Foraging communities of the Murewa-Mutoko landscape: an archaeological study of human behaviour during the terminal pleistocene and epochs holosene

The study investigated behavioural elements of foraging communities in Murewa-Mutoko Landscape (northern Zimbabwe) during the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Stone Age studies in the country mostly concentrated in the south western region because of its richness in Later Stone Age (LSA) sites, thereby marginalizing other regions in terms of research coverage as well as limiting our understanding of their Stone Age archaeology. The data for the study was collected through archaeological surveys and excavations, and findings include lithic materials, faunal remains, shell beads, pottery and pigment materials. Evidence shows that foraging communities inhabited the Murewa-Mutoko landscape from Middle Stone Age (MSA) until the appearance of Early Farming Communities (EFCs) around 2,000 bp. Whereas some parts of the Murewa-Mutoko landscape were continuously occupied, others were temporarily deserted during the terminal Pleistocene and mid Holocene perhaps because of the aridity caused by extreme cold and hot weather, respectively. Variation of human activities in the study area was influenced by ecological differences of the three studied zones but also scheduling of natural resource exploitation by foragers as a strategy for maintaining their inhabitation of the landscape. In spite of overlaps in behavioural elements of foraging communities in northern and south western regions of Zimbabwe, it remains unclear why foragers inhabited the latter much later compared to the former. Future researches are therefore recommended to tackle this area of research.