African Farmers, Not Stone Age Foragers: Reassessment of Human Remains from the Mumbwa Caves, Zambia

Steyn, Maryna, Meyer, Anja, Peyroteo-Stjerna, Rita, Jolly, Cecile, Schlebusch, Carina, Barham, Larry ORCID: 0000-0002-5474-4668 and Lombard, Marlize (2022) African Farmers, Not Stone Age Foragers: Reassessment of Human Remains from the Mumbwa Caves, Zambia. African Archaeological Review, 40 (1). pp. 53-72.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10437-022-09507-4

Abstract

In this article, we reassess the human remains from the Mumbwa Caves housed in the Raymond A. Dart Archaeological Human Remains Collection at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Based on new radiocarbon dates from human bone collagen and stable isotope analysis, our results revealed that the poorly preserved remains, comprising mostly crania and teeth, represent at least 16 individuals. Some of them have culturally modified anterior teeth. Enamel hypoplastic lesions were seen in a few individuals, which indicates disease and malnutrition during childhood. Radiocarbon dating revealed that all the individuals were buried at Mumbwa sometime between the late tenth and early twentieth century CE, with most dates clustering between the early sixteenth and the late nineteenth century. With the exception of a single individual who seems to have had a hunter-gatherer/forager diet, the carbon and nitrogen isotope values of others are consistent with what would be expected from a low-trophic farmer diet based on foodplants with C4 photosynthetic pathways. It is, therefore, our contention that, rather than being associated with the Stone Age as previously suggested, these individuals lived in more recent agricultural communities around the Mumbwa Caves.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Clinical Research, 2 Zero Hunger
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	08 Mar 2023 11:22
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2024 15:57
DOI:	10.1007/s10437-022-09507-4
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3168380