Novel trajectories of food production, urbanism, and inter-regional trade fueled the emergence of numerous complex Iron Age polities in central and southern Africa. Renewed research and re-dating efforts in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and along the Swahili Coast are transforming models for how inter-regional interaction spheres contributed to these patterns. While societies in present-day Zambia played an important role in the trade of copper, ivory, gold, and other resources between central and southern Africa, little is known about lifeways during the rise of social complexity in this region. This paper reports the results of re-excavation at Kalundu Mound on the Batoka Plateau of southern Zambia, one of the iconic mound sites of the Iron Age “Kalomo Culture.” New radiocarbon dates were combined with the original dates in a series of Bayesian models, indicating that previous chronologies for the site are not reliable and that the mound site likely developed rapidly from AD 1190 to 1410. Archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and paleo-proteomic analyses of excavated materials suggests a broad subsistence base combining wild and domesticated species, including the first reported evidence for finger millet (Eleusine coracana) in the region. Considering these findings, it is necessary to re-evaluate the temporal context of the Kalomo site-group, and to also systematically reinvestigate the systems of exchange and subsistence that supported Later Iron Age complexity.

粮食生产、城市化和区域间贸易的新轨迹推动了非洲中部和南部众多复杂的铁器时代政体的出现。博茨瓦纳、津巴布韦和斯瓦希里海岸沿线的新研究和重新定年工作正在改变区域间互动领域如何促成这些模式的模型。尽管当今赞比亚的社会在非洲中部和南部之间的铜、象牙、黄金和其他资源的贸易中发挥了重要作用，但对该地区社会复杂性上升期间的生活方式知之甚少。本文报道了赞比亚南部巴托卡高原卡伦杜土丘的重新挖掘结果，该土丘是铁器时代“卡洛莫文化”的标志性土丘遗址之一。新的放射性碳日期与一系列贝叶斯模型中的原始日期相结合，Eleusine coracana）在该地区。考虑到这些发现，有必要重新评估 Kalomo 遗址群的时间背景，并系统地重新调查支持晚铁器时代复杂性的交换和生存系统。