Browsing by Author "Prins, Frans Edward"

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    Aspects of Iron Age ecology in Transkei
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1993) Prins, Frans Edward; Deacon, H. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Art and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A palaeoecological study was intitiated mainly to determine vegetation patterms in a selected area of Transkei during the Iron Age (c. 1500 - 100 BP). Data cited here support earlier contentions that the vegetation was broadly similar to the present. Modification of the vegetation , by agropastoralists, occurred where there was long term settlement. Analysis of the charcoal suggests simila persipitation levels for the period AD 660 - 770 relative to the present. The paucity of earlier farmer settlement during the period AD 900- 1400 is broadly contemporary with the "European MEdieval Warm Epoch," suggesting that arid conditions in the interior of Transkei may havelimited cultivation. The significant increase of settlement in the second half of the second millennium AD, suggests a return of higher rainfall and more productive environmental conditions. Archaeological evidence suggests that early agropastoralist settlement in Transkei was an extension of that in Natal but local variations in ceramic style and spatial organisation exists.