A return to Umbeli Belli: New insights of recent excavations and implications for the final MSA of eastern South Africa

Abstract

Umbeli Belli is a quartzite rock shelter located in the Mpambanyoni river valley in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Building on earlier work by Cable in 1979 we excavated the site in three seasons between 2016 and 2018 and recovered important archaeological data on the later part of the Middle Stone Age [MSA] and the Later Stone Age [LSA]. New OSL dates of the sequence demonstrate that the site was used intensively during the final MSA and the Pleistocene LSA. We identified 12 geological units covering a sequence of nearly 2 m thickness. Excavations have not yet reached bedrock. Here we focus on the assemblage from layer 7 which marks the latest expression of the MSA at Umbeli Belli. The layer provided an OSL age of 29 ± 2 ka and was found to contain some of the most distinct formal tools of the MSA, the so-called hollow-based points. Taking aside two isolated finds from Kleinmonde and Border Cave, this tool type was elsewhere found exclusively within the terminal MSA occupations of Sibudu and Umhlatuzana. Notwithstanding the fact that hollow-based points are likely to represent one of the most reliable fossil directeurs of the MSA, neither the tools themselves nor the corresponding assemblages in which they are found have so far received adequate attention compared to other periods. Based on current results from Umbeli Belli we provide new techno-typological evidence about the final MSA in the eastern part of South Africa together with new radiometric dates. We observe first that hollow-based points are not the only defining feature of the final MSA and should be rather seen as embedded within a diagnostic technocomplex. We question existing typological differentiations of traditional tool types, such as unifacial and bifacial points, and provide alternative assessments based on the morphological and physical properties of retouched tools. Finally we discuss the final MSA period in and surrounding KwaZulu-Natal in the light of new dating results and address future perspectives.