KwaGandaganda is an Early Iron Age (EIA) site in the .Mngeni valley (KwaZulu-Nata~ South Africa). Three cultural phases, Msuluzi, Ndondondwane and Ntshekane, dating between AD 620- AD 1030 were identified. The objective was to establish the extent of animal exploitation during the EIA in KwaZulu-Natal by means of faunal analysis, using internationally accepted methods. The collection included 41 006 fragments of which 22.9% were identifiable. A large number of species (68) were identified, including Rattus rattus. The collection yielded the largest quantity of ivory chips ever found on an EIA site in southern Africa, as well as an extensive variety of pathological specimens, mostly from Bos taurus. Several possible divining bones were present in the sample. Herd management, hunting strategies, gathering activities, fishing and trading of animal goods during the EIA were discussed, while the consequences of the unique excavation methods (i.e. the use of bulldozers) were also commented upon. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, August 2015. / Burials within the Western Cape provide a valuable opportunity to understand past social practices during the Later Stone Age. The aim of this dissertation is to specifically study Western Cape LSA burials in such a way as to understand the social and cognitive processes of hunter-gatherers in that region. In order to do this the burials will be approached and studied from a social and cultural perspective. This will include applying a theoretical approach which lends itself to materiality. Certain techniques will be employed to aid the study of this research question, such as a temporal, spatial and structural analysis of the Western Cape burials. Once the temporal analysis is done, certain sections within time can more closely be studied and analysed. The spatial analysis will examine the sites on a regional scale. The interpretative discussion will concentrate on specific patterns and structural aspects of the burials. The above may illuminate a possible array of questions to be asked surrounding the Western Cape burials. This in turn will help in aiding a discussion surrounding the cognitive and social processes of hunter-gatherers in the Western Cape.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Arts, 2000.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016. / This project investigates the influence that rainfall and temperature patterns have on mammal drinking patterns at an artificial waterhole in KGNP at Nossob. On a regional scale, this project investigates long-term rainfall and temperature trends over three/four decades, and in some instances the past 100 years, respectively for KGNP using climate records from weather stations located within the park and adjacent areas. This project makes use of KGNP census data to observe spatio-temporal distributions of large mammals in relation to rainfall (and to a lesser extent temperature) variability. Investigations assess whether relationships exist between faunal movement and distribution and rainfall volume and frequency. On a local scale, this project makes use of webcam images measured at 15-second intervals to establish mammalian drinking patterns and waterhole use over a short time scale (October 2012 – December 2014). The climate data for Twee Rivieren, Mata-Mata, Nossob and Upington reveal statistically significant increases in Tmax (av. 0.04°C) over the study period, whilst in summary, mean regional temperatures have increased by almost 1.6°C over the past 40 years. Rainfall patterns have revealed a north to south gradient in KGNP, where the northern and central parts of the park are becoming drier and the southern parts are becoming wetter. This demonstrates rainfall variability throughout KGNP over the period 2004 - 2013. This study established a positive relationship between faunal distributions and rainfall patterns within the park, showing that certain species are highly reliant on rainfall as a source of drinking water. It has been established that herbivore species are more reliant on the water trough during the dry season, when surface water is not available. However, there is an even spread of carnivore species water trough usage during the wet and dry season throughout the year. It has been established that during rainfall events exceeding ca. 30mm, faunal species prefer to utilise the natural surface water rather than the artificial waterhole at Nossob. Water trough usage under different temperature thresholds has revealed that groups of species (carnivores and herbivores) drinking patterns shift to either earlier or later in the day when temperatures increase, in order to avoid heat stress. Changing rainfall patterns could drastically cause water shortages, which will negatively affect the amount of available drinking water for mammals within KGNP. This study is important in contributing to an improved management of KGNP through providing a quantitative description of the relationship of mammal visitation at water troughs to the ambient climate. This is particularly valuable as climate change projections for the region suggest progressive drying. Water troughs will become an important source of moisture. / LG2017

Bibliography: pages 278-301. / The principal intention of this thesis was to study the archaeologically excavated remains from the site of the Grand Parade in central Cape Town. The main lines of argument are centred around the question of the ceramics and how these can be interpreted to add to the knowledge of everyday life at the Cape. This involved excavation of the site, a descriptive report on the site, formulating a typological system of classification relevant to the sample, and interpretation of the ceramic data, considering its context within the local ceramic tradition and the overarching historical background of the Cape. The typological framework used in the ceramic analysis is largely based on the work by Mary Beaudry and others and the interpretive style draws heavily on the ideas about the food domain postulated by Anne Yentsch. A social history paradigm has been used to study the nature of the local evidence, to investigate how the excavated ceramics can be used to inform in one of the most basic cultural traditions involving the foodways of early Capetonians. It has been found: that the typological framework for the ceramic analysis set out in this thesis, is successful in interpreting the ceramics; that the ideological functions of the ceramics remain a less tangible aspect of recreating the past; that although the local food way tradition of the mid-18th century continues to be a complicated web of cultural interactions, through the use of a multi-disciplinary approach, the archaeological evidence can be successfully integrated with the faw:ial, inventory and other docwnentary sources; and that all the aforementioned are crucial to a better, more holistic understanding of the local Cape foodway tradition of the mid-18th century.

