Reconstructing Middle Stone Age mobility patterns from raw material transfers in South Africa’s Still Bay (77–70 ka) technocomplex

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mackay ◽  
Christopher J. H. Ames ◽  
Jessica-Louise McNeil ◽  
Matthew Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Still Bay

A Refitting Study of Late Early to Middle Stone Age Lithic Assemblages from the Site of Kudu Koppie, Limpopo Province, South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Alexandra Sumner
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Early Stone Age

The examination of lithic material from the late Early Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels of Kudu Koppie (KK), Limpopo Province (South Africa) has revealed a range of raw material exploitation patterns and lithic technology. Situated on an escarpment within close proximity to the modern day Limpopo River, and given the high concentration of raw material sources within easy access of the site, KK offered an ideal environment for use by early human groups. This paper reviews the results of a refitting study of material associated with four types of raw material from four out of ten excavated squares at KK. The results demonstrate evidence for a range of technological approaches that are, in some cases, associated with differential use of various lithic materials. In addition, the analysis of the KK refits offers high-resolution insights into the unique qualities of individual technological events including the recycling of previously exploited nodules and, through additional flaking, the co-opting and alteration of one type of tool for the purpose of producing a second form of tool. Moreover, this paper also clearly demonstrates the applicability and value of refitting large Early and Middle Stone Age assemblages, thus offering interpretations concerning early prehistoric technological behaviour that would otherwise be rarely revealed.

scholarly journals New investigations at the Middle Stone Age site of Pockenbank Rockshelter, Namibia

Antiquity ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (353) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabell Schmidt ◽  
Götz Ossendorf ◽  
Elena Hensel ◽  
Olaf Bubenzer ◽  
Barbara Eichhorn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Classic Model ◽  
The Past ◽  
Still Bay

In southern Africa, Middle Stone Age sites with long sequences have been the focus of intense international and interdisciplinary research over the past decade (cf. Wadley 2015). Two techno-complexes of the Middle Stone Age—the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort—have been associated with many technological and behavioural innovations of Homo sapiens. The classic model argues that these two techno-complexes are temporally separated ‘horizons’ with homogenous material culture (Jacobs et al.2008), reflecting demographic pulses and supporting large subcontinental networks. This model was developed on the basis of evidence from southern African sites regarded as centres of subcontinental developments.

scholarly journals Explanations of variability in Middle Stone Age stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use in Eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Blinkhorn ◽  
M. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Population History ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Assemblage Composition

AbstractThe Middle Stone Age (MSA) corresponds to a critical phase in human evolution, overlapping with the earliest emergence of Homo sapiens as well as the expansions of these populations across and beyond Africa. Within the context of growing recognition for a complex and structured population history across the continent, Eastern Africa remains a critical region to explore patterns of behavioural variability due to the large number of well-dated archaeological assemblages compared to other regions. Quantitative studies of the Eastern African MSA record have indicated patterns of behavioural variation across space, time and from different environmental contexts. Here, we examine the nature of these patterns through the use of matrix correlation statistics, exploring whether differences in assemblage composition and raw material use correlate to differences between one another, assemblage age, distance in space, and the geographic and environmental characteristics of the landscapes surrounding MSA sites. Assemblage composition and raw material use correlate most strongly with one another, with site type as well as geographic and environmental variables also identified as having significant correlations to the former, and distance in time and space correlating more strongly with the latter. By combining time and space into a single variable, we are able to show the strong relationship this has with differences in stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use, with significance for exploring the impacts of processes of cultural inheritance on variability in the MSA. A significant, independent role for terrain roughness for explaining variability in stone tool assemblages highlights the importance of considering the impacts of mobility on structuring the archaeological record of the MSA of Eastern Africa.

Middle Stone Age Technologies in Mozambique: A Preliminary Study of the Niassa and Massingir Regions

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Bicho ◽  
João Cascalheira ◽  
Jonathan Haws ◽  
Célia Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Important Region ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
First Results ◽  
Preliminary Study

Abstract Southeast Africa has become an important region for understanding the development of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Anatomically Modern Humans. Due to its location between east and southern Africa, Mozambique is a key region for evaluating the development of Homo sapiens and the MSA across Africa. Here, we present the first results of lithic analyses of MSA assemblages collected during survey and testing in the Niassa and Massingir regions of Mozambique in 2014-2016. We were able to locate close to 200 new Stone Age surface sites. Data show that raw material use is different in the two areas. The lithic assemblages from both areas show the use of centripetal technology, but in Massingir, Levallois points, the respective cores and blade technology are frequent, they are almost absent in the northern region.

scholarly journals The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. e0131127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Soriano ◽  
Paola Villa ◽  
Anne Delagnes ◽  
Ilaria Degano ◽  
Luca Pollarolo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Still Bay

New Evidence for the Expansion of an Upper Pleistocene Population out of East Africa, from the Site of Station One, Northern Sudan

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey I. Rose
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Range Expansion ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
East African ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Chipped Stone

Evidence for a hunter-gatherer range-expansion is indicated by the site of Station One in the northern Sudan, a surface scatter of chipped stone debris systematically collected almost 40 years ago, though not studied until present. Based on technological and typological correlates in East Africa, the predominant use of quartz pebbles for raw material, and the production of small bifacial tools, the site can be classified as Middle Stone Age. While often appearing in East African assemblages, quartz was rarely used in Nubia, where ferrocrete sandstone and Nile pebble were predominantly used by all other Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age populations. Additionally, façonnage reduction is characteristic of lithic technology in East Africa in the late Middle Stone Age, while Middle Palaeolithic industries in the Nile Valley display only core reduction. It is proposed this assemblage represents a range-expansion of Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers from East Africa during an Upper Pleistocene pluvial.

scholarly journals Lithic Raw Material Characterisation at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Favreau ◽  
Julio Mercader
Keyword(s):  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Rift System ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Geological Samples ◽  
Material Transport ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Lithic Artifacts

Olduvai Gorge is located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Tanzania along the western margin of the East African Rift System. Olduvai’s sedimentary record exhibits a complex sequence of inter-stratified lithic technologies including Oldowan, Acheulean, Middle Stone Age, and Later Stone Age assemblages. While diachronic technological change is perceptible, one aspect that remained largely unchanged through time was the totality of locally available rock types. This study constitutes Olduvai Gorge’s first systematic survey and characterisation of source lithologies using thin section petrography. The primary objectives of this thesis were to establish the range of available lithic raw materials, petrographically characterise these, and determine if there were unique inter-outcrop petrographic signatures to determine if it is feasible to source lithic artifacts at the mineralogical level. Geological samples were collected in primary and secondary positions within the greater Olduvai Gorge region. A total of seventy-four thin sections of sixty-two geological samples from nineteen sources were analysed. By way of comparative analyses, it is shown that four quartzitic outcrops have unique mineral compositions, four meta-granite varieties are unique to individual outcrops, Engelosin phonolite samples are texturally and mineralogically unique, and magmatic samples recovered in secondary position may be sourced to their volcanic centre. The results of this thesis demonstrate it is feasible to differentiate between source material by way of optical mineralogy which implies that sourcing lithic artifacts from Olduvai is possible. Altogether, these revelatory insights will allow future researchers to glean new understandings of hominin raw material transport, as well as ecological and social behaviour within the Olduvai paleobasin.

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