Prehistoric Technology Research Articles

Middle Stone Age technological organisation from MIS 5 at Mertenhof Rockshelter, South Africa

Lithic technological organisation within the southern Africa Early Middle Stone Age (∼315,000–80,000 years ago) has seen relatively little investigation owing to the subtly of technological change, frequent use of locally derived raw materials, and the archaeological spatio-temporal discontinuity. This has resulted in relatively limited use of explanatory models for technological variability, including mobility, provisioning, tool production, and core reduction strategies. This paper uses 2952 artefacts to test the lithic technological organisation across Marine Isotope Stage 5 units of Mertenhof Rockshelter. Here we argue that the scales and concepts currently used to approach Early Middle Stone Age technology requires reconsideration. The Mertenhof sequence exhibits high proportions of non-local raw materials with their transport reflective of tactical adjustments within relatively stable mobility, provisioning, and reduction strategies. We demonstrate that Early Middle Stone Age populations maintained a diverse array of tactical solutions across these strategic domains, offering a durable and flexible strategy that would be adapted to changing contexts.

Experimental Investigation of Knapping Characteristics of Dolerite and Implications for the Interpretation of Middle Stone Age Technologies

ABSTRACT This study examines knapping techniques in the production of stone tools made on dolerite to understand the knapping characteristics of this igneous tool stone. Extensive experimental research exists on the knapping of silica-rich materials like flint, yet studies on materials low in silica remain scarce. Dolerite, an igneous rock composed mainly of plagioclase, feldspar, and pyroxene, has been used during the Palaeolithic globally and the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa specifically. We address two questions: (i.) Does the application of different knapping techniques to dolerite produce artifacts with distinguishable attributes? (ii.) Are these attributes similar to or different from those of flint? Using three direct percussion techniques, we created an experimental reference assemblage on dolerite and conducted a quantitative attribute analysis. Our findings indicate that knapping techniques can be distinguished at the assemblage level, with attributes significantly different from flint, highlighting the need for further studies on diverse lithic materials.

Two new Later Stone Age sites from the Final Pleistocene in the Falémé Valley, eastern Senegal.

The understanding of cultural dynamics at work at the end of the Final Pleistocene in West Africa suffers from a significant lack of excavated and dated sites, particularly in the Sahelian and Sudanian ecozones. While the Later Stone Age shows varied behavioral developments in different parts of the continent, the chrono-cultural framework of this period remains largely unknown in West Africa. We report on archaeological, geomorphological, and chronological research on two Final Pleistocene Later Stone Age sites in the Falémé Valley, eastern Senegal. Optically stimulated luminescence ages place the site of Toumboura I-2017 between 17 ± 1 and 16 ± 1 ka and the Ravin de Sansandé site between 13 ± 1 ka and 12 ± 1.1 ka. The excavated lithics show typical Later Stone Age industries, characterized by chaînes opératoires of core reduction mainly producing flakes and bladelets as well as blades and laminar flakes. Segments dominate the toolkits but a few backed bladelets and end-scrapers on flake blanks were recognized. Local raw materials were used, with a preference for chert and quartz, as well as greywacke. These Later Stone Age lithic assemblages are the oldest known in Senegal so far and add to the small number of sites known in West Africa for this period, which are mainly located farther south, in sub-tropical ecozones. The Later Stone Age sites of the Falémé Valley are contemporaneous with typical Middle Stone Age technologies in Senegal dated to at least the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Our results thus provide new archaeological evidence highlighting the complex cultural processes at work during the Final Pleistocene in West Africa.

