During the Iron Age, inhabitants between Phalaborwa and Balule traded in copper. Then Arab traders arrived in search of gold and ivory, and in the Late Iron Age, in search of slaves. Although there are no written records nor oral traditions surviving from this period - AD 1000 to AD 1300 - it is believed that trade with the Arabs led to the rise of the Mapungubwe Kingdom along the Zimbabwe-Botswana border.
Little is known about the people of Mapungubwe. Since the discovery of some of their graves in 1933, which were rich with gold work, we know the Mapungubweans (as these mysterious people are known) were prosperous. This conclusion is substantiated by research done on the remains of from various graves, which found that the Mapungubweans enjoyed a healthy and varied diet.
The Kingdom of Mapungubwe traded with Arab settlements along the West African coast and this activity influenced the people living in and around what is today the Kruger National Park. Evidence of these chiefdoms is found in the stone ruins Thulamela and Matekevhele. These chiefdoms also left evidence of profitable trade, like glass beads, Chinese porcelain, imported cloth, and iron, bronze, copper, gold and ivory artifacts.
Sites like Masorini continued to produce iron tools well into the 19th century.
The area that comprises the Kruger Park today was populated by early humans around 1,5-million years ago. Around 40,000 years ago (Late Stone Age) small tribes of nomadic hunter-gathers known as the San moved through the Lowveld region of present day South Africa, where the Kruger Park is located.