Bosutswe

Bosutswe was a hilltop settlement on the eastern edge of the Kalahari, occupied for about a thousand years. Its people kept cattle and cultivated crops, while the remains of animal enclosures bear witness to the importance of herds. From this inland centre goods could travel west towards the Okavango and east towards the Limpopo valley.

Bosutswe remained inhabited between 1300 and 1600, as regional commerce and political power shifted around it. Its craftspeople worked copper and bronze, and the settlement's pottery retained distinctive local styles. Imported glass beads and metal ornaments reveal connections with more powerful centres and, beyond them, the Indian Ocean trade. Ivory, salt and ostrich products from the interior may have passed eastward through the region in exchange for such goods.