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von der Meden J, Pickering R, Schoville BJ, Green H, Weij R, Hellstrom J, Greig A, Woodhead J, Khumalo W, Wilkins J. Tufas indicate prolonged periods of water availability linked to human occupation in the southern Kalahari. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0270104. [PMID: 35857764 PMCID: PMC9299332 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Detailed, well-dated palaeoclimate and archaeological records are critical for understanding the impact of environmental change on human evolution. Ga-Mohana Hill, in the southern Kalahari, South Africa, preserves a Pleistocene archaeological sequence. Relict tufas at the site are evidence of past flowing streams, waterfalls, and shallow pools. Here, we use laser ablation screening to target material suitable for uranium-thorium dating. We obtained 33 ages covering the last 110 thousand years (ka) and identify five tufa formation episodes at 114–100 ka, 73–48 ka, 44–32 ka, 15–6 ka, and ~3 ka. Three tufa episodes are coincident with the archaeological units at Ga-Mohana Hill dating to ~105 ka, ~31 ka, and ~15 ka. Based on our data and the coincidence of dated layers from other local records, we argue that in the southern Kalahari, from ~240 ka to ~71 ka wet phases and human occupation are coupled, but by ~20 ka during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), they are decoupled.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica von der Meden
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- * E-mail:
| | - Robyn Pickering
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
| | - Benjamin J. Schoville
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Helen Green
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Rieneke Weij
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - John Hellstrom
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Alan Greig
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jon Woodhead
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Wendy Khumalo
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
| | - Jayne Wilkins
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia
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Hatton A, Collins B, Schoville BJ, Wilkins J. Ostrich eggshell beads from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, southern Kalahari, and the implications for understanding social networks during Marine Isotope Stage 2. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0268943. [PMID: 35648787 PMCID: PMC9159631 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Ostrich eggshell (OES) beads from southern African archaeological contexts shed light on past traditions of personal ornamentation, and they are also argued to provide a proxy for understanding past social networks. However, OES beads are often understudied and not reported on in detail. In particular, there has been little research on OES bead variation during Marine Isotope Stage 2 (29,000–12,000 years ago) which includes the Last Glacial Maximum when changing climatic conditions are hypothesized to have significant impact on forager social networks. Here, we present the first technological analysis of terminal Pleistocene OES beads and fragments in the Kalahari from the ~15 ka levels at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter. We contextualise these findings through comparison with coeval OES bead assemblages across southern Africa during MIS 2. Results indicate that OES beads were manufactured at Ga-Mohana Hill North during the terminal Pleistocene occupation, based on the presence of most stages of bead manufacture. The review shows that OES beads were present across southern Africa through MIS 2, suggesting that culturing of the body was an embodied and persistent practice during that time. While the importance of OES beads as decorative objects was shared by populations across southern Africa, variation in bead diameters indicate that there was stylistic variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Hatton
- Extreme Events Research Group, Max Planck Institutes for Science of Human History, Chemical Ecology and Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Human Evolution Research Institute, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa
- * E-mail:
| | - Benjamin Collins
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Human Evolution Research Institute, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Benjamin J. Schoville
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Human Evolution Research Institute, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa
- School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jayne Wilkins
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Human Evolution Research Institute, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia
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Gravel-Miguel C, Murray JK, Schoville BJ, Wren CD, Marean CW. Exploring variability in lithic armature discard in the archaeological record. J Hum Evol 2021; 155:102981. [PMID: 33848696 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Revised: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The invention of projectile technology had important ramifications for hominin evolution. However, the number of stone points that could have been used as projectiles fluctuates in archaeological assemblages, making it difficult to define when projectile technology was first widely adopted and how its usage changed over time. Here we use an agent-based model to simulate a hunter-gatherer foraging system where armatures are dropped according to their usage. We explore the impact of interactions between human behaviors and the environmental constraints of a data-informed landscape on the distribution and number of lithic armatures found in archaeological assemblages. We ran 2400 simulations modeling different population sizes, rates of hunting with projectiles, and tool curation levels. For each simulation, we recorded the location of dropped armatures and calculated the number and percentage of used armatures that were discarded at habitation camps vs. lost during hunting. We used linear regression to identify the demographic, behavioral, and environmental factor(s) that best explained changes in these numbers and percentages. The model results show that in a well-controlled environment, most armatures used as projectile weapons are lost or discarded at hunting sites; only ∼4.5% of used armatures (or ∼2 armatures per year of simulation) are discarded in habitation camps where they would likely be excavated. These findings suggest that even rare hafted armatures found in the Early and Middle Stone Age could indicate a well-established use of such tools. Our model shows that interactions between reoccupation of archaeological sites, population size, rate of hunting with projectile weapons, and tool curation levels strongly influence the count of lithic armatures found in archaeological assemblages. Therefore, we argue that fluctuations in the counts of armatures documented at archaeological sites should be evaluated within their demographic and environmental contexts to better understand if they reflect spatiotemporal changes in hunting behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudine Gravel-Miguel
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA; Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
| | - John K Murray
