Toutswemogala Hill lies 6.5 km West of the North-South Highway in the Central District of

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

. It is situated about 50 km north of the village of

Palapye Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–sout ...

. Toutswemogala is an elongated flat-topped hill, geologically called a mesa, rising about 50 meters above the surrounding flat

mopane veld ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...

. It is an Iron Age settlement, which has been occupied on two occasions. The radio-carbon dates for this settlement range from 7th to late 19th century AD indicating occupation of more than one thousand years. The hill was part of the formation of early states in Southern Africa with cattle keeping as major source of economy. This was supplemented by goats, sheep and foraging as well as hunting of wild animals. The remaining features of Toutswe settlement include house-floors, large heaps of vitrified

cow-dung Cow dung, also known as cow pats, cow pies or cow manure, is the waste product (faeces) of bovine animal species. These species include domestic cattle ("cows"), bison ("buffalo"), yak, and water buffalo. Cow dung is the undigested residu ...

and burials while the outstanding structure is the stone wall. There are large traits of ''centaurs ciliaris'', a type of grass which has come to be associated with cattle-keeping settlements in South, Central Africa.Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age Settlement - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
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History

Around 700 A.D., the Toutswe people moved westward into Botswana and began an agricultural and pastoral land tenure system based on

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many other ...

and

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets also ...

, and domesticated stock, respectively.Hall, Martin (1990), ''Farmers, Kings, and Traders: The People of Southern Africa, 200-1860'', University of Chicago Press. . The site was situated in the center of a broader cultural area in Eastern Botswana and shares many commonalities with other archaeological sites of this region, in both ceramic production styles and also timeframes inhabited. Large structures were observed that contained vitrified remains of animal dung, leading to the theory that these were animal enclosures and that Toutswemogala Hill was thus a major center of animal husbandry in the region. However, agriculture also played a vital role in the longevity of Toutswemogala Hill's extended occupation, as many grain storage structures have also been found on the site. Many different stratified layers of housing floors further signal continuous occupation over hundreds of years. Skeletal remains of 84 individuals from Toutswe tradition sites are used to assess the palaeodemographic characteristics of the communities. The analysis includes estimation of age and sex. The data are used to construct a life table, which is then compared to data from K2 and Mapungubwe. The results indicate a high infant mortality and a low life expectancy at birth. However, by comparison to K2 and Mapungubwe communities, the Toutswe people appear to have had better survival chances. The palaeodemographic characteristics of these communities are typical of pre-industrialized communities throughout the world. The ''representativeness'' of the sample is discussed.'

Notes

References

Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age Settlement - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
*Hall, Martin (1990), ''Farmers, Kings, and Traders: The People of Southern Africa, 200-1860'', University of Chicago Press. . {{Coord, 22, 13, 57, S, 27, 11, 57, E, type:landmark_region:BW, display=title Archaeological sites in Botswana Landforms of Botswana Hills of Africa Archaeological sites of Southern Africa