Middle Stone Age Technology and Cultural Evolution at Magubike Rockshelter, Southern Tanzania

Abstract

This paper contributes new information to the body of evidence for Middle Stone Age tool-use in Tanzania. Magubike rockshelter is located in an archaeologically unexplored region of the south-central part of the country, and thus fills a significant geographical gap between sites further to the north and those to the south in Zambia and Mozambique. Early analysis of a portion of the lithic materials demonstrates parallel changes in lithic reduction intensity, raw material preference and typology. This article explores possible explanations for this pattern, including the possibility that they reflect changes to local environment, and suggests avenues for future research.Résumé Cet article apporte de nouvelles informations à l'ensemble des preuves sur l'utilisationd'outille de l'âge de pierre moyen en Tanzanie. L'abris sous roches de Magubike est situé dansune région archéologique inexplorée de la partie sud-centrale du pays, et remplit ainsi unespace géographique entre les sites plus au nord et celles du sud en Zambie et au Mozambique. L'analyse préliminaire d'une partie des matériaux lithiques démontre des changementsparallèles dans l'intensité de réduction lithique, la préférence des matières premières et de latypologie. Cet article explore les explications possibles de ce modèle, y compris la possibilitéqu'elles reflètent des changements de l'environnement local, et propose des pistes pour larecherche future.

The Middle/Later Stone Age transition and cultural dynamics of late Pleistocene East Africa

“…East Africa is a useful region to study because of its relatively large number of archeological sequences that sample the MSA/LSA transition, including Enkapune ya Muto, Kisese II, multiple sites at Lukenya Hill, Magosi, Magubike, Mtongwe, Mumba, Nasera, Panga ya Saidi, and Shurmai; individual MSA and LSA sites in the Lake Victoria basin, Olduvai Gorge, and Kuumbi Cave provide additional constraints on the transition but lack extensive stratigraphic sequences or large sample sizes sufficient to assess change over time (Table ). East Africa as defined here encompasses ~1.77 million km 2 and can serve as a useful point of comparison for other similarly sized regions that also preserve MSA/LSA sequences, such as Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa (~1.88 million km 2 ), as well as southern Africa (~2.09 million km 2 ) …”

“…I exclude Magosi from further discussion here because collections are severely compromised by the recovery methods used in the original 1926 excavations, and because the few pieces of obsidian are considered to derive from the Lake Turkana region rather than Central Rift Valley sources . The placement of the site of Magubike in the Rift Valley region is uncertain. Direct evidence to reconstruct the site's paleoenvironment is lacking, although current conditions (ecoclimatic zone V; Figure ) are similar to other sites in the Rift Valley.…”

“…21,37,38 The timing of the MSA/LSA transition as manifested by changes in technology varies across the continent, revealing the presence of multiple "transitions" at the continental scale. Sites such as Enkapune ya Muto in Kenya; Magubike, Mumba, and Nasera in Tanzania 6,[8][9][10]39 ; and Border Cave in South Africa 40 indicate that some LSA assemblages may be as old as~56-44 ka, whereas MSA sites or technologies appear to persist well into the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Holocene (<12 ka) in southern Africa, Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa, 36,37,41 where the long-term co-occurrence of MSA and LSA technologies is such that the "transition" terminology may not be appropriate there, unlike East Africa. Given the size of Africa, the observation that the timing of a particular series of behavioral changes occurred at various times across the continent is by itself perhaps neither surprising nor useful.…”

“…5 In Africa, the temporally equivalent archeological "event" is the Middle/Later (MSA/LSA) transition, dated at multiple sites to as early as~45-60 ka. [6][7][8][9][10] As in Europe and the Levant, this transition is recognized by the replacement of artifact technologies that persisted for some 200,000 years or more, with Levallois-based industries giving way to those characterized by the production of smaller tools often made on blades and bladelets or using bipolar technology, end-rather than side-scrapers, and greater use of groundstone and bone tools, beads, and ochre (Figures 1 and 2). While I am not drawing specific comparisons that would link Eurasian UP and African LSA technologies, the key observation to emphasize is that complex archeological dynamics are unfolding in the two continents at about the same time.…”

Middle Stone Age human teeth from Magubike rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania

“…This unit is reddish brownish (Biittner, personal observation). The stratigraphic sequence of test pit 12, excavated in 2012 and adjacent right to the west of test pit 3, has a similar stratigraphic sequence (Fig 4 in reference [ 81 ]). Here, six units were distinguished, which had an increase in clast size with depth and a change in colour from brown/grey to red was also observed.…”