Excavations at Bosutswe, Kaitshe and Lose: Transformations in Political Economy along an Important Early Trade Corridor from the East Coast to the Far Interior

在国家科学基金会的支持下，James Denbow博士和来自美国，博茨瓦纳和南非的国际团队将在博茨瓦纳东部和中部进行三个考古研究季节。该团队汇集了陶瓷和石器分析，多稳定同位素分析，考古动物学，光学岩相学和冶金分析方面的专家，以解决洲际和洲际贸易和气候变化的影响及其对民族和国家形成过程的影响。将挖掘三个分层较深的遗址，每个遗址都跨越公元900年至1600年之间的重要时期，当时马蓬古布韦和大津巴布韦的第一个地区国家是从早期的酋长制发展起来的，这些酋长制基于对牛的控制。虽然这些大型中心控制着黄金、象牙和其他奢侈品从内陆到沿海的流动，但人们对它们如何影响边缘地区定居点的政治和社会动态知之甚少。这些发掘将首次提供有关新兴国家和较小的次区域政治体之间如何谈判这种关系的详细信息。这项研究特别重要，因为早期在博苏茨韦的挖掘工作提供了初步证据，表明商品化的洲际奴隶制可能早在公元1000年就影响了该地区。这将对次大陆的社会和政治发展产生深远的影响，为早期国家形成的政治经济学提供新的视角。它还将以深刻的方式影响我们对该地区民族起源的历史理解。多稳定同位素和微量元素分析将用于识别和跟踪该地区人员和货物的流动。被挖掘的地点，Bosutswe，Kaitshe和Lose，位于明显不同的环境中，横跨从东海岸到遥远内陆的唯一一条水源充足的路线。由于每个地点都跨越了南部非洲国家形成的整个时期，因此它们是测试气候，经济和政治变化问题的理想选择。这些遗址在这方面是独一无二的，因此将有助于人们对社会和政治关系如何在次大陆环境中谈判而不是强加于人的新理解，否则就会被马蓬古布韦和大津巴布韦等大型中心所主导。这项研究的学术价值包括深入调查从印度洋到遥远内陆的一条重要贸易走廊沿着的互动和贸易的社会和政治影响。这可能包括在南部非洲发现的商品化奴隶制的最早证据。该项目不仅将产生数据来测试气候变化、不同的经济战略和不同的自然地理条件如何影响土地使用决策，还将调查在不同环境中生活的农牧民、觅食者和牧民之间如何谈判经济和社会关系。更广泛的影响包括培训来自博茨瓦纳、南非和美国的本科生和研究生，从而提高他们的科学准备和能力。博茨瓦纳的大学和博物馆同事将受益于扩大培训需求和经验的机会，帮助他们履行教育和遗产管理职责。

With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. James Denbow and an international team from the United States, Botswana, and South Africa will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research in eastern and central Botswana. The team brings together specialists in ceramic and lithic analysis, multi-stable isotope analysis, archeo-zoology, optical petrography, and metallurgical analysis to address the impact of intra- and intercontinental trade and climate change and their impact on processes of ethnic and state formation. Three deeply stratified sites will be excavated, each spanning the important period between CE 900 and 1600 when the first regional states of Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe developed from earlier chiefdoms based on control over cattle. While these large centers controlled the flow of gold, ivory, and other luxury commodities from the interior to the coast, little is known about how they impacted the political and social dynamics of regional settlements on their margins. The excavations will provide the first detailed knowledge of how such relations were negotiated between emerging states and smaller sub-regional polities. The research is particularly important because earlier excavations at Bosutswe produced tentative evidence that commoditized inter-continental slavery may have impacted the region as early as CE 1000. This would have had profound implications on the social and political development of the sub-continent, casting new light on the political economy of early state formation. It would also impact in profound ways our historical understanding of ethnogenesis in the region. Multi-stable isotope and trace element analyses will be used to identify and track movements of people and goods across the region. The sites to be excavated, Bosutswe, Kaitshe, and Lose, lie in significantly different environments astride one of the only well-watered routes from the East Coast into the far interior. Because each of the sites spans the entire period of state formation in southern Africa, they are ideal for testing questions about climatic, economic, and political changes over time. The sites are unique in this respect and will thus contribute importantly to new understandings of how social and political relationships were negotiated rather than imposed in a sub-continental context otherwise dominated by the large centers such as Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe. The intellectual merits of the research include an in-depth investigation of the social and political impact of interaction and trade along an important trade corridor from the Indian Ocean to the far interior. This may have included the earliest evidence of commoditized slavery found in southern Africa. Not only will the project produce data to test how climate change, varying economic strategies, and different physiographic conditions affected land use decisions, it will investigate how economic and social relationships were negotiated between agro-pastoralists, foragers, and herder-foragers living these in differing environmentals. Broader impacts include training of undergraduate and graduate students from Botswana, South Africa and the USA, thereby enhancing their scientific preparation and abilities. University and Museum colleagues in Botswana will benefit from opportunities to expand their training needs and experience, helping them to meet their educational and heritage management responsibilities.