Groundbreaking finds challenges trade dates

New research in the Kruger National Park shows that humans once occupied the area about 1 500 years ago with artifacts dating back to before those of Mapungubwe, where the oldest form of human life was found.

New research undertaken by an archaeological team from the University of Pretoria (UP) shows that the Letaba region in the Kruger National Park is key to unravelling the earliest links between southern Africa and the larger Indian Ocean world.

In 2021 and 2022, UP’s Department of Archaeology started new excavations on two 8th–10th century Iron Age settlements along the Letaba River. The sites were initially discovered by UP archaeologists in 1979, but a revisit of the material in the department’s collections prompted renewed excavations.

"We have been finding some of the earliest evidence for sustained trade with the Indian Ocean world,” said UP anthropologist Dr Xandor Antonites.

“Some of the artifacts that we are finding predate Mapungubwe by about 400 years and some of these artifacts are late Persian, where modern-day Iran is, or early Islamic.

"The evidence for that are these glazed ceramics, and the only other place we've found them was in KwaZulu-Natal," Antonites said.

These early Islamic ceramics are exceptionally rare in southern Africa and date to the earliest phases of long-distance international trade. Other important evidence for early trade includes Asian glass beads, imported seashells, and the earliest known evidence for local cotton spinning – a technology imported from the East African coast. This burgeoning long-distance trade in turn stimulated intensive big game-hunting activities along the Letaba – with a primary focus on large herding species such as buffalo, zebra, blue wildebeest, and giraffe. Other large species also targeted include elephant, black rhino, roan, and kudu.

“Our research suggests that animal products, such as skins, pelts, shells, horns, and ivory, were likely exchanged for exotic trade goods by traders from the East African coast,” Antonites commented. This points to a dynamic landscape between 1 000 and 1 200 years ago, where early international trade was intricately linked to the exploitation of animal resources. The research remains ongoing and groundbreaking finds are expected from upcoming seasons of excavations.

Additional information from Business Insider SA