New AMS dates for the Middle Iron Age in the Mapungubwe landscape

Abstract

Research in the Limpopo Valley has documented over 500 Middle Iron Age sites (AD 900-1320) relevant to the origins of Mapungubwe - the capital of the first indigenous state in southern Africa. Fifteen new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates from 11 of these archaeological sites establish the boundaries of the ceramic facies that form the culture-history framework for such diverse topics as land use, ethnic stratification, population dynamics and rainfall fluctuations. Mapungubwe was abandoned at about AD 1320.