Archaeological Excavations at Bosutswe: Trade, Cattle and Transformations in the Political Economy of the Eastern Kalahari between 700 and 1700 CE

在国家科学基金会的支持下，James Denbow博士和合作者将在博茨瓦纳卡拉哈里沙漠东部边缘的Bosutswe遗址进行两个考古发掘季节。 博苏茨韦遗址是非洲南部最长的铁器时代遗址之一，其规模仅可与赞比西河以南的另外两个现代中心：马蓬古布韦和大津巴布韦相媲美。 因此，发掘提供了一个几乎独一无二的机会来衡量从公元700年到1700年的一千年期间的社会，文化，经济和生态变化。 该项目汇集了来自美国、博茨瓦纳和南非的考古学、冶金学、稳定同位素分析、骨学和考古动物学方面的国际专家团队。 新的和创新的方法，包括稳定同位素和微量元素源跟踪金属，炉渣和合金，石器，陶瓷，甚至狩猎和国内游戏，将被用来检查有关的问题，交易网络的运作以外的网站。 发掘将集中在三个主要问题上：1）调查南部非洲最早的青铜制造和贸易事件之一; 2）分析早期国家发展的转变是如何发生的，因为牛，然后是贵金属的长途贸易，导致该地区政治经济的重大重组; 3）考察这些变化不仅影响了农牧社会的内部动态，而且还创造了与邻近猎人和采集者的新关系。 这项研究很重要，因为它将揭示南部非洲复杂社会的发展，以及导致该地区当代社会形成的历史轨迹。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. James Denbow and collaborators will conduct two field seasons of archaeological excavation at the site of Bosutswe on the eastern fringes of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. The site of Bosutswe has one of the longest Iron Age sequences in southern Africa, comparable in scale to only two other contemporary centers south of the Zambezi: Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe. The excavations thus provide an almost unique opportunity to measure social, cultural, economic, and ecological change over a thousand year period from 700 to 1700 CE. The project brings together an international team of specialists in archaeology, metallurgy, stable isotope analysis, osteology, and archeo-zoology from the United States, Botswana, and South Africa. New and innovative methods that include stable isotope and trace element source-tracking of metals, slags and alloys, lithics, ceramics, and even hunted and domestic game, will be used to examine questions related to the operation of exchange networks beyond the site. The excavations will focus on three major issues: 1) an investigation of one of the earliest incidences of bronze manufacture and trade in southern Africa; 2) an analysis of how transformations in early state development occurred as cattle, and then long distance trade in precious metals, led to major restructurings in the political economy of the region; and 3) an examination of the ways in which these changes affected not only the internal dynamics of agro-pastoralist societies, but also created new sets of relations with neighboring hunters and gatherers. This research is important because it will shed new light on the development of complex societies in southern Africa, and on the historical trajectories that have led to contemporary social formations in the region.