Bibliography: pages 171-197. / Avian remains in coastal archaeological samples from Eland's Bay Cave, Die Kelders Cave 1 and Nelson Bay Cave in the Cape Province, South Africa, cover the periods between 80 000 and 40 000 B.P. and 18 000 and 300 B.P. Results of modern comparative surveys indicate that beached birds provide a predictable food supply. Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample nonparametric tests confirmed the close resemblance between the relative proportions of seabirds in archaeological and beached assemblages and earlier assumptions that the composition of seabird samples in archaeological sites could not otherwise have been achieved. It is shown that this simple but effective practice has a history going well into the Middle Stone Age. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests for differences between the relative proportions of skeletal elements of Cape cormorants preserved in archaeological and modern jackal accumulations provided a useful means of drawing attention to possible activity of jackals and/or domesticated dogs. Recognition that diagenesis in some earlier samples may mimic the characteristics of modern jackal samples has established the need to extend the comparison of skeletal elements to additional species and to study the relative durability of avian skeletal elements. Similar comparison with the proportions of modern mammalian and avian predator prey species and size (mass) categories provided no indication that black or martial eagles might have contributed to the samples. Similarly, present knowledge of Cape eagle owls argues against their being likely inhabitants of caves suitable for occupation by people. It is concluded that people were the primary accumulators of the assemblages studied and that the role of small food items in prehistoric subsistence can be addressed with greater confidence. Correspondence analysis was used to determine the existence of seasonality in the modern beached seabird samples. The profiles of the archaeological samples are plotted in relation to months in which they were most likely to have been collected. Seasonal evidence from species not subjected to the correspondence analysis supported these results. The results obtained closely supported the hypothesis for seasonal exploitation of the coast. It was also possible to indicate that visits were probably of short duration and that their timing varied. Exploitation of seabirds did not coincide with the period of maximum availability of beached birds. Comparison of the avian evidence with that from seals, Cape dune mole rats and steenbok/grysbok suggested that small food items comprised part of a seasonal strategy that made maximum use of a range of seasonal resources. Evidence for significant local environmental change in addition to, and in support of, existing information has been obtained. Fluctuations in marine, freshwater and terrestrial birds at Eland's Bay Cave have been related to evidence for changes in terminal Pleistocene and Holocene sea levels and the position of the coast, and in the morphology of Verlorenvlei. At Die Kelders Cave 1 between 80 000 and 40 000 B.P., previously drier conditions were ameliorating and mixed scrub and grass and freshwater existed on the coastal foreland in the vicinity of the cave. Fluctuations in frequencies of seabirds indicate that the sea level rose slightly and then receded during the period of deposition. At Nelson Bay Cave samples indicate the approach of the coast after the Last Glacial Maximum, the disappearance of grassland and its replacement by scrub and bush as significant elements of the vegetation. Freshwater birds did not respond as expected, however, indicating that their interpretation at Nelson Bay Cave is complex and not consistent with evidence for wetter or drier conditions. A possible link has been shown to exist between fluctuations of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters at Nelson Bay Cave and the intensity of wind patterns which are related to oceanic and atmospheric circulation. Further investigation should establish whether seabirds would provide an index of climatic conditions without support from other sources.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, 2018. / There are thousands of Stone Walled Structures (SWS) located in the southern half of the Gauteng Province. In the absence of relevant historical documents, these SWS are all the information we have about how pre-colonial societies were organized in this area. Unfortunately, they are threatened by rapid urbanization and development. This research attempts to estimate how many Iron Age SWS have been lost to urban development in Johannesburg South during the last 80 years. I mapped and quantified the SWS and urbanization in four chronological snapshots using remote sensing techniques. Aerial photographs from 1937 and 1961 were used as well as Google Earth satellite images from 2005 and 2015. The data was analyzed on the ESRI software ArcGIS 10.3. The four snapshots show the trend in urban sprawl and destruction of SWS and this information is valuable for mitigation strategies. Fortunately, there are legislations and procedures in place to ensure that not all these sites are lost forever. / EM2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History of Art), March 2017 / Within this research report, I explore how the (re-)integration of writing and photography enhances an understanding of the role of the personal within documentary