Ostrich Eggshell Beads Research Articles

New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania: Optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz and feldspar grains

The archaeological deposits at Mumba rockshelter, northern Tanzania, have been excavated for more than 70 years, starting with Margit and Ludwig Köhl-Larsen in the 1930s. The assemblages of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) artefacts collected from this site constitute the type sequences for these cultural phases in East Africa. Despite its archaeological importance, however, the chronology of the site is poorly constrained, despite the application since the 1980s of several dating methods (radiocarbon, uranium-series and amino acid racemisation) to a variety of materials recovered from the deposits. Here, we review these previous chronologies for Mumba and report new ages obtained from optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) measurements on single grains of quartz and multi-grain aliquots of potassium (K) feldspar from the MSA and LSA deposits. Measurements of single grains of quartz allowed the rejection of unrepresentative grains and the application of appropriate statistical models to obtain the most reliable age estimates, while measurements of K-feldspars allowed the chronology to be extended to older deposits. The seven quartz ages and four K-feldspar ages provide improved temporal constraints on the archaeological sequence at Mumba. The deposits associated with the latest Kisele Industry (Bed VI-A) and the earliest Mumba Industry (Bed V) are dated to 63.4 ± 5.7 and 56.9 ± 4.8 ka (thousands of years ago), respectively, thus constraining the time of transition between these two archaeological phases to ∼60 ka. An age of 49.1 ± 4.3 ka has been obtained for the latest deposits associated with the Mumba Industry, which show no evidence for post-depositional mixing and contain ostrich eggshell (OES) beads and abundant microlithics. The Nasera Industry deposits (Bed III) contain large quantities of OES beads and date to 36.8 ± 3.4 ka. We compare the luminescence ages with the previous chronologies for Mumba, and briefly discuss how the revised chronology fits in the context of existing archaeological records and palaeoclimatic reconstructions for East Africa.

Use-wear analysis of obsidian artifacts from Later Stone Age shell midden sites on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea, with experimental results

This paper presents results of use-wear study on lithic artifacts from two Later Stone Age sites (Gelalo and Misse) on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea. The sites produced large quantities of lithic artifacts in association with mollusk shells and ostrich eggshell beads, but it is unclear if all the stone tools were required for bead and mollusk shell processing. The study involved recording of microfracture damage traces in order to infer the use-material and the manner in which the artifacts were used. A large percentage of the analyzed samples from Gelalo and Misse preserve wear patterns suggestive of human use. The diagnostic wear types include: (1) dense step, snap (crushing) and hinge fractures typically confined on the working edges, and (2) feather scars organized in a scalar manner visible on the ventral and dorsal surfaces of the active parts. The observed damage patterns suggest cutting and engraving medium to hard materials. The evidence is incomplete for more generalization about the specific activities carried out at the sites. A brief experimental study involving ostrich eggshell drilling, oak twig sawing and bark scraping, meat slicing, and mollusk shell sawing and drilling was carried out to aid interpretation of wear features observed on the archaeological specimens. Wear traces produced by sawing mollusk shell and oak wood showed close affinity to those observed on the archaeological specimens. The study contributes important information about early Holocene site use on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea. The close association of used lithic artifacts, symbolic objects (beads) and broken shell remains indicates that the sites were habitation areas.

Archaeological study of ostrich eggshell beads collected from SDG site

Ostrich eggshell beads and fragments collected from SDG site reflect primordial art and a kind of symbolic behavior of modern humans. Based on stratigraphic data and OSL dating, these ostrich eggshell beads are probably in Early Holocene (< 10 ka BP). Two different prehistoric manufacturing pathways are usually used in the manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads in Upper Paleolithic. According to statistic analysis of the characteristics of ostrich eggshell beads, Pathway 1 is identified from these collections. In pathway 1, blanks are drilled prior to being trimmed to rough discs. They exhibit great potential for the study of the origin of primordial art and the development of ancient cultures and provide important data for studying behavioral options adopted by hominids in SDG area. In addition, they bear important implications for the origin of modern humans in East Asia.

