Raman spectroscopy identified graphite and multilayer graphene on ~70,000‐year‐old stone tools from Middle Stone Age deposits at Sibudu Cave, KZN, South Africa. The graphite/multilayer graphene ...appeared to be concentrated on the hafting side of the artefacts, suggesting that it was added to the hafting glue. However, graphite/multilayer graphene was only identified on stone tools made of hornfels and not on those made of dolerite and quartzite. A geological origin is therefore not out of the question. In this paper, we present arguments for and against its origin as geological or as constituent of the hafting resin. Our results favour its geological origin and serve as a cautionary tale for interpreting residues on archaeological artefacts without an in‐depth study of the raw materials used to produce the tools.
Graphite and multilayer graphene were identified on ~70,000‐year‐old stone tools from Sibudu Cave, KZN, South Africa. The graphite/multilayer graphene was concentrated on the hafting side of the tools suggesting that it was added to the hafting glue. However, it was only identified on stone tools made of hornfels and not on those made of dolerite and quartzite. A geological origin is therefore possible. We present arguments for and against its origin as geological or as constituent of the hafting resin. Our results favour a geological origin.
The Fauresmith lithic industry of South Africa has been described as transitional between the Earlier and Middle Stone Age. However, radiometric ages for this industry are inadequate. Here we present ...a minimum OSL age of 464
±
47
kyr and a combined U-series–ESR age of 542
−107
+140 kyr for an
in situ Fauresmith assemblage, and three OSL ages for overlying Middle and Later Stone Age strata, from the site of Kathu Pan 1 (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). These ages are discussed in relation to the available lithostratigraphy, faunal and lithic assemblages from this site. The results indicate that the Kathu Pan 1 Fauresmith assemblage predates transitional industries from other parts of Africa e.g. Sangoan, as well as the end of the Acheulean in southern Africa. The presence of blades, in the dated Fauresmith assemblages from Kathu Pan 1 generally considered a feature of modern human behaviour (
McBrearty and Brooks, 2000, The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior, J. Human Evolution 39, 453–563),-provides evidence supporting the position that blade production in southern Africa predated the Middle Stone Age and the advent of modern
Homo sapiens.
We present a series of 12 OSL/IRSL dates that revise and complete the chronology of the important Middle (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) site Umbeli Belli in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. These dates ...shift the previous radiometric ages thousands of years older than earlier measurements and play a key role in revising the cultural stratigraphy of KwaZulu-Natal. We also discuss how these dates bring the chrono- and cultural stratigraphy of southern Africa into clearer focus. The Robberg sequence of Umbeli Belli is now firmly dated to 21 ± 2 ka, whereas the preceding Early LSA assemblage dates to ~32 ka, representing one of the earliest dates for this cultural expression in the broader region. The final MSA assemblages from Layer 7 to 9 now date to between 35 ka and 40 ka, overlapping more tightly with comparable assemblages from Sibhudu, Umhlatuzana and other sites. Layer 10, which was previously also assigned to the final MSA, now dates to ~47–54 ka, placing the assemblage within the temporal range of the Late MSA. The new dates provide a good explanation for the clear differences in material culture between Layer 10 and the younger layers. We also present two new ages for the deeper horizons 11b and 12 at Umbeli Belli, dating to 76 ± 9 ka and 80 ± 9 ka, respectively.
Umhlatuzana rockshelter has an occupation sequence spanning the last 70,000 years. It is one of the few sites with deposits covering the Middle to Later Stone Age transition (~40,000–30,000 years BP) ...in southern Africa. Comprehending the site’s depositional history and occupation sequence is thus important for the broader understanding of the development of
Homo sapiens
’ behavior. The rockshelter was first excavated in the 1980s by Jonathan Kaplan. He suggested that the integrity of the late Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age sediments was compromised by large-scale sediment movement. In 2018, we initiated a high-resolution geoarchaeological study of the site to clarify the site formation processes. Here, we present the results of the excavation and propose a revised stratigraphic division of the Pleistocene sequence based on field observations, sedimentological (particle size) analyses, and cluster analysis. The taphonomy of the site is assessed through phytolith and geochemical (pH, loss on ignition, stable carbon isotope) analyses. The results indicate a consistent sedimentological environment characterized by
in situ
weathering. The analysis of the piece-plotted finds demonstrates semihorizontal layering of archaeologically dense zones and more sterile ones. There was no indication of large-scale postdepositional sediment movement. We show that the low-density archaeological horizons in the upper part of the Pleistocene sequence are best explained by the changing patterns of sedimentation rate.
The origins of bread have long been associated with the emergence of agriculture and cereal domestication during the Neolithic in southwest Asia. In this study we analyze a total of 24 charred food ...remains from Shubayqa 1, a Natufian hunter-gatherer site located in northeastern Jordan and dated to 14.6–11.6 ka cal BP. Our finds provide empirical data to demonstrate that the preparation and consumption of bread-like products predated the emergence of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. The interdisciplinary analyses indicate the use of some of the “founder crops” of southwest Asian agriculture (e.g., Triticum boeoticum, wild einkorn) and root foods (e.g., Bolboschoenus glaucus, club-rush tubers) to produce flat bread-like products. The available archaeobotanical evidence for the Natufian period indicates that cereal exploitation was not common during this time, and it is most likely that cereal-based meals like bread become staples only when agriculture was firmly established.
