The Later Stone Age of Southernmost Africa

Deacon, Janette

doi:10.30861/9780860542766

Cited by 149 publications

(124 citation statements)

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“…MSA and LSA artifacts from Nelson Bay Cave, South Africa (redrawn after Volman , pp. 229, 232, 234 and Deacon , p. 244 , respectively). The MSA artifacts are older than 60 ka; the LSA artifacts are younger than 9 ka.…”

Section: The Archeology Of Fossil H Sapiensmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The engraved eggshell fragments provide especially compelling evidence for “symbolism,” and they so far have no counterpart in European Mousterian (Neanderthal) sites, which sometimes also contain incised pigment fragments, perforated shells, and other items like formal bone artifacts whose sporadic occurrence in MSA sites is often inferred to imply advanced cognition. However, at both Diepkloof and Klipdrift, the MSA crops out at the surface and the engraved fragments occur mostly in a band about 50 cm below, where they could represent disintegrated canteens that LSA people sometimes buried for subsequent retrieval . Radiocarbon dating could confirm their MSA origin.…”

Section: The Archeology Of Fossil H Sapiensmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population structure and the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa

Klein

2019

Evolutionary Anthropology

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It has been proposed that a multiregional model could describe how Homo sapiens evolved in Africa beginning 300,000 years ago. Multiregionalism would require enduring morphological or behavioral differences among African regions and morphological or behavioral continuity within each. African fossils, archeology, and genetics do not comply with either requirement and are unlikely to, because climatic change periodically disrupted continuity and reshuffled populations. As an alternative to multiregionalism, I suggest that reshuffling produced novel gene constellations, including one in which the additive or cumulative effect of newly associated genes enhanced cognitive or communicative potential. Eventual fixation of such a constellation in the lineage leading to modern H. sapiens would explain the abrupt appearance of the African Later Stone Age 50–45 thousand years ago, its nearly simultaneous expansion to Eurasia in the form of the Upper Paleolithic, and the ability of fully modern Upper Paleolithic people to swamp or replace non‐modern Eurasians.

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Section: The Archeology Of Fossil H Sapiensmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: The Archeology Of Fossil H Sapiensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure and the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa

Klein

2019

Evolutionary Anthropology

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“…In contrast, only single examples of cores were recovered from around Hearths 3 and 4. Chunks-otherwise unmodified pieces with evidence of three or fewer flake removals (Deacon 1984)-and unmodified flakes larger than 10 millimeters are both more numerous, but they show similar distributions, being most common to the northwest of Hearth 1 and the south of Hearth 2. One way of reading these patterns would be to suggest that while, as we shall show below, Hearth 3 was a focus for the use of some stone artifacts, their manufacture at Likoaeng was concentrated around Hearths 1 and 2, generating higher quantities of debitage and more core disposal in this part of the site.…”

Section: Patterns In Artifact Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Patterning and Site Occupation at Likoaeng, an Open‐Air Hunter‐Gatherer Campsite in the Lesotho Highlands, Southern Africa

Mitchell

Plug

Bailey

2006

Archaeological Papers of the American

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Archaeologists studying southern African hunter‐gatherers are increasingly interested in investigating issues of broader anthropological interest, including gender relations, the ways in which people organized their living space, and the sharing of food. With this interest has come the recognition that rockshelter deposits may hold limited potential for the exploration of these questions because of the palimpsest effects and disturbance created by repeated occupations. Attention is therefore turning to open‐air living sites, among which those with temporally discrete occupations are particularly important. We report here on the preliminary analysis of spatial patterning from one such occupation at a multiphase hunter‐gatherer campsite on the banks of the Senqu River, Lesotho. Here the distributions of artifacts (principally, but not exclusively, of stone) are examined, related to the presence of features present at the site, and interpreted.

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“…The presence of bladelets and bladelet cores requires discussion. Bladelets are characteristic of the LSA Robberg Industry (Deacon 1984), dating to around 18,000 B.P. (Mitchell 2002).…”

Section: The Lithic Assemblagementioning

confidence: 99%

Dating, Paleoenvironments, and Archaeology: A Progress Report on the Sunnyside 1 Site, Clarens, South Africa

Henderson

Scott

Rossouw

et al. 2006

Archaeological Papers of the American

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Susan Kent had been working on a project excavating an open‐air archaeological site in the eastern Free State, South Africa, at the time of her death. She had commissioned geological studies, which had indicated that the archaeological horizon was in situ, and had involved colleagues in taking dating, pollen, and phytolith samples. We decided to continue with the analysis of the samples after her death and to complete the analysis of the artifacts from the site. This multifaceted approach to understanding the context of the archaeological horizon was the background against which Susan intended to investigate the spatial distribution of the lithic material as a means of identifying activity areas at the site. This chapter reports some of the results of the continuing analysis. The archaeological horizon has been dated to around 30 ka by optically stimulated luminescence. This date supports the final Middle Stone Age or Transitional Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age designation suggested by a preliminary analysis of part of the lithic sample. Paleoenvironmental information from the site indicates that conditions were favorable for human settlement in the eastern Free State area during this period. Although the site may not necessarily be suitable to answer all the questions Susan initially asked of it, it will certainly make a contribution to our understanding of human settlement of the area during this little‐researched time period of the central interior.

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The Later Stone Age of Southernmost Africa

Cited by 149 publications

References 0 publications

Population structure and the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa

Population structure and the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa

Spatial Patterning and Site Occupation at Likoaeng, an Open‐Air Hunter‐Gatherer Campsite in the Lesotho Highlands, Southern Africa

Dating, Paleoenvironments, and Archaeology: A Progress Report on the Sunnyside 1 Site, Clarens, South Africa

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