Hunting, Fishing, and Herding in Later Stone Age and Iron Age Zambia: A Review of Zooarchaeological Evidence

Abstract

This review emphasizes the significance of archaeological faunal remains in understanding past foraging and agropastoralist societies, highlighting their substantial potential for future scientific analyses. These remains have been underrepresented in Zambian archaeology due to a historical focus on durable materials such as Stone Age lithics and Iron Age ceramics, the latter being crucial for typological and cultural sequencing during mid-twentieth-century Bantu expansion studies. Here, we synthesize a half-century of zooarchaeological data from Later Stone Age and Iron Age sites in Zambia, demonstrating that methods and theoretical frameworks used there align with broader African and global zooarchaeological trends. We analyze relative species abundance and other zooarchaeological information for past hunting, fishing, and agropastoralist societies, identifying important gaps in the faunal and chronological records as well as unresolved questions, particularly surrounding introductions of nonnative domestic and commensal animals. We assess the current state of zooarchaeology in Zambia and propose future research pathways to enhance our understanding of human-animal-environment relations in south-central Africa.