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Benjamin J Schoville
- School of Social Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
| | - Colin D Wren
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
| | - Curtis W Marean
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA; African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Eastern Cape, South Africa
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Wilkins J, Schoville BJ, Pickering R, Gliganic L, Collins B, Brown KS, von der Meden J, Khumalo W, Meyer MC, Maape S, Blackwood AF, Hatton A. Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari. Nature 2021; 592:248-252. [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03419-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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Wilkins J, Brown KS, Oestmo S, Pereira T, Ranhorn KL, Schoville BJ, Marean CW. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0174051. [PMID: 28355257 PMCID: PMC5371328 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2016] [Accepted: 03/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
There are multiple hypotheses for human responses to glacial cycling in the Late Pleistocene, including changes in population size, interconnectedness, and mobility. Lithic technological analysis informs us of human responses to environmental change because lithic assemblage characteristics are a reflection of raw material transport, reduction, and discard behaviors that depend on hunter-gatherer social and economic decisions. Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6), Western Cape, South Africa is an ideal locality for examining the influence of glacial cycling on early modern human behaviors because it preserves a long sequence spanning marine isotope stages (MIS) 5, 4, and 3 and is associated with robust records of paleoenvironmental change. The analysis presented here addresses the question, what, if any, lithic assemblage traits at PP5-6 represent changing behavioral responses to the MIS 5-4-3 interglacial-glacial cycle? It statistically evaluates changes in 93 traits with no a priori assumptions about which traits may significantly associate with MIS. In contrast to other studies that claim that there is little relationship between broad-scale patterns of climate change and lithic technology, we identified the following characteristics that are associated with MIS 4: increased use of quartz, increased evidence for outcrop sources of quartzite and silcrete, increased evidence for earlier stages of reduction in silcrete, evidence for increased flaking efficiency in all raw material types, and changes in tool types and function for silcrete. Based on these results, we suggest that foragers responded to MIS 4 glacial environmental conditions at PP5-6 with increased population or group sizes, 'place provisioning', longer and/or more intense site occupations, and decreased residential mobility. Several other traits, including silcrete frequency, do not exhibit an association with MIS. Backed pieces, once they appear in the PP5-6 record during MIS 4, persist through MIS 3. Changing paleoenvironments explain some, but not all temporal technological variability at PP5-6.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayne Wilkins
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Private Bag, South Africa.,Centre for Coastal Paleoscience, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
| | - Kyle S Brown
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Private Bag, South Africa
| | - Simen Oestmo
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Telmo Pereira
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior, Faculdade das Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Campus Gambelas, Faro, Portugal
| | - Kathryn L Ranhorn
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States of America
| | - Benjamin J Schoville
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Private Bag, South Africa.,Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Curtis W Marean
- Centre for Coastal Paleoscience, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.,Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
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Schoville BJ, Brown KS, Harris JA, Wilkins J. New Experiments and a Model-Driven Approach for Interpreting Middle Stone Age Lithic Point Function Using the Edge Damage Distribution Method. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0164088. [PMID: 27736886 PMCID: PMC5063385 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2016] [Accepted: 09/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early evidence for symbolic material culture and complex technological innovations. However, one of the most visible aspects of MSA technologies are unretouched triangular stone points that appear in the archaeological record as early as 500,000 years ago in Africa and persist throughout the MSA. How these tools were being used and discarded across a changing Pleistocene landscape can provide insight into how MSA populations prioritized technological and foraging decisions. Creating inferential links between experimental and archaeological tool use helps to establish prehistoric tool function, but is complicated by the overlaying of post-depositional damage onto behaviorally worn tools. Taphonomic damage patterning can provide insight into site formation history, but may preclude behavioral interpretations of tool function. Here, multiple experimental processes that form edge damage on unretouched lithic points from taphonomic and behavioral processes are presented. These provide experimental distributions of wear on tool edges from known processes that are then quantitatively compared to the archaeological patterning of stone point edge damage from three MSA lithic assemblages-Kathu Pan 1, Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, and Die Kelders Cave 1. By using a model-fitting approach, the results presented here provide evidence for variable MSA behavioral strategies of stone point utilization on the landscape consistent with armature tips at KP1, and cutting tools at PP13B and DK1, as well as damage contributions from post-depositional sources across assemblages. This study provides a method with which landscape-scale questions of early modern human tool-use and site-use can be addressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin J. Schoville
- Centre for Excellence in Palaeosciences Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
| | - Kyle S. Brown
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
| | - Jacob A. Harris
- Institute for Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287, United States of America
| | - Jayne Wilkins
- Human Evolution Research Institute, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
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7
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Wilkins J, Schoville BJ. Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-7602-8_7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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8
