Fieldwork (Data Recovery) methods in African Stone Age research (original) (raw)
A REVIEW OF HUNTER-GATHERERS IN LATER STONE AGE RESEARCH IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Goodwin Series, 2019
Since its inception in academia in 1929 by John Goodwin and Clarence van Riet Lowe, the Later Stone Age (LSA) in southern Africa has seen considerable growth and heated academic debate. Recently, some academics have lamented that LSA research has stagnated, and even reached the brink of marginalisation. According to Mitchell (2005), one reason for reviving LSA research is the field's global importance and potential to empower and represent previously disenfranchised communities. The aim of this paper is to examine how San communities and southern African hunter-gatherers have been historically perceived by reviewing LSA research approaches. Several key themes of LSA research are presented which capture major shifts in methodological and theoretical frameworks and research interests within the field. These examples signal fundamental shifts in research discourse, archaeologists' perspectives, and the dominant views of 'Bushman'. Although providing an historical summary of LSA research, the paper also considers decolonisation within the field, aligning with the current socio-political milieu in southern Africa. It is suggested that while using ethnography and indigenous knowledge systems is helping us decolonise our approach to the archaeological record, this is not without its problems.
Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 1?6: an annotated bibliography
The African Archaeological Review, 1983
The CMAA monographs satisfy a real need in African archaeological communication by making possible the rapid publication in extenso of research monographs and thematic collections of papers that contain essential data and significant results, but which are unlikely to find favour with the normal commercial publisher and would otherwise appear fragmented and stripped of a large part of their data complement in journal articles. All but Hall's monograph betray their ancestry as Ph.D. theses (and of these all but one for the University of Cambridge). Dr John Alexander, the General Editor of the series, might in some cases have exercised greater editorial control and demanded more revision and in particular more emphasis on clarity of presentation of the data. The volumes, in a large (294 × 208 mm) format, are reproduced from typescripts; the text is admirably clear though with far too many typographical errors, the figures legible if sometimes less than perfect. At £10.00 a votume, prices are reasonable and include postage and handling. Dr A. E. Hands, a General Editor of British Archaeological Reports, which publishes and distributes directly from 122 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7BP, informs us that they are actively seeking scholarly manuscripts and hope to offer several African titles a year. NZEWUNWA, Nwanna t980. The Niger Delta. Prehistoric economy and culture, xiii, 267 pp., 61 figures. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 1, BAR International Series 75. ISBN 0 86054 083 9 and 0143 3067. £10.00.
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor between southern and eastern African populations. Alluvial fans presently blanket the areas adjacent to major river systems, which were key areas of prehistoric human habitation. These sets of variables have created conditions that are both challenging and advantageous to conduct archaeological research. Lateritic soil development has resulted in poor organic preservation and facilitated insect bioturbation, which has demanded an integrated micro-macro scale approach to building a reliable geochronology. An integrated field and analytical methodology has also been employed to identify the nature and degree of post-depositional movement in alluvial deposits, which preserve a wide range of spatial integrity levels in buried stone artifact assemblages between 47 and 30 ka in Karonga, northern Malawi. This paper describes the methodological advances taken toward understanding open-air Middle Stone Age archaeology in subtropical Africa, and explores the inferential potential for understanding Pleistocene human ecology in the important southern Rift Valley region.
Comparative analysis of Middle Stone Age artifacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica) 1 | INTRODUCTION
Evolutionary Anthropology, 2019
The workshop "Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)" aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize pan-African comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities, specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds.
The Pleistocene Stone Artifact Record of Africa: Technologies, Typologies, and Analytic Approaches
Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology in Africa, 2023
Flaked stone (lithic) artifacts are a ubiquitous cultural material at Pleistocene sites and first appear in the archaeological record 3.3 million years ago (Ma) in East Africa (Harmand et al., 2015). The African stone artifact record thus covers the longest time span of human prehistory compared to other world regions. Lithic artifacts preserve well, and they are often the only cultural materials remaining at a site. Archaeologists have therefore dedicated considerable effort to describing stone artifacts and to developing theory to interpret them in light of the behavioral and biological evolution of hominins. Below we briefly describe the major lithic technologies that appeared in Africa during the Pleistocene. Additionally, this chapter reviews the common analytical approaches that researchers employ when studying lithic assemblages from diverse contexts. We then discuss how archaeologists have used lithic artifacts to interpret other aspects of hominin evolution and the issues that confound these interpretations. Here, stone “artifacts” are preferred as opposed to stone “tools” to refer to all intentionally flaked stones because the term “artifact” does not presume their use as tools per se.