement at Ntereso on a ridge overlooking the White Volta, 5 o kmwest of Tamale (Davies 1973)- Pottery, stone tools and rasps are allcomparable with those from Kintampo, but additional features whichappear to be of Saharan connection are round- and concave-basedbifacial arrow-heads, bone uniserial and biserial harpoons, bone fish-hooks and clay models of animals. The Ntereso settlement(fig. 11.2.10-20), dated to late in the second millennium BC, covered anarea of about 750 sq. m. It has yielded the remains of a rectangularhouse, apparently made of poles joined by mud daub. Of particularinterest are the traces of carved wooden mouldings preserved byimpressions in the hardened daub. Dwarf goats like those at Kintampoare attested, but the evidence for domestic cattle is inconclusive.Hunting and fishing are both indicated; the range of fishes representedsuggests that most were caught with harpoons or in traps, but somelarger La/es could have been taken with hook and line. The presence ofa species of freshwater oyster has been interpreted as indicating that thesite was occupied during the dry season (from December to May) aswell, perhaps, as at other times. Traces of worked iron at the site arepresumably intrusive, or they may relate to a reoccupation of Nteresoearly in the first millennium AD. Both Kintampo and Ntereso areregarded by Davies as representing incursions of people from the northinto the relatively high rainfall region which was elsewhere the sceneof the 'Guinea Neolithic'.

Surface collections from the site of Kobadi, north of Segou on themiddle Niger in Mali, represent the culture of the area which has beenconsidered as the source of the 'Kintampo culture' of Ghana. Potterydecorated with 'walking comb' impressions is comparable with that

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from Ntereso and has also been found further to the west, in the upperNiger region, on the Karkarichinkat sites in the Tilemsi valley and inthe upper horizon of the Kourounkorokale rock-shelter near Bamako.Also from the Kobadi site came a massive stone arm-ring and boneharpoons, one of which has been dated to around 700 BC. The absenceof microliths from this site may be due to incomplete collecting (Davies1967, p. 224; Szumowski 1956).

The two Karkarichinkat sites (fig. 11.2.21-7) a r e substantial moundsin the flat Tilemsi plain, in which they may formerly have been islands.Their occupation is securely dated to the first half of the secondmillennium BC. Bones and figurines of cattle are abundant, but thepresence of small stock has not yet been confirmed. The small numberof seeds so far identified is dominated by Celtis and does not includeany definitely cultivated species. Fishing, hunting and fowling arelikewise attested. The associated stone industry includes fine bifaciallyflaked foliate and barbed and tanged arrow-heads, together with pointedflakes worked to a unifacial tang. There were no concave-basedarrow-heads, such as are common further to the east in Niger. Backedmicroliths are relatively rare. The crude workmanship of the largescrapers contrasts sharply with the fine quality of the arrow-heads. Theground stone celts are mainly small; there are occasional bone points.The abundant pottery is decorated with a variety of grooved andstamped designs including the 'walking comb' motif noted above(Mauny 1955, Smith 1974).

In western Nigeria,' hoes' and celts are widespread; their context isshown by the Iwo Eleru excavations which revealed, as described inchapter 6, a microlithic industry spread through most of the last tenmillennia BC to which, around the middle of the fourth millennium, wereadded pottery and ground stone celts (Shaw 1969, 1972a). At the sametime chert tramhets make their appearance; these frequently show alongthe edges a gloss such as may be caused by cutting grasses. Althoughthis observation is suggestive, one would not be justified in regardingit as proof for the cultivation of cereals. The cutting of wild grass forfood, for thatching or for bedding are equally likely. The possibilitythat any of these activities was carried out in what is now forest is ofconsiderable interest: very little is known about the past distributionand extent of the West African forests.

The only West African site which provides a clearly demonstrableinstance of iron coming into a continuing Stone Age sequence is Daimain the extreme north-east of Nigeria near the shore of Lake Chad

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(Connah 1976). The site is an occupation mound 10.5 m high, situatedin an annually flooded area. The occupation of Daima began at aboutthe sixth century BC and continued until early in the present millennium.The nearby sites of Bornu 3 8 and Bornu 70, however, appear to carrythe local sequence back to early in the second millennium BC. Stone,which had to be brought from a distance, was only used for themanufacture of grindstones and celts. The place of a chipped stoneindustry was taken by bone tools, including various pointed andspatulate types. Burnished pottery occurs throughout the sequence andno marked changes in the style have yet been demonstrated. In theapproximately eighth-century BC occupation of Bornu 70, clay animalfigurines, none of which indisputably represent domestic species, andbone harpoons make their appearance. These continue through into thesucceeding Daima succession. The Daima harpoons are not perforated;biserially barbed ones are most frequent in the earlier levels but uniserialexamples came into vogue later. Iron appears in the sequence in aboutthe middle of the first millennium AD or shortly thereafter. Its adventseems to have been accompanied by no other substantial change in thematerial culture of the site's inhabitants, but bone tools sodn ceased tobe manufactured. From the initial occupation of the site, the Daimasettlements appear to have been permanent; and houses with clay floorsand wooden walls are attested. Domestic cattle and goats are presentat all levels, but fishing and hunting were additional important sourcesof protein. Remains of charred sorghum were recovered from a leveldated to the close of the first millennium AD.

Comparable mounds to the north and east of Lake Chad in Tchadand Cameroun appear to be broadly contemporary and to be remainsof settlements similar to that at Daima (Lebeuf 1962). The introductionof iron in this region postdated by at least half a millennium thecorresponding event around Nok on the northern Nigerian plateau,some 700 km to the south-west.

