Abstract
This paper presents the histological characterisation of a selection of worked bone artefacts from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu cave, South Africa. Histographic rendering is achieved using high-resolution Computed Tomography, which is non-destructive and facilitates three-dimensional histologic analysis. Excellent congruency in image quality was achieved with previous studies using this method. The results show that most of the artefact fragments contain mostly primary lamellar tissue, which is the bone tissue best adapted to withstand impact stresses. This indicates that bone with greater elastic properties was chosen. Histological characterisation allows the identification of animal taxa. Based on the sample analysed in this paper, Perissodactyla bone was used predominantly in the older layers at the site. Artiodactyla are represented throughout but appear far more frequently in the later (post-Howiesons Poort onwards) layers. Some of the Artiodactyla specimens have high proportions of Haversian tissue, reducing elasticity. The higher percentages of Haversian tissue in the post-Howiesons Poort artefacts relative to Holocene examples from southern Africa suggests that people may have started experimenting with bone from different animal taxa at this time and had not yet learned to eliminate the mechanically weaker secondary tissue. Apart from mechanical considerations, possible cultural constraints governing raw material selection is also explored.
Highlights
Animal bones have been modified to make tools for a little over two million years [1,2,3]
Histological study of worked bone artefacts from Sibudu cave comparatively little attention paid to ascertaining the type of bone tissue and animal taxa represented by the bone implements, beyond the general size class of animal [5,6]
Digenetic dissolution (DD) presents as exaggerated vascular spaces (Fig 7A & 7B), whereas hyper-mineralisation (HM)presents as bright areas in the tomographs (e.g. Fig 7C & 7D), These are due to the leaching of collagen out of the bone and soil minerals into the bone respectively
Summary
Animal bones have been modified to make tools for a little over two million years [1,2,3]. Bone tools this old are extremely rare, becoming well-represented only in the Holocene Between these two periods there is a brief florescence of bone tool manufacture at several Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, one of which, Sibudu, has yielded evidence for a variety of specialised implements [4]. Histological study of worked bone artefacts from Sibudu cave comparatively little attention paid to ascertaining the type of bone tissue and animal taxa represented by the bone implements, beyond the general size class of animal [5,6] This is because most bone tools recovered from archaeological excavations are so pervasively modified that it is impossible to identify the type of animal from which they were made based on standard skeletal morphological markers. We can only assume that the animal species targeted to fashion bone tools reflect the same species represented in the fauna record of food consumption
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