Wheat (Triticum spp.) is one of the founder crops that likely drove the Neolithic transition to sedentary agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent more than 10,000 years ago. Identifying genetic ...modifications underlying wheat’s domestication requires knowledge about the genome of its allo-tetraploid progenitor, wild emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides). We report a 10.1-gigabase assembly of the 14 chromosomes of wild tetraploid wheat, as well as analyses of gene content, genome architecture, and genetic diversity. With this fully assembled polyploid wheat genome, we identified the causal mutations in Brittle Rachis 1 (TtBtr1) genes controlling shattering, a key domestication trait. A study of genomic diversity among wild and domesticated accessions revealed genomic regions bearing the signature of selection under domestication. This reference assembly will serve as a resource for accelerating the genome-assisted improvement of modern wheat varieties.
A growing number of authors have discussed the role of climate change in periods of important biological and cultural transition along the hominin lineage. This paper establishes a biocultural ...framework elucidating human behavioural adaptations during the African Early and Middle Stone Age, centred on three crucial dimensions of hunter-gatherer adaptation: mobility, social network dynamics, and technology. We contend that landscape properties, specifically resource diversity and seasonal to inter-annual resource variability, can be used to model the specific responses of hominin groups to climate change over time, based on their awareness of these properties. Specifically, we focus on hominin technological generalisation and specialisation, meaning the extent to which there is a high degree of specificity (or fit) between final tool form and the task(s) in which the tool is deployed.
In this regard, we argue that the archaeological record reveals punctuated and discontinuous specialisation during certain phases of the Early Stone Age driven by landscape predictability. These periods encourage the expression of relevant innovations and stepwise increases in technological complexity. While some of them become lost to demographic or cultural stochasticity, others end up forming the basis for a standardisation of generalised forms within the context of unexpected climatic deterioration. This is highlighted by the late Acheulean: following a period of greater generalisation in the late Early Pleistocene correlating with repeated and severe orbitally-forced periods of aridity, smaller biface forms become more common (or absent) and regional experimentation with prepared-core technology in Eastern Africa takes place in the context of a return to more humid and stable climatic conditions. The onset of more arid and variable climates associated with the emergence of the Middle Stone Age led to the continental expansion of the prepared-core technological substrate underpinning generalised assemblages. The cycle continues in the Middle Stone Age with a return to climatic stability in the Late Pleistocene and subsequent regional diversification of this techno-complex, in which hominins responded with greater toolkit specialisation in a number of different ways. In this context, we support the existence of a cyclical and non-linear relationship between environmental adaptation and cognitive evolution, as part of a wider biocultural feedback loop, which contributes to explain the evolutionary roots of our “generalist specialist” niche.
In the Stone Age, the collection of specific rocks was the first step in tool making. Very little is known about the choices made during tool-stone acquisition. Were choices governed by the knowledge ...of, and need for, specific properties of stones? Or were the collected raw materials a mere by-product of the way people moved through the landscape? We investigate these questions in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa, analyzing the mechanical properties of tool-stones used at the site Diepkloof Rock Shelter. To understand knapping quality, we measure flaking predictability and introduce a physical model that allows calculating the relative force necessary to produce flakes from different rocks. To evaluate their quality as finished tools, we investigate their resistance during repeated use activities (scraping or cutting) and their strength during projectile impacts. Our findings explain tool-stone selection in two emblematic periods of the MSA, the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, as being the result of a deep understanding of these mechanical properties. In both cases, people chose those rocks, among many others, that allowed the most advantageous trade-off between anticipated properties of finished tools and the ease of acquiring rocks and producing tools. The implications are an understanding of African MSA toolmakers as engineers who carefully weighed their choices taking into account workability and the quality of the tools they made.
Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socio-economic behaviors that typify
had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200 ka, but data bearing on human behavioral origins ...are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie Basin, southern Kenya, dated ≥295 to ~320 ka by
Ar/
Ar and U-Series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25-50 km distance. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply significant changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and one another, and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of eastern Africa has a long history of research and is accompanied by a rich fossil record, which, combined with its geographic location, have led it to play an important ...role in investigating the origins and expansions of Homo sapiens. Recent evidence has suggested an earlier appearance of our species, indicating a more mosaic origin of modern humans, highlighting the importance of regional and inter-regional patterning and bringing into question the role that eastern Africa has played. Previous evaluations of the eastern African MSA have identified substantial variability, only a small proportion of which is explained by chronology and geography. Here, we examine the structure of behavioural, temporal, geographic and environmental variability within and between sites across eastern Africa using a quantitative approach. The application of hierarchical clustering identifies enduring patterns of tool use and site location through the MSA as well as phases of significant behavioural diversification and colonisation of new landscapes, particularly notable during Marine Isotope Stage 5. As the quantity and detail of technological studies from individual sites in eastern Africa gathers pace, the structure of the MSA record highlighted here offers a roadmap for comparative studies.
•Quantitative analyses of Middle Stone Age stone tool typology from eastern Africa.•A core set of stone tool types consistently found in MSA assemblages is identified.•Longstanding occupation of key geographic and environmental contexts identified.•Expansions into new landscape types in MIS 5.•Core tool set augmented by additional forms during interglacial phases.
PDF
