Ochre communities of practice in Stone Age Eswatini

Abstract

Our species and other hominins have used earth mineral pigments since at least ~500,000 years ago, if not earlier. Its preservation and ubiquity within archaeological records across sub-Saharan Africa are well documented, but regional-scale networks of mineral selection, mining, transport, and use is an underdeveloped field. Here, we present a framework for interpreting regional variations within an overarching ochre-behavioral community of practice. Deep-time records of ochre provisioning span the final Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age in modern day Eswatini, revealing longstanding cultural continuities in the intergenerational transmission of shared knowledge on landscapes, geology, and the desired physicochemical properties of mineral pigments. These communities of practice did not develop in isolation, and were part of a wider system of relations that were influenced and mediated by social interactions, such as technological learning, seasonal traveling, material culture exchange, and symbolic expression. We use compositional analyses to determine localized ochre procurement strategies and long-distance transport across a network of fifteen archaeological sites and mineral resources. Newly refined chronologies from Lion Cavern at Ngwenya using optically stimulated luminescence dating also reaffirm its antiquity as the oldest known evidence for intensive ochre mining worldwide (~48,000 years ago).Identifying evidence for long distance mobility and social interactions is at the forefront of archaeological research in the Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age (MSA/LSA) of sub-Saharan Africa 1-5 . The analysis of earth mineral pigments, or ochres, has played a role in interpretations of cognitive behaviors 6,7 , is linked to rock art and symbolic expressions 8 , and is associated with tool hafting adhesives 9,10 , bedding 11 , and several examples of compositional analysis and provenance [12][13][14][15][16][17] . But, it has rarely been conceptualized in a framework that advances identifying ochre communities of practice [18][19][20][21] . Lave and Wenger first introduced the concepts of communities of practice and situated learning to describe how shared knowledge and traditions emerge within, and are reinforced and communicated across, social