Risks beyond the ditch: Copper Age tannery from the settlement of Kamianets-Podilskyi (Tatarysky), Ukraine

The evolution of Neolithic to Bronze Age settlement organization in Central Europe has revealed ditches as an important component of settlement structures. The various shapes and sizes of these features contribute to different understandings of their functions, mainly referring to ditches as elements of fortifications or ritual practices. Based on a newly discovered Copper Age feature at Kamianets-Podilskyi (Tatarysky), Ukraine, our paper contributes to the discussion on the function of ditches in their relation to prehistoric technologies. This study presents evidence on tanning techniques and technologies associated with a section of ditch belonging to the Western Trypillia culture. Due to the uniqueness of this discovery, we applied various analyses, including GIS spatial analyses, palynological, anthracological, archeozoological, malacological, and use-wear studies. The obtained results enable us to recognize the complex practices of Copper Age communities, skillfully combining technical knowledge with an understanding of environmental conditions.

Age-depth model for uppermost Ndutu Beds constrains Middle Stone Age technology and climate-induced paleoenvironmental changes at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania is part of a globally important archeological and paleoanthropological World Heritage Site location critical to our understanding of modern human evolution. The Ndutu Beds in the upper part of the geological sequence at Olduvai Gorge represent the oldest unit to yield modern Homo sapiens skeletal material and Middle Stone Age technology. However, the timing of the deposition of the Ndutu Beds is poorly constrained at present, which limits our understanding of the paleoenvironments critical for contextualizing H. sapiens and related technologies in the Olduvai Basin. Using a suite of 15 luminescence ages of sedimentary core samples, combined with Bayesian statistics, this study provides a new higher-resolution age-depth model for the deposition of the uppermost Upper Ndutu and Naisiuiu Beds cored by the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project. The luminescence and modeled ages are presented as ±1 σ uncertainties. The Ndutu Beds intersected by the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project cores are dated to between 117.1 ± 17.9 and 45.3 ± 4.2 ka (between 125.9 ± 26.5 and 45.8 ± 8.2 ka modeled ages), while a probable overlying layer of Naisiusiu Beds dates to 23.7 ± 10.9 to 12.1 ± 1.7 ka (25.7 ± 18.9 ka and 12.0 ± 3.4 ka modeled age). Time-averaged accretion rates are derived during this time: (1) initially low rates (<5 cm ka−1) from the bottom of the core at 117.1 ± 17.9 ka up to 95.3 ± 11.1 ka (125.9 ± 26.5 to 95.5 ± 23.3 ka modeled ages); (2) the middle section spanning between 95.3 ± 11.1 and 62.7 ± 5.7 ka (95.5 ± 23.3 to 61.9 ± 10.4 ka modeled ages) with mean rates above 15 cm ka−1; and (3) the last 62.7 ± 5.7 ka (61.9 ± 10.4 ka modeled age) where the accretion rate reduces to below 5 cm ka−1. This reduction can be explained by the evolution of the gorge system that was likely driven by subsidence of the Olbalbal depression and changes in climate, particularly precipitation and resulting lake and base level changes. Older Upper Ndutu and Lower Ndutu Beds are contained within proto-gorges within the modern gorge system.

The Identification of Jade Work Sawing Microwear Marks and Archaeological Implications for Prehistoric Technology in North China

ABSTRACT Understanding the evolution of jade work techniques remains a central issue in the study of prehistoric cultural dynamics and social complexity, and North China in particular witnessed the emergence and development of this field. Sawing is a significant aspect of prehistoric jade work technology and involves flexible string, knife-cut and rotary sawing techniques. The archaeological record preserves different microwear marks indicating that the first two jade sawing techniques were widely practiced in the prehistoric period. A challenging problem that arises in this domain is the timing of the emergence of rotary sawing. Here, functional experiments and microwear observations verified that five prehistoric jade objects from the Gouwan site in North China are associated with rotary sawing technique, three of which are prehistoric rotary tools. This study presents the earliest and unique evidence that the rotary sawing technique was being used in northern China as early as 6000 years ago. and indicates that three sawing techniques were in use simultaneously in the mid-Yangshao Culture (c. 4000–3500 BC) of northern China. This finding not only demonstrates the selectivity and diversity of prehistoric jade work in northern China, but also has implications for how we interpret the function of prehistoric jade objects.

