Raw material use and behavioral modernity: Howiesons Poort lithic foraging strategies

Minichillo, Tom

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.08.013

Cited by 66 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Furthermore, documented lithic raw-material procurement patterning in the African MSA and the Levantine Mousterian only exceptionally exceeds 100 km and generally is much lower (45)(46)(47). The transport of shells over distances up to 200 km (Oued Djebbana) and of Ͼ40 km, in the case of the shell beads from Taforalt, may suggest the existence, already at this early stage, of previously unrecorded interlinking exchange systems or of long-distance social networks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior

Bouzouggar

Barton

Vanhaeren

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

475

205

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The first appearance of explicitly symbolic objects in the archaeological record marks a fundamental stage in the emergence of modern social behavior in Homo. Ornaments such as shell beads represent some of the earliest objects of this kind. We report on examples of perforated Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads from Grotte des Pigeons (Taforalt, Morocco), North Africa. These marine shells come from archaeological levels dated by luminescence and uranium-series techniques to Ϸ82,000 years ago. They confirm evidence of similar ornaments from other less well dated sites in North Africa and adjacent areas of southwest Asia. The shells are of the same genus as shell beads from slightly younger levels at Blombos Cave in South Africa. Wear patterns on the shells imply that some of them were suspended, and, as at Blombos, they were covered in red ochre. These findings imply an early distribution of bead-making in Africa and southwest Asia at least 40 millennia before the appearance of similar cultural manifestations in Europe.anatomically modern humans ͉ Nassarius shells ͉ modern behavior ͉ Middle Palaeolithic ͉ optically stimulated luminescence

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior

Bouzouggar

Barton

Vanhaeren

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

475

205

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“…Rivier 3 and the open sites Soutfontein 1 and Klein Hoek 1 In Press, Minichillo 2006, Steele et al 2012. The Still Bay at Blombos is rich in silcrete, while 2.…”

Section: Late Pleistocene Technology and Occupational Chronology In Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleistocene Archaeology and Chronology of Putslaagte 8 (PL8) Rockshelter, Western Cape, South Africa

Mackay

Jacobs

Steele³

2015

J African Arch

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We report on excavations of a small rock shelter -Putslaagte 8 (PL8) -located on the arid interior fringe of South Africa's Fynbos biome. The shelter preserves a long sequence of Holocene and late Pleistocene occupation dating back beyond 75,000 years BP. This paper presents data on the technological, faunal and chronological sequence. Occupation is markedly pulsed and includes three late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (LSA) units (macrolithic, Robberg and early LSA), as well as several distinct Middle Stone Age (MSA) components from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3-5. Pulsing may reflect the arid and possibly marginal environments in which the shelter is situated, and to that end some elements of the sequence contrast with occupational patterns towards the coast. Viewed in a regional setting PL8 suggests: 1) complementarity of resource movements between the coast and interior in terminal MIS 2; 2) distinctions in material selection, and possibly technology, between the coast and interior in earlier MIS 2; 3) an MSA lasting to at least 40,000 years before present; 4) a weak Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort in the interior; 5) possibly distinct periods of denticulate manufacture within the MIS 5 MSA; 6) highly localised patterns of material acquisition in the earlier MSA.

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“…In addition to distance from site, knapping quality is a potential discriminating factor for the selection of raw material sources (e.g., Gould and Saggers, 1985;Bamforth, 1990;Brantingham et al, 2000;Jones et al, 2003;Minichillo, 2006;Wilson, 2007;Wurz, 2010;Porraz et al, 2013a;Gopher and Barkai, 2014;Pleurdeau et al, 2014). Various lithic production strategies require (or are adapted to) diverse raw material characteristics such as grain size, fracture modes, inclusions, and block size.…”

Section: Raw Materials Transport As Part Of Lithic Production Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

Nash

Coulson

Staurset

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Evolution

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This study utilises geochemical provenancing of silcrete raw materials, in combination with chaîne opératoire analyses, to explore lithic procurement and behavioural patterns in the northern Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). New data from the sites of Rhino Cave, Corner Cave, and ≠Gi in northwest Botswana, combined with earlier results from White Paintings Shelter, reveal that the long distance transport of silcrete for stone tool manufacture was a repeated and extensively used behaviour in this region. Silcrete was imported over distances of up to 295 km to all four sites, from locations along the Boteti River and around Lake Ngami. Significantly, closer known sources of silcrete of equivalent quality were largely bypassed. Silcrete artefacts were transported at various stages of production (as partially and fully prepared cores, blanks, and finished tools) and, with the exception of ≠Gi, in large volumes. The import occurred despite the abundance of locally available raw materials, which were also used to manufacture the same tool types. On the basis of regional palaeoenvironmental data, the timing of the majority of silcrete import from the Boteti River and Lake Ngami is constrained to regionally drier periods of the MSA. The results of our investigation challenge key assumptions underlying predictive models of human mobility that use distance-decay curves and drop-off rates. MSA peoples in the Kalahari appear to have been more mobile than anticipated, and repeatedly made costly choices with regard to both raw material selection and items to be transported. We conclude that (i) base transport cost has been overemphasised as a restrictive factor in predictive models, and (ii) factors such as source availability and preference, raw material quality, and potential sociocultural influences significantly shaped prehistoric landscape use choices.3

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Raw material use and behavioral modernity: Howiesons Poort lithic foraging strategies

Cited by 66 publications

References 20 publications

82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior

82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior

Pleistocene Archaeology and Chronology of Putslaagte 8 (PL8) Rockshelter, Western Cape, South Africa

Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

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