practices. I focus on a portion of the Frobenius Archive as my case study, specifically the documents produced during the five-week Natal leg of the ninth expedition in early 1929. The German Leo Frobenius (b.1873–d.1938) was a primarily self-taught Africanist ethnographer, who had an interdisciplinary practice that blurred the boundaries between anthropology, archaeology and history. He conducted a total of twelve expeditions within Africa between 1904 and 1935, and his objective on these expeditions was to record ways of life that he felt were vulnerable to changes due to modernity. The documents collected during the Natal leg consist of field notes, photographs, hand-drawn pictures and diary entries. The field notes comprise of a set of eleven rock art site descriptions that have been constructed by the three artists: Maria Weyersberg, Elisabeth Mannsfeld and Agnes Schulz. Weyersberg’s diary entries provide a more impressionistic set of notes, tracking the day-today unfolding of their journey (but with many gaps). The subject matter of the photographs ranges from the rock art sites and the landscapes these sites are a part of, to the people they encountered along the way. I engaging with the concept of writing, particularly through the example of Weyersberg’s personal diaries, and the ways in which these entries relate to the photographs, creating a space in between where the personal relationships would have played themselves out. Within this research report I demonstrate that writing and photography can be brought back together in order to restore something of the original encounter and that this (re-)integration offers an opportunity for a new dialogue and a new understanding to be achieved. / MT2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016. / In current Middle Stone Age research there is interest in understanding whether climatic and environmental factors played a role in behaviours related to subsistence, mobility patterns and material culture production. From a palaeoenvironmental perspective, the southern Cape is recognized as an important study region for exploring the link, if any, between past environmental conditions and key MSA occurrences. The research presented in this thesis aimed to contribute to the existing database of past environments in the southern Cape through the geochemical analysis of speleothems from a previously uninvestigated locality in the De Hoop Nature Reserve. Together, the De Hoop speleothems provide a discontinuous record of environmental change from marine oxygen isotope stage MIS 5a to MIS 3 (and the Holocene). Results from the De Hoop records indicate warm summer rain and C4 vegetation in early MIS 5a (c. 85 ka to 80 ka) but more variability by late MIS 5a (c. 79 ka to 74 ka). At Klasies River main site, also on the southern Cape coast, the upper MSA II is associated with the warm early MIS 5a conditions. At Blombos Cave, another important coastal MSA site, the Still Bay occurring within terminal MIS 5a was linked to warm but more variable late MIS 5a conditions. While early MIS 4 (c. 73 ka to 68 ka) was comparatively cooler, conditions were similar to those in early MIS 5a. From this research, the earlier phase of the Howiesons Poort at Klasies River main site and the Howiesons Poort at Klipdrift Shelter were correlated with the early MIS 4 conditions in De Hoop. By late MIS 4 (c. 67 ka to 60 ka), conditions remained cool, but were seemingly more variable than during the earlier part of this iii stage / GR2016

The archaeological research was conducted at Botshabelo, a nineteenth century Berlin Mission Society station located outside Middelburg, Mpumalanga. It focuses primarily on the collection of residential houses and homesteads in the area known as the Motse, meaning “village” in Sotho. This is where the mission station’s African residents lived. This research seeks to use archaeology, specifically the study of the associated material culture, in order to refine the chronology of changes to settlement in this area, and to explore the ways in which the inhabitants interacted with other sectors of the mission station community and the then wider Transvaal society. Although the mission station and its settlement dates from 1865, the material culture excavated and analysed in this project is primarily from the twentieth century. It is through the careful analysis of these houses and their architecture, together with the associated material culture that the social and cultural values of the people who built and used them can be explored. To date there has been a copious amount of research done on these mission stations in southern Africa, flowing mainly from the disciplines of history and anthropology (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991; Delius 1981; Japha et al 1993; Kirkaldy 2005; Vernal 2009). In contrast, however, there has been relatively little archaeological research carried out on the various mission stations within southern Africa (but see Ashley 2010; Boshoff 2004; Clift 2001; Jeppson 2005; Reid et al 1997). This research project is based in archaeology, and in particular in the discipline of historical archaeology, which can provide the methodologies and approaches that can be used to make sense of the history of the Botshabelo Mission Station and the Motse. This research therefore intends to contribute to the currently under researched field of mission archaeology within South Africa. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Archaeology)