Heritage Cases

The arrival of the first domesticated stock (sheep/goat) into southern Africa represents a significant milestone in the region’s archaeological record (Bousman, 1998). Until ~ 2000-3000 years ago, the region was the domain of hunter-gatherers who were dependent on food extraction rather than food production (Mitchell and Whitelaw, 2005). The introduction of domesticated animals would have necessitated a shift in the perception of food consumption, sharing, storage, and humans’ use of landscapes (Lander and Russell, 2018). The southern Cape Fold Belt Mountains are a mixed arid/semi-arid environment with significant grassland coverage and small renosterveld grazing that is ideally suited to small domesticated stock keeping. These conditions make the region an epicentre for modern South African sheep farming. Boomplaas cave’s member DGL contains this region’s only reliable archaeological evidence for early for early domesticated sheep with two conventional radiocarbon ages on charcoal dated to 1700  55 and 1500  75 (Deacon et al., 1978; Von Den Driesch and Deacon, 1985). While these ages are young in comparison with samples from South Africa’s western margins, they represent the earliest such remains in the Cape Fold Belt mountains (Bousman, 1998). Layers of calcined dung comprising the DGL Member have built up over the floor of the cave and include the remains of domestic sheep, pottery of the Cape Coastal tradition and rather elaborate hearth features as well as stone artefacts dating to some 1700 B.P. (Deacon et al., 1978). The calcined dung layers of the DGL Member are a number of discrete, thin (30-50 mm) horizons extending part way over the surface of the cave (Von Den Driesch and Deacon, 1985). The occurrence of artefacts, pottery, fireplaces and food remains shows that people lived in the cave during the accumulation of the DGL Member. Sheep are the only domestic fauna present in the DGL sample although Von Den Driesch & Deacon (1985) argue that member DGL’s pottery is indirect evidence for the use of oxen as draught animals. These features comprise the region’s only evidence for stock kraaling. Together, these remains represent an unprecedented opportunity to examine the processes associated with the introduction of domesticated animals into southern African and their effects on local hunting and gathering ways of life. To date, archaeologists have garnered little information from Boomplaas’ extensive (~100m2) member DGL dung deposits. Recent advances in ancient DNA technologies (i.e. Poinar et al., 1998; Iñiguez et al., 2003) now allow sequencing of dung and coprolites to determine the animal species and, preservation permitting, the plants consumed. These data can be used to test traditional identifications made on faunal remains and to examine plants as indicators of herding and grazing strategies. Moreover, advances in AMS techniques for radiocarbon dating (i.e. Bronk Ramsey et al., 2004) enable more precise age determinations for organic remains such as animal dung. This application seeks a permit to conduct ancient DNA analyses and new radiocarbon dating on carbonized dung remains from member DGL at Boomplaas Cave. For the purposes on this analysis, six small (~2g) dung samples were extracted from an excavation section exposed during the original excavations at Boomplaas cave by Hillary Deacon and his team (following allowances set forth in Heritage Western Cape excavation permit issued to Justin Pargeter) (Figures). The samples will be submitted to the ancient DNA laboratory at Emory University in Atlanta, USA and the Molecular Anthropology Laboratories at Southern Methodist University, USA. The two labs will analyze the samples independently of one another to ensure maximum verifiability of any results. The first step will be to construct a sequencing library of all the DNA recovered from each sample and to determine how degraded the DNA is before adopting an enrichment approach to identify species-specific molecular signals. Sub-samples will also be submitted for AMS radiocarbon dating at the University of Georgia's Center for Applied Isotope Studies. If successful, this study would be the first of its kind in southern Africa to apply ancient DNA techniques to the study of domesticated animals through animal dung with significant implications for our understanding of changing lifeways at the end of the Holocene in southern Africa. The improved chronological resolution provided by the new AMS radiocarbon ages will also allow us to more precisely determine the spread of domesticated animals across the southern Cape. REFERENCES BOUSMAN, C.B. 1998. The chronological evidence for the introduction of domestic stock into southern Africa. African Archaeological Review 15: 133-150. BRONK RAMSEY, C., HIGHAM, T. & LEACH, P. 2004. Towards high-precision AMS: progress and limitations. Radiocarbon 46: 17-24. DEACON, H.J., DEACON, J., BROOKER, M. & WILSON, M.L. 1978. The evidence for herding at Boomplaas Cave in the southern Cape, South Africa. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 33: 39-65. IÑIGUEZ, A.M., ARAÚJO, A., FERREIRA, L.F. & VICENTE, A.C.P. 2003. Analysis of ancient DNA from coprolites: a perspective with random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction approach. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 98: 63-65. LANDER, F. & RUSSELL, T. 2018. The archaeological evidence for the appearance of pastoralism and farming in southern Africa. PloS one 13: e0198941. MITCHELL, P. & WHITELAW, G. 2005. The archaeology of southernmost Africa from c. 2000 BP to the early 1800s: a review of recent research. Journal of African History 46: 1-33. POINAR, H.N., HOFREITER, M., SPAULDING, W.G., MARTIN, P.S., STANKIEWICZ, B.A., BLAND, H., EVERSHED, R.P., POSSNERT, G. & PÄÄBO, S. 1998. Molecular coproscopy: dung and diet of the extinct ground sloth Nothrotheriops shastensis. Science 281: 402-406. VON DEN DRIESCH, A. & DEACON, H.J. 1985. Sheep Remains from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 40: 39-44.