Abstract
The recovery of Early Iron Age artefacts and domestic animal remains from hunter-gatherer contexts at Likoaeng, Lesotho, has been argued to indicate contact between highland hunter-gatherers and Early Iron Age agropastoralist communities settled in lowland areas of southeastern Africa during the second half of the first millennium ad. However, disagreement between archaeozoological studies and ancient DNA means that the possibility that those hunter-gatherers kept livestock themselves remains controversial. Here we report analyses of pottery-absorbed organic residues from two hunter-gatherer sites and one agriculturalist site in highland Lesotho to reconstruct prehistoric subsistence practices. Our results demonstrate the exploitation of secondary products from domestic livestock by hunter-gatherers in Lesotho, directly dated to the seventh century ad at Likoaeng and the tenth century ad at the nearby site of Sehonghong. The data provide compelling evidence for the keeping of livestock by hunter-gatherer groups and their probable incorporation as ancillary resources into their subsistence strategies.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.
References
Mitchell, P. J. The Archaeology of Southern Africa (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002).
Mitchell, P. J. & Whitelaw, G. The archaeology of southernmost Africa from c. 2000 bp to the early 1800s: a review of recent research. J. Afr. Hist. 46, 209–241 (2005).
Huffman, T. N. Handbook to the Iron Age: the Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa (Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007).
Gill, S. A Short History of Lesotho (Morija Museum and Archives, 1993).
Vinnicombe, P. V. People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of their Life and Thought (Univ. of Natal Press, 1976).
Manhire, A. H., Parkington, J. E., Mazel, A. D. & Maggs, T. M. O. C. Cattle, sheep and horses: a review of domestic animals in the rock art of southern Africa. S. Afr. Archaeol. Soc. Goodwin Series 5, 22–30 (1986).
Jolly, P. Melikane and Upper Mangolong revisited: the possible effects on San art of symbiotic contact between south-eastern San and southern Sotho and Nguni communities. S. Afr. Archeol. Bull. 50, 68–80 (1995).
Jolly, P. Interaction between south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities c.1400 to c.1880. S. Afr. Hist. J. 35, 30–61 (1996).
Jolly, P. The San rock painting from “The Upper Cave At Mangolong”, Lesotho. S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 61, 68–75 (1996).
Jolly, P. Before farming? Cattle kept and painted by the southeastern San. Before Farming 2007, 1–29 (2007).
Louw, J. A. A preliminary survey of Khoi and San influence in Zulu. Khoisan Linguist. Stud. 5, 8–21 (1979).
Tesele, F. T. Symbols of Power: Beads and Flywhisks in Traditional Healing in Lesotho (Univ. of Cape Town, 1994).
Hammond-Tooke, W. D. Selective borrowing? The possibility of San shamanistic influence on Southern Bantu divination and healing practices. S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 53, 9–15 (1998).
González-Santos, M. et al. Genome-wide SNP analysis of southern African populations provides new insights into the dispersal of Bantu-speaking groups. Genome Biol. Evol. 7, 2560–2568 (2015).
Marks, S. J. et al. Static and moving frontiers: the genetic landscape of southern African Bantu-speaking populations. Mol. Biol. Evol. 32, 29–43 (2015).
Schlebusch, C. M., Prins, F., Lombard, M., Jakobsson, M. & Soodyall, H. The disappearing San of southeastern Africa and their genetic affinities. Hum. Genet. 135, 1365–1373 (2016).
Bajić, V. et al. Genetic structure and sex-biased gene flow in the history of southern African populations. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 167, 656–671 (2018).
Mitchell, P. J., Plug, I. & Bailey, G. N. Spatial patterning at Likoaeng, an open-air hunter-gatherer campsite in the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa. Archaeol. Pap. Am. Anthropol. Assoc. 16, 81–94 (2008).
Mazel, A. D. Early pottery from the eastern part of southern Africa. S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 47, 3–7 (1992).
Sadr, K. & Sampson, C. G. Through thick and thin: early pottery in southern Africa. J. Afr. Archaeol. 4, 235–252 (2006).
Mitchell, P. J., Plug, I., Bailey, G. N. & Woodborne, S. Bringing the Kalahari debate to the mountains: late first millennium ad hunter-gatherer/farmer interaction in highland Lesotho. Before Farming 2008, 1–22 (2008).
