Tandjesberg Shelter, eastern Free State, South Africa

Abstract

Tandjesberg Shelter contains a small ceramic post-classic Wilton assemblage, and the site has been interpreted as a dispersal phase camp that was not occupied before about 900 years ago. Agriculturist settlements can become substitutes for hunter-gatherer camps, and it is possible that this explains the apparent absence of aggregation camps in the eastern Free State after about 500 b.p. Perhaps paintings of aggregation camp activities also became substitutes for the real gatherings once traditional mobility patterns were disturbed. This might explain why dispersal phase sites such as Tandjesberg have such a wealth of rock art.