Differential Taphonomic Behavior of Flint Types: Experimental Insights and Implications for the Middle Stone Age Assemblages of Wadi Lazalim in the Northern Sahara (Kebili, Tunisia)

This study applies a taphonomic analysis to the final Middle Stone Age faunal assemblage from Sibudu Cave, South Africa, by assessing bone surface modifications, breakage patterns and skeletal element abundances. Cut marks, percussion marks, severe fragmentation and the high frequency of burned bone combine to demonstrate that human behaviour was the principal agent in the assemblage's formation. These results are consistent with previous research on earlier occupations of Sibudu during the Middle Stone Age. Moreover, this assemblage is proposed to reflect regular site maintenance and cleaning. This conclusion is consistent with previous research that demonstrates systematic site maintenance during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu and emphasises this behaviour as being a consistent activity for Middle Stone Age foragers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article reports on a new project to investigate the activities of earlyHomo sapiensin the area of the Chotts ‘megalake’ in southern Tunisia. Excavations in 2015 and 2019 at Oued el Akarit revealed one of a number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) horizons near the top of a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene deposits. The site identified as Oued el Akarit (Sondage 8) consists of lithic artefacts, bone fragments of large ungulates and pieces of ostrich eggshell. Many of the objects are burnt. Excavation of about nine square metres revealed that these were associated with a lightly trampled and combusted occupation surface. Amongst the identified artefacts were Levallois flakes some of which could be refitted, thereby indicating the generally undisturbed nature of the occupation. The lithic finds also included side scrapers and other tools diagnostic of the MSA but significantly no bifacial or tanged tools. OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) dating of the sediments and AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) radiocarbon dating of ostrich eggshell have produced uncalibrated age determinations in the range 37,000–40,000 years ago, one of the youngest ages for MSA sites in the region. This is the first example of a securely dated later MSA occupation in a riparian environment in south-eastern Tunisia.

ABSTRACTUnderstanding the formation and stratigraphy of sequences in southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites is vital for contextualizing evidence for the evolution of modern human behaviors and cognition. Deposits at these sites often have complex formation histories, typically involving a range of anthropogenic, geogenic, and biogenic depositional and post‐depositional processes, and micro‐laminated deposits are common. Consequently, archaeological micromorphology and related micro‐analyses are now routinely a major component of MSA geoarchaeological research in the region. In the past few decades, microscale studies of the formation of anthropogenic features and deposits at MSA sites have begun to provide important behavioral information, including evidence for varying occupational intensities and the structuring and maintenance of living spaces. Here, a microscale geoarchaeological approach is applied to deposits dating to the MSA I cultural phase (> 110 ka) in the Cave 1 Witness Baulk. The results show that humans played a considerable role in site formation and that subsequent diagenesis affected the guano, charcoal, ash, and shell, with particular impact on the carbonates which were variably dissolved, altered, or recrystallized. This latter process helped to preserve ash through reduced dissolution potential. Spatial and temporal patterns in these factors influence the macroscopic properties of the deposits in any particular area, with significant implications for the correlation of extant deposits across areas excavated at low resolution during the 1960s. Different, variably preserved, anthropogenic features and deposits were found to make up a significant proportion of the deposits. Inferred behaviors range from repeated long‐term low‐intensity use of individually stacked hearths to the formation of dumped deposits (including shell middens) due to repeated hearth maintenance and patterned discarding of food waste during more intensive occupations. Differences in occupational intensity and frequency both within and between the two recognized MSA I members could indicate adaptation to changing conditions as temperatures and sea levels fluctuated during Marine Isotope Stage 5e and early Stage 5d, but changes in geogenic depositional rates over the same period could skew our perception of occupational frequency. The current limited and low‐resolution dating evidence prevents correlation with any specific event/s, which might have affected behavior and/or depositional rates.

