HOLOCENE LSA ARCHAEOLOGY FROM EQUUS CAVE, BUXTON-NORLIM LIMEWORKS, SOUTH AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE BONE TOOL ASSEMBLAGE (original) (raw)
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Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2008
Recently discovered bone implements from Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits at Sibudu Cave, South Africa, confirm the existence of a bone tool industry for the Howiesons Poort (HP) technocomplex. Previously, an isolated bone point from Klasies River provided inconclusive evidence. This paper describes three bone tools: two points and the end of a polished spatula-shaped piece, from unequivocal HP layers at Sibudu Cave (with ages greater than w61 ka). Comparative microscopic and morphometric analysis of the Sibudu specimens together with bone tools from southern African Middle and Later Stone Age (LSA) deposits, an Iron Age occupation, nineteenth century Bushman hunter-gatherer toolkits, and bone tools used experimentally in a variety of tasks, reveals that the Sibudu polished piece has use-wear reminiscent of that on bones experimentally used to work animal hides. A slender point is consistent with a pin or needle-like implement, while a larger point, reminiscent of the single specimen from Peers Cave, parallels large un-poisoned bone arrow points from LSA, Iron Age and historical Bushman sites. Additional support for the Sibudu point having served as an arrow tip comes from backed lithics in the HP compatible with this use, and the recovery of older, larger bone and lithic points from Blombos Cave, interpreted as spear heads. If the bone point from the HP layers at Sibudu Cave is substantiated by future discoveries, this will push back the origin of bow and bone arrow technology by at least 20,000 years, and corroborate arguments in favour of the hypothesis that crucial technological innovations took place during the MSA in Africa.
2001
Few Middle Stone Age sites have yielded convincing evidence for a complex bone technology, a behavior often associated with the emergence of modern cultures. Here, we review the published evidence for Middle Stone Age bone tools from southern Africa, analyze an additional nine bone artifacts recently recovered from Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, describe an unpublished bone tool from probable Middle Stone Age levels at Peers Cave, examine a single bone awl found at Blombosch Sands (an open site near Blombos Cave), and reappraise marked bone artifacts and a bone point recovered from Klasies River. To determine the chronological and cultural attribution of these artifacts, document bonemanufacturing techniques associated with the southern African MSA, and discuss the symbolic significance of the markings present on some of these objects we use (1) available contextual information; (2) morphometric comparison of Later Stone Age, Modern San, and purported Middle Stone Age projectile points; (3) analysis of the carbon/nitrogen content of bone tools and faunal remains from Peers and Blombos caves; and (4) microscopic analysis of traces of manufacture and use. Previously undescribed bone artifacts from Blombos Cave include a massive point manufactured on weathered bone, two complete awls and two awl tips manufactured on small-sized mammal and bird bone, a probable projectile point with a tang manufactured by knapping and scraping, a shaft fragment modified by percussion, used as retoucher and bearing a set of incised lines on the middle of the periosteal surface, and two fragments with possible engravings. The point from Peers Cave can be assigned to the Middle Stone Age and bears tiny markings reminiscent of those recorded on projectile points from Blombos and used as marks of ownership on San arrow points. The awl from Blombosch Sands and the bone point from Klasies River can be attributed to the Later Stone Age. Two notched objects from Klasies are attributed to the Middle Stone Age and interpreted as tools used on soft material; a third object bears possible deliberate symbolic engravings. Although low in number, the instances of bone artifacts attributable to the Middle Stone Age is increasing and demonstrates that the bone tools from Blombos Cave are not isolated instances. New discoveries of bone tools dating to this time period can be expected.
