Middle and Later Stone Age hunters and their prey in southern Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Plug
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Faunal Studies ◽  
Semi Arid ◽  
Rock Shelters

Identifications of animal remains from southern African Stone Age sites are complicated by the abundancy of taxa, skeletal differences, a wide variety of habitats, and the fragmented condition of most of the bone samples. Studies in osteomorphology and osteometry are essential. There are regional variations in species sizes combined with changes in bone sizes within and between taxa. Seasonality and animal migrations are demonstrated in the highlands of Lesotho and the semi-arid Karoo. Faunal studies of Sibudu and Bushman Rock Shelter show the contrast between two rock shelters that are geographically separated but overlap in occupation periods.

The late Quaternary landscape at Sehonghong in the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (269) ◽  
pp. 623-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial ◽  
Rock Shelters

In the rough and rugged country of the Lesotho highlands, rock-paintings and archaeological deposits in the rock-shelters record hunter-gatherer life-ways; at Sehonghong, a long sequence runs from recent times to and through the Last Glacial Maximum. Survey of the region's Middle and Later Stone Age sites shows a pattern of concentrations that likely applies to other parts of the Lesotho highlands.

Changing Patterns in the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Prehistory of Southern Africa as Seen from the Nelson Bay Cave Stone Artifact Sequence

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Stone Artifact

The dating of the Stone Age sequence in southern Africa has been considerably revised over the last decade, and one of the anomalies which has resulted is that the Middle Stone Age, now dated to beyond 30,000 B.P., does not immediately precede the Later Stone Agesensu stricto. The excavation and analysis of occupation horizons dating between the most recent Middle Stone Age assemblages and the Holocene is therefore of particular interest. Nelson Bay Cave, situated on the southern coast of South Africa, contains deposits which partly fill the “gap” between the Middle and Later Stone Ages, and the occupation horizons dating between about 18,000 and 5000 years ago are described in this paper. Changes in the habitat in the vicinity of the site caused by sea-level and vegetation changes coincident with the amelioration of temperatures at the end of the Pleistocene are clearly marked in the faunal remains at the site. Largely correlated with the faunal changes (which includes the introduction of marine resources to the cave at about 12,000 B.P.) are changes in the stone artifact assemblages. Three industries are recognized in the sequence: the Robberg, characterized by microbladelets produced from bladelet cores and a few small scrapers and backed tools; the Albany, characterized by large scrapers and an absence of backed tools; and the Wilton, characterized by a variety of Formal Tools including relatively large numbers of small scrapers and backed tools. These changes in artifact-manufacturing traditions are interpreted as signaling adjustments to changing environmental conditions. An explanation for these adjustments is not sought in a simple cause-and-effect relationship between the environment and the cultural response; artifact changes are seen instead as the result of a twofold process, with the environment acting as an external stimulus to change, and the direction of the artifact change governed by the selection of a range of possibilities offered by the technology of the Later Stone Agesensu latothat was widespread in subequatorial Africa during the last 20,000 years.

scholarly journals Phytolith Palaeoenvironments at Mumba Rock Shelter

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Mercader ◽  
Siobhán Clarke ◽  
Makarius Itambu ◽  
Abdallah Mohamed ◽  
Musa Mwitondi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Shelter Site ◽  
Northern Tanzania ◽  
Plant Habitat

The rock shelter site of Mumba in northern Tanzania plays a pivotal role in the overall study of the late Pleistocene archaeology of East Africa with an emphasis on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition. We used phytolith analysis to reconstruct general plant habitat physiognomy around the site from the onset of the late Pleistocene to recent times, tallying 4246 individual phytoliths from 19 archaeological samples. Statistical analysis explored phytolith richness, diversity, dominance, and evenness, along with principal components to compare phytolith distributions over the site’s sequence with known plant habitats today. Generally, the phytolith record of Mumba signifies paleoenvironments with analogs in the Somalia – Masai bushland and grassland, as well as Zambezian woodlands.

Milk not Meat: The Role of Milk amongst the Khoe Peoples of Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlize Lombard ◽  
Isabelle Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Historical Sources

Historical sources emphasise the different uses of livestock in southern African Khoe societies. Here we review the role of milk gained from livestock amongst the Khoe, as recorded over the last few centuries, and demonstrate that it was of greater subsistence value than the meat of livestock. In addition, we highlight the recorded technological, social and ritual importance of milk amongst the Khoe. Finally, attention is drawn to recent genetic research that suggests the dependence of southern African Later Stone Age herders on milk.

Sehonghong. The Middle and Later Stone Age Sequence at a Lesotho Rock Shelter

1989 ◽  
Vol 44 (149) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Lyn Wadley ◽  
P. L. Carter ◽  
P. J. Mitchell ◽  
P. Vinnicombe ◽  
P. J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Age Sequence
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