Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:56:36.090Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dates for Sub-Saharan Africa (from c. 1000 b.c.)—III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Brian M. Fagan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The third list of radiocarbon dates for Sub-Saharan Africa later than 1000 b.c. is considerably longer than its predecessors. As new laboratories commence operations, so more and more dates become available. During the last eighteen months, many more dates from Rhodesian Iron Age sites have been processed, where the earliest Iron Age peoples are now dated to the fourth century a.d. if not earlier. The Kalomo culture in Zambia is now securely dated. Iron smelting furnaces were being operated on the Witwatersrand in South Africa by a.d. 1000, and it is now known that Iron Age peoples were living by the Kuene river in Angola by the eighth century. Recent dates from Katanga have shown that there was a flourishing copper trade there by the same period. An important series of dates have been processed from Saharan Neolithic sites, indicating that the Sahara was suitable for pastoral peoples in the fourth century b.c. Another date for the Nok culture in Nigeria places the later stages of the culture in the third century a.d.

By a resolution of the Cambridge Radiocarbon Conference, all dates are now calculated relative to a.d. 1950.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 107 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Mason, R. J. and van der Merwe, N. J., ‘Radiocarbon dating of Iron Age sites in the Southern Transvaal: Melville Koppies and Uitkomst Cave’, S. Afr. Journ. Sd., LX (1964), 142.Google Scholar

2 Mason, R. J., The Prehistory of the Transvaal (Johannesburg, 1962), 387.Google Scholar

3 Clark, J. Desmond, The Prehistory of Southern Africa (London, 1959).Google Scholar

4 Kigoshi, Kunihiko, Lin, Der-Hwang, and Endo, Kunihiko, ‘Gakushuin Natural Radiocarbon Measurements III’, Radiocarbon, 6 (1964), 206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Battistini, R. and Verin, P., ‘Le site archologique de Talaky’, Annales de l'Univ. de Madagascar, I(1963), 111–129.Google Scholar

6 Except for the Graniteside sample all the new Rhodesian dates are to be found in: Robins, P. A. and Swart, E. R., ‘Southern Rhodesian Radiocarbon Measurements I’, Radiocarbon, 6 (1964), 31–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Robinson, K. R., ‘Further excavations in the Iron Age deposits at the Tunnel Site, Gokomere Hill, Southern Rhodesia’, S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull., 18 (1963), 72, 160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Robinson, K. R., Schoolboys' Exploration Society expedition to Buffalo Bend, 1961, Bulawayo (1961).Google Scholar

9 Fagan, B. M., ‘The Greefswald Sequence: Bambandyanalo and Mapungubwe’, Journ. Afr. Hist., V (1964), 3, 337–61.Google Scholar

10 Robins, P. A. and Swart, E. R. (1964), op. cit. 34.Google Scholar

11 Summers, Roger, ‘The Southern Rhodesian Iron Age’, Journ. Afr. Hist., ii(1961), I, 13.Google Scholar

12 Cooke, C. K., ‘Iron Age influences in the Rock Art of Southern Africa’, Arnoldia, 2 (1964), 12.Google Scholar

13 ‘Radiocarbon List II’, Journ. AIr. Hut., iv (1963), I, 127.Google Scholar

14 Vogel, J. C. and Waterbolk, H. T., ‘Groningen Radiocarbon dates V’, Radiocarbon 6 (1964), 359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 ‘Radiocarbon List I’, Journ. Afr. Hist., ii (1961), I, 138.Google Scholar

16 I am grateful to Mr C. K. Cooke and Mr A. Whitty for providing me with information on this site.

17 C. K. Cooke: personal communication.

18 Robins, P. A. and Swart, E. R. (1964), op. cit. 35.Google Scholar

19 Clark, J. D. and Fagan, B. M., ‘Charcoals, Sands, and Channel-decorated pottery from Northern Rhodesia’, American Anthropologist. In the press.Google Scholar

20 ‘Radiocarbon List II’, Journ. Afr. Hist., iv (1963), I, 128.Google Scholar

21 Daniels, S. G. H., ‘Time Scales’ in Fagan, B. M., Iron Age Cultures in Zambia. In the press.Google Scholar

22 Fagan, B. M., ‘The Iron Age sequence in the Southern Province of Northern Rhodesia’, Journ. Afr. Hist., iv (1963), 2, 162.Google Scholar

23 Godwin, H. and Willis, E. H., ‘Cambridge University Natural Radiocarbon Measurements VI’, Radiocarbon, 6 (1964), 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Fagan, B. M., ‘Northern Rhodesia 1500 years ago’, Illustrated London News, 20 06 1964, 988–91.Google Scholar

25 S. G. H. Daniels, op. cit. In the press.

26 B. M. Fagan and D. W. Phillipson, ‘Sebanzi: the Iron Age Sequence at Lochinvar and the Tonga’. Under preparation.

27 Robins, P. A. and Swart, E. R. (1964), op. cit. 35. Northern Rhodesia National Monuments Commission Annual Report for 1963 (Livingstone, 1964), 9.Google Scholar

28 Colson, E. A. and Broeker, W. S., ‘Lamont Natural Radiocarbon Measurements V’, Radiocarbon, I (1959), 60.Google ScholarVogel, J. C. and Waterbolk, H. T., ‘Groningen Radiocarbon Dates V’, Radiocarbon, 6 (1964), 251. I am grateful to Professor Desmond Clark for permission to quote dates L-395 A and C, which are unpublished.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 A laboratory comment on this date states: ‘Due to known variation in C14 content of the atmosphere at this time, an age of ca. AD 1350 is also possible.’

30 Fergusson, C. J. and Libby, W. F., ‘UCLA Radiocarbon dates II’, Radiocarbon, 5 (1963), 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Stuiver, Minze, Deevey, E. S., and Rouse, Irving, ‘Yale Natural Radiocarbon Measurements VIII’, Radiocarbon, 5 (1963), 337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Nenquin, J., Excavations at Sanga, 1957 (Tervuren, 1963).Google Scholar

33 B. E. B. Fagg: personal communication.

34 Delibrias, G., Guillier, M. T., and Labeyrie, J., ‘Saclay Natural Radiocarbon Measurements I’, Radiocarbon, 6 (1964), 241–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Arkell, A. J., Shaheinab (London, 1953).Google Scholar

36 Delibrias, G., Guillier, M. T., and Labeyrie, J. (1964), op. cit. 242.Google Scholar

37 Ibid.

38 Mauny, R., ‘L'Ouest Africain au Moyen Age’, Mém. de L'Inst. Français d'Afrique Noir, I.F.A.N. Dakar, no. 61 (Dakar, 1961).Google Scholar

39 Mauny, R. (1961), op. cit.Google Scholar

40 Summers, R. (1961), op. cit. 13.Google Scholar