Plug, I., Mitchell, P. J. & Bailey, G. N. Animal remains from Likoaeng, an open-air river site, and its place in the post-classic Wilton of Lesotho and eastern Free State, South Africa. S. Afr. J. Sci. 99, 143–152 (2003).
Mitchell, P. J. et al. Beyond the drip-line: a high-resolution open-air Holocene hunter-gatherer sequence from highland Lesotho. Antiquity 85, 1225–1242 (2011).
Lombard, M. et al. South African and Lesotho Stone Age sequence updated (I). S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 67, 123–144 (2012).
Sadr, K. The Neolithic of southern Africa. J. Afr. Hist. 44, 195–209 (2003).
Sadr, K. Invisible herders? The archaeology of Khoekhoe pastoralists. S. Afr. Humanit. 20, 179–203 (2008).
Carter, P. L. The Prehistory of Eastern Lesotho (Univ. of Cambridge, 1978).
Plug, I. & Mitchell, P. J. Fishing in the Lesotho highlands: 26,000 years of fish exploitation, with special reference to Sehonghong Shelter. J. Afr. Archaeol. 6, 33–55 (2008).
Hobart, J. H. Pitsaneng: evidence for a neolithic Lesotho? Before Farming 2004, 1–10 (2004).
Mitchell, P. J. Hunter-gatherers and farmers: some implications of 1,800 years of interaction in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of Southern Africa. Senri Ethnol. Stud. 73, 15–46 (2009).
Horsburgh, K. A., Moreno-Mayar, J. V. & Gosling, A. L. Revisiting the Kalahari debate in the highlands: ancient DNA provides new faunal identifications at Sehonghong, Lesotho. Azania: Archaeol. Res. Afr. 51, 295–306 (2016).
Horsburgh, K. A. & Moreno-Mayar, J. V. Molecular identification of sheep at Blydefontein Rock Shelter, South Africa. S. Afr. Humanit. 27, 65–80 (2015).
Horsburgh, K. A., Orton, J. & Klein, R. G. Beware the springbok in sheep’s clothing: how secure are the faunal identifications upon which we build our models? Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 33, 353–361 (2016).
Scott, K. & Plug, I. Osteomorphology and osteometry versus aDNA in taxonomic identification of fragmentary sheep and sheep/goat bones from archaeological deposits: Blydefontein Shelter, Karoo, South Africa. S. Afr. Humanit. 28, 61–79 (2016).
Bousman, B. C. et al. The quest for evidence of domestic stock at Blydefontein Rock Shelter. S. Afr. Humanit. 28, 39–60 (2016).
Plug, I. Reply to Horsburgh et al. 2016: ‘Revisiting the Kalahari debate in the highlands’. Azania: Archaeol. Res. Afr. 53, 98–113 (2018).
Horsburgh, K., Moreno-Mayar, J. V. & Klein, R. G. Counting and miscounting sheep: genetic evidence for pervasive misclassification of wild fauna as domestic stock. S. Afr. Humanit. 30, 53–69 (2017).
Horsburgh, K. A. A reply to Plug: science requires self-correction. Azania: Archaeol. Res. Afr. 53, 114–118 (2018).
Evershed, R. P. et al. New criteria for the identification of animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery. Naturwissenschaften 84, 402–406 (1997).
Dudd, S. N. & Evershed, R. P. Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies. Science 282, 1478–1481 (1998).
Evershed, R. P. et al. Chemistry of archaeological animal fats. Acc. Chem. Res. 35, 660–668 (2002).
Evershed, R. P. Organic residue analysis in archaeology: the archaeological biomarker revolution. Archaeometry 50, 895–924 (2008).
Roffet-Salque, M. et al. From the inside out: upscaling organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics. J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 16, 627–640 (2017).
Copley, M. S. et al. Direct chemical evidence for widespread dairying in prehistoric Britain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 1524–1529 (2003).
Copley, M. S., Berstan, R., Straker, V., Payne, S. & Evershed, R. P. Dairying in antiquity. II. Evidence from absorbed lipid residues dating to the British Bronze Age. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 505–521 (2005).
Spangenberg, J. E., Jacomet, S. & Schibler, J. Chemical analyses of organic residues in archaeological pottery from Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland—evidence for dairying in the late Neolithic. J. Archaeol. Sci. 33, 1–13 (2006).