Further to the south in Nigeria, conditions are not conducive to thepreservation of organic material in the archaeological record, andprimary evidence for the presence or absence of food production istherefore lacking. The currently available secondary evidence is un-fortunately inconclusive.

Analysis of the aggregates from two successive occupations of Roprock-shelter on the Jos plateau of Nigeria has given one of the fewindications of distinctions between the chipped stone technologiesbefore and after the introduction of pottery (B. E. B. Fagg et al. 1972).

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The earlier Later Stone Age occurrence at this site is undated, and isa crude stone industry in which true geometric microliths other thanrough crescents are not represented. In the later occurrence microlithsare more frequent and include geometric forms as well as small points;the quality of workmanship is higher and pottery makes its appearance.A human burial best attributed to the latter occupation has yielded aradiocarbon date around the end of the first millennium BC. It has beententatively suggested that the tooth wear on this individual may beindicative of an agricultural economy.

Infilling of valleys on the Jos plateau is dated to the second half ofthe first millennium BC and has been attributed to erosion brought aboutby extensive clearing of the natural vegetation of the valley slopes foragricultural purposes at this time. When exposed by mining operations,the resultant stratified deposits have yielded remains of the 'Nokculture', with its distinctive pottery sculptures. Archaeological evidencefor the practice of food production in the context of the 'Nok culture'is limited to two sculptures apparently representing fluted pumpkins(Te/faria occidentalis). The archaeological associations of the sculptureshave been difficult to establish, due to their alluvial provenances, butthey were held to belong to a period transitional between the Later StoneAge and the Iron Age. Recent excavations at Taruga, some 50 kmsouth-east of Abuja, have revealed the first known settlement site ofthe 'Nok culture', dated to between the fourth and the second centuryBC. In addition to fragments of the characteristic sculptures, there wereextensive traces of iron-working and domestic pottery of which themost diagnostic type was a shallow flat-bottomed dish with a deeplyscored interior. These may be interpreted as graters used in thepreparation of food. On the basis of the Taruga and other recentexcavations, it appears that the 'Nok culture' is to be regarded as anexclusively Iron Age phenomenon (A. Fagg 1972, B. E. B. Fagg 1969).

Around Bamenda in Cameroun are found crudely chipped stone axeswith constricted waists (fig. 11.2.28), presumably intended for haftingand reminiscent of Saharan examples from far to the north, togetherwith celts and crude picks (Jeffreys 1951). Comparable waisted axes arealso found in the northern grasslands of Niger. In the south they appearto be restricted to regions east of the Niger river. Surface sites nearYaounde have yielded pottery in association with bifacial stone ' hoes'together with celts, but apparently no projectile points or microliths.If these objects are indeed contemporary and this does not seem tohave been adequately demonstrated - they are presumably of late date.

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The late continuation of this Later Stone Age material culture is furtherdocumented from the island of Macias Nguema Biyogo (known inEnglish as Fernando Po), but this is possibly because the islandapparently lacks any source of iron ore (Martin del Molino 1965). Fourmain stages of this Fernando Po 'Neolithic' industry have beenrecognized on stratigraphic evidence, and the earliest of these has beendated to around the middle of the first millennium AD. Ground stonecelts and 'hoes' reminiscent of examples from Cameroun are thereassociated with pottery which shows some typological resemblance tothat of the broadly contemporary Early Iron Age culture of the Congobasin to the south-east.

Early Food Production in West AfricaIt will be clear from the foregoing summary that pottery and groundstone artifacts were introduced into most of West Africa before2000 BC and, in some areas, significantly earlier. The introduction ofthese artifacts may have taken place at a significantly later date in thefar west, where the dating evidence is inconclusive. As has been shownby Camps in chapter 8, so-called 'Neolithic' industries - based on amicrolithic technology with the addition of pressure-flaked, oftenbifacial, forms as well as of pottery and ground stone implements werealready established in the southern Sahara at a considerably earlierperiod. Domestic cattle and goats are attested at Adrar Bous in a'Tenerean Neolithic' context in the fourth millennium (Clark 1971a,Clark, Williams and Smith 1973). It has been argued that a pastoraleconomy was established in this region around the middle of the fifthmillennium BC, although the population probably continued to dependto a considerable extent on hunting and fishing. Mauny (1967) hassuggested that moister climatic conditions at this time rendered areassouth of latitude 18 N liable to infestation by tsetse, and cites theevidence of rock paintings as support for such a southern frontier ofcattle distribution at this time. The fact that it was not until the secondmillennium BC that cultivated cereals and domesticated cattle and goatsassumed any importance in the Dhar Tichitt area of southern Mauritaniaconfirms the suggestion for a late inception of ' Neolithic' culture inthe extreme west of Africa.

Elsewhere, it is clear that food-producing societies practising themanufacture of pottery and ground stone implements were present inmore northerly regions for at least two millennia before these traits

786


WEST AFRICA

became prevalent in West Africa itself. The apparent southwardpenetration of these traits into West Africa broadly coincided with theonset of final desiccation in the Sahara; and there can be little doubtthat the two events are in some way interrelated. Desiccation and thecorresponding southward translation of the climatic and vegetationalzones, rendering much of the central Sahara unsuitable for a pastoraland agricultural existence, would have encouraged the early Saharanfarmers to move southwards into territory which might then for thefirst time have been free of tsetse-fly infestation. Impingement upon theocean-controlled climatic zone of the West African coastlands wouldhave led to a narrowing of the more northerly ecological zones and acorresponding concentration of the human population. It may beassumed that pottery and ground stone technology were thus broughtto the Later Stone Age folk of West Africa; and the typology of therelevant artifacts is generally in keeping with this hypothesis.

