Where are the gardens? Early Iron Age horticulture in the Thukela River Basin of South Africa

Authors: Greenfield, Haskel¹; Fowler, Kent²; van Schalkwyk, Leonard³

Source: World Archaeology, Volume 37, Number 2, June 2005 , pp. 307-328(22)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Despite substantial botanical evidence for the kinds of plants and cereals cultivated by early farming communities in southern Africa during the first millennium ad, there remains a poor understanding of where gardens would have been located. Data from archaeological sites in the Thukela Basin of South Africa (e.g. Ndondondwane) are presented in support of the hypothesis that many small plots of vegetables, cucurbits and cereals were planted within settlements as a complement to larger fields placed outside settlements.

Keywords: Horticulture; tropical riverine ecology; palaeobotanical remains; spatial organization; Early Iron Age; South Africa; Ndondondwane

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438240500095496

Affiliations: 1: Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada 2: Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Canada 3: eThembeni Cultural Heritage, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Publication date: 2005-06-01

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