SHORT REPORT A Note on the Demographic and Health Pattern of a Historical Sleeping Sickness Cemetery at Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital, Maun, Botswana M. N. MOSOTHWANE* Archaeology Unit, History Department, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana ABSTRACT A part of a historical cemetery used to bury victims of sleeping sickness in Maun, Botswana, was recently un- covered by a water supply improvement construction project. The cemetery had become obliterated from the surface and from the memories of the people resulting in the use of the land for residential purposes. Twelve skeletons were excavated along the water supply trench and have since been buried at one of the new village cemeteries. There were eight males, two females and two individuals of unknown sex. They were young adults ranging in age from 18 to 35 years at the time of death. Dental modifications were used to estimate the cultural identities of two individuals. Some of the remains had been buried with body clothing such as belts and necklaces. Poor dental health was most probably associated with poor nutrition and poor oral hygiene among the population. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: Botswana; historic cemetery; Maun Hospital; Sleeping sickness Introduction Maun is a large town located just along the southern edges of the Okavango Delta in Botswana (Figure 1). The town was established as a capital of the Batawana people and a colonial administration centre, which served the far north western corner of the protectorate, in the 1920s. In its early days, the village was sparsely populated by a few hundred people from various com- munities with the Batawana as the dominant group. Population and economic growth was extremely slow compared with other parts of the protectorate. This was largely because of remoteness and inaccessibility coupled with numerous disease outbreaks as a result of proximity to the delta. The colonial government insisted on establishing Maun as a centre of trade in wildlife for British businessmen (Tlou, 1985). The delta provided wildlife for human consumption and other recreational opportunities, but it also provided habitat for various organisms harmful to hu- man and animal health. As a result, Maun and its associated Ngamiland region is the only area in Botswana that has been hit by all major southern African epidemics and pandemics of the colonial and post-colonial period (Potten, 1976). These include malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague, sleeping sickness, influenza and bilharzia epidemics (Wilson et al., 1963; Heinz, 1968; Potten, 1976; Tlou, 1985; Molefi 1996, 2001, 2003; Schmitt, 2006). Likewise, livestock in the area has been affected by rinderpest, nagana and foot mouth disease. In some instances, there were single dis- ease epidemics such as the 1912 influenza bout, and sometimes, the epidemics co-existed such as the 1940s smallpox, bubonic plague, malaria, syphilis and sleeping sickness (Botswna National Archives, Annual report, Maun Medical Mission (1943) File No. 101/3; Molefi, 2001, 2003; Schmitt, 2006). The early history, development and prevalence of sleeping sickness in Ngamiland are not fully known. Local communities in the region were fully aware of ‘kotsela’ long before the disease was officially recorded by the colonial adminis- trators in the 1930s. Kotsela is a Setswana name * Correspondence to: Morongwa Nancy Mosothwane, Archaeology Unit, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. e-mail: morongwa.mosothwane@mopipi.ub.bw; morongwa@hotmail.com Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 2 August 2014 Revised 21 January 2015 Accepted 19 March 2015 International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 26: 337–344 (2016) Published online 15 May 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.2452