Craig, O. E. et al. Ancient lipids reveal continuity in culinary practices across the transition to agriculture in northern Europe. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 17910–17915 (2011).
Salque, M. et al. Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium bc in northern Europe. Nature 493, 522–525 (2013).
Cramp, L. J. E. et al. Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the Northeast Atlantic archipelagos. Proc. R. Soc. London B 281, 20132372 (2014).
Cramp, L. J. E. et al. Neolithic dairy farming at the extreme of agriculture in northern Europe. Proc. R. Soc. London B 281, 20140819 (2014).
Craig, O. E. et al. Did the first farmers of central and eastern Europe produce dairy foods? Antiquity 79, 882–894 (2015).
Evershed, R. P. et al. Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding. Nature 455, 528–531 (2008).
Gregg, M. W., Banning, E. B., Gibbs, K. & Slater, G. F. Subsistence practices and pottery use in Neolithic Jordan: molecular and isotopic evidence. J. Archaeol. Sci. 36, 937–946 (2009).
Outram, A. K. et al. The earliest horse harnessing and milking. Science 323, 1332–1335 (2009).
Dunne, J. et al. First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium bc. Nature 486, 390–394 (2012).
Dunne, J., di Lernia, S., Chłodnicki, M., Kherbouche, F. & Evershed, R. P. Timing and pace of dairying inception and animal husbandry practices across Holocene North Africa. Quat. Int. 471, 147–159 (2018).
Keute, J. Chemical analysis of fatty acid residues on archaeological pottery of pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania. In 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (2016).
Dunne, J., Grillo, K. M., Casanova, E., Whelton, H. L. & Evershed, R. P. Pastoralist foodways recorded in organic residues from pottery vessels of modern communities in Samburu, Kenya. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 26, 619–642 (2019).
Cramp, L. J. E. & Evershed, R. P. in Treatise on Geochemistry: Archaeology and Anthropology Vol. 12 (eds Holland, H. D. & Turekian, K. K.) 319–339 (Elsevier, 2014).
Casanova, E., Knowles, T. D. J., Williams, C., Crump, M. P. & Evershed, R. P. Practical considerations in high-precision compound-specific radiocarbon analyses: eliminating the effects of solvent and sample cross-contamination on accuracy and precision. Anal. Chem. 90, 11025–11032 (2018).
Casanova, E. et al. Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2178-z (2020).
Woodbury, S. E., Evershed, R. P. & J., B. R. Purity assessments of major vegetable oils based on δ13C values of individual fatty acids. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 75, 371–379 (1998).
Evershed, R. P., Dudd, S. N., Copley, M. S. & Mutherjee, A. Identification of animal fats via compound specific δ13C values of individual fatty acids: assessments of results for reference fats and lipid extracts of archaeological pottery vessels. Documenta Praehistorica 29, 73–96 (2002).
Roffet-Salque, M., Lee, M. R. F., Timpson, A. & Evershed, R. P. Impact of modern cattle feeding practices on milk fatty acid stable carbon isotope compositions emphasise the need for caution in selecting reference animal tissues and products for archaeological investigations. Archaeol. Anthropol. Sci. 9, 1343–1348 (2016).
Cramp, L. J. E. et al. Regional diversity in subsistence among early farmers in Southeast Europe revealed by archaeological organic residues. Proc. R. Soc. London B 286, 20182347 (2019).
Stott, A. W. et al. Direct dating of archaeological pottery by compound-specific 14C analysis of preserved lipids. Anal. Chem. 75, 5037–5045 (2003).
Berstan, R. et al. Direct dating of pottery from its organic residues: new precision using compound-specific carbon isotopes. Antiquity 82, 702–713 (2008).
Plug, I. & Mitchell, P. J. Sehonghong: hunter-gatherer utilization of animal resources in the highlands of Lesotho. Ann. Transvaal Mus. 45, 31–53 (2008).
Leonardi, M., Gerbault, P., Thomas, M. G. & Burger, J. The evolution of lactase persistence in Europe. A synthesis of archaeological and genetic evidence. Int. Dairy J. 22, 88–97 (2012).
Gerbault, P., Roffet-Salque, M., Evershed, R. P. & Thomas, M. G. How long have adult humans been consuming milk? IUBMB Life 65, 983–990 (2013).
Ranciaro, A. et al. Genetic origins of lactase persistence and the spread of pastoralism in Africa. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 94, 496–510 (2014).