Rescue excavations at Diaz Street Midden, Saldanha Bay, South Africa

This paper documents Diaz Street Midden, a Later Stone Age site discovered during recent development of a property in Saldanha Bay, South Africa. It began accumulating some 6000 years ago but the upper deposits were destroyed prior to excavation. The small excavation yielded a spectacular silcrete-dominated lithic assemblage with an unusually high frequency and variety of retouched artefacts. Ostrich eggshell beads were made on the site and seals and shellfish comprised the primary food sources. Several burials date to a later occupation than that represented by the deposits. The loss of this highly significant site is tragic given its richness and the rarity of similar aged sites on the Western Cape coast.

Hunters or herders?

Hunters and herders have long been distinguished in the Western Cape based on a now hotly debated model in which different cultural material dictated ethnicity and economy. Bakoond lies near Yzerfontein on the west coast of South Africa and provides observations pertinent to the debate. Stone artefacts were dominated by silcrete in the lower levels (before c 1000 BC) in both excavations with almost all other artefacts being quartz. Among the quartz the high incidence of small backed tools distinguishes the later assemblage as possibly belonging to an industry better known from Namaqualand to the north. Pottery occurs, with three sherds displaying decoration engraved into the surface post-firing; this technique has not been recorded elsewhere. With one exception, all ostrich eggshell beads were less than 6 mm maximum dimension and nine Donax scrapers, one perforated, were recovered. Although Holocene occupation began some 5500 years ago, the more interesting deposits seem to date within the last 2000 years...

Later Stone Age ostrich eggshell bead manufacture in the Northern Cape, South Africa

Two different prehistoric manufacturing pathways are identified in the manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads in the South African Later Stone Age. In Pathway 1, blanks are drilled prior to being trimmed to rough discs. This is the dominant production strategy and is consistent with most ethnographic accounts. That in which the trimming occurs first, Pathway 2, was rarely practiced. The data from five bead factory sites in Namaqualand show that most breakage occurs during the drilling stage and that the production process has not changed through the last 4000 years. The use of grooved stones for smoothing beads is contentious and the identity of drilling tools remains unknown. Contrary to the suggestions of others, beads seem to have been readily produced at both short and long term occupation camps and scarcity of ostrich egg is unlikely to have been a determining factor. The lack of production debris reflecting large beads suggests these beads were brought into Namaqualand from elsewhere.

Production sequences of ostrich eggshell beads and settlement dynamics in the Geelbek Dunes of the Western Cape, South Africa

The archaeological record attests to the significance of ostrich eggs as a valuable resource for the people of the Later Stone Age. People over a broad geographic range used ostrich eggs to provide nourishment, storage and ornamentation. This paper focuses on the production, use and discard of ostrich eggshell beads recovered from open-air sites in the Geelbek Dunes of the Western Cape, South Africa. We present a comprehensive production chain for analyzing the manufacture of beads and introduce the concept of a heuristic production value for evaluating the degree of completion reflected by an assemblage. The pattern of fabrication and the distribution in size allow for a detailed analysis of the beads that points to specific behavioral patterns involved in their production. This analysis yields information about the duration and intensity of site use, as well as the individual members and cultural affinities of the groups who made the beads. We document the intentional use of fire to blacken the majority of the beads as an aesthetic choice. Combined with the results from AMS radiocarbon dating, the majority of the beads from Geelbek provide insight into the socio-economic identity of their manufacturers: small groups of hunter–gatherers who inhabited and used specific locations on the strandveld near Langebaan Lagoon.