Whether food-production techniques spread concurrently with thelatter cultural traits remains uncertain in the light of the sparse evidencefor early farming in West Africa which has been outlined above. Itis probable that they did not. Likewise, there is no reason to believethat the spreads of agriculture and pastoralism were concurrent withone another. In the present state of our knowledge it appears likely that,as pastoralism and agriculture advanced through West Africa, theylagged far behind the spreads of ground stone artifacts and of potterymanufacture. This impression may well require revision in the light offuture research.

It should also be noted that the archaeological data currently availablethrow hardly any light on the early cultivation of root crops, notablythe yams which in recent times have been of paramount importance asa food crop in wide areas of West Africa. The only possible archae-ological indications for the antiquity of yam cultivation are thesandstone rasps of the second-millennium ' Kintampo culture', whichmay have been used for grating yams. It is by no means certain whetherWest African yam cultivation owed its inspiration to more northerlycereal cultivation or whether it was a purely independent development.Clarification of this question must await determination of the relativeantiquities of the respective crops. Unfortunately, physical remains ofyams are more likely to sprout than to survive in the archaeologicalrecord of the woodland forest areas most suited to their cultivation;and the artifacts used in their preparation for consumption are almostequally perishable. Davies, indeed, has tentatively suggested that culti-

787



vation of these root crops may extend in a rudimentary form even asfar back as ' Sangoan' times, while on tenuous glottochronologicalgrounds Armstrong (1964) has proposed that the practice may have anantiquity of at least 6000 years. More recently, Posnansky (1969) hasargued that 'it is probably to the thousand years between 2500 BC and1500 BC that we have to look for the intensification of tuber collectionand ultimately to their careful cultivation'. Coursey's consideration ofthe botanical and other evidence (see also chapter 9) leads him to favouran earlier date and to propose that yam domestication could have takenplace in West Africa independently of the adoption of cereal agriculture(Coursey 1976, Davies 1968).

Posnansky would attribute a similar antiquity to the cultivation ofWest African native cereals. These, again, are not represented in thearchaeological record; and, for the present, consideration of their earlycultivation and domestication must be based almost exclusively onnon-archaeological indirect evidence, as is discussed in chapter 9 byHarlan. Archaeology is not yet in a position to provide useful data onthe origin of the most important West African food crops; all that canbe offered at present is an account of the cultural background againstwhich these developments took place.

As has been summarized above, the currently available archaeologicalevidence provides little support for the hypothesis of Murdock (1959)that there was a major independent development of plant domesticationin the area surrounding the Niger headwaters. There is no evidence thatfood cultivation in this area dates back as far as about 5000 BC, the datepostulated by Murdock, nor that it predates the presence of farmingpeoples in the regions to the north and east. Because of this, and in viewof the general southward movements of people and cultures which havebeen shown to have occurred at this time, there are no grounds forbelieving that the domestication of the indigenous African crops notedabove took place independently of contact with establishedagriculturalists.

Dated occurrences of identifiable remains of domestic animals arecomparably sparse. Cattle and goats are attested in Ghana in contextsof the 'Kintampo culture' and related sites dated to between thefifteenth and the twelfth centuries BC. Cattle were likewise present ata slightly earlier date in the Tilemsi valley in Mali. The Daimasuccession in Bornu has yielded remains of both cattle and goats fromat least 600 BC onwards. The sparsely distributed West African rockpaintings which depict cattle are of little value to this discussion since

788


THE CONGO BASIN

they cannot be dated and since they are not sufficiently naturalistic toenable the breeds depicted to be identified with any degree of confidence.Of the osteological specimens recovered from archaeological contextsonly the Ghanaian examples have been intensively studied: both thecattle and goats are apparently closely comparable with those of thesouthern Sahara. The early West African domestic animals were clearlyderived from a Saharan origin. There is no evidence for the prehistoricdomestication of animal species indigenous to the sub-Saharan regions.

In view of the paucity of basic data, this conclusion that it wasprobably within the period 25001500 BC that food production achieveda significant impact upon the Later Stone Age cultures of WestAfrica - should be treated as highly tentative. Future research, evensingle finds, may well necessitate major revision of the chronology. Itis equally difficult to evaluate the scale and nature of this impact.Settlement sites of this time tend to be larger in area and, by implication,in population, than those of earlier phases of the Later Stone Age (Clark1972). An accompanying prolongation of site-use cannot yet bedemonstrated: in much of the Sudan zone today the predominantlypastoralist population makes considerable use of seasonal encampments.Here and further to the south the majority of the sites which have beeninvestigated are rock-shelters where repeated re-use may be assumedand where the duration of individual occupations cannot be ascertained.It may however be surmised that early food production in much ofwestern sub-Saharan Africa was more widespread and intensive, andsupported a greater population, than the available archaeologicalevidence would, at first sight, suggest. The communities occupying thisregion during the first millennium BC may also be regarded as havingmade a major contribution to the spread of food-production techniquesto other, more southerly, parts of the sub-continent.

T H E C O N G O B A S I N ( f i g . I I . i )

The paucity of archaeological data from the greater part of the Congobasin and its northern environs has been frequently emphasizedelsewhere in this volume. Away from the restricted areas - the lowerCongo, the Stanley (Malebo) Pool and the Dundo region of north-easternAngola - where the prehistoric sequence is relatively well known,virtually the only archaeological specimens which have been recordedare ground stone axes and celts broadly comparable to the West Africanspecimens noted above. Even these have not been recovered from dated

789



archaeological contexts; and their possible cultural associations mayonly be assessed indirectly. It is known that here, as in West Africa,such artifacts continued to be used until recent times, but theirintroduction may have taken place several millennia ago. Both theirtypological similarity to West African examples and their distribution,which is concentrated in the northern regions of the forest and whichdoes not extend as far as the northern Angola savanna, support thehypothesis that the origin of these artifacts is to be sought in the finalWest African Later Stone Age industries, discussed in the previoussection, or that they share a common source with the latter material.