Macholdt, E., Slatkin, M., Pakendorf, B. & Stoneking, M. New insights into the history of the C‐14010 lactase persistence variant in Eastern and Southern Africa. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 156, 661–664 (2015).
Buttriss, J. Nutritional properties of fermented milk products. Int. J. Dairy Technol. 50, 21–27 (1997).
Lomer, M. C. E., Parkes, G. C. & Sanderson, J. D. Lactose intolerance in clinical practice—myths and realities. Aliment. Pharmacol. Therapeut. 27, 93–103 (2008).
Gadaga, T. H., Lehohla, M. & Ntuli, V. Traditional fermented foods of Lesotho. J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. Food Sci. 2, 2387–2391 (2013).
Parker, A. G., Lee-Thorp, J. & Mitchell, P. J. Late Holocene Neoglacial conditions from the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa: phytolith and stable carbon isotope evidence from the archaeological site of Likoaeng. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 122, 201–211 (2011).
Morris, C. Historical vegetation–environment patterns for assessing the impact of climatic change in the mountains of Lesotho. Afr. J. Range Forage Sci. 34, 45–51 (2017).
Ashton, H. The Basuto (Oxford University Press, 1952).
Quinlan, T. & Morris, C. Implications of changes to the transhumance system for conservation of the mountain catchments in eastern Lesotho. Afr. J. Range Forage Sci. 11, 76–81 (1994).
Challis, S., Mitchell, P. J. & Orton, J. Fishing in the rain: control of rain-making and aquatic resources at a previously undescribed rock art site in highland Lesotho. J. Afr. Archaeol. 6, 203–218 (2008).
Jacobs, N. Environment, production and social difference in the Kalahari Thornveld, c.1750-1830. J. S. Afr. Studies 25, 347–373 (1999).
Whitelaw, G. An Iron Age fishing tale. S. Afr. Humanit. 21, 195–212 (2009).
Maggs, T. M. O. C. Msuluzi Confluence: a seventh century Early Iron Age site on the Tugela River. Ann. Natal Mus. 24, 111–145 (1980).
Mazel, A. D. People making history: the last ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin. Natal Mus. J. Humanit. 1, 132–150 (1989).
Orpen, J. M. A glimpse into the mythology of the Maluti Bushmen. Cape Monthly Magazine 9, 1–13 (1874).
Mitchell, P. J. & Challis, W. A. ‘First’ glimpse into the Maloti Mountains: the diary of James Murray Grant’s expedition of 1873–74. S. Afr. Humanit. 20, 399–461 (2008).
Russell, T. & Lander, F. ‘What is consumed is wasted’: from foraging to herding in the southern African Later Stone Age. Azania: Archaeol. Res. Afr. 50, 267–317 (2015).
Mitchell, P. J. Sehonghong: the late Holocene assemblages with pottery. S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 51, 17–25 (1996).
Opperman, H. The Later Stone Age of the Drakensberg Range and its Foothills (British Archaeological Reports, 1987).
Ellenberger, V. La Fin Tragique des Bushmen (Amiot Dumont, 1953).
Mitchell, P. J. Remembering the Mountain Bushmen: observations of nineteenth century hunter-gatherers in Lesotho as recorded by Victor Ellenberger. S. Afr. Field Archaeol. 15/16, 3–11 (2006/07).
Vinnicombe, P. V. in The Eland’s People: New Perspectives in the Rock Art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Bushmen. Essays in Memory of Patricia Vinnicombe (eds Mitchell, P. J. & Smith, B. W.) 165–191 (Witwatersrand Univ. Press, 2009).
Cable, J. H. C., Scott, K. & Carter, P. L. Excavations at Good Hope Shelter, Underberg District. Ann. Natal Mus. 24, 1–34 (1980).
Mitchell, P. J. The late Quaternary of the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa: preliminary results and future potential of ongoing research at Sehonghong Shelter. Quat. Int. 33, 35–43 (1996).
Jacobs, Z. et al. Ages for the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa: implications for human behavior and dispersal. Science 322, 733 (2008).
Mitchell, P. J. Making history at Sehonghong: Soai and the last Bushman occupants of his shelter. S. Afr. Humanit. 22, 147–168 (2010).
Dobson, M. C. Military Report on Basutoland (War Office, 1910).
Webb, R. S. Gazetteer for Basutoland (Webb, R. S., 1950).
