New data from old collections: Obsidian and ostrich eggshell beads from the 1977 Mehlman excavations at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania

Abstract

Mumba rockshelter in northern Tanzania has served as a key benchmark sequence for understanding Late Pleistocene-Holocene archaeological changes in the region. A complete understanding of the site is complicated by multiple excavations across >90 years, with an unfortunate history of incomplete publication of those results, particularly for some of the older, larger-scale excavations from the 1930s and 1970s. We report here on newly recovered material from the 1977 Mehlman excavations at Mumba. We (1) untangle the complex notation Mehlman used when labeling his artifacts which has led to a misunderstanding of some patterns of change in the past, (2) present the first fully quantitative results of the geochemical analysis and source attribution of obsidian artifacts from Beds III and II at the site, and (3) test and confirm observations about a lack of change in ostrich eggshell bead size at Mumba, a pattern unlike that found at other regional sequences.