The concentration of such artifacts in the Uele basin of north-easternZaire is remarkable (van Noten 1968). Finds attributed to this 'UelianIndustry' comprise principally some four hundred fine ground stonecelts (fig. 11.2.2930). There is no indication whether they are associatedwith chipped stone industries and/or pottery, or whether fhey are ofIron Age date. Other artifacts encountered in the same area, which mayor may not be correctly associated with the celts, comprise large boredstones and rock engravings which characteristically represent humanfeet, metal tools and apparently hafted stone axes. Grinding grooves,presumed to have been used in the manufacture of the celts, are alsoextensively distributed beside rivers and streams in the Uele basin. Theapparent contemporaneity of the representations of ground stone andmetal artifacts at once suggests the probability that the manufacture ofthe two types may have been contemporaneous. It is reliably knownthat ground and polished stone tools of this type were both used andmade in the Uele area as late as the nineteenth century AD, owing tothe local scarcity of iron. Beyond the possible existence of a pre-IronAge industry incorporating Uelian celts, no valid conclusions may beextracted from the limited data available. In particular it should be notedthat there is no evidence concerning the economy practised by theirmakers. Comparable celts have also been found, but less frequently, inother areas of Zaire, notably in Ituri and in parts of Shaba (Katanga).The associations of these artifacts are likewise unknown.

In lower Zaire, however, evidence is accumulating that ground stonecelts are to be associated with the final stages of the local Later StoneAge succession. Some prehistorians separate these industries from theTshitolian Complex and refer them to the ' Leopoldian Neolithic', sincethe celts appear to be an intrusive element in the local industrialsequence. The relevant sites are concentrated between the Congo Riverand the ZaireAngola border east of Matadi and west of Mbanza

790


THE CONGO BASIN

Ngungu (Thysville), but the majority of finds are of unassociatedspecimens from unstratified contexts. Many of them could have beenused as hoes rather than as axes. The only other artifacts which havebeen found associated with these celts are bored stones and crudelychipped quartz artifacts which display a marked deterioration intechnique in comparison with those of previous industries. Pottery,including flat-based forms, is now known to be associated with the'Leopoldian Neolithic' from at least 200 BC. Rare ground celtsencountered on the Plain of Kinshasa may represent the easternmostfringes of this industry. Here, pottery, which is largely undecorated, alsoappears to have been manufactured in the closing centuries of the firstmillennium BC, being dated to between the fourth and the secondcentury at a site near the source of the Funa River (Cahen and de Maret1974, de Maret 1975, van Moorsel 1968, Mortelmans 1962).

As is discussed in greater detail in volume 2 of this History, there areindications of the presence in the lower Congo area of a pottery traditionakin to the Southern African Early Iron Age Industrial Complex. It isnot yet known whether the Funa River pottery is related to that of thecontemporary ' Leopoldian Neolithic' or to the undated material withEarly Iron Age affinities.

Further to the south, in the relatively well-explored Dundo area ofnorth-eastern Angola, ground stone artifacts have not been recorded;and pottery is not attested in the local archaeological sequence beforethe inception of the local Iron Age. The Tshitolian industries hereappear to have continued well into the first millennium AD, andprobably into even more recent times in some areas. There are noarchaeological indications that their makers adopted any form of food-production techniques during pre-Iron Age times. It has, however, beenargued that the pronounced silting of the river valleys which took placein this area during the first millennium BC cannot be attributed to aknown climatic cause and must therefore have been due to increasedsoil erosion caused by intensive clearing of the woodlands on the valleyslopes, presumably for agricultural purposes (Clark 1968). If this canbe demonstrated to have been the case, it could indicate the presenceof farming techniques in a Later Stone Age Tshitolian context, severalcenturies prior to the local advent of the Iron Age, by peoples whosematerial culture apparently lacked pottery, ground stone artifacts andother 'Neolithic' characteristics. The hypothesis must for the presentbe regarded as unproven, pending the detailed investigation of settle-ment sites attributable to this period. The difficulty is exacerbated by

791



the generally poor preservation of organic material at archaeologicalsites in the Dundo region. Here, as elsewhere in the Congo basin, pre-IronAge food production cannot be regarded as proven by the presentarchaeological record.

Material culture from Later Stone Age sites of the last few centuriesBC in lower Zaire exhibits much stronger affinities than was apparentat earlier periods with the material culture of West Africa, particularlyof Cameroun and Equatorial Guinea. It is not clear to what extent theseaffinities extend to the south of the Congo River. They are not apparentin the Dundo region of north-eastern Angola. Direct evidence ofprehistoric economy is totally lacking from these regions and, while itis tempting to postulate a dispersal of food-production techniques fromthe north before the close of the first millennium BC, tangibleconfirmation of this has not yet been recovered. Here, as in West Africa,there is no sharp industrial break at this time; new elements, notablypottery and ground stone celts, are added to the aggregates, but thereis little accompanying change in the chipped stone artifacts whosetypology shows a marked degree of continuity with that of earlierphases. Both in lower Zaire and in the Dundo region, the local variantof the Tshitolian tradition appears to have survived the arrival of thenew elements with only comparatively minor modification. It istempting to conclude that population movement probably played arelatively insignificant part in the dissemination of cultural traits at thistime.

