One of the central issues in early Precambrian crustal evolution is the age and genetic relationship between greenstone belt supracrustal assemblages and nearby high-grade gneiss terranes. The crucial question, in most cases, is which of the two is older. We report zircon ages, using the new single grain evaporation technique, from a metaquartzite and a felsic volcanic flow of the Onverwacht Group in the Barberton greenstone belt (BGB), South Africa and Swaziland, that constrain the age of this basal part of the greenstone sequence between 3451¿15 and 3438¿6 Ma. This is almost 100 Ma younger than previous age estimates assigned to the Onverwacht and agrees well with recent Sm-Nd, Pb-Pb and zircon ion-microprobe dating. Toalitic orthogneisses of the Ancient Gneiss Complex (AGC) adjacent to the BGB have ages up to 3644¿4 Ma and are thus demonstrably older than the greenstones; also they cannot be derived from them by partial melting as has been proposed previously. This age relationship as well as the presence of metaquartzites and thrust slices of pregreenstone tonalite in the Onverwacht tectonic sequence rule out an entirely oceanic evolution for the early history of the BGB and suggest that continental crust was either below or nearby. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1988