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Wilkins J, Schoville BJ, Brown KS. An experimental investigation of the functional hypothesis and evolutionary advantage of stone-tipped spears. PLoS One 2014; 9:e104514. [PMID: 25162397 PMCID: PMC4146534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2014] [Accepted: 07/09/2014] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Stone-tipped weapons were a significant innovation for Middle Pleistocene hominins. Hafted hunting technology represents the development of new cognitive and social learning mechanisms within the genus Homo, and may have provided a foraging advantage over simpler forms of hunting technology, such as a sharpened wooden spear. However, the nature of this foraging advantage has not been confirmed. Experimental studies and ethnographic reports provide conflicting results regarding the relative importance of the functional, economic, and social roles of hafted hunting technology. The controlled experiment reported here was designed to test the functional hypothesis for stone-tipped weapons using spears and ballistics gelatin. It differs from previous investigations of this type because it includes a quantitative analysis of wound track profiles and focuses specifically on hand-delivered spear technology. Our results do not support the hypothesis that tipped spears penetrate deeper than untipped spears. However, tipped spears create a significantly larger inner wound cavity that widens distally. This inner wound cavity is analogous to the permanent wound cavity in ballistics research, which is considered the key variable affecting the relative ‘stopping power’ or ‘killing power’ of a penetrating weapon. Tipped spears conferred a functional advantage to Middle Pleistocene hominins, potentially affecting the frequency and regularity of hunting success with important implications for human adaptation and life history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayne Wilkins
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Benjamin J. Schoville
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Kyle S. Brown
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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Schoville BJ, Otárola-Castillo E. A model of hunter-gatherer skeletal element transport: the effect of prey body size, carriers, and distance. J Hum Evol 2014; 73:1-14. [PMID: 25059517 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2010] [Revised: 06/11/2014] [Accepted: 06/13/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Zooarchaeologists frequently use the relative abundance of skeletal elements in faunal assemblages in conjunction with foraging theory models to infer subsistence decisions made by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. However, foraging models applied to ethnoarchaeological cases have had variable success linking skeletal transport decisions with foraging predictions. Here, we approach this issue with the well-known Hadza data to statistically model the skeletal element transport decisions in response to distance from the residential hub and the number of carriers available for carcass transport. We compare our modeling approach to the traditional skeletal element utility curves from Binford's work with the Nunamiut, and to the more recently proposed Shannon evenness measure. Our approach, based on standard yet powerful statistical modeling techniques, can help researchers gain increased insight into the prey part transport responses of hunter-gatherers. Our analyses treat individual prey skeletal elements by body size as the response variable. The results of this analysis suggest that utility curves, and the Shannon evenness approach as a proxy for utility curves, are problematic for making statements about prehistoric foraging from zooarchaeological data. Transport distance does not explain a significant portion of small prey (size class 2) skeletal element transport variation. However, distance explains a great deal of transport variation in large prey (size classes 4 and 5). Inferences from skeletal element profiles should be made relative to prey body size and the discard probability of individual elements. Understanding the influence of these variables allows construction of a framework for testing archaeological element profiles against ethnographically derived transport models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin J Schoville
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
| | - Erik Otárola-Castillo
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA; Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayne Wilkins
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S2, Canada
| | - Benjamin J. Schoville
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Post Office Box 872402, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4101, USA
| | - Kyle S. Brown
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Post Office Box 872402, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4101, USA
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Michael Chazan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S2, Canada
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Brown KS, Marean CW, Jacobs Z, Schoville BJ, Oestmo S, Fisher EC, Bernatchez J, Karkanas P, Matthews T. An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000 years ago in South Africa. Nature 2012; 491:590-3. [PMID: 23135405 DOI: 10.1038/nature11660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 204] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2012] [Accepted: 10/05/2012] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
There is consensus that the modern human lineage appeared in Africa before 100,000 years ago. But there is debate as to when cultural and cognitive characteristics typical of modern humans first appeared, and the role that these had in the expansion of modern humans out of Africa. Scientists rely on symbolically specific proxies, such as artistic expression, to document the origins of complex cognition. Advanced technologies with elaborate chains of production are also proxies, as these often demand high-fidelity transmission and thus language. Some argue that advanced technologies in Africa appear and disappear and thus do not indicate complex cognition exclusive to early modern humans in Africa. The origins of composite tools and advanced projectile weapons figure prominently in modern human evolution research, and the latter have been argued to have been in the exclusive possession of modern humans. Here we describe a previously unrecognized advanced stone tool technology from Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 on the south coast of South Africa, originating approximately 71,000 years ago. This technology is dominated by the production of small bladelets (microliths) primarily from heat-treated stone. There is agreement that microlithic technology was used to create composite tool components as part of advanced projectile weapons. Microliths were common worldwide by the mid-Holocene epoch, but have a patchy pattern of first appearance that is rarely earlier than 40,000 years ago, and were thought to appear briefly between 65,000 and 60,000 years ago in South Africa and then disappear. Our research extends this record to ~71,000 years, shows that microlithic technology originated early in South Africa, evolved over a vast time span (~11,000 years), and was typically coupled to complex heat treatment that persisted for nearly 100,000 years. Advanced technologies in Africa were early and enduring; a small sample of excavated sites in Africa is the best explanation for any perceived 'flickering' pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle S Brown
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
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