Researching Africa's Past: New Contributions from British Archaeologists

Introduction (Peter Mitchell, Anne Haour and John Hobart) J. Desmond Clark 1916-2002 & Betty Clark 1915-2002 (Ray Inskeep) Understanding hominid landscapes at Makapansgat, South Africa (Anthony Sinclair, Lorna McCraith and Emma Nelson) 'Environmental magnetism': evidence for climatic change during the Later Stone Age using the magnetic susceptability of cave sediments from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa (Andy Herries and Alf Latham) Anyone for hxaro? Thoughts on the theory and practice of exchange in southern African Later Stone Age archaeology (Peter Mitchell) An old fashioned approach to a modern hobby: fishing in the Lesotho Highlands (John Hobart) Ostrich eggshell beads and the environment, past and present (Chris Wingfield) Hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of prehistoric Ghana: the Kintampo Archaeological Research Project (Derek Watson) Looking forwards by looking backwards: west of Aksum (Jacke Phillips) New light on the Tichitt Tradition: a preliminary report on survey and excavation at Dhar Nema (Kevin MacDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse) Timbuktu the less mysterious? (Tim Insoll) Islam and alternative religious practices during the second millennium AD in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali (Noemie Arazi) Why these African Walls? Some considerations from Kufan Kanawa, Niger (Anne Haour) The soils of Engaruka: preliminary soil exhaustion tests on a pre-colonial agricultural landscape in Tanzania (Darryl Stump) Recent research on the archaeology of Buganda (Andrew Reid) Iron-smelting and bananas in Buganda (Andrew Reid and Ruth Young) Kings and ancestors: interpreting the past at KoBulawayo, Zimbabwe (Gwilym Hughes and Joseph Muringaniza) Subtidal archaeological investigations in Mombasa's Old Port (Wes Forsythe, Rory Quinn and Colin Breen) The Shire archaeological landscape, northern Ethiopia: towards a strategy of cultural resource management and a workable Sites and Monuments Record (Niall Finneran) African archaeology in Britain: a commentary on current trends and contexts (Paul Lane).

Chronology of the Later Stone Age and Food Production in East Africa

Evidence from several archaeological sites in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that the transition to modern human technology, marked by the change from the Middle to the Later Stone Age (LSA), occurred first in East Africa. Enkapune Ya Muto rockshelter, in the central Rift Valley of Kenya, contains the oldest known archaeological horizons spanning this transition. Radiocarbon and obsidian hydration dates from this 5·6-m deep cultural sequence show that the Later Stone Age began substantially earlier than 46,000 years ago. Ostrich eggshell beads were made 40,000 years ago. Early dates for the LSA and beads may have implications for the origin and dispersal of modern human behaviour and modern humans out of Africa.This site also contains the only known occurrences dating to the Middle Holocene dry phase in highland Kenya and Tanzania, as well as occurrences that span the transition from hunting and gathering to food production, and from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The adoption of domestic animals by indigenous Eburran hunter–gatherers in highland East Africa occurred gradually between 4900 and 3300 uncorrected radiocarbon yearsBPand the Neolithic/Later Iron Age transition occurred around 1300BP.

The Problem with Density Values in Archaeological Analysis: A Case Study from Tortoise Cave, Western Cape, South Africa

This paper attempts to explain the generating factors behind density values of materials recovered from prehistoric archaeological excavations. Various categories of archaeological remains from Tortoise Cave were analysed for this purpose. Densities offer limited interpretative power when rates of deposition in smallscale excavations are unknown and only poor chronological control is available. It is suggested that, when evaluated interactively, three parameters (area of settlement, rates of accumulation of unfinished ostrich eggshell beads and jinished beads and pendants, as well as rates of accumulation of domestic debris) can provide useful insights as to how densities were generated in archaeological contexts. Each indicator can provide meaningful estimates of the relative size of visiting groups, rime spent at the site and intensity of site occupation. *Received August 1994, revised January 1995

The Size Variability of Ostrich Eggshell Beads from Central Namibia and Its Relevance as a Stylistic and Temporal Marker

The Size Variability of Ostrich Eggshell Beads from Central Namibia and Its Relevance as a Stylistic and Temporal Marker

Bone Tools and Shell, Bone and Ostrich Eggshell Beads from Bushman Rock Shelter (BRS), Eastern Transvaal

Bone Tools and Shell, Bone and Ostrich Eggshell Beads from Bushman Rock Shelter (BRS), Eastern Transvaal

Rangi: A Late Stone Age Site in Karamoja District, Uganda

Summary The Rangi site is situated on a hill slope below a cave on Kadam Mountain in north-eastern Uganda. Excavations yielded a microlithic industry with ‘Wilton’ affinities. Some iron implements and ostrich eggshell beads were also found. Ceramics are similar to Akira (‘TIP’) ware but also include middle to late Iron Age material. The non-domestic fauna includes a variety of bovids, zebra, warthog and other species. Three radiocarbon dates are anomalous, but when considered together suggest a post-fifteenth century date for the occupation of the site.