Convergent Evolution of Prehistoric Technologies: the Entropy and Diversity of Limited Solutions

Linking the likelihood of convergent evolution to the technologies’ complexity, this paper identifies the scales of technological diffusion and convergence, i.e., the evolving of structures that are similar, but not related to a common “ancestor.” Our study provides quantitative measures for understanding complexity and connectivity in technologies. The utility of our approach is exemplified through the case study of Cucuteni-Tripolye pottery kilns in Chalcolithic Southeastern Europe. The analysis shows that technological evolution has to be scaled to the “technologically important” (in quantitative terms) component parts, whose introduction shapes a ground for extinction and self-evolvement caused by the cascade effects along technological design structure. Similar technological solutions to the technological design structure engender the spread of similar devices in various locations. Surprisingly, such a broad distribution may be the result of relatively low internal diversity, rather than arising from higher efficiency. This gives some reasons for the underestimation of convergence as a mechanism for evolution of technology in current prehistoric archaeology.

Late Acheulean occupations at Montagu Cave and the pattern of Middle Pleistocene behavioral change in Western Cape, southern Africa

Patterns of so-called modern human behavior are increasingly well documented in an abundance of Middle Stone Age archaeological sites across southern Africa. Contextualized archives directly preceding the southern African Middle Stone Age, however, remain scarce. Current understanding of the terminal Acheulean in southern Africa derives from a small number of localities that are predominantly in the central and northern interior. Many of these localities are surface and deflated contexts, others were excavated prior to the availability of modern field documentation techniques, and yet other relevant assemblages contain low numbers of characteristic artifacts relative to volume of excavated deposit. The site of Montagu Cave, situated in the diverse ecosystem of the Cape Floral Region, South Africa, contains the rare combination of archaeologically rich, laminated and deeply stratified Acheulean layers followed by a younger Middle Stone Age occupation. Yet little is known about the site owing largely to a lack of contextual information associated with the early excavations. Here we present renewed excavation of Levels 21–22 at Montagu Cave, located in the basal Acheulean sequence, including new data on site formation and ecological context, geochronology, and technological variability. We document intensive occupation of the cave by Acheulean tool-producing hominins, likely at the onset of interglacial conditions in MIS 7. New excavations at Montagu Cave suggest that, while Middle Stone Age technologies were practiced by 300 ka in several other regions of Africa, the classic Acheulean persisted later in the Fynbos Biome of the southwestern Cape. We discuss the implications of this regionalized persistence for the biogeography of African later Middle Pleistocene hominin populations, for the ecological drivers of their technological systems, and for the pattern and pace of behavioral change just prior to the proliferation of the southern African later Middle Stone Age.

Middle Stone Age technology from MIS 6 and MIS 5 at Klipfonteinrand 1, South Africa

Klipfonteinrand 1 (KFR1) is a foundational but poorly documented Middle Stone Age (MSA) site located in the south west of South Africa. Originally excavated by John Parkington in 1969 but undated for more than 50 years, the MSA component of the sequence formed a part of Thomas Volman's influential culture-historic technocomplex scheme. Renewed excavations identified four distinct MSA stratigraphic units at the site, the oldest two of which date to ∼85 ka and ∼156 ka. This paper presents an analysis of ∼4500 artefacts from the oldest units to test the viability of Volman's scheme and its derivatives. Coeval assemblages from other regional sites are also reviewed to test alternative models of regional technological variability driven by demographic dynamics in MIS 6 and MIS 5. We find that assemblages from neither of the deepest two stratigraphic units at KFR1 map perfectly to prevailing technocomplex schemes for southern Africa, and that they are also distinct from nearby assemblages of comparable age. Ultimately, KFR1 provides an important data point furthering the identification of variable technological adaptations during an important phase in the evolution of human behaviour.