Few Middle Stone Age sites have yielded convincing evidence for a complex bone technology, a behavior often associated with the emergence of modern cultures. Here, we review the published evidence for Middle Stone Age bone tools from southern Africa, analyze an additional nine bone artifacts recently recovered from Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, describe an unpublished bone tool from probable Middle Stone Age levels at Peers Cave, examine a single bone awl found at Blombosch Sands (an open site near Blombos Cave), and reappraise marked bone artifacts and a bone point recovered from Klasies River. To determine the chronological and cultural attribution of these artifacts, document bonemanufacturing techniques associated with the southern African MSA, and discuss the symbolic significance of the markings present on some of these objects we use (1) available contextual information; (2) morphometric comparison of Later Stone Age, Modern San, and purported Middle Stone Age projectile points; (3) analysis of the carbon/nitrogen content of bone tools and faunal remains from Peers and Blombos caves; and (4) microscopic analysis of traces of manufacture and use. Previously undescribed bone artifacts from Blombos Cave include a massive point manufactured on weathered bone, two complete awls and two awl tips manufactured on small-sized mammal and bird bone, a probable projectile point with a tang manufactured by knapping and scraping, a shaft fragment modified by percussion, used as retoucher and bearing a set of incised lines on the middle of the periosteal surface, and two fragments with possible engravings. The point from Peers Cave can be assigned to the Middle Stone Age and bears tiny markings reminiscent of those recorded on projectile points from Blombos and used as marks of ownership on San arrow points. The awl from Blombosch Sands and the bone point from Klasies River can be attributed to the Later Stone Age. Two notched objects from Klasies are attributed to the Middle Stone Age and interpreted as tools used on soft material; a third object bears possible deliberate symbolic engravings. Although low in number, the instances of bone artifacts attributable to the Middle Stone Age is increasing and demonstrates that the bone tools from Blombos Cave are not isolated instances. New discoveries of bone tools dating to this time period can be expected.
Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African Middle Stone Age
Journal of Human Evolution, 2007
Few Middle Stone Age sites have yielded convincing evidence for a complex bone technology, a behavior often associated with the emergence of modern cultures. Here, we review the published evidence for Middle Stone Age bone tools from southern Africa, analyze an additional nine bone artifacts recently recovered from Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, describe an unpublished bone tool from probable Middle Stone Age levels at Peers Cave, examine a single bone awl found at Blombosch Sands (an open site near Blombos Cave), and reappraise marked bone artifacts and a bone point recovered from Klasies River. To determine the chronological and cultural attribution of these artifacts, document bonemanufacturing techniques associated with the southern African MSA, and discuss the symbolic significance of the markings present on some of these objects we use (1) available contextual information; (2) morphometric comparison of Later Stone Age, Modern San, and purported Middle Stone Age projectile points; (3) analysis of the carbon/nitrogen content of bone tools and faunal remains from Peers and Blombos caves; and (4) microscopic analysis of traces of manufacture and use. Previously undescribed bone artifacts from Blombos Cave include a massive point manufactured on weathered bone, two complete awls and two awl tips manufactured on small-sized mammal and bird bone, a probable projectile point with a tang manufactured by knapping and scraping, a shaft fragment modified by percussion, used as retoucher and bearing a set of incised lines on the middle of the periosteal surface, and two fragments with possible engravings. The point from Peers Cave can be assigned to the Middle Stone Age and bears tiny markings reminiscent of those recorded on projectile points from Blombos and used as marks of ownership on San arrow points. The awl from Blombosch Sands and the bone point from Klasies River can be attributed to the Later Stone Age. Two notched objects from Klasies are attributed to the Middle Stone Age and interpreted as tools used on soft material; a third object bears possible deliberate symbolic engravings. Although low in number, the instances of bone artifacts attributable to the Middle Stone Age is increasing and demonstrates that the bone tools from Blombos Cave are not isolated instances. New discoveries of bone tools dating to this time period can be expected.
