Refining Our Understanding of Howiesons Poort Lithic Technology: The Evidence from Grey Rocky Layer in Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

Paloma De La Peña,Nuno Bicho

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143451

Abstract

The detailed technological analysis of the youngest Howiesons Poort occupation in Sibudu Cave, layer Grey Rocky, has shown the importance of blade production (with different knapping methods involved), but also of flaking methods in coarse grained rock types. Moreover, new strategies of bifacial production and microlithism were important. Grey Rocky lithic technology shows a really versatile example of reduction strategies that were highly influenced by the characteristics of the rock types. This lithic assemblage is another example of the technological variability linked to the Howiesons Poort technocomplex. The reasons for this variability are still difficult to elucidate. Discrepancies between sites might be for different reasons: diachronic variations, functional variations, organizational variations or maybe different regional variations within what has been recognized traditionally and typologically as Howiesons Poort. The technological comparison of the Grey Rocky assemblage with assemblages from other Howiesons Poort sites demonstrates that there are common technological trends during the late Pleistocene, but they still need to be properly circumscribed chronologically. On the one hand, Howiesons Poort characteristics such as the bifacial production in quartz are reminiscent of production in some Still Bay or pre-Still Bay industries and the flake production or the prismatic blade production described here could be a point in common with pre-Still Bay and post-Howiesons Poort industries. On the other hand, the detailed analysis of the Grey Rocky lithics reinforces the particular character of this Howiesons Poort technocomplex, yet it also shows clear technological links with other Middle Stone Age assemblages.

Highlights

Howiesons Poort in RetrospectiveHowiesons Poort (HP) is one of the better known industries of the southern African Middle Stone Age sequence
The excavation of Sibudu was conducted with a permit obtained from Amafa i KwaZuluNatali, the Heritage Agency based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
What type of knapping methods can be inferred from the technological analysis of the cores?

Summary

Introduction

Howiesons Poort in RetrospectiveHowiesons Poort (HP) is one of the better known industries of the southern African Middle Stone Age sequence. Refining Our Understanding of Howiesons Poort Lithic Technology on the researcher concerned, it has been named an industry [1,2,3], a horizon marker [4], a Middle Stone Age (MSA) entity [5] and recently a technocomplex [6] or a techno-tradition [7], following the mainstream technological approach. It is striking that while the methodology for analysing the industries has radically changed -from a typological approach to a technological approach- the names used to identify the assemblage remain the same and typology still seems the main way to guide the recognition of assemblages This epistemological trend has been recognised in Upper Paleolithic technocomplexes in Europe, which were formerly identified as cultures, as typological traditions, and more recently as technocomplexes. HP has followed a similar historiographical evolution, from a cultural typological conception to a technocomplex

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