The Archaeology of Leshongwane Site in Eastern Botswana

Abstract

This paper presents some preliminary results of an on-going research at Leshongwane Iron Age site located in eastern Botswana, near the copper-nickel mining town of Selibe-Phikwe. Except from skeletal and sporadic archaeological impact assessment reports, in particular those from the construction of the nearby Letsibogo Dam project, there is very little known about this site. Since 2009 the Archaeology Unit at the University of Botswana, through the assistance of the African Archaeology Network (AAN) has been conducting fieldwork research which has yielded promising results to contribute to the debates related to Iron Age populations in Southern Africa. Different methodological approaches have been used to explore the site’s environmental settings, chronostratigraphic and cultural sequences of occupational periods as well as the spatial distribution of the archaeological features. Even though these results are still preliminary, it is evident that we are dealing with a site that has attracted humanity for settlement at different times from Middle Stone Age period to the entire spectrum of the Iron Age period, to Zimbabwe and Sotho-Tswana to the present.