Pointed Bone Tool technology in Southern Africa
Stone Age societies are understood largely in terms of their technology. The way in which we frame our research and understanding of these past societies is based almost exclusively on stone tools and ceramics, yet these materials represent only a small percentage of recent hunter-gatherer paraphernalia and may not necessarily reflect the complexity of cultural adaptations and technological achievements of the past. Pointed bone tools are present in the archaeological record of almost every ancient society and time-period; yet, for various reasons, they seldom have been afforded the same attention as their stone equivalents. Unless all aspects of past technological systems are acknowledged and understood we risk providing a distorted image of the past. This thesis begins to explore the variable and diverse functions of pointed bone artefacts in southern Africa during the Later Stone Age from approximately 18 000 years ago until a few hundred years ago when the hunter-gatherer societies practicing a stone age economy came under the influence of immigrant Iron Age farmers. A comprehensive study of bone tools has the potential to provide information about past societies that is simply not available from stone tools and ceramics. In this thesis I look at one aspect of past technology, namely pointed bone tools, that has seldom formed the focus of research. I present the results of a metrical analsyis and three use-trace analyses (micro-residue, use-wear and macrofracture), each designed to provide complementary information about the past function/s of pointed bone tools. Over 300 tools are examined from 12 archaeological sites. Evidence presented here shows that while manufacturing techniques remain relatively constant throughout the last 18 000 years, greater functional variability among bone points is evident during the last 6000 years and largely parallels the sustained focus on hunting smaller animals. Changes in bone tool form and function do not correlate neatly with lithic technology oscillations or environmental fluctuations and seem to occur during rather than at the boundaries of stone tool technocomplexes. Evidence that bone points were reused after they fractured suggests the importance attached to these tools and raw material. Finally, a range of different arrow forms are recognised that may have the potential to provide an avenue for relative dating.
A comparison of three Later Stone Age bone point assemblages from South Africa
South African Archaeological Bulletin, 2012
The presence of bone points in archaeological contexts has previously been interpreted as evidence for hunting. These interpretations, however, are based on the morphological similarity of the bone points with ethnographic and historical bone-tipped arrows, and not on any functional studies. Macrofracture analysis has been used successfully on experimental stone- and bone-tipped hunting weapons and is applied here on a set of bone points from three Later Stone Age sites. It confirms that bone points from Nelson Bay Cave, Jubilee Shelter and Rose Cottage Cave were indeed used for hunting activities. The results presented here suggest that there may be some patterning in the size distribution of bone points across the landscape.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2005
It has been suggested that many behavioral innovations, said to appear during the late Middle Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa, facilitated the expansion of anatomically modern humans from Africa and the Near East into Europe at about 50 kyr; the process eventually led to the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic. However, assemblages in this time range are little known in South Africa. In fact, the transition from Middle to the Later Stone Age in Southern Africa is controversial. The early appearance in South Africa of many innovations, such as sophisticated knapping techniques (e.g. the use of soft hammer or indirect percussion in blade production, of composite tools, of microlithic and bladelet technologies) remains to be established through technological analysis.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021
Bone tool-use by Early Pleistocene hominins is at the center of debates in human evolution. It is especially the case in South Africa, where 102 bone tools have been described from four Early Stone Age (ESA) archaeological sites, which have yielded Oldowan and possibly Acheulean artefacts, as well as Paranthropus robustus and early Homo remains. Here we describe a bone tool from Cooper's D. The deposit, dated between 1.4 and 1.0 Ma, has yielded seven P. robustus remains and 50 stone artefacts. Our results highlight similarities in morphology and use-wear patterns between the Cooper's D bone tool and those previously identified at nearby Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Drimolen. Our findings increase the number of Early Stone Age bone tools and provide further evidence of their association with P. robustus. They suggest P. robustus had the cognitive capacities to develop this cultural adaptation and the manipulative abilities to implement it.
2020
Edge convergence, which is typical for pointed tools, is a major morphological feature contributing to the definition of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). The multifaceted character of points might be the key to their success and for their recurrent adoption by prehistoric populations. Whether MSA points represent a good proxy to identify populations and to discuss their interconnectedness is a question to address at several scales of observation. In this paper, we develop an approach on technological point production based on the collections from Bushman Rock Shelter (Limpopo Province, South Africa), relying on a combined study of technology and tool use. The large-scale comparison of our results with other MIS 5 occurrences in southern African show similar technological and use-wear patterns, indicating regionally-specific features. We emphasize the limits of current knowledge and the future research goals to be developed in order to better serve the interpretation of cultural contacts or convergent evolutions between ancient groups during this period of the MSA.