Influence of Concrete Creep on the Bending of a Prestressed Bridge Beam

By present time significant experimental and theoretical material on concrete creep has been accumulated. At the same time, the known approaches to calculation of concrete and reinforced concrete structures with regard to creep are oriented mainly to solving problems with relatively simple geometry of the product. Moreover, there are no mechanic-mathematical models of hereditary type oriented to the finite-element method.The concept of modelling of long-term deformation of reinforced concrete structures in a three-dimensional statement, based on the use of the integral deformation modulus of concrete, does not allow one to carry out designing considering the technological prehistory. Therefore, the problem of developing a finite-element algorithm and corresponding software allowing the modelling of the volumetric stress-strain state of large-span prestressed reinforced concrete structures within the framework of the theory of hereditary aging is relevant.

The Problem with the Anthropocene: Kainos, Not Anthropos

The Problem with the Anthropocene: <i>Kainos</i>, Not <i>Anthropos</i>

Longstanding behavioural stability in West Africa extends to the Middle Pleistocene at Bargny, coastal Senegal

Middle Stone Age (MSA) technologies first appear in the archaeological records of northern, eastern and southern Africa during the Middle Pleistocene epoch. The absence of MSA sites from West Africa limits evaluation of shared behaviours across the continent during the late Middle Pleistocene and the diversity of subsequent regionalized trajectories. Here we present evidence for the late Middle Pleistocene MSA occupation of the West African littoral at Bargny, Senegal, dating to 150 thousand years ago. Palaeoecological evidence suggests that Bargny was a hydrological refugium during the MSA occupation, supporting estuarine conditions during Middle Pleistocene arid phases. The stone tool technology at Bargny presents characteristics widely shared across Africa in the late Middle Pleistocene but which remain uniquely stable in West Africa to the onset of the Holocene. We explore how the persistent habitability of West African environments, including mangroves, contributes to distinctly West African trajectories of behavioural stability.

Barely scratched the surface: Development and future directions of lithic use-wear analysis in Island Southeast Asia

Use-wear, microwear, or traceological analysis is a method for the identification of prehistoric tool use and associated activities. While this method can be applied to any lithic and some non-lithic materials, use-wear analysis plays, in particular, an important role in understanding amorphous flake tools from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) during the Late Pleistocene. The absence of formal tool types, including those that are considered as ‘projectiles’ or ‘hafted’ implements, may have hindered our views regarding the actual role these tools played in the development of cognition, behavioural capacity, and complex technologies in the region. Use-wear analysis of unretouched flakes, however, indicate that these were used in a variety of activities, beyond simple actions such as cutting or scraping. In this paper, we provide an overview of the beginnings and development of use-wear analysis in ISEA. Then, we discuss its role in addressing issues such as the bamboo hypothesis, the interpretation of the apparent absence of ‘complex’ lithic technologies from a functional point of view, and in the context of the chronological development of lithic technology. Technological and traceological studies in the region often highlight the presumed presence of a bamboo technology in the past. However, there seem to be limited recurring microscopic wear traces that would allow to verify the hypothetical presence of a ‘vegetal technology’ that would make up for the seemingly simple lithic technology in ISEA. An evaluation of the current state of the art and future directions of use-wear analysis attempts to provide context for the current understanding of prehistoric technology in ISEA. In general, this paper critically examines the development of use-wear analysis as a specialisation in archaeology that was established and developed in the region out of necessity.

Структуроутворення сталевих виливків у зв’язку з температурно-часовими параметрами плавлення і кристалізації

