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Farming communities first moved into South Africa in the first millennium CE, around 2000 years ago. These agro-pastoralist communities settled near water sources to provide easy access to water for their cattle and suitable soils for crop cultivation. One of the best-known Early Iron Age sites in northeastern South Africa is the Lydenburg Heads' (LH) site. The site yielded the Lydenburg Heads, the earliest examples of complete ceramic sculptures in South Africa. The associated ceramics are important for reconstructing early agricultural activities in the region. Late twentieth-century excavations of three trenches at the site found separate pottery sherds in the Kalundu and Urewe traditions in two of the trenches and a combination of both traditions in a third trench. Radiocarbon dating on the site yielded two mid-600 CE dates. However, subsequent reanalysis of the excavated material revealed that the LH site was occupied during two periods. The first period was dated to around 600 CE and the second from 900 to 1100 CE. The earliest period is characterised by ceramics made in the Urewe Tradition, which suggests connections along the eastern seaboard. The more recent Kalundu Tradition ceramics suggest links into north-western South Africa through Botswana and Zimbabwe. These more recent dates and archaeological affiliations are largely based on ceramic typologies. Because the LH site was heavily eroded and the ceramic sculpture sherds were removed from their context, absolute dating has been difficult. Based on the ceramic style, it is believed that the LH sculptures date to the second period of occupation. Here we report on the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to constrain the timing of the pottery sherds to establish whether the pots originated in successive or contemporaneous occupations. In addition, we assess the effectiveness of the minimum extraction technique (MET) in dating the pots without causing extensive damage to the sherds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]