2,000-year-old herding methods of Africans : 06-08-2008
American scientists have uncovered new evidence that animal-herding methods arrived in southern Africa around 2,000 years ago, 500 years before a wave of migration was thought to trigger new ideas.
Researchers from Stanford University have used genetic techniques to track the migration of males across southern Africa and found evidence that there may have been a pre-wave of migration around five centuries prior to the one thought to have occurred on the basis of archaeological evidence.
PhD consulting assistant professor of anthropology Joanna Mountain, who co-wrote the study for Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, explained that genetics helped give an extra dimension to theories based mainly on archaeological findings.
"There's a tradition in archaeology of saying people don't move very much; they just transfer ideas through space," she said.
"We know that humans had to migrate at some point in their history, but we also know humans tend to stay put once they get someplace," added Professor Mountain's co-author Senior Professor Peter Underhill.
In light of the new evidence, it is now believed that migrants from East Africa may have brought ideas of animal-herding to their southern neighbours around 2,000 years ago.