There is evidence that the drier conditions which prevailed in thelower Congo and Stanley Pool areas in post-Pleistocene times continuedthrough much of the first millennium BC ; it may be argued that the forestthen covered a less extensive area than it does today. It is thus possibleto envisage a southward spread of cereal (principally millet) agricultureand of the cultivation of various food plants. No confirmatory evidencehas, however, so far been forthcoming, and the question of pre-IronAge agriculture in the Dundo region remains open pending futureresearch. The chronology of the introduction of domestic animals intothis part of Africa likewise remains to be ascertained: it may be regardedas inherently improbable that cattle at any rate could have beenintroduced to the southern savanna by a route which leads directlythrough the equatorial forests. Further discussion of this problem maybe postponed until a later section of this chapter.

792


EASTERN AFRICA

^ . .Lukenya

ngomafr-. Ura

3O|

Hyrax - \. Hill \

Njoro r\L. Nekuru \River V Cave Long's Drift v

ave""1*" "Stables Drift \^ t "Gamble's Cave %

# .IlkekProspect Farm

50

Fig. n . j Eastern sub-Saharan Africa, showing sites mentioned in the text.

EASTERN AFRICA (fig. I I . 3 )

In contrast with the areas already discussed, eastern Africa has provideda useful quantity of data relative to the early spread of food production,although the geographical distribution of this information is mostuneven. The early pastoralists of the highlands of south-western Kenya

793



and northern Tanzania are one of the best-known pre-Iron Agefood-producing populations of sub-Saharan Africa. Other areas notably Ethiopia and the Horn - have to date been less well served byresearchers.

The Nile Valley

In chapter 6, attention was drawn to the evidence from north-easternsub-Saharan Africa, most specifically from the valley and basin of theupper Nile, for the presence of semi-permanent settlement sitesdependent on the exploitation of richly concentrated natural resources.These settlements may date back to the seventh millennium BC ; and inNubia there is evidence for comparable settlements at a significantlyearlier period (Clark 1971b). In the area with which we are hereconcerned, the best-known such settlement is that of Early Khartoum.This is seen as a representative of an enduring fishing adaptationwidely distributed across the southern Sahara (Sutton 1974). At EarlyKhartoum pottery was abundant, but there was no evidence for thepractice of any form of food production. It is, however, in the contextof subsequent phases of this industrial complex that such practices, sofar as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, first become apparent.

One of the best-known and most informative sites of incipient foodproduction in this region remains that of Esh-Shaheinab, excavatedsome thirty years ago, 50 km north of Omdurman (Arkell 1953). Onlyone major phase of occupation was indicated, although the site hassuffered considerably from later disturbance and erosion. No evidencewas recovered of contemporary burials within the settlement area, norwere there any traces of structures other than hearths paved withsandstone lumps. On typological grounds, it is clear that the materialculture of Esh-Shaheinab is related to, and later than, that from EarlyKhartoum described in chapter 6. This has been confirmed strati-graphically at El-Qoz on the southern edge of the Khartoum conur-bation. At Esh-Shaheinab (fig. 11.4) abundant crescents and backedblades, very similar to those from Early Khartoum, were recovered.Bone harpoon-heads now included examples pierced for the attachmentof a line instead of being notched as were those at the earlier site. Shellfish-hooks are characteristic of Esh-Shaheinab but unrepresented atEarly Khartoum, as are neatly chipped adzes of rhyolite, some partiallyground, and axe-like implements of ground bone; the last two typesappear to have been used hafted. Pottery from this site shows acontinuation of the ' dotted wavy-line' style which made its appearance

794


EASTERN AFRICA

1 Scraper2 Crescent3 Stone celt4 Bone celt

(After Arkell 195})

2 cm

Fig. 11.4 Artifacts from Esh-Shaheinab.j Shell hook6 Bone harpoon-head7-8 Sherds

in the later part of the Early Khartoum sequence. It is distinguishedfrom that of the latter site by being burnished; black-topped vesselscomparable to Badarian examples also make their appearance. Beads ofamazonite, which was presumably brought from Tibesti or from theeastern desert of Egypt, were made on the site. The abundant bonefragments are primarily of wild species. A small type of domestic goatand a possible sheep were recognized but these account for only some2 % of the faunal remains, suggesting that the economic importance ofthese domesticates was minimal. A variety of fishes is also represented.A nut of the oil palm (Elaeisguineensis) was recovered from the deposits.

The date of the occupation of Esh-Shaheinab has been the subjectof much controversy but radiocarbon dating indicates an age in the

795



second half of the fourth millennium BC. At the nearby Kadero site,Krzyzaniak (1978) has recovered faunal remains 90% of which areaccounted for by domestic species, primarily cattle. The associatedpottery appears to be somewhat more evolved than that from Esh-Shaheinab. Radiocarbon dates from Kadero indicate that that site wasoccupied towards the end of the fourth millennium BC. If these datesare not significantly in error, the two very different economies atEsh-Shaheinab and Kadero could be interpreted as a reflection of twodifferent ecological situations one riverine and the other in grasslandaway from the Nile. Alternatively, if Esh-Shaheinab is older it would fillan intermediate position between Early Khartoum and Kadero, thewhole representing one long cultural continuum.

Further evidence for food production in the southern Sudan is notforthcoming until much later, Iron Age, times. At Jebel Moya andrelated sites such as Jebel et-Tomat, cultivated sorghum is attested inthe first few centuries before and after the beginning of the present era,along with small domestic cattle, dogs and small stock (Clark andStemler 1975).

