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This article demonstrates that the interdisciplinary research that has been conducted on Bokoni under the auspices of the 500 Year Initiative has had significant outcomes. We have created a more periodised account of the development of the settlements. Narrow and ethnically determined conceptions of identity have been subjected to critique and the notion that specific pottery forms are necessarily markers of specific cultures or linguistic units has been challenged. Conventional accounts of the nature of Iron Age agriculture have been substantially qualified. At the same time, a host of new questions have been developed around the appropriate unit of study for these communities and the economic and political dynamics that shaped their rise and decline.

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Earlier work on the terraced settlements of the Bokoni area (16 th to 19 th century, Mpumalanga province, South Africa) focussed on the homesteads, their contents, layout and chronology. This paper suggests a terminology and typology of agrarian structures in Bokoni in order to improve comparative approaches in Africa and beyond. The typology and an excavation of the terracing have made possible preliminary conclusions relevant for the further analysis of the terracing and stone-walling in Bokoni. The terracing developed incrementally, whereby cultivation, stone-clearing and terracing were intermixed processes. This is supported both by the organic content in a section of a terrace and by a phytolith analysis. The phytolith analysis furthermore indicated that maize was cultivated on the terraces, but this should be seen as a pilot study only, and presence of maize in Bokoni must be tested with other archaeobotanical methods.Resumé: Des recherches antérieurs sur les paysage de terrasses de la région Bokoni (16e-19e siècles dans la province de Mpumalanga, Afrique du Sud) se sont concentrés sur les fermes, leur organisation spatiale et de la chronologie. Nous proposons ici une terminologie et une typologie des éléments agraires dans Bokoni afin d'améliorer les approches comparatives en Afrique et au-delà. Cette typologie et une excavation d´une terrasse a rendu possible conclusions préliminaires sur la croissance du terrassement et les murs de pierre dans Bokoni. Le terrassement a été développé incrémentielle, de sorte que la préparation du sol, l´épierrement et le terrassement ont été processus mélangés. La conclusion est soutenu à la fois par le contenu organique dans une section d'une terrasse et d'une analyse des phytolithes. L'analyse des phytolithes a en outre indiqué que le maïs a été cultivé sur les terrasses, mais cela devrait être considéré comme une conclusion préliminaire seulement, et la présence de maïs dans Bokoni doit être testé avec des autres méthodes archaeobotaniques.