New radiometric ages for the Fauresmith industry from Kathu Pan, southern Africa: Implications for the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition

Porat, Naomi; Chazan, Michael; Grün, Rainer; Aubert, Maxime; Eisenmann, Véra; Horwitz, Liora Kolska

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.038

Cited by 143 publications

(105 citation statements)

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“…Systematic production of long blades and points appears to fade out beyond around 400 000-500 000 years ago [76][77][78], but the capability to make elongate forms is found in other guises, some extending further back in time. One example is in the points of the Lupemban, an early Middle Stone Age tradition of central Africa.…”

Section: Elongation In Early Human Artefactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elongation as a factor in artefacts of humans and other animals: an Acheulean example in comparative context

Gowlett

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Elongation is a commonly found feature in artefacts made and used by humans and other animals and can be analysed in comparative study. Whether made for use in hand or beak, the artefacts have some common properties of length, breadth, thickness and balance point, and elongation can be studied as a factor relating to construction or use of a long axis. In human artefacts, elongation can be traced through the archaeological record, for example in stone blades of the Upper Palaeolithic (traditionally regarded as more sophisticated than earlier artefacts), and in earlier blades of the Middle Palaeolithic. It is now recognized that elongation extends to earlier Palaeolithic artefacts, being found in the repertoire of both Neanderthals and more archaic humans. Artefacts used by non-human animals, including chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys and New Caledonian crows show selection for diameter and length, and consistent interventions of modification. Both chimpanzees and capuchins trim side branches from stems, and appropriate lengths of stave are selected or cut. In human artefacts, occasional organic finds show elongation back to about 0.5 million years. A record of elongation achieved in stone tools survives to at least 1.75 Ma (million years ago) in the Acheulean tradition. Throughout this tradition, some Acheulean handaxes are highly elongated, usually found with others that are less elongated. Finds from the million-year-old site of Kilombe and Kenya are given as an example. These findings argue that the elongation need not be integral to a design, but that artefacts may be the outcome of adjustments to individual variables. Such individual adjustments are seen in animal artefacts. In the case of a handaxe, the maker must balance the adjustments to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the artefact as a whole. It is argued that the need to make decisions about individual variables within multivariate objects provides an essential continuity across artefacts made by different species.

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Section: Elongation In Early Human Artefactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elongation as a factor in artefacts of humans and other animals: an Acheulean example in comparative context

Gowlett

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Beaumont has claimed Acheulean pigment use at three sites in the Northern Cape (South Africa) (Beaumont and Vogel 2006: 222). On the basis of recent dating estimates of ~500 ka (Porat et al 2010) for the succeeding Fauresmith industry in the region-transitional between the Acheulean and Middle Stone Age-these contexts are older (the Wonderwerk claim extends to deposits ~1 ma). Unfortunately, no substantiating details are provided, and in the case of the two Kathu sites, the cited support (Beaumont 1990a) does not mention pigment in the relevant contexts.…”

Section: • Paleoanthropology 2013mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…zon of Kathu Pan 1 in the Northern Cape (Beaumont 1990a;Wilkins and Chazan 2012), associated with dating estimates of ~500 ka (Porat et al 2010). These include scraped specularite and probably ground red ochre (I.W., pers.…”

Section: Neanderthal Energeticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, this is the world's earliest reasonably secure pigment occurrence. Dating estimates for the early MSA in the region (Grün et al 1996;Porat et al 2010) suggest that the Fauresmith lasted until at least ~300 ka. Beaumont has reported specularite and/or red ochre from other Fauresmith contexts in the region (Beaumont 1990b; and one of us (I.W., work in progress) has confirmed the utilization of both materials in Fauresmith horizons at Wonderwerk Cave.…”

Section: Neanderthal Energeticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Untitled

2013

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Reproductive synchrony or desynchrony of primate females influences number and fitness of males in mating systems. Langur monkey populations provide a natural experiment for observing alternative female strategies of confusing or concentrating paternity. Where females escape seasonal reproductive constraints, they desynchronize fertility and show visible cues (menstruation), enabling single males to monopolize matings. This increases female fitness by reducing food competition. Where langurs are seasonally constrained, females conceal fertility, confusing paternity and reducing infanticide. These case studies illuminate how hominin females could increase male numbers and investment. Fitness payoffs to male investors will be affected by degree of reproductive seasonal constraint, and by females either concealing or confusing menstrual cues of imminent fertility. Among ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals these strategies diverged. Under pressure of encephalization, modern human female ancestors, less seasonally constrained, pursued a strategy of cosmeticization of menstrual signals. This Female Cosmetic Coalitions model accounts for the African Middle Stone Age record of pigment use. Among Neanderthals, strategies alternated. Severe seasonality during glacial cycles tied Neanderthal males into pair-bonds, suppressing cosmetic signaling. Only during interglacials when seasonality relaxed would Neanderthal females require blood-red cosmetics. Our Seasonality Thermostat model explains why European ochre use correlates with climate through the Middle to Late Pleistocene. INTRODUCTION There is a growing consensus that evolving Homo mothers relied on cooperative breeding to raise larger-bodied, larger-brained offspring (e.g., Aiello and Key 2002;Barrickman et al. 2008;Burkart et al. 2009;Robson and Wood 2008;Shultz et al. 2012;van Schaik et al. 2006 Models for cultural levels of human cooperation (Boyd and Richerson 1992, 2005Gintis et al. 2003;Henrich and Boyd 2001;Henrich et al. 2003Henrich et al. , 2006Nowak and Sigmund 2005;Richerson et al. 2003), invoke multilevel and group selection processes, but ignore what is most difficult to explain-how to secure cooperation between the sexes, given the trade-off between investing in current offspring versus future mating opportunities (cf. Bowles 2006). One game theory model (Key 1998(Key , 2000 incorporated the differences of reproductive energetic costs to specify conditions for the evolution of cooperation that can be practically applied to the fossil record. Yet even these conditions do not identify how females induced males to subsidize their reproduction (Kaplan et al. 2000;Marlowe 2001). Recent models (Gavrilets 2012) highlight the difficulty of shifting from systems of significant male mating competition into productive male investment, where males face a social dilemma of ceding fitness advantage to free-riding rivals.If we can define the mechanisms available to Homo females giving them leverage against male defection through the Early to Middle Plei...

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“…Although Watanuki et al (2005) obtained ages back to 0.6 Ma on Japanese loess using the mathematicallyisolated fast OSL component, a similar study by Lai (2010) on Chinese loess resulted in an age of only 107 ka for a sample from beneath the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary at 780 ka. Also, in their study of sand containing the transitional Middle/Early Stone Age tool assemblage at Kathu Pan, South Africa, Porat et al (2010) obtained an OSL age of 464±47 ka, compared with the combined U-series-ESR age of 140 107 542 + − ka Another aspect of the SAR protocol that may cause the dose response curve to change is whether the doses are given using continuous irradiation or whether a stepped irradiation procedure is adopted. Such a procedure was suggested by Bailey (2004) in order to make the laboratory irradiation regime more similar to that in nature.…”

Section: Extending the Time Range Using Osl Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%