The paper highlights modern ideas about the features of the processes of crystallization and structure formation in the volume of steel castings, depending on the temperature and time conditions for cooling the melt and cooling the castings, as well as the technological prehistory of charge materials. The analysis of the influence of modification and thermokinetic conditions of crystallization and cooling of steel castings is carried out, taking into account the chemical composition of steels at each stage of the technological cycle for producing cast products. At the stage of selecting charge materials, the conditions for preserving certain metallogenetic features of the initial charge in the structure of steel castings are considered, the existence of an equilibrium temperature (Te), when overheated above which heredity is lost, is considered. Due to this, the possibility of using secondary metal to improve the casting properties without changing their chemical composition is shown. The influence of temperature and time parameters in the pre-crystallization period, namely, the melt overheating temperature, the duration of isothermal treatment and the rate of its subsequent cooling, on the structure formation and properties of steel castings, including taking into account the metallogenetic features of the initial charge, is analyzed. Regularities of the influence of the temperature-time conditions of crystallization in the temperature range of the solid-liquid state on the nature of nucleation and structure formation during the crystallization of steel castings are shown. The features of structure formation and the formation of properties in steel castings under conditions of temperature-kinetic influence after their hardening are determined. And also considered the prospects for obtaining castings with a gradient structure to improve the special properties of cast products. The considered approaches to improve the quality and properties of steel castings open up the prospect of creating new technological solutions and automating technological processes for producing cast products with a predictable set of properties at or above the level of properties of similar rolled products. Keywords: castings, charge, heredity, equilibrium temperature, modification, crystallization, cooling rate, thermal treatment.

Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution

Despite more than half a century of hominin fossil discoveries in eastern Africa, the regional environmental context of hominin evolution and dispersal is not well established due to the lack of continuous palaeoenvironmental records from one of the proven habitats of early human populations, particularly for the Pleistocene epoch. Here we present a 620,000-year environmental record from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia, which is proximal to key fossil sites. Our record documents the potential influence of different episodes of climatic variability on hominin biological and cultural transformation. The appearance of high anatomical diversity in hominin groups coincides with long-lasting and relatively stable humid conditions from ~620,000 to 275,000 years bp (episodes 1–6), interrupted by several abrupt and extreme hydroclimate perturbations. A pattern of pronounced climatic cyclicity transformed habitats during episodes 7–9 (~275,000–60,000 years bp), a crucial phase encompassing the gradual transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age technologies, the emergence of Homo sapiens in eastern Africa and key human social and cultural innovations. Those accumulative innovations plus the alignment of humid pulses between northeastern Africa and the eastern Mediterranean during high-frequency climate oscillations of episodes 10–12 (~60,000–10,000 years bp) could have facilitated the global dispersal of H. sapiens.

Can X-ray Diffraction Distinguish Natural from Anthropogenic Hematite? Replication of the Conversion of Natural Goethite in Both Furnace and Campfire

Hematite, the mineral that gives color to bright red iron ochres, occurs naturally, but there is much evidence that early humans sometimes artificially produced hematite by heating a related mineral, goethite, in wood fires. This represents an important cognitive and technological advance in early human prehistory. Thus, there is a need to distinguish natural hematite from hematite generated by heating goethite in a wood fire. Measuring the line widths of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) in hematite has been explored, and synthetic goethite heated in a modern furnace has been used as a model system for studying this process. We now show that to be an inappropriate model. Although chemically identical, natural goethite is physically different from and much more variable than goethite produced in a laboratory. Furthermore, by replicating the process using Stone Age technology, we show that heating goethite in a wood fire complicates the interpretation of XRD line widths of the resulting hematite. We conclude that strategies other than powder XRD are necessary to draw conclusions about the ancient processing of iron ochres.

Researching Change – Understanding Change – Facing Change. 3500 years of human-environment relations in the Hallstatt/Dachstein region

The Hallstatt High Valley represents one of Europe’s oldest cultural and industrial landscapes. For millennia this remote alpine valley was the demographic and economic center of a wide region. In this landscape the venture of large-scale underground salt mining spans from the present back to the Bronze Age. The oldest secure evidence for large-scale underground salt mining dates to the 14th cent. BC. But various indicators point towards a much older tradition of salt production, reaching far into Neolithic times. The extraordinary preservation conditions in the salt mines and the variety of archaeological, historical and environmental sources allow for unique insights into prehistoric technology, raw material management, working processes and human-environment relations. The Hallstatt/Dachstein region represents an alpine environment, where the evolution of human-environment relations can be tracked over a long time period. Recent research has focused on the impact of natural extreme events on these highly sophisticated socioeconomic systems. Through this research it was possible to document the high degree of resilience of Bronze Age and Iron Age communities in the face of devastating extreme natural events such as mass movements and substantial climate change. In this paper we will address the questions of “understanding past adaptation strategies and facing future challenges” and “the role of archaeologists in addressing climate change” based on our longstanding research and outreach activities in the Hallstatt region.

