Quartz crystal materiality in Terminal Pleistocene Lesotho

Pargeter, Justin; Hampson, Jamie

doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.167

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Only the non-knapped percussive tools present an important component of volcanic rocks [169], and the shaped tools present a more diverse suite of raw materials. We distinguish hyaline quartz, which is much more homogeneous in structure, from the broad quartz category, among which are classified 'saccharoid' and 'milky' quartz types [237][238][239].…”

Section: Raw Materials Distributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Earlier Stone Age ‘coastal use’: The site of Dungo IV, Benguela Province, Angola

Mesfin

Benjamim²,

Lebatard

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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The relationship between Earlier Stone Age (ESA) hominins and the southern African coastal environment has been poorly investigated, despite the high concentration of open-air sites in marine and fluvial terraces of the coastal plain from c. 1Ma onward during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Southern Africa provides some of the earliest evidence of coastal subsistence strategies since the end of the Middle Pleistocene, during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). These coastal MSA sites showcase the role of coastal environments in the emergence and development of modern human behaviors. Given the high prevalence of coastal ESA sites throughout the region, we seek to question the relationship between hominins and coastal landscapes much earlier in time. In this regard, the +100 m raised beaches of the Benguela Province, Angola, are key areas as they are well-preserved and contain a dense record of prehistoric occupation from the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, including sites like Dungo, Mormolo, Sombreiro, Macaca and Punta das Vacas. Accordingly, this paper provides a critical review of the coastal ESA record of southern Africa and a detailed presentation of the Dungo IV site, through a qualitative technological analysis coupled with a quantitative inter-site comparison with contemporary southern African coastal plain sites. Through our detailed technological analyses, we highlight the influence of coastal lithological resources on the technical behaviors of hominin groups, and we propose the existence of a “regional adaptive strategy” in a coastal landscape more than 600 000 years ago. Finally, we argue for the integration of coastal landscapes into hominins’ territories, suggesting that adaptation to coastal environments is actually a slower process which begins with “territorialization” well before the emergence and development of Homo sapiens.

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Section: Raw Materials Distributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Earlier Stone Age ‘coastal use’: The site of Dungo IV, Benguela Province, Angola

Mesfin

Benjamim²,

Lebatard

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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“…Raw material studies similarly underscore the prevalence of specific material-technology co-dependencies, often embedded in distinct trajectories of socio-material change (Floss 1994;Féblot-Augustins 1997). The articulation of Upper Palaeolithic volumetric blade extraction strategies with Bergeracois flint in southwestern France (Demars 1989(Demars , 1994 or the interweaving of quartz and bipolar knapping throughout much of the Pleistocene, rooted in the former's non-conchoidal flaking properties (Knight 1991;Driscoll 2011;Pargeter and Hampson 2019), are classic examples of this bond. The frequently encountered raw material dichotomy between LCTs and small tools at Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites also suggests that the material quality of workable stone was an important determinant of the past (cf.…”

Section: The Vibrancy Of Lithic Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Materiality, Agency and Evolution of Lithic Technology: an Integrated Perspective for Palaeolithic Archaeology

Hussain

Will

2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Considerations of materiality and object-oriented approaches have greatly influenced the development of archaeological theory in recent years. Yet, Palaeolithic archaeology has been slow in incorporating this emerging body of scholarship and exploring its bearing on the human deep past. This paper probes into the potential of materiality theory to clarify the material dynamics of the Plio-Pleistocene and seeks to re-articulate the debate on the evolution of our species with materiality discourses in archaeology and the humanities more broadly. We argue that the signature temporalities and geospatial scales of observation provided by the Palaeolithic record offer unique opportunities to examine the active role of material things, objects, artefacts and technologies in the emergence, stabilisation and transformation of hominin lifeworlds and the accretion of long-term trajectories of material culture change. We map three axes of human-thing relations-ecological, technical and evolutionary-and deploy a range of case studies from the literature to show that a critical re-assessment of material agency not only discloses novel insights and questions, but can also refine what we already know about the human deep past. Our exploration underscores the benefits of de-centring human behaviour and intentionality and demonstrates that materiality lends itself as a productive nexus of exchange and mutual inspiration for diverging schools and research interests in Palaeolithic archaeology. An integrated object-oriented perspective calls attention to the human condition as a product of millennial-scale humanthing co-adaptation, in the course of which hominins, artefacts and technologies continuously influenced and co-created each other.

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