Intensification in Context: Archaeological Approaches to Precolonial Field Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa

Stump, Daryl

doi:10.1080/00020184.2010.499201

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…If archaeology is to contribute seriously and meaningfully to these debates to improve policy decisions on local and international scales, then we must consider approaches to tackle all dimensions of food security in the past (Reed and Ryan 2019). One common critique of colonial and neo-colonial food projects is that, even if well intentioned, they proceed from assumptions (based on insufficient data) about the state of food security in the Global South before colonial periods (Stump 2010b). It is therefore paramount that we do not fall into the same trap.…”

Section: And References Therein)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security

et al. 2019

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Section: And References Therein)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security

et al. 2019

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“…The construction of terraced field systems occurs in several locations in Africa (Grove and Sutton 1989;Lang and Stump 2017;Stump 2010;Widgren 2000Widgren , 2010, but within our area and period of interest (western Africa up to AD 1500) this system appears to be limited to the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon. Other terraced regions of western Africa, such as the Kofyar in Nigeria (Netting 1993), were likely terraced some time after our study period, and several of these are documented by AD 1800 (Widgren 2018).…”

Section: Terrace Farmingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…5) and the likely expansion of the agricultural terrace systems in the region (MacEachern 2012a, b;MacEachern, Djoussou and Janson 2010). This type of terraced-farming system grew in importance and appeared in other areas of the continent in the following centuries (Grove and Sutton 1989;Stump 2010;Widgren 2000Widgren , 2010, and is still an important feature of the Mandara landscape today.…”

Section: Ad 1500mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversification, Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500

et al. 2019

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Many societal and environmental changes occurred between the 2nd millennium BC and the middle of the 2nd millennium AD in western Africa. Key amongst these were changes in land use due to the spread and development of agricultural strategies, which may have had widespread consequences for the climate, hydrology, biodiversity, and ecosystem services of the region. Quantification of these land-use influences and potential feedbacks between human and natural systems is controversial, however, in part because the archaeological and historical record is highly fragmented in time and space. To improve our understanding of how humans contributed to the development of African landscapes, we developed an atlas of landuse practices in western Africa for nine time-windows over the period 1800 BC-AD 1500. The maps are based on a broad synthesis of archaeological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, historical, linguistic, genetic, and ethnographic data, and present land use in 12 basic categories. The main differences between categories is the relative reliance on, and variety of, domesticated plant and animal species utilized, and the energy invested in cultivating or keeping them. The maps highlight the irregular and frequently non-linear trajectory of land-use change in the prehistory of western Africa. Representing an original attempt to produce rigorous spatial synthesis from diverse sources, the atlas will be useful for a range of studies of human-environment interactions in the past, and highlight major spatial and temporal gaps in data that may guide future field studies.

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“…The degree to which terracing in Bokoni represents massive short-term investments with large labour input over short periods or rather an incremental change over a comparatively longer period is one of the ongoing issues of our field investigations, and it has already been the subject of some discussion (Stump 2010, Maggs 2010. It has the potential to provide information on the social organisation, labour input and chronological span involved in the creation of the Bokoni landscape.…”

Section: Bokoni Terracing: Short-term or Incremental Change?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sites have now been the focus of a renewed interest, and have recently been set in a new context based on the one hand on a new understanding of the relation between the archaeological sites and the oral histories (Delius & Schoeman 2008;Delius et al 2014;Wright 2010;), and on the other hand through a contextualisation of these sites and their agricultural remains within the broader history of intensive agriculture and terracing in sub-Saharan Africa (Maggs 2008;Stump 2010). Our current project is the first to attempt a detailed examination of the complex agricultural system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Precolonial Agricultural Terracing in Bokoni, South Africa: Typology and an Exploratory Excavation

Widgren¹,

Maggs

Plikk³

et al. 2016

J African Arch

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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.

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Intensification in Context: Archaeological Approaches to Precolonial Field Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa

Cited by 9 publications

References 37 publications

Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security

Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security

Diversification, Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500

Precolonial Agricultural Terracing in Bokoni, South Africa: Typology and an Exploratory Excavation

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