Fishing communities such as are best represented in the Nile Valleyat the sites of Early Khartoum and Esh-Shaheinab had an extensivedistribution through the southern Sahara. Their characteristic types ofpottery and bonework, in particular, may be traced westwards as faras southern Mali and possibly as far as Senegal. In chapter 8, Campshas discussed the spread of food production through the Saharanregions and demonstrated that pastoralism was widespread through thisarea by, at the latest, the early fourth millennium BC. TO the north, inthe Ennedi and adjacent regions of north-eastern Tchad a valuable datedsequence of pottery styles has been elucidated, but little is so far knownof their economic associations. This material is described in chapter 8,but it is noted here in view of its possible connection with the EarlyIron Age wares of eastern and southern Africa, described below(Bailloud 1969, de Bayle des Hermens 1975, Coppens 1969, Courtin1969, Hays 1975).

It is thus becoming increasingly apparent that the practice ofpastoralism in both western and eastern sub-Saharan Africa shares acommon ancestry. Nor were the connections of these widespread fishingcommunities restricted to the regions lying to the west of the Nile valley.As will be shown below, there are also indications that they played asignificant role in the introduction of food production into moresoutherly parts of East Africa. Before proceeding to discuss the

796


EASTERN AFRICA

evidence for this it will be convenient to give an account of the earlyfood-producing cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn.

Ethiopia and the Horn

Ever since the work of Vavilov in the 1930s, it has been recognizedas probable that highland Ethiopia played an important part in the earlyspread of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. So far, remarkably littlearchaeological research has been conducted there which throws lighton the relevant periods (Vavilov 1951).

Considerable interest therefore attaches to four sites of semi-permanent villages in the Agordat area of Eritrea which have beenprovisionally attributed to the second millennium BC (Arkell 1954). Allthe sites appear to have been broadly contemporary, but in the absenceof stratigraphic evidence it is not known whether there is more thanone phase represented in the series as a whole. The aggregates(fig. 11.5.14) contain ground stone mace-heads and flat perforatedstone discs as well as a variety of celts, most of which are ground allover. Some of the flared cutting-edges and double-lugged forms of thecelts are stated, on somewhat inconclusive grounds, to be derived frommetal prototypes. There are small stone palettes and dishes, some ofwhich are elaborated by knobs on the edges, and also a variety of stonebracelets, beads, lip-plugs and pendants. The abundant pottery includesvessels decorated with applied blobs of clay; many others havethickened rims and are decorated with false-relief chevron stamping andwith incised or grooved designs. Probable food production wasindicated by upper and lower grindstones and a stone figurine of ananimal which is compared with representations of domestic types foundon Nubian C-group sites. It has been suggested that these sites, withtheir Nubian affinities, may be connected with the initial introductionof cereal agriculture onto the Ethiopian highlands, but clear archae-ological evidence for this assertion is so far lacking. Faunal remains, ifpresent at the Agordat sites, appear not to have been collected. The midsecond-millennium BC date which has been postulated for these sitesrests on the similarity of the double-lugged stone axes to Egyptiancopper specimens of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Dynasties.

Gradual desiccation of the Sahara, noted above as a significant factorin the inception of food production in West Africa, may thus be seenas also contributing to the movement onto the Eritrean plateau, aroundthe first half of the second millennium BC, of communities generally

797



16

i 2 cm

798


EASTERN AFRICA

regarded as related to the C-group population of western Nubia. It hasbeen suggested that, both in their Nubian homelands and in Ethiopia,these folk may have been cereal cultivators although, at least in theformer area, it appears that their economy was predominantly pastoral.Eritrean rock paintings depicting humpless long-horned cattle maybelong to this period. It has been proposed, on somewhat inconclusivegrounds, that these paintings may predate the pre-Aksumite Semiticincursions into northern Ethiopia which probably took place somewhatbefore the middle of the first millennium BC. Comparable paintings arefound in Danakil, in Harar Province, and in Somalia, and for these asimilar date has been proposed (Anfray 1968, Arkell 1961, Graziosi1964).

Further to the east, in Tigre, as at Quiha near Makalle, undatedpottery-associated Later Stone Age aggregates are recorded. At Gobedrarock-shelter near Aksum coarse pottery first appears during theflorescence of a microlithic industry which was subsequently displacedby an aggregate in which small steep scrapers are the dominant tool type.The latter industry is known to have survived into the ChristianAksumite period (Clark 1954, Phillipson 1977a). Seeds of finger millet{Eleusine coracana) have been identified from the level tentatively datedto the fourth or third millennium BC, which is marked by the earliestpottery in the Gobedra sequence (Phillipson 1977a).

At the time of writing the only other direct archaeological evidenceconcerning early Ethiopian food crops is that derived from two cavesin Begemeder Province, east of Lake Tana (Dombrowski 1970).Unfortunately, in neither case did the occupation extend further backthan the first millennium BC. Natchabiet yielded two successive aggre-gates; the lower one appeared to represent several temporary occupa-tions during which pottery and worked stone, notably scrapers, weredeposited, apparently during the closing centuries of the first millenniumBC. The lower level of the nearby Lalibela cave is dated to a slightlyearlier period but yielded a comparable aggregate. Remains of food

Fig. 11.5

1-4 Palette, animal figurine, stone ring and 9-10 Pottery beaker and stone platter fromcelt from Agordat sites Hyrax Hill

5-8 Artifacts from Njoro River Cave 11-12 Stone bowls from Prospect Farm(j Comb decorated pottery; and Keringet Cave6 Retouched/modified blade; 7 End scraper; 15-14 Pottery from Narosura8 Lunate) 15-16 Kansyore ware(Nos 1-4 after Arkell (1954). J-8 after M. D. Leakey and L. S. B. Leakey (1950), 9-10 after M. D.Leakey (1945), 11-12 after Odner (i97z), 1314 after Cohen (1970) and 15-16 after Chapman

799



crops of Near Eastern origin barley, chickpea and some legumes have been identified in the lower levels of Lalibela cave, where thereis also inconclusive evidence for the presence of cattle and small stock.At both sites the upper occupations are attributed to the Iron Age. Wehave no evidence whether or not these crops were introduced to theEthiopian highlands significantly earlier than their occurrence atLalibela cave, and it is not yet clear whether the associated artifactaggregate also has significant external associations or whether its rootsare more firmly set in the indigenous industrial tradition of the areasurrounding the Blue Nile headwaters.

