Abstract
ABSTRACTBased on optically stimulated luminescence age estimates it has been argued that the Still Bay represents a sudden, short-lived technological innovation dating to about 72–71 kya. Yet, few sites have the stratigraphic integrity and Still Bay point assemblage size to test this assumption. The Wadley deep sounding of Sibudu Cave provides such an opportunity. Here we use fine-grained analyses consisting of technological attributes and morphometric data to explore the retouched point assemblages of Sibudu over a period of more than ten thousand years spanning the Still Bay. Although we found subtle changes through time, we found no evidence of a technological break in retouched point-production strategies since the Wadley early pre-Still Bay at more than 77 kya through to the final Still Bay/early Howiesons Poort dating to 64.7 ± 2.3 kya. We did, however, uncover a potential point-production hiatus at the site and we present testable hypotheses for this phenomenon. We further contextualise the Sibudu assemblages within southern Africa by directly comparing them with those of Hollow Rock Shelter, Umhlatuzana and Apollo 11. Although our results demonstrate both variation and similarities between the different Still Bay assemblages, we could not replicate a previous suggestion regarding technical disconnection between a north-east/south-west axis on the greater landscape.
Highlights
Point production is a key characteristic of the Middle Stone Age in Africa and has served as an impetus for far-ranging interpretative frameworks from early on (e.g. Clark 1988)
Perhaps of note here is the fact that all Still Bay assemblages contain some unifacial points as part of their composition, yet these are seldom discussed as part of recent ‘Still Bay’ lithic research
We suggest that this omission hampers detailed understanding of techno-behaviours associated with point production during this technocomplex and we include both bifacial and unifacial points in our analysis
Summary
Point production is a key characteristic of the Middle Stone Age in Africa and has served as an impetus for far-ranging interpretative frameworks from early on (e.g. Clark 1988). To extend our understanding of point production at the site through time, we include in our morphometric analyses data for the pre-Still Bay serrated point assemblage excavated by the Conard team (Rots et al 2017; Lombard and Högberg 2018), which underlies Wadley’s earlier pre-Still Bay, and data from the younger Howiesons Poort bifacial points, dated to ∼63.8–61.7 kya (de la Peña et al 2013; de la Peña and Wadley 2014; de la Peña 2015).
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