Two unusual sets of artefacts, the base of a pointed-bottom pot and a cluster of impact-fractured armatures, from the upper deposits of excavations at Rhino Cave and Corner Cave, Tsodilo Hills, will be presented and a range of interpretations explored. These artefacts are directly associated with rock carvings or cupules. Previously unpublished local oral accounts relating to cave and open-air localities at Tsodilo Hills will also be presented. Recurrent components of ritual behaviours provide a perspective from which to interpret these archaeological finds. It will be argued that the sets of artefacts represent ritual offerings made at these sites during the hunter-gatherer/early pastoralist period (also commonly referred to as the Later Stone Age/Early Iron Age).


Two unusual sets of artefacts, the base of a pointed-bottom pot and a cluster of impact-fractured armatures, from the upper deposits of excavations at Rhino Cave and Corner Cave, Tsodilo Hills, will be presented and a range of interpretations explored. These artefacts are directly associated with rock carvings or cupules. Previously unpublished local oral accounts relating to cave and open-air localities at Tsodilo Hills will also be presented. Recurrent components of ritual behaviours provide a perspective from which to interpret these archaeological finds. It will be argued that the sets of artefacts represent ritual offerings made at these sites during the hunter-gatherer/early pastoralist period (also commonly referred to as the Later Stone Age/Early Iron Age).