Heritage Cases

According to historical records, the first Dutch settlers at the Cape imported a small number of cattle in the 1650s, but these apparently died soon afterwards (Mentzel 1921). As far as we know, there were no further imports until the 1780s when Governor van Plettenberg imported a Friesland bull and cow to improve the milk yield of local cattle (Thom 1942). From this time onwards, local animals were extensively cross-bred with imported cattle to achieve desired characteristics. If these records are correct, then cattle found at historical sites at the Cape pre-dating the 1780s should be mainly or entirely descended from cattle obtained from local Khoekhoen herders. Later cattle, too, are likely to have substantial local genetic inheritance. Archaeological excavations at the Granary (Block F2) at the Castle have sampled deposits that date from ca. 1666-1685 (phase 1) to the 1750s (phase 7). Unpublished field notes from this excavation, and subsequent analyses of finds are summarized in Henirich (2010). The largest assemblages of material excavated from the Castle are, however, from the moat. These are less tightly dated, but given that later cattle are likely also to be descended in large part from animals bred by the Khoekhoe, this application seeks permission to sample two specimens from the moat (see Table 1 for details). At this stage, we do not know how well-preserved the DNA in these samples is, and it may vary considerably from one depositional context to another. Investigating samples from different areas will give the best chance of recovering at least some usable DNA, and will be helpful in planning further work. Excavations at the historic farm Elsenburg, near Stellenbosch, have also yielded early cattle teeth. Three of the four specimens for which permission is requested derive from stratigraphic unit DBYC (Dump Below Yellow Clay), a level that contained a dense accumulation of cultural material and food waste. DBYC pre-dates 1761 since it was cut by the foundation trenches of the Herehuis, built for Martin Melck and his wife Anna in 1761. The fourth specimen is from the [kitchen] dump, dated on the basis of ceramics and pipestems to approximately the same period. Material excavated from the Castle and from Elsenburg is currently curated in the Department of Archaeology at UCT. This proposed study is supported by the Head of Department, Dr Deano Stynder. Since we do not have facilities or equipment for ancient DNA work in South Africa, the analyses will be done in a dedicated ancient DNA lab at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) of Munich, under the supervision of Prof. Laurent Frantz, who is a world-leading expert in the genomics of animal domestication and archaeogenetics (ancient DNA). Over the past 5 years his research group has published over 30 papers focusing on population genomics of animals, including the first ancient pig genome (in PNAS), the first ancient dog genome (in Science) and the first ancient dire wolf genome (in Nature). With respect to this application, Prof. Frantz is now co-leading a consortium, together with Prof. Marle-Köster at the University of Pretoria, that aims to sequence the genomes of >250 modern African cattle, including >50 from southern African cattle. This modern data set will be compared with the data generated from the sample from the Castle and Elsenburg, which will offer a unique perspective on the evolutionary history of cattle in southern Africa. Because it is critical that samples are taken in a clean lab free of any possible contaminating DNA, it will be best to export these teeth to Munich so that small samples can be removed there, then the rest of the specimens returned to South Africa. This follows the precedent set by several recent studies of ancient human DNA in the Western Cape, in which whole archaeological teeth were temporarily exported, sampled in the labs that did the aDNA analyses, then returned to the collections. Sampling for DNA will focus on the tooth roots and is expected to leave minimal damage. The sampling will not damage the tooth crowns. This application therefore seeks to build an international partnership with world-leading ancient DNA researchers, as well as to investigate important questions about ancient cattle in southern Africa. In the long term, we hope to be able to compare the genomes of Khoekhoe cattle with those of cattle kept by ‘Iron Age’ communities, and thus to gain a greater understanding of the origins of cattle-keeping in southern Africa.