Revisiting the age of southern Africa’s first dogs

Abstract

Dogs have long been part of southern African Iron Age farming communities. This paper reviews the archaeological evidence for widely cited claims of their presence in the 1st millennium AD at two sites, Bosutswe in eastern Botswana and Diamant in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Detailed analysis of the original excavation records and information regarding the radiocarbon dates obtained at these sites, as well as the ceramic associations of the skeletal remains in question, show that these claims cannot be confirmed. At Bosutswe, instead of appearing c. AD 700, there is no credible evidence for the presence of domestic dogs before the Late Toutswe phase of the site’s occupation in the 12th century AD. At Diamant, where a date of c. AD 570 has frequently been cited, available data do not permit the dog remains found there to be closely linked to any of the site’s radiocarbon dates, although a late-1st-millennium AD age is probable. With Bosutswe, Diamant and a second Botswanan site—Taukome—removed from the equation, the oldest credible evidence for domestic dogs in southern Africa currently comes from the Thukela Basin of KwaZulu-Natal, beginning in the 7th/8th centuries AD. Recommendations for careful assessment of these and similar claims are made.