Late Acheulean occupations at Montagu Cave and the pattern of Middle Pleistocene behavioral change in Western Cape, southern Africa

PALHYDAF (Palaeohydrology in Africa) program: objectives, methods, major results

Sub-surface movement of stone artefacts at White Paintings Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana: Implications for the Middle Stone Age chronology of central southern Africa

Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels

Analyses of the distance over which lithic raw materials were transported for use in stone tool production provide important insights into early human mobility through prehistoric landscapes. This study combines the use of geochemical provenancing, chaîne opératoire analysis and geochronology to examine patterns of lithic raw material procurement at five single-use open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites in Ntwetwe Pan, part of the Makgadikgadi Pans complex in north-central Botswana. Maximum ages of the five sites ranged from 106 ± 3 to 69 ± 7 ka, with site formation thought to have occurred before and after a lake high stand dated to c. 72-57 ka. Tool manufacture at all sites was largely confined to the production of MSA points, with silcrete used exclusively as the raw material. Geochemical provenancing investigations aimed to identify the specific silcrete outcrops used as lithic raw material sources. Analysis of contemporary pan floor deposits show that sediment (and hence silcrete) geochemistry in Ntwetwe is determined by the proportional sediment input into the pan from fluvial systems with different catchment geologies. Immobile trace element signatures for 46 waste manufacturing flakes were compared against equivalent data for 321 silcrete samples collected at outcrops within and beyond Ntwetwe Pan. Waste flakes were chosen to be representative of the main silcrete raw material types present within the artefact assemblage at each site. Fifteen waste flakes were shown to match specific outcrops on the basis of their geochemical signatures and petrographic properties; all matching outcrops were within Ntwetwe Pan, at distances ranging from 7 to 55 km from individual sites. Multi-site analysis of procurement patterns identifies common silcrete source areas, revealing a preference for silcrete from particular locations within Ntwetwe Pan. Given that the five archaeological sites were likely occupied at different times, this resource preference may have been a longer-term behavioural feature of MSA populations in the Ntwetwe region. The distances over which silcrete was transported in Ntwetwe Pan are smaller than identified in investigations at similar-aged MSA sites in northwest Botswana. The reasons for the different silcrete procurement ranges in the two regions are likely related to silcrete availability and/or raw material preference, but this requires further investigation.

A critique of evidence for human occupation of Europe older than the Jaramillo subchron (∼1 Ma): Comment on ‘The oldest human fossil in Europe from Orce (Spain)’ by

Life and death at Dmanisi, Georgia: Taphonomic signals from the fossil mammals

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early evidence for symbolic material culture and complex technological innovations. However, one of the most visible aspects of MSA technologies are unretouched triangular stone points that appear in the archaeological record as early as 500,000 years ago in Africa and persist throughout the MSA. How these tools were being used and discarded across a changing Pleistocene landscape can provide insight into how MSA populations prioritized technological and foraging decisions. Creating inferential links between experimental and archaeological tool use helps to establish prehistoric tool function, but is complicated by the overlaying of post-depositional damage onto behaviorally worn tools. Taphonomic damage patterning can provide insight into site formation history, but may preclude behavioral interpretations of tool function. Here, multiple experimental processes that form edge damage on unretouched lithic points from taphonomic and behavioral processes are presented. These provide experimental distributions of wear on tool edges from known processes that are then quantitatively compared to the archaeological patterning of stone point edge damage from three MSA lithic assemblages—Kathu Pan 1, Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, and Die Kelders Cave 1. By using a model-fitting approach, the results presented here provide evidence for variable MSA behavioral strategies of stone point utilization on the landscape consistent with armature tips at KP1, and cutting tools at PP13B and DK1, as well as damage contributions from post-depositional sources across assemblages. This study provides a method with which landscape-scale questions of early modern human tool-use and site-use can be addressed.

The late Middle Pleistocene, starting at around 300 ka, witnessed large-scale biological and cultural dynamics in hominin evolution across Africa including the onset of the Middle Stone Age that is closely associated with the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens. However, archaeological and geochronological data of its earliest appearance are scarce. Here we report on the late Middle Pleistocene sequence of Wadi Lazalim, in the Sahara of Southern Tunisia, which has yielded evidence for human occupations bracketed between ca. 300–130 ka. Wadi Lazalim contributes valuable information on the spread of early MSA technocomplexes across North Africa, that likely were an expression of large-scale diffusion processes.

