Ochre resources from the Middle Stone Age sequence of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa

Dayet, Laure; Texier, Pierre-Jean; Daniel, Floréal; Porraz, Guillaume

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.01.025

Cited by 85 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In more recent southern African MSA assemblages, worked ochre has been recovered, for example, from Apollo 11 (Wendt 1972(Wendt , 1976Vogelsang 1998), Blombos Cave (Henshilwood et al 2001b), Klipdrift (Henshilwood et al 2014), Border Cave (Beaumont 1978), Hoedjiespunt , Klasies River (Singer and Wymer (Evans 1994), Diepkloof (Rigaud et al 2006;Dayet et al 2013), Sibudu (Wadley 2007;Hodgskiss 2012), Zombepata (C.K. Cooke 1971) and many other sites (Watts 1997).…”

Section: Azania: Archaeological Research In Africa 173mentioning

confidence: 99%

Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Wadley

2015

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

184

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Africa's Middle Stone Age (MSA) may have lasted almost half a million years, but its earliest expression is not yet well understood. The MSA is best known for innovations that appear in the archaeological record at various times after about 200,000 years ago with the first appearance of Homo sapiens. These novel behaviours embrace hafting technology, the use of compound paints and adhesives, ingenious lithic technology that included pressure flaking and the heat treatment of rock, the engraving of ochre and eggshell with geometric designs, the stringing of shell beads and the production of a wide range of bone implements. Such innovations might have been linked to new types of social behaviour stimulated by demographic pulses and movements within and out of the continent. Population shifts may have occurred repeatedly during the MSA. Southern African sites seem concentrated in the interior of the subcontinent before 130 kya. Thus, the florescence of MSA innovations described here appears to have coincided with the dispersal after 130 kya of populations from the interior to mountainous areas, but, more particularly, to the coastal stretches of the southern and western Cape. Coastal sites are the focus of much of southern Africa's research into the MSA and some of the continent's most esteemed sites are coastal ones, particularly those containing iconic Still Bay and Howiesons Poort technocomplexes. By 58 kya occupations tended once more to shift away from the southern coast and back into the interior, or to the eastern seaboard. Some of these later MSA sites have extensive footprints, implying population growth or repeated occupations. Regional and even local variability is characteristic of stone assemblages of the time, while sites seem to have fewer ornaments or decorated items than was formerly the case. The variability in late MSA lithic assemblages is matched by apparent flexibility in the timing of the transfer from the MSA to the Later Stone Age.

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Section: Azania: Archaeological Research In Africa 173mentioning

confidence: 99%

Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Wadley

2015

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

184

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“…This is due to the fact that effective methodologies for addressing technological aspects of modified ochre pieces have only been developed recently [3,4,21,33,34,40] and that few multistratified sites from Africa have yielded ochre collections large enough to produce reliable results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of change and continuity in ochre use during the late Middle Stone Age of the Horn of Africa: The Porc-Epic Cave record

2017

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Ochre is found at numerous Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites and plays a key role in early modern human archaeology. Here we analyse the largest known East African MSA ochre assemblage, comprising 40 kg of ochre, found at Porc-Epic Cave, Ethiopia, spanning a period of at least 4,500 years. Visual characterisation of ochre types, microscopic identification of traces of modification, morphological and morphometric analysis of ochre pieces and modified areas, experimental reproduction of grinding processes, surface texture analysis of archaeological and experimentally ground ochre facets, laser granulometry of ochre powder produced experimentally on different grindstones and by Hamar and Ovahimba women from Ethiopia and Namibia respectively, were, for the first time, combined to explore diachronic shifts in ochre processing technology. Our results identify patterns of continuity in ochre acquisition, treatment and use reflecting both persistent use of the same geological resources and similar uses of iron-rich rocks by late MSA Porc-Epic inhabitants. Considering the large amount of ochre processed at the site, this continuity can be interpreted as the expression of a cohesive cultural adaptation, largely shared by all community members and consistently transmitted through time. A gradual shift in preferred processing techniques and motions is interpreted as reflecting cultural drift within this practice. Evidence for the grinding of ochre to produce small quantities of powder throughout the sequence is consistent with a use in symbolic activities for at least part of the ochre assemblage from Porc-Epic Cave.

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“…A detailed analysis on the nature and production techniques of the red ochres was made by Gomes et al in a study of the Pego da Rainha and Lapa dos Coelhos rock shelters in Portugal and in La Calderita in Badajoz and Frizo del Terror (Monfrague National Park) in Cáceres, Spain. Dayet et al, using also Raman data, performed an extensive study of ochre procurement, processing and using a long sequence related to the Middle Stone Age site of Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape Province, South Africa). The same group carried out a detailed multitechnique analysis of pigment use and their provenance in three Châtelperronian sites: Roc‐de‐Combe (Lot), Le Basté and Bidart (Pyrénées Atlantiques).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

Bersani

Lottici

2016

J Raman Spectroscopy

146

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Minerals, as raw structural materials or pigments, play a fundamental role in archaeometry, for the understanding of nature, structure and status of an artefact or object of interest for cultural heritage. A detailed knowledge of the mineral phases is crucial to solve archaeological problems: Raman spectroscopy is a powerful investigation technique and has been applied extensively in the last 30 years on mineral identification and on pigment degradation. Here we report an updated review, covering the last decade, of the applications of Raman techniques to issues in which raw minerals, including mineral pigments, are involved. Particular attention is devoted to cases where the Raman analysis of minerals is deeper than a simple identification of the phases present in an archaeological or artistic object. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Ochre resources from the Middle Stone Age sequence of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa

Cited by 85 publications

References 51 publications

Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Patterns of change and continuity in ochre use during the late Middle Stone Age of the Horn of Africa: The Porc-Epic Cave record

Raman spectroscopy of minerals and mineral pigments in archaeometry

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