In the southern Afar rift and around Harar, pottery-associated LaterStone Age industries have recently been investigated (J. D. Clark,personal communication). In the former area these stone aggregates aremarked by a proliferation of scrapers and are dated to around the middleof the second millennium BC. There are good reasons to believe (thoughprimary evidence for this is so far lacking) that the development of thisindustry is to be correlated with the introduction of domestic animals.Of particular interest is the discovery on a site of this period near LakeBesaka of part of a stone bowl comparable to those found on earlypastoralist sites in the East African Rift Valley far to the south.

Virtually the only other piece of significant archaeological evidencerelative to the early food-producing societies of Ethiopia consists of aseries of poorly recorded finds, apparently mostly from surface orunstratified contexts, from the southern and south-western parts of thecountry. M. D. Leakey has drawn attention to the similarity betweenthe ground stone celts of Kenya and those from Wollega and the TuliKapi plateau of south-western Ethiopia: unfortunately further detailsof the typology and associations of the latter specimens are not available(M. D. Leakey 1943). With regard to this area, Bailloud (1959, p. 24)notes that

an agricultural community, using principally stone tools, seems however tohave existed in a closely defined area in the south-west of Ethiopia. This isdemonstrated in the unpublished records of Father Azais' 1929-30 expedition.In this region axes and hoes of chipped or polished stone are extraordinarilycommon, in contrast to their extreme rarity everywhere else in Ethiopia; theseare tools clearly intended for agricultural use. The axes are associated withabundant decorated pottery and, in some sites, with rare metal objects.Grinders have also been recorded. There are here elements of an agriculturalneolithic culture which, according to Father Azais, extended over all ofsouth-western Ethiopia from Beni-Changoul in the north to Lake Rudolf inthe south.

800


EASTERN AFRICA

It is clear that further research on sites of this period in southernEthiopia is an urgent priority.

In a valuable summary of current knowledge concerning the economicprehistory of Ethiopia, Simoons (1965) noted that the meagreness ofthe archaeological record necessitated an almost total reliance uponindirect evidence. Simoons argued that in northern Ethiopia cereal-plough agriculture may predate the Semitic-speaking arrivals of the firstmillennium BC, a view which is supported by linguistic evidence.Cereals thus cultivated would have included ringer millet (Eleusinecoracand), tef (Eragrostis tef) and sorghum. The date of theintroduction of wheat and barley remains uncertain (although mostauthorities would now disagree with Murdock's (1959) contention thatthey were introduced by Semitic-speaking peoples). Certainly, inEthiopia, these south-west Asian cereals were able to flourish and toadapt, resulting in great abundance of varieties of wheat and barley, aswell as in the development of flax as a food-cereal crop. Simoons alsosuggests that enset (Ensete edule), the staple food of the Sidama and someneighbouring peoples, was originally domesticated in southern highlandEthiopia. These proposals imply a basic economic- dichotomy of theCushitic-speaking inhabitants of Ethiopia during the last two millenniaBC, a hypothesis which one would expect to find reflected in thearchaeological record of the period, when this comes to be investigated.No traces of the crops which are considered to be indigenous Ethiopiandomesticates have yet been recovered in the archaeological record oftheir putative homeland, although teff was present at Hajar bin Humeidin South Yemen from at least the first millennium BC (van Beek 1969).

An independent approach to this subject is made possible by recordspreserved in Egypt. If the Punt of the Ancient Egyptians has beencorrectly identified with the coastlands of the southern part of the RedSea (see chapter 12, fig. 12.27), then the relief carvings of the EighteenthDynasty mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahariprovide confirmation for the presence there of domestic cattle by thefifteenth century BC, as well as for cereal cultivation (Naville 1898).Although an origin for these cattle east of the Red Sea is by no meansimpossible, an African ancestry may be indicated by the Saharanaffinities of much of the material culture of the Somalian industrieswhich are tentatively attributed to this period. It is clear that there is asyet no indication that food production in Ethiopia and the Horn ofAfrica necessarily predates contact with pastoralists and agriculturalistsfrom the Nile Valley regions to the west.

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East AfricaThe Later Stone Age pastoralists of Kenya and Tanzania are one of thebest known such groups in sub-Saharan Africa. Chapter 6 hassummarized the evidence for the Later Stone Age industries of theKenyan and northern Tanzanian highlands and adjacent parts of the RiftValley. It was seen that by the second millennium BC these industriesshowed a considerable degree of regional typological variation, whichwas at least in part dependent upon the nature of the raw materialsavailable to the various communities. The influence of material on thetool types was, however, subsidiary to that of the cultural and physicalisolation imposed upon the various populations by the physicalenvironment.