Correa-Ascencio, M. & Evershed, R. P. High throughput screening of organic residues in archaeological potsherds using direct acidified methanol extraction. Anal. Methods 6, 1330 (2014).
Rieley, G. Derivatization of organic compounds prior to gas chromatographic–combustion–isotope ratio mass spectrometric analysis: identification of isotope fractionation processes. Analyst 119, 915–919 (1994).
Casanova, E., Knowles, T. D. J., Williams, C., Crump, M. P. & Evershed, R. P. Use of a 700 MHz NMR microcryoprobe for the identification and quantification of exogenous carbon in compounds purified by preparative capillary gas chromatography for radiocarbon determinations. Anal. Chem. 89, 7090–7098 (2017).
Wacker, L., Němec, M. & Bourquin, J. A revolutionary graphitisation system: fully automated, compact and simple. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 268, 931–934 (2010).
Bronk Ramsey, C. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51, 337–360 (2009).
Hogg, A. G. et al. SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal bp. Radiocarbon 55, 1889–1903 (2013).
Friedli, H., Lotscher, H., Oeschger, H., Siegenthaler, U. & Stauffer, B. Ice core record of the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries. Nature 324, 237–238 (1986).
Carter, P. L., Mitchell, P. J. & Vinnicombe, P. V. Sehonghong: The Middle and Later Stone Age Industrial Sequence at a Lesotho Rockshelter (British Archaeological Reports, 1988).
Acknowledgements
The authors received no specific funding for this work. Permission to excavate at Likoaeng and Sehonghong, and to remove finds for study abroad, was granted by the Protection and Preservation Commission (Department of Culture) of the Kingdom of Lesotho. We thank its former chairman, the late ‘M. N. Khitsane, for her assistance with this, as well as her colleagues and the chiefs and local communities of Ha Mapola Letsatseng, Khomo-ea-Mollo and Sehonghong. Excavations were funded by grants to P.J.M. from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Boise Fund, the British Academy, the Prehistoric Society, St Hugh’s College, Oxford, the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Swan Fund, the University of Oxford and the University of Wales, Lampeter. Compound-specific stable carbon isotope analyses were performed using the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility (Bristol node) and we are grateful to A. Kuhl and I. Bull for technical assistance. We thank the European Research Council for financing a post-doctoral position to E.C. (LipDat, H2020 ERC-2018-PoC/812917). We thank T. Knowles, manager of the Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (BRAMS) facility, for access to instruments and the radiocarbon measurements.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
L.J.E.C. and P.J.M. devised the study. H.F. carried out lipid extraction and gas chromatography, GC–MS and gas chromatography–combustion–isotope ratio mass spectrometry analyses under the supervision of L.J.E.C. E.C. carried out compound-specific 14C dating. All authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation. H.F. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Peer review information Primary handling editor: Stavroula Kousta
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Photographs of four potsherds containing dairy residues analysed in the study.
LIK1 is the EIA potsherd recovered from Layer 1 of Likoaeng. Lipids extracted from LIK10 and SHH42 were directly dated as part of the study. Scale bar is 1 cm.
Extended Data Fig. 2 View of Likoaeng excavation looking upstream of the Senqu River (pictured in the background).
The north section of the excavation is shown, and Layer 1 is marked.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Section drawings of Likoaeng.
Layers are shown on the left side and grid square references along the top. Figure modified from a previous publication23 (reprinted with permission).
Extended Data Fig. 4
View of Sehonghong rock shelter.
Extended Data Fig. 5
Photograph of the excavation of Sehonghong rock shelter with Layers DC and GAP seen in the section.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Tables 1–4.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fewlass, H., Mitchell, P.J., Casanova, E. et al. Chemical evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in highland Lesotho in the late first millennium ad. Nat Hum Behav 4, 791–799 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0859-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0859-0
This article is cited by
-
Chemical evidence for milk, meat, and marine resource processing in Later Stone Age pots from Namaqualand, South Africa
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
An Archaeological Contribution to the Kalahari Debate from the Middle Limpopo Valley, Southern Africa
Journal of Archaeological Research (2022)
-
Direct 14C dating of equine products preserved in archaeological pottery vessels from Botai and Bestamak, Kazakhstan
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2022)
-
Seventy Years of Pottery Studies in the Archaeology of Mesolithic and Neolithic Sudan
African Archaeological Review (2021)