Toutswemogala Hill lies 6.5 km West of the North-South Highway in the Central District of
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
. It is situated about 50 km north of the village of
Palapye
Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–so ...
. Toutswemogala is an elongated flat-topped hill, geologically called a mesa, rising about 50 meters above the surrounding flat
mopane veld. It is an Iron Age settlement, which has been occupied on two occasions. The
radio-carbon dates for this settlement range from 7th to late 19th century AD indicating occupation of more than one thousand years. The hill was part of the formation of early states in Southern Africa with cattle keeping as major source of economy. This was supplemented by goats, sheep and foraging as well as hunting of wild animals. The remaining features of Toutswe settlement include house-floors, large heaps of vitrified
cow-dung and burials while the outstanding structure is the stone wall. There are large traits of ''centaurs ciliaris'', a type of grass which has come to be associated with cattle-keeping settlements in South, Central Africa.
History
Around 700 A.D., the
Zhizo people moved westward to Toutswe in Botswana after being displaced from the
Limpopo
Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...
-
Shashi Basin by the
Leopard's Kopje
Leopard's Kopje is an archaeological site, the type site of the associated region or culture that marked the Middle Iron Age in Zimbabwe. The ceramics from the Leopard's Kopje type site have been classified as part of phase II of the Leopard's K ...
people, and began an agricultural and pastoral land tenure system based on
sorghum
''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...
and
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.
Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...
, and domesticated stock, respectively. Some scholars believe their relations to have been hostile, however others insist they were more complex, both socially and politically.
The site was situated in the center of a broader cultural area in Eastern Botswana and shares many commonalities with other archaeological sites of this region, in both ceramic production styles and also timeframes inhabited. Large structures were observed that contained vitrified remains of animal dung, leading to the theory that these were animal enclosures and that Toutswemogala Hill was thus a major center of animal husbandry in the region. However, agriculture also played a vital role in the longevity of Toutswemogala Hill's extended occupation, as many grain storage structures have also been found on the site. Many different stratified layers of housing floors further signal continuous occupation over hundreds of years.
Skeletal remains of 84 individuals from Toutswe tradition sites are used to assess the palaeodemographic characteristics of the communities. The analysis includes estimation of age and sex. The data are used to construct a life table, which is then compared to data from K2 and Mapungubwe. The results indicate a high infant mortality and a low life expectancy at birth. However, by comparison to K2 and Mapungubwe communities, the Toutswe people appear to have had better survival chances. The palaeodemographic characteristics of these communities are typical of pre-industrialized communities throughout the world. The ''representativeness'' of the sample is discussed.
Notes
References
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{{Coord, 22, 13, 57, S, 27, 11, 57, E, type:landmark_region:BW, display=title
Archaeological sites in Botswana
Landforms of Botswana
Hills of Africa
Archaeological sites of Southern Africa