The Keimoes kite landscape of the trans-Gariep, South Africa

Graphite and multilayer graphene detected on ~70,000‐year‐old stone tools: Geological origin or constituent of hafting resin?

“…Optical examination of the stone tools excavated at Sibudu shows clear evidence of what appears to be a hafting residue on many of the tools, [ 5,18,35 ] and we recorded Raman spectra on both hafted and non‐hafted areas of the tools. Raman spectra recorded on both sides of the tools consisted mostly of quartz, feldspar and pyroxene, signals that originate from the rocks used to make the tools or the soil in which the tools were buried.…”

“…Preservation of plant material at the site is exceptional, and bedding made of sedges was dated back to around 77,000 BP, 50,000 years earlier than records elsewhere. [ 1–5 ]…”

“…Our hypothesis is that the residue represents adhesive used for the hafting of the tools to shafts or handles. In some instances, here and elsewhere, [ 6,18 ] red ochre was mixed with a plant exudate (probably resin) and the manufacturing of experimental adhesives ascertained the superior strength of such mixtures (see Figure S5, Supporting Information). [ 19–22 ] It is clear, however, that ochre/resin recipes were not the only ones used for adhesives in the past, and some Sibudu adhesives were shown to be without ochre and to contain ingredients like fat.…”

Revisiting Middle Stone Age hunting at ≠GI, Botswana: A tip cross-sectional area study

“…Similar, inheritable landscape custodianship around water sources is known from the Northern Cape in South Africa that used to be inhabited by /Xam huntergatherers (Deacon 1986). Many of the pans, including the one at ≠Gi, are known hotspots for ambush hunting where hunters would build small stone blinds within ~100 m of the water's edge (Hitchcock et al 2019), or large hunting-funnel systems on higher ground up to 1 km away (Lombard et al 2021a). In both cases, the structures are strategically constructed along animal trails.…”

Following the herds? A new distribution of hunting kites in Southwest Asia

“…Since the first archaeological descriptions of kites in the early 20th century, variations of the kite form have been identified over a wider area, ranging from Yemen (Brunner, 2015b(Brunner, , 2021 through to Turkey and Armenia (Barge et al, 2015(Barge et al, , 2021, with distributions of comparable types in southern Africa, Uzbekistan and Khazakhstan (Barge et al, 2016;Lombard et al, 2021), and numerous typological studies have focussed on kites in the Levant (Chambrade and Betts, 2021;Echallier and Braemer, 1995;Helms and Betts, 1987). However, there is little clear agreement between researchers on the terminologies and typologies that are used to define kites and the structural components of the monuments, so it is acknowledged that the descriptor used in this paper represent a broad account of a far more complex kite morphology.…”