Quartz backed tools as arrowheads and hand-cast spearheads: Hunting experiments and macro-fracture analysis (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2011
This paper discusses the results of a detailed functional study of 16 microlithic backed tools made on quartz, and newly excavated at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The layers associated with the artefacts have OSL ages of 61.7 AE 1.5 ka, 63.8 AE 2.5 ka and 64.7 AE 1.9 ka and represent the Howiesons Poort Industry at the site. I show that more than 50% of the pieces could hardly have been used in any way other than to tip arrows in a transverse position. This outcome supports previous inferences that some of these small stone tools, and perhaps a bone point from the same context, signify the use of bow and arrow technology during the Middle Stone Age. In addition to transversely hafted arrow tips, there is also evidence that some of the tools could have been hafted diagonally. Such tools could have been used equally successfully as arrow tips or barbs, or as barbs for hand-delivered spears. The variation in hafting configuration for these geometric shapes signifies hunting technologies that were flexible and most likely adapted according to need, preference, season and/or prey type.
The antiquity of bow-and-arrow technology: evidence from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave
2018
The bow and arrow is thought to be a unique development of our species, signalling higher-level cognitive functioning. How this technology originated and how we identify archaeological evidence for it are subjects of ongoing debate. Recent analysis of the putative bone arrow point from Sibudu Cave in South Africa, dated to 61.7±1.5kya, has provided important new insights. High-resolution CT scanning revealed heat and impact damage in both the Sibudu point and in experimentally produced arrow points. These features suggest that the Sibudu point was first used as an arrowhead for hunting, and afterwards was deposited in a hearth. Our results support the claim that bone weapon tips were used in South African hunting long before the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2020
The bone point (SAM 42160) from >60 ka deposits at Klasies River Main Site, South Africa, is reassessed. We clarify the stratigraphic integrity of SAM 42160 and confirm its Middle Stone Age provenience. We find evidence that indicates the point was hafted and partially coated in an adhesive substance. Internal fractures are consistent with stresses occasioned by high-velocity, longitudinal impact. SAM 42160, like its roughly contemporaneous counterpart, farther north at Sibudu Cave, likely functioned as a hafted arrowhead. We highlight a growing body of evidence for bow hunting at this early period and explore bow-and-arrow technology might imply about the cognition of people in the Middle Stone Age who were able to conceive, construct and use it.
Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64 000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The invention of the bow and arrow was a pivotal moment in the human story and its earliest use is a primary quarry of the modern researcher. Since the organic parts of the weapon -wood, bone, cord and feathersvery rarely survive, the deduction that a bow and arrow was in use depends heavily on the examination of certain classes of stone artefacts and their context. Here the authors apply rigorous analytical reasoning to the task, and demonstrate that, conforming to their exacting checklist, is an early assemblage from Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which therefore suggests bow and arrow technology in use there 64 millennia ago.
Antiquity, 2012
Bone points of two types, the one thin and poisoned and the other robust and not poisoned, are examined in this study of impact fractures. The bone points seem to have had similar experiences to stone points, producing fractures of a similar kind. Most of the fractures in the historical collection examined were caused by impacts. However, this early twentieth-century collection is not thought to be representative of contemporary fracture frequencies that occurred in hunting.
Assessing the Macrofracture Method for Identifying Stone Age Hunting Weaponry
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2011
Macrofracture analysis is an experimentally derived method used as an initial step in investigating the hunting function of stone artefacts. Diagnostic impact fractures, which can only develop as a result of longitudinal impact, underpin this method. Macrofracture analysis recently gained favour in Middle Stone Age studies, supporting hypotheses for effective hunting during the late Pleistocene in southern Africa. However, the factors affecting diagnostic impact fracture formation and the interpretation of these fracture frequencies are not yet fully understood. This paper outlines a set of experiments designed to test macrofracture formation under human and cattle trampling and knapping conditions. The results show that: (a) macrofractures occur frequently when stone artefacts are trampled by cattle and humans and in knapping debris; (b) diagnostic impact fractures occur on some of the trampled flakes and knapping debris (3%), but significantly less often than in previous hunting experiments; (c) when they do occur, they are likely produced by longitudinal forces similar to those experienced during hunting; (d) considering artefact morphology is important during macrofracture analysis; and (e) macrofracture analysis is not a standalone method, but is most useful as part of a multi-analytical approach to functional analysis. These experiments help to establish a significant baseline diagnostic impact fracture frequency for the interpretation of archaeological macrofracture frequencies.
Evidence for Early Hafted Hunting Technology
Science, 2012
Hafting stone points to spears was an important advance in weaponry for early humans. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that ~500,000-year-old stone points from the archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), South Africa, functioned as spear tips. KP1 points exhibit fracture types diagnostic of impact. Modification near the base of some points is consistent with hafting. Experimental and metric data indicate that the points could function well as spear tips. Shape analysis demonstrates that the smaller retouched points are as symmetrical as larger retouched points, which fits expectations for spear tips. The distribution of edge damage is similar to that in an experimental sample of spear tips and is inconsistent with expectations for cutting or scraping tools. Thus, early humans were manufacturing hafted multicomponent tools ~200,000 years earlier than previously thought.