Bokoni Stone-Walled Terraces
Bokoni · Koni · Moxomatsi Terraces
Late Iron Age (1500–1820 CE; peak 1700–1820)·Eastern Sotho (Bokoni)·🇿🇦 Mpumalanga, South Africa
About
About Bokoni Stone-Walled Terraces
Bokoni (Koni) terraces in Mpumalanga escarpment are 150 ha dry-stone agricultural terraces 16th–19th c., built by Eastern Sotho Bokoni people on hillslopes with road causeways and stock kraal enclosures, reminiscent of Nyanga. Height 1.5 m walls retain soil, control runoff on 20° slopes for sorghum–millet. Abandoned 1820s Difaqane raids. Best preserved at Komati Gorge. Reveals intensive pre-colonial highland agriculture.
Why it mattersOnly southern African stone-terraced intensive agriculture pre-colonial; Difaqane collapse model.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 0116th vs 18th c. terracing chronology
- 02Population density carrying capacity
Theories
- 01Highland intensification vs lowland risk (Delius)
- 02Difaqane abandonment vs drought (Widgren)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- 16th c. beginnings; major terracing 1700s
- Period
- Late Iron Age (1500–1820 CE; peak 1700–1820)
- Culture
- Eastern Sotho (Bokoni)
- Builders
- Bokoni (Koni) farmers
- Purpose
- Hillslope intensive farming and stock management
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
1500 CE
Bokoni settlement begins
1700 CE
Major terracing
1820s
Difaqane abandonment
2008
Delius surveys
On the ground
Structures & features
25.1520° S · 30.2120° E · 1650 m · 2 mapped features
Komati Gorge Terraces
terrace1.5-m high terrace walls on 20° slope
25.1530° S · 30.2130° EStock Kraal Enclosures
enclosure20-m diameter stone kraals with causeways
25.1510° S · 30.2110° E