Of particular relevance here is the southward extension into EastAfrica of economies based upon the more intensive exploitation offreshwater resources. Bone harpoons and pottery closely allied to thosefrom Early Khartoum occur at several localities near Lake Rudolf whilea single example is reported from as far to the south as Gamble's Cavenear Nakuru. Some at least of these Kenyan sites appear to have beenoccupied as early as the seventh millennium BC, a time when the watersof the East African lakes stood at a high level. These early fishermenevidently adopted a semi-sedentary existence based upon their relianceon the rich fishing and fowling provided by the high waters of the RiftValley lakes (Butzer et al. 1972, Sutton 1974). While the excavations atEsh-Shaheinab indicate that domestic animals were adopted by the NileValley fishers of the central Sudan at least as early as the fourthmillennium BC, there is as yet no evidence that pastoral pursuits spread,before the third millennium BC, to the related sites around Lake Rudolfor further to the south. It is not until around 2500 BC that indubitableevidence for any form of food production appears in the archaeologicalrecord of northern Kenya, while corresponding material does notappear further south until slightly before 1000 BC.

It should, in this context, be emphasized that little is yet knownabout the archaeology of southern Kenya during the fourth and thirdmillennia BC. It is probable that the water level in the Rift Valley lakesremained at a high level and it has been suggested that fishingsettlements of this time may be marked by the presence of a characteristicpottery type known as Nderit ware (formerly ' Gumban A', see Sutton(1974); the name 'Gumban A' is an unfortunate one, taken from thatof a traditionally recalled pre-Gikuyu population of central Kenya,

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though there can in fact be no connection between this type of potteryand the Gumba).

Nderit ware was first recovered at Stable's Drift some 40 km southof Nakuru. It has not been reported from south of the Serengeti Plain,and its most northerly occurrence is in the Ileret area east of LakeRudolf. Nowhere is it adequately dated.

In the Lake Rudolf basin, and further to the east in the North Kenyaplains, extensive settlement sites are currently being investigated, as atNorth Horr. These appear to date from the third millennium BConwards and have yielded microlithic stone industries which mayhave their roots in those of the earlier fishing settlements described inchapter 6. Some of the pottery shows traits reminiscent of that fromthe earlier sites, as well as features which may be regarded as ancestralto those of the later pastoral sites further to the south. By at least thesecond millennium, stone bowls also occur, thus providing a linkbetween the occurrences of these artifacts in southern Ethiopia andthose in the Rift Valley highlands further to the south. It is probablethat these sites represent the first adoption of a pastoral economy in EastAfrica.

During the second millennium BC it appears that the trend towardssettled existence was intensified and spread to adjacent areas by theintroduction of pastoralism and, much less certainly, agriculture.Although, as will be argued below, the techniques of food productionwere almost certainly brought into the Rift Valley highlands fromelsewhere, their introduction is unlikely to have been the result of anylarge-scale population movement. The new techniques were imposedonto heterogeneous pre-existing cultures which by and large maintainedtheir separate identities into later periods. Such earlier lithic industriesas those conventionally classed as Eburran, Elmenteitan, ' Wilton', etccontinued relatively unchanged, while the manufacture and use ofpottery became more general. The distribution of the various ceramicstyles seems to be at least partly independent of the currently recognizedsubdivisions of the lithic industries with which they are associated.Further introductions, following more or less the same pattern, werethe stone bowls and platters which are widely distributed in the RiftValley areas of the East African Later Stone Age pastoralists, but whichare by no means ubiquitous.

Burial sites, occupied rock-shelters and open village sites are allknown and attributed to those Later Stone Age pastoralists. The earliestdated site is at Njoro River Cave near Nakuru (fig. 11.5.5-8), which

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has yielded a single radiocarbon date of about iooo BC (M. D. Leakeyand L. S. B. Leakey 1950). The cave contained a large number ofcremated burials associated with an obsidian industry characterized bylong blades resembling those described as ' Elmenteitan'. Other findsincluded stone bowls, pestles and mortars (one of each of whichappeared to have been buried with each cremation), as well aspredominantly undecorated pottery. Charred fragments of gourd(Lagenaria vulgaris) and the carbonized remains of an elaboratelydecorated wooden vessel (which ethnographic parallels suggest maypossibly have been used for storing milk) were also recovered. Therewas a rich series of beads and pendants made from chalcedony and otherlocal hard stones. At Keringet Cave near Molo, cremated burialsassociated with stone bowls (fig. 11.5.12) recall those from Njoro RiverCave but belong to a somewhat later period, to the second half of thefirst millennium BC. An earlier occupation of the site, characterized byimpressed pottery, is dated to about 1000 BC (Cohen 1970).

The Prolonged Drift site (close to Long's Drift, the type-site of theKenya 'Wilton' as described by L. S. B. Leakey (1931, pp. 176-7)) hasrecently been demonstrated to comprise an extensive midden coveringan area of between 400 and 450 sq. m. The midden yielded a rich'Wilton' stone industry dominated by a large series of crescents and bydistinctive short convex end-scrapers. Fragments of pottery and of stonebowls were recovered, together with a ground stone axe and a boredobsidian bead. Domestic cattle are represented in small quantities butthe fauna was predominantly wild. The excavators consider that theinhabitants of the site were sedentary, and postulate a date in the regionof 1000 BC (Isaac, Merrick and Nelson 1972). A comparable habitationsite at Prospect Farm, Nakuru, where bones of domestic cattle arelikewise attested, has been dated to between the mid eleventh and midseventh century BC and would thus appear to be broadly contemporarywith the Njoro River Cave site (fig. 11.5.11).

A further occupation site of the mid first millennium BC has beeninvestigated beside the Narosura River in the Mau escarpment southof Narok (Odner 1972). The settlement appears to have covered about8000 sq. m; and the discovery of many post-holes indicates the presenceof semi-permanent village structures. The plan of only one suc

1-chapter11

Documents

spread of food production

presence of food

food cultivation

cambridge histories

available evidence

nonarchaeological evidence

production techniques

therelevant evidence