Abstract Despite their ubiquity, Mesolithic lithic tools given as funerary offerings have rarely been studied in detail. Whereas personal ornaments (e.g. beads, pendants) are commonly interpreted as ...markers of social identity and status, archaeologists have struggled to understand the stone tools, commonly regarded as “utilitarian” items. As a result, this class of grave goods has not received the same level of attention, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of Mesolithic mortuary behaviours. Our research challenges long-lasting perceptions of lithic tools as strictly utilitarian objects and draws on studies of one of the most substantial stone axe funerary collections from one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries in Europe–Zvejnieki, Latvia. Evidence suggests the selection of unused axes as grave offerings, while unusual wear traces on an axe found in a female grave (no 57) raises questions about its use in the burial rites. Using a multi-proxy approach, we compare life histories of axes placed in burials to those recovered from contemporary, nearby settlement contexts. Finally, a strong correlation between axes and women and children at Zvejnieki challenges gendered stereotypes of stone tools, historically regarded as possessions of the adult male members of Stone Age societies.
This paper documents the abundance of Stone Age finds in the Middle Kalahari, both through earlier publications and newly documented sites. Results of several decades of Stone Age research are ...presented through a variety of projects and placed within the context of previous archaeological investigations in the region. We argue for the importance of open-air sites in constructing a more representative picture of prehistoric behaviour in the interior of southern Africa.
•Presentation of abundant Stone Age finds from Middle Kalahari - overview of earlier publications and newly documented sites.•The Kalahari of northern Botswana illustrates the potential of this under-researched area.•Results of decades of research from a variety of projects are placed in context with previous archaeological investigations.•Demonstrates the time depth and landscape variety of the prehistory in this region.•Emphasis on the role of open-air sites in reconstructing prehistoric behaviours in the interior of southern Africa.
The temporal coupling of the structural evolution of the Kalahari Basin and the accumulation of the Kalahari Group sediments has been an accepted paradigm leading to the assumption that the Kalahari ...group sediments have been accumulating gradually since the mid-Cretaceous. Here we review the first actual ages for the Kalahari Group based on cosmogenic ages from six geological localities. These results demonstrate that Kalahari Basin infill was a more dynamic process than previously thought and that the Kalahari Group sediments are mostly Plio-Pleistocene in age (∼4 Ma to 1–2 Ma). The hiatus between the initial structural subsidence of the basin, during the Cretaceous, and the general young age of the investigated sediments, implies a dynamic landscape in which significant phases of erosion occurred during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The magnitude of erosion is manifested by the fact that in many locations Kalahari Neogene to Quaternary sediments overlie Precambrian basement.
The age of the present infill of the Kalahari thus falls within the temporal range of the genus Homo. In light of this new understanding, we provide a review of the archaeological evidence from the Kalahari Basin and along its southern fringe. Initial hominin presence is found at Wonderwerk Cave during the Olduvai Event and there is subsequent high-density occupation along the southern fringe of the Kalahari Basin during the Acheulean and the Fauresmith. Middle Stone Age occupation is limited to localities of limited size and small artifact counts and it appears that the focus of human occupation, particularly in the later stages of the Middle Stone Age, shifts southward, including along the coastal regions.
•Kalahari Group sediments are Plio-Pleistocene in age.•Kalahari Group sediments point to increased aridity since the Pliocene.•Kalahari sand cover developed during the last 1–2 million years.•Intense Hominin activity in the Kalahari During the ESA.•Reduction in hominin activity and increased related to the establishment of the Kalahari sand cover.
The role of coastal regions and coastlines in the dispersal of human populations from Africa and across the globe has been highlighted by the recent polarisation between coastal and interior models. ...The debate has been clouded by the use of the single term ‘coastal dispersal’ to embrace what is in fact a wide spectrum of possibilities, ranging from seafaring populations who spend most of their time at sea living off marine resources, to land-based populations in coastal regions with little or no reliance on marine foods. An additional complicating factor is the fact of Pleistocene and early Holocene sea-level change, which exposed an extensive coastal region that is now submerged, and may have afforded very different conditions from the modern coastal environment.
We examine these factors in the Arabian context and use the term ‘Blue’ to draw attention to the fertile coastal rim of the Arabian Peninsula, and to the now submerged offshore landscape, which is especially extensive in some regions. We further emphasise that the attractions of the coastal rim are a product of two quite different factors, ecological diversity and abundant water on land, which have created persistently ‘Green’ conditions throughout the vagaries of Pleistocene climate change in some coastal regions, especially along parts of the western Arabian escarpment, and potentially productive marine environments around its coastline, which include some of the most fertile in the world.
We examine the interplay of these factors in the Southwest region of Saudi Arabia and the southern Red Sea, and summarise some of the results of recent DISPERSE field investigations, including survey for Palaeolithic sites on the mainland, and underwater survey of the continental shelf in the vicinity of the Farasan Islands.
We conclude that coastlines are neither uniformly attractive nor uniformly marginal to human dispersal, that they offer diverse opportunities that were spatially and temporally variable at scales from the local to the continental, and that investigating Blue Arabia in relation to its episodically Green interior is a key factor in the fuller understanding of long-term human population dynamics within Arabia and their global implications.
The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains are southern Africa's highest and lie at a crucial interface between the sub-continent's drier, colder, more seasonal interior and its perennially productive ...sub-tropical coastal belt. Their location, high elevation, and topography make them ideal for exploring human responses to late Quaternary climatic change. This paper reviews and synthesizes palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data from the Maloti-Drakensberg region over the past 50,000 years. It then employs 325 calibrated radiocarbon dates to examine human occupational trends across the region and its component parts, discuss human-environment dynamics over this time-span, and explore patterning between particular phases of climatic change and the timing, mode, and motives of its exploitation by people. Key findings are that the region's Lesotho core may have served as a refugium for human populations during drier, more unstable climatic periods and that intensified exploitation of freshwater fish likely helped address resource stress in cooler ones. An agenda for future palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research is also mapped out.
•Elevation and location make the Maloti-Drakensberg highly sensitive to climate change.•Proxy data document greater moisture availability during glacial and stadial maxima.•Diverse climatic conditions saw pulsed human occupation of different sub-regions.•Mountain core provided refuge for human populations during drier/unstable episodes.•Flexible responses to resource stress included intensified fishing in cooler periods.
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