There is a hill that hardly stands out from the others where the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers converge to form the current border between Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Without realizing its historical significance, one could simply pass it. Around 800 years ago, Mapungubwe, what appears to be the earliest state-level society and urban center in southern Africa, first emerged on and around this hill.

We now know quite a bit about this ancient kingdom, how it developed amid early farmer culture, and its participation in international trade networks after nearly a century of research. Before farmers arrived, hunter-gatherer communities lived on this land, but they have received little recognition despite what appears to be their role in the rise of the Mapungubwe.

In an effort to provide a more inclusive portrayal of the region's past, our team has been doing research in northern South Africa at locations that we hope would enable us to recognize the roles performed by hunter-gatherers during the creation of the Mapungubwe state.

Little Muck Shelter is the name of our main research location. It is located around 4 kilometers south of the Limpopo River in the Mapungubwe National Park. The shelter is a sizeable structure with a huge open area in front and a covered area beneath a high roof. Additionally, it contains numerous paintings on the walls, including exquisite images of giraffes, kudu, cats, and elephants. Hunter-gatherer people created this art, which is typically understood to alludes to the spirit world and the actions of shamans there.

The findings of our study indicate two things. Prior to the Mapungubwe Kingdom's establishment, the region was inhabited by hunter-gatherers. Second, they had access to the riches that helped elite groups appear in society at the time because they were a part of the economy at the time. while taken together, these facts demonstrate that hunter-gatherer societies must be considered while thinking about the history of Mapungubwe. They participated in and were present for these important events.

Why is this crucial? The building up of wealth was one of the key events that contributed to the creation of the Mapungubwe Kingdom. It influenced the emergence of social hierarchies and established status. These valuable trade commodities were typically possessed by affluent social classes. However, hunter-gatherers were able to acquire comparable goods at a period when these products were helping to significantly alter society by utilizing their own skills. The fact that they had access to riches during this time certainly demonstrates how highly valued their contributions to local society and how deeply ingrained they were in the community's economy.

Unearthing evidence of trade

We were drawn to Little Muck Shelter because of earlier research conducted there in the late 1990s, which revealed that farmers and hunter-gatherers conducted extensive commerce from the shelter. We needed a larger archaeological assemblage to confirm or modify our theories in order to comprehend this better.

In order to clearly demonstrate a hunter-gatherer presence throughout this time, as well as their involvement in regional commercial networks, we also sought to more extensively analyze the depths that dated between AD 900 and 1300, during which the events leading to Mapungubwe began and finally finished.

We had to dig to do this. During an archaeological excavation, layers of sediments containing artifacts are carefully removed while adhering to very rigorous depth and position controls within an excavation trench.

This is followed by a protracted period of analysis that follows strict standards to guarantee consistency in classifying artefact kinds, their production processes or methods, how they were utilized, and what materials they were composed of.

After that, we put all this information together in an effort to comprehend earlier lifestyles. Our findings allowed us to reconstruct a hunter-gatherer history that was interwoven with the development of the Mapungubwe.

First and foremost, we had to demonstrate that there were still hunter-gatherers in the area at the time Mapungubwe first arose. We have evaluated over 15,000 stone tools from a sampling of our excavations so far, and we have discovered a set of finished tools that are identical to those made by hunter-gatherers for thousands of years before farmer communities arose. We think that the continuity of cultural material over such a long period of time demonstrates unequivocally that hunters and gatherers inhabited the shelter while farmers were present.

Next, we wanted to focus on the trading economy in more detail. Beginning in the early first millennium AD, hunter-gatherers changed their craft practices as soon as farmer groups arrived in the area. Up to the fall of the Mapungubwe Kingdom in AD 1300, they mostly produced bone implements rather than products made from hide, wood, and shell. This implies that contacts between farmers and hunter-gatherers from the time of their initial arrival sparked change in their produced goods.

Why did they alter their creative endeavors? We observed the emergence of trade wealth during these transformations, initially in the form of ceramics and glass beads, and later in the form of metal. These items are typical at farmer towns and were never produced by hunter-gatherers, indicating trade between these two societies. It suggests that hunter-gatherers emphasized their own skill sets in response to emerging market opportunities.

We're still looking for more proof that hunter-gatherers participated in these processes. We want to know what other activities they participated in and whether they themselves created a more sophisticated society.