The collection of papers reviewed here were first presented at a conference at Witwatersrand University in 2007, and form part of a broader project launched in 2006 known as the Five Hundred Year Initiative (FYI). This aims to ‘re-interrogate the last 500 years in order to generate a more comprehensive understanding of modern South Africa(ns)’ (p. 23). FYI project members hope to achieve this through the promotion of ‘interdisciplinary research’ that generates ‘close collaborations between archaeologists, oral historians, social anthropologists, linguists and others’ (p. 1). The FYI project is now entering its fourth year, and two further conferences have been held – the most recent being in July 2009, at which the cross-disciplinary ‘conversations’ were extended to include colleagues with research interests in eastern Africa.

The volume comprises 14 chapters in all, of varying subject matter, geographical focus, and content. In the introductory chapter, two historians (Bonner and Wright) and three archaeologists (Esterhuysen, Schoeman, and Swanepoel) provide a historiographic synopsis of the changing relationship between archaeology and history in the South African context, drawing particular attention to the need for scholars from these respective disciplines not just to engage more regularly in mutual ‘conversations’ but also to develop greater understanding of the intellectual context, data sets, and methods of source criticism of each other's discipline.

The remaining chapters are split between three sections, entitled ‘Disciplinary identities: methodological considerations’; ‘Material identities’; and ‘“Troubled times”: warfare, state formation and migration in the interior’. Of the six chapters in Section 1, three focus on conceptual/theoretical issues, while the remaining three present more substantive data. In their chapter, Behrens and Swanepoel review the trajectory of ‘historical archaeology’ in southern Africa, some of the conflicting definitions and approaches, the strengths of different sources, and questions of scale, concluding with several suggestions for future research topics that members of the FYI project might address. These include examination of the impact and long-term effects of capitalism, industrialization, conflict, and land dispossession, and study of the changing role of material culture in shaping and signalling identity, with particular reference to issues of class, gender, ethnicity, status, and racial differences. It is very much a scene-setting paper for the section, allowing other authors to examine some of these issues in more depth. The majority tend to construct their discussions around either critiques of older models of ethnic formation (Parsons on the validity and explanatory value of macro-scale models of Western- and Eastern-stream Bantu migrations), and/or the development of more ‘complicated’ reconstructions of the histories of particular ethnicities through the use of new archaeological data and reappraisals of the historical sources (Hall et al. with reference to Tswana chiefdoms in the Rustenburg region; Hanisch on the interplay between Venda legends and the Later Iron Age archaeology of the Soutpansberg Mountains and the reliability of oral traditions; Morris on the possible Griqua identity of a series of human burials at a nineteenth-century Rhenish Mission site on the Groot River). By contrast, Chirikure et al. examine aspects of iron production and the use and trade of metals on the southern Highveld – an area largely devoid of suitable exploitable sources of iron ore and also, as an area of upland grassland, generally lacking wood supplies for making charcoal. In so doing, they raise the question ‘Where did the inhabitants of this area obtain their iron tools?’ The state of research at present means this cannot be answered yet, although the potential to do so certainly exists.

Section 2 contains four papers, two of which focus on the neglected history and Later Iron Age (i.e. after about 1500 ce) archaeology of the Mpumalanga Escarpment; another examines the evidence for the trade in glass beads imported from Asia and Europe and their possible significance as temporal and cultural markers (Wood); and one examines the possible use of ceramics for forging alliances rather than marking ethnic differences (Esterhuysen). Delius and Schoeman, in their chapter, offer a review of the later archaeology of Mpumalanga – which is highly visible in the form of various complexes of stonewalled enclosures, track ways, and field terraces – the history of research on this material, and the various interpretations of the identity of the occupants and makers of these sites. They argue that previous studies have failed to recognize the inherent dynamism of these societies (typically referred to as Bokoni), their innovative approaches to the intensification of agricultural and pastoralist production (a theme further developed by Maggs), or the region's ethnic diversity. Their alternative account of settlement dynamics and economies, by contrast, takes all of these issues into account, and offers a more convincing model of how such societies responded to both internal and external historical events and processes than offered by the currently dominant archaeological and historical paradigms.

The three chapters in the final section are more historically oriented, although all authors attempt to integrate relevant archaeological data, or, in their absence, offer suggestions for future targeted research. All are concerned with the era of social and political upheaval during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Wright's paper seeks to reposition the Ndwandwe kingdom within broader regional histories, both prior to the rise of the Zulu under Shaka and in the aftermath of Zulu expansion, and so gives voice to histories that have been suppressed by more dominant narratives. Bonner and Kadunza, by way of contrast, examine the historical trajectories of better-known historical entities – respectively, the Swazi kingdom and northern Nguni more generally, and the Makolo and Nguni of Zambia. Both offer new reconstructions of the settlement histories of these groups, while also lamenting the relative dearth of appropriate archaeological data that could help clarify several issues.

In summary, this well-produced book, with its clear line illustrations and excellent selection of colour plates, makes a valiant effort at encouraging southern African historians, archaeologists, and others to re-engage with each others' work and to revive collaborative research on a particularly formative period of the region's history. While several papers are quite preliminary, there are some notable gems and all offer thought-provoking insights and observations that will be of interest and value to those interested in this region, or more generally in the challenge of integrating historical and archaeological materials. Let the conversations continue!