Southern Africa’s indigenous forager communities, the ancestors of contemporary San groups, have, more often than not, had their history captured by colonial-era, pejorative characterisations of their culture. However, archaeological readings of their pasts provide us with a different perspective. This is more apparent in the middle Limpopo Valley than in most other landscapes due to the complex social changes that took place in that region.

Beginning during the first millennium AD, socio-political developments eventually led to the establishment of Mapungubwe, southern Africa’s first state-level society. During the nearly a decade of research into these sequences, the presence and role of foragers were seldom mentioned. The fact that their contributions to these societies are hardly recognised disarticulates past and present communities from the history of southern Africa. Nevertheless, through their innovations, technologies and indigenous knowledge they were able to forge a space for themselves within emerging social networks.

Through the African Origins Platform (AOP), Dr Tim Forssman, a senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria (UP), has secured a three-year grant to study the role played by foragers in this dynamic landscape. The AOP is a highly competitive, discipline-specific funding instrument that supports research, skills development and infrastructure in the palaeosciences. The grant can potentially provide unparalleled opportunities for cutting-edge research, African and other international collaboration, and innovative teaching and training programmes. The AOP is also uniquely placed to facilitate the public understanding of the story of life on Earth, and to contribute to nation-building by detailing the story of humankind in a way that appeals to all sectors of society. The grant will become available in 2022 and includes a postdoctoral readership, salaries for laboratory technicians, funds for student support, project running costs and conference attendance for Dr Forssman and members of his team. It also provides for the involvement of collaborators from the SADC and international universities.

Dr Forssman’s project is organised around the premise that the role of foragers in past social systems was not passive or inactive, but rather agentive. Their participation in local socio-political and economic contexts by deploying their technologies, innovations and knowledge systems in specific ways will be investigated in the middle Limpopo Valley, which includes northern South Africa, eastern Botswana and south-eastern Zimbabwe. Excavations will continue at a shelter called Little Muck, a site inhabited by forager groups from the last centuries BC until the early second millennium AD. During this period, those using the shelter seem to have produced vast quantities of crafts from hide, bone and wood, which they used to trade with farmer groups to obtain ceramics, possibly food items, beads and metal. It is important to note that possession of some of those items indicated status. Excavations will also be carried out at Leokwe Hill, a nearby settlement that was once occupied by farmer groups who may have traded directly with the foragers at Little Muck. The purpose of these excavations is to investigate a shift in craft dynamics that took place approximately 1 000 years ago, when Little Muck seems to have been slowly abandoned. A final excavation will take place at one of several possible sites, depending on the outcome of the earlier excavations. Furthermore, assemblages from excavations at the Balerno Main Shelter in South Africa and the Dzombo Shelter in Botswana will be re-examined to explore settlement histories and forager activities across the region.

The study will also attempt to integrate buried cultural sequences and their chronologies with the local rock art record. Rock art is fairly abundant in the area, but relatively few structured analyses have been undertaken. This project will explore narratives in art based on ethnographic information and meaning in the hope that a new reading of the art may help to establish a link between painted narratives and social experiences or relations across the landscape.

Four core areas of community engagement have also been identified and will be implemented in the programme. Emphasis will be placed on student training in both the field and the laboratory, with a particular focus on specialist and transferable skills training. The Stone Age field of study has struggled to transform and the training of students of colour is a specific target. Members of the surrounding community will also be invited to participate in the programme as part of a technical training initiative. Training will involve field excavations, surveying, photography, artefact sorting, data capturing and mapping. Finally, a mobile museum display will be taken to schools and community outreach engagements will be organised to share archaeological information with a broader and more diverse audience.

The main aim of this project is to stimulate a shift in the way the social landscape surrounding Mapungubwe is perceived. By and large, it has been presented as a landscape of farmers, and yet foragers were present well before and during the farmer-occupation phase.

The dismantling of the partitions that continue to segregate social groups and histories has yet to be fully realised. In adopting a more integrative approach that aims to construct an inclusive history, rather than one of separation, the study will effect a change in the views held regarding foragers and their San descendants by demonstrating their rich archaeological sequence and their significant roles in complex southern African systems.