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Refitting of Chipped-Stone Artifacts as an Analytical and Interpretive ToolJack L. HofmanJack L. Hofman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 22, Number 6Dec., 1981 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/202754 Views: 15Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1981 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Sheila Coulson, Claus Andreasen Uncovering their tracks: Intra-site behaviour at a Paleo-Inuit multiple dwelling site, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 58 (Jun 2020): 101169.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101169Petr Neruda, Zdeňka Nerudová Technology of Early Szeletian leaf point shaping: a refitting approach, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11, no.99 (Jun 2019): 4515–4538.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00818-3Stance Hurst Territorial perspective on lithic caching: Insights from Garza Protohistoric (1450–1650 CE) caching strategies on the Southern Plains, USA, Quaternary International 492 (Oct 2018): 10–22.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.07.005Amèlia Bargalló, Marina Mosquera, Sergi Lozano In pursuit of our ancestors' hand laterality, Journal of Human Evolution 111 (Oct 2017): 18–32.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.06.001Elizabeth Foley, Caroline Spry, Nicola Stern Establishing the integrity and stratigraphic origin of stone artefact scatters on the surface of the Lake Mungo lunette in south-eastern Australia, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 13 (Jun 2017): 547–557.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.05.002Esther López-Ortega, Amèlia Bargalló, Arturo de Lombera-Hermida, Marina Mosquera, Andreu Ollé, Xosé Pedro Rodríguez-Álvarez Quartz and quartzite refits at Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos): Connecting lithic artefacts in the Middle Pleistocene unit of TD10.1, Quaternary International 433 (Mar 2017): 85–102.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.026Zdeňka Nerudová, Petr Neruda Technology of Moravian Early Szeletian leaf point shaping: A case study of refittings from Moravský Krumlov IV open-air site (Czech Republic), Quaternary International (Nov 2015).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.065M. O'Brien Evaluating the Contemporaneity of Households at the Eden‐Farson site, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 25, no.55 (Jul 2013): 653–664.https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2328Sigrid Staurset, Sheila Coulson Sub-surface movement of stone artefacts at White Paintings Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana: Implications for the Middle Stone Age chronology of central southern Africa, Journal of Human Evolution 75 (Oct 2014): 153–165.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.04.006T. Alexandra Sumner, Kathleen Kuman Refitting evidence for the stratigraphic integrity of the Kudu Koppie Early to Middle Stone Age site, northern Limpopo Province, South Africa, Quaternary International 343 (Sep 2014): 169–178.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.017Telmo Pereira, Henrique Matias, Francisco Almeida, Nuno Bicho WITHDRAWN: Refitting stone-tools to understand site formation processes: the case of the Gravettian site of Terra do Manuel (Portugal), Journal of Archaeological Science (Sep 2013).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.09.005Jack L. Hofman, Shannon R. Ryan Refitting the Great Plains: A Long Distance Stone Tool Refit from Western Kansas, Plains Anthropologist 58, no.226226 (Apr 2014): 69–78.https://doi.org/10.1179/pan.2013.58.226.004Esther López-Ortega, Xosé Pedro Rodríguez, Manuel Vaquero Lithic refitting and movement connections: the NW area of level TD10-1 at the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain), Journal of Archaeological Science 38, no.1111 (Nov 2011): 3112–3121.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.07.011T. Alexandra Sumner Psychological components of middle paleolithic technology: The proceduralization of lithic core reduction, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30, no.33 (Sep 2011): 416–431.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2011.04.003Stance Hurst, Eileen Johnson, Vance T. 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Mwanganda's Village (MGD) and Bruce (BRU) are two open-air site complexes in northern Malawi with deposits dating to between 15 and 58 thousand years ago (ka) and containing Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblages. The sites have been known since 1966 and 1965, respectively, but lacked chronometric and site formation data necessary for their interpretation. The area hosts a rich stone artifact record, eroding from and found within alluvial fan deposits exhibiting poor preservation of organic materials. Although this generally limits opportunities for site-based environmental reconstructions, MGD and BRU are located at the distal margins of the alluvial fan, where lacustrine lagoonal deposits were overprinted by a calcrete paleosol. This has created locally improved organic preservation and allowed us to obtain ecological data from pollen, phytoliths, and pedogenic carbonates, producing a regional- to site-scale environmental context for periods of site use and abandonment. Here, we integrate the ecological data into a detailed site formation history, based on field observations and micromorphology, supplemented by cathodoluminescence microscopy and μ-XRF. By comparing local, on-site environmental proxies with more regional indicators, we can better evaluate how MSA hunter-gatherers made decisions about the use of resources across the landscape. Our data indicate that while tree cover similar to modern miombo woodland and evergreen gallery forest prevailed at most times, MSA hunter-gatherers chose more locally open environments for activities that resulted in a lithic artifact record at multiple locations between 51 and 15 ka.

Site formation at Kudu Koppie: A late Earlier and Middle Stone Age site in northern Limpopo Province, South Africa