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

Abstract

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.

The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

“…As detailed in chapters 2 and 3, American crops took centuries to become staples in Banda. We find a similar hesitancy to abandon local crops in almost all cases where systematic recovery and analysis of plant remains has been pursued (Gijanto and Walshaw 2014;Esterhuysen and Hardwick 2017;Widgren et al 2016), an important distinction since maize presence is often inferred indirectly (e.g., see review in Widgren et al 2016). This finding is at odds with the historical literature, which focuses on coastal enclaves (e.g., Alpern 1992Alpern , 2008La Fleur 2012;McCann 2005), where agricultural production was often geared towards the provisioning of European trade ships (Carney and Rosomoff 2009).…”

“…As we saw in chapter 2, maize adoption was very slow even in Banda, which is ecologically well suited to its cultivation. And Banda was not alone in slowly adopting maize, as emerging archaeological studies show (Gijanto and Walshaw 2014;Esterhuysen and Hardwick 2017;Widgren et al 2016). In sum, as with earlier scholarship on this topic, the data used to estimate maize adoption by Cherniwchan and Moreno-Cruz is circumstantial evidence at best; the limited archaeological studies of maize's spread suggest that their model of spread is also empirically incorrect.…”

Untitled

“…6), to reduce soil and water erosion while conserving the available soil nutrients and soil moisture for maximum use. 10 This is indeed one of the sustainable ways to adapt to changing environmental conditions locally and further indicate clear evidence of an advanced farming system practiced in pre-colonial times.…”

Conservation through Biocultural Heritage—Examples from Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Landscape memories can be understood as forms of materialised human practice, such as built environments and archaeological sites, including settlement systems and land-use systems linked to user and property rights-what Widgren [98,99] has called 'landesque capital'. Across the continent, there are many examples of irrigation or terracing system landscapes that are relict (see for instance Engaruka in Tanzania [100][101][102], Nyanga in Zimbabwe [103] and Mpumulanga in South Africa [104]).…”