oa Annals of the Natal Museum - Dendroclimatology, rainfall and human adaptation in the later Iron Age of Natal and Zululand

Abstract

A dendroclimatological study of a specimen of Podocarpus falcalus with a life-span of 596 years is descriptionbed. It is noted that the dominant pattern of rainfall oscillation for the summer-rainfall region of South Africa, revealed by analysis of rainfall statistics for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is also a feature of the prehistoric period. Other, less regular, trends are also descriptionbed. It is suggested that these data add a further perspective to the understanding of late prehistoric and early historic human adaptations in Natal and Zululand.