Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels

Henshilwood, Christopher S.; Sealy, Judith; Yates, Royden; Cruz-Uribe, Kathryn; Goldberg, Paul; Grine, Frederick E.; Klein, Richard G.; Poggenpoel, Cédric; Niekerk, Karen L. van; Watts, Ian

doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0638

Cited by 382 publications

(251 citation statements)

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“…At this time shellfish were also at their lowest abundances per m 3 of deposit (Henshilwood et al, 2001b), and the relative dietary contribution of tortoises was approximately double what it had been during warmer M3 times.…”

Section: Subsistence Shifts During the Still Baymentioning

confidence: 85%

“…This was also the phase in which representation of gregarious, large-bodied ungulates with larger home ranges increased relative to monogamous, territorial, small-bodied ungulates (Henshilwood et al, 2001b;Thompson and Henshilwood, 2011). At this time shellfish were also at their lowest abundances per m 3 of deposit (Henshilwood et al, 2001b), and the relative dietary contribution of tortoises was approximately double what it had been during warmer M3 times.…”

Section: Subsistence Shifts During the Still Baymentioning

confidence: 87%

“…75 to > 130 ka (Henshilwood et al, 2002;Jacobs et al, 2003a;Jacobs et al, 2006;Jacobs et al, 2013;Jacobs et al, 2003b;Jones, 2001;Tribolo, 2003;Tribolo et al, 2006). Summaries of the chronology of the BBC deposits, their associated ages, and material culture, and site layout are provided in Table 1 and The taxonomic composition of the BBC MSA faunal remains has been previously reported by Henshilwood et al (2001b) and taphonomic work has been reported by Thompson and Henshilwood (2011). Bovids dominate the large mammal sample, with small size 1 ungulates such as grysbok/steenbok (Raphicerus spp.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…In South Africa, tortoise remains are found in archaeological deposits ranging from Middle Pleistocene to historic sites (Cruz-Uribe and Schrire, 1991; Klein et al , 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 and BBC have produced large tortoise assemblages, where in many cases they outnumber other faunal classes in terms of number of identified specimens (Faith, 2011;Henshilwood et al, 2001b;Klein et al, 2004b;Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 2000;Steele and Klein, 2013).…”

Section: Tortoises As Prey Itemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henshilwood et al, 2001b). The MSA levels at Blombos Cave are divided into four phases, M1, upper M2, lower M2 and M3.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Thompson

Henshilwood

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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The site of Blombos Cave (BBC), Western Cape, South Africa has been a strong contributor to establishing the antiquity of important aspects of modern human behaviour, such as early symbolism and technological complexity. However, many linkages between MSA behaviour and the subsistence record remain to be investigated. Understanding the contribution of small fauna such as tortoises to the human diet is necessary for identifying shifts in overall foraging strategies as well as the collecting and processing behaviour of individuals unable to participate in large-game hunting. This study uses published data to abundance data show that during the ca. 75 ka upper Still Bay M1 phase at BBC tortoises contributed twice as many calories to the diet relative to ungulates than they did during the ca. 100 ka lower M3 phase. However, in spite of the abundance of their fossils, their absolute caloric contribution relative to ungulates remained modest in both phases. At the end of the site's MSA occupation history human subsistence strategies shifted to emphasise high-return hunted mammals, which likely precipitated changes in the social roles of hunters and gatherers during the Still Bay.

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Section: Subsistence Shifts During the Still Baymentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Subsistence Shifts During the Still Baymentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Tortoises As Prey Itemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henshilwood et al, 2001b). The MSA levels at Blombos Cave are divided into four phases, M1, upper M2, lower M2 and M3.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Thompson

Henshilwood

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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Arid Paradises or Dangerous Landscapes: A Review of Explanations for Paleolithic Assemblage Change in Arid Australia and Africa

Hiscock¹,

O’Connor²

2005

Desert Peoples

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The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe

2005

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If we accept all of these social, symbolic, and cognitive implications of distinctively Upper Paleolithic behavioral patterns, then the issue of exactly how these patterns of behavior and the implied mental capacities they required emerged among European populations becomes one of the most critical issues in current evolutionary and cognitive research. Broadly, we are confronted by two fairly stark and sharply polarized alternatives: that these patterns of behavior and the implied levels of associated cognition emerged by a purely internal process of behavioral and cognitive evolution among the local European populations, extending directly through the European Neanderthal line; or, alternatively, that at least the majority of the new behavioral patterns, as well as the cognitive hardware necessary to support these innovations, was due to a major influx of new populations into Europe deriving ultimately from either an African or Asian source. 29,30 It is hardly necessary to stress the importance of this issue in evolutionary terms. If the Neanderthals did independently develop the whole range of behavior that traditionally has been regarded as the hallmark of fully "modern" humans, this would arguably be the most important thing we have learned about the Neanderthals since their original discovery more than 150 years ago. What follows is an attempt to review these two alternatives, as briefly as possible, in the light of the most recent archeological and biological research.In a recent paper 31 I have attempted to explore the first of these scenarios from an explicitly Darwinian, evolutionary perspective, which puts the primary emphasis on the complex pattern of climatic and associated environmental changes that occurred in Europe around the middle of the last glaciation (the period of oxygen-isotope stage 3, from ca. 60,000 -25,000 BP 32 ) and the potential selective and adaptive effects of these environmental oscillations on the demographic, social, and other cultural patterns of the local Neanderthal Few topics in palaeoanthropology have generated more recent debate than the nature and causes of the remarkable transformation in human behavioral patterns that marked the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. 1-11 Those of us who have argued for an effective technological and cultural "revolution" at this point in the Paleolithic sequence have emphasized three main dimensions 1,2,9,11-14 : the wide range of different aspects of behavior that appear to have been affected (Fig. 1); the relative speed and abruptness with which most of these changes can be documented in the archeological records from the different regions of Europe; and the potentially profound social and cognitive implications of many of the innovations involved. Most striking of all in this context is the abrupt appearance and proliferation of various forms of perforated animal teeth, shells, beads, and other personal ornaments, and the even more dramatic eruption of remarkably varied and sophisticated forms of art, rangi...

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Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels

Cited by 382 publications

References 37 publications

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Arid Paradises or Dangerous Landscapes: A Review of Explanations for Paleolithic Assemblage Change in Arid Australia and Africa

The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe

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