Time, memory and alterity in prehistoric lithic technology: Synthesis and perspectives of the French technogenetic approach

The technogenetic approach in the field of prehistoric lithic technology studies originated in the late 1980s. Traditional approaches, such as typology and production technology, have tended to approach prehistoric lithic objects through their socio-cultural and economic dimensions, without really considering the existence of a technogenesis prior to these contingencies. The apprehension of this technogenetic dimension in prehistory will call upon both the philosophy and the anthropology of techniques to lead to a double approach of the artefacts: a technogenetic approach of the lithic object according to the technical criteria of its genesis; and a psychosocial approach of the object according to the criteria proper to its artisanal production within a major technical system. The objective of this article is to identify two fundamental existences constituting the technical object, one internal (technogenetic) with technical lineages and the other external (psychosocial) with technical trajectories. The spatio-temporal distribution of prehistoric technical otherness on different continents has logically led to new questions, findings and new criteria of analysis. On this basis, our approach will aim to revisit the main conceptual axes of the foundations of the technological approach, to clarify old questions while developing new expertise. Through the application of key concepts such as time, memory and otherness, an overall methodology will also be discussed and will help proposing its epistemological line.

The climate and vegetation backdrop to hominin evolution in Africa.

The most profound shift in the African hydroclimate of the last 1 million years occurred around 300 thousand years (ka) ago. This change in African hydroclimate is manifest as an east-west change in moisture balance that cannot be fully explained through linkages to high latitude climate systems. The east-west shift is, instead, probably driven by a shift in the tropical Walker Circulation related to sea surface temperature change driven by orbital forcing. Comparing records of past vegetation change, and hominin evolution and development, with this breakpoint in the climate system is challenging owing to the paucity of study sites available and uncertainties regarding the dating of records. Notwithstanding these uncertainties we find that, broadly speaking, both vegetation and hominins change around 300 ka. The vegetative backdrop suggests that relative abundance of vegetative resources shifted from western to eastern Africa, although resources would have persisted across the continent. The climatic and vegetation changes probably provided challenges for hominins and are broadly coincident with the appearance of Homo sapiens (ca 315 ka) and the emergence of Middle Stone Age technology. The concomitant changes in climate, vegetation and hominin evolution suggest that these factors are closely intertwined. This article is part of the theme issue 'Tropical forests in the deep human past'.

Orbital control of Pleistocene euxinia in Lake Magadi, Kenya

Abstract Lake Magadi is an internally drained, saline and alkaline terminal sump in the southern Kenya Rift. Geochemistry of samples from an ~200 m core representing the past ~1 m.y. of the lake's history shows some of the highest concentrations of transition metals and metalloids ever reported from lacustrine sediment, including redox-sensitive elements molybdenum, arsenic, and vanadium. Elevated concentrations of these elements represent times when the lake's hypolimnion was euxinic—that is, anoxic, saline, and sulfide-rich. Euxinia was common after ca. 700 ka, and after that tended to occur during intervals of high orbital eccentricity. These were likely times when high-frequency hydrologic changes favored repeated episodes of euxinia and sulfide precipitation. High-amplitude environmental fluctuations at peak eccentricity likely impacted water balance in terrestrial habitats and resource availability for early hominins. These are associated with important events in human evolution, including the first appearance of Middle Stone Age technology between ca. 500 and 320 ka in the southern Kenya Rift.