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The MIS 5a (∼80 ka) Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages from Melikane Rockshelter, Lesotho: Highland adaptation and social fragmentation
Abstract and Figures
Multidisciplinary research suggests that Marine Isotope Stage 5 (~130–74 ka) was an important evolutionary stage in African deep history. Population expansion and growth spurred changes in material culture as well as the exploration of previously unoccupied regions and ecosystems. The archaeological sequence at Melikane Rockshelter (1860 masl) in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho, southern Africa, stretches from the late Holocene back to sub- stage 5a, ~80 ka. The site’s earliest strata represent one of the earliest known examples of a sustained human presence in high mountain systems worldwide. This paper deals with the lithic assemblages from those levels, which are currently the oldest radiometrically dated archaeology in Lesotho and one of the few stratified assemblages of Last Interglacial age in the southern African interior. The results of a typo-technological analysis of the assemblages are presented. They suggest that the afromontane foragers who resided at Melikane employed both blade-focussed and bipolar flaking systems, curated a maintainable toolkit suited to frequent residential moves, and used a hybrid provisioning system adapted to their immediate environment. Comparisons with other late Last Interglacial assemblages across the subcontinent suggest that highland populations at this time were largely disconnected from their lowland counterparts. This implies that as Last Interglacial populations in southern Africa expanded into new environments, they also fragmented, adapting to local conditions rather than adhering to a universal technological system.
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... Characteristics of final MSA, ELSA, and Robberg assemblages (Beaumont, 1978;Binneman & Mitchell, 1997;Diez-Martín et al., 2011;Lombard et al., 2012Lombard et al., , 2022Mitchell, 1988aMitchell, , 1988bMitchell, , 1994Mitchell, , 1995Mitchell, , 1996Muller & Clarkson, 2016;Pargeter, 2017;Pargeter & Eren, 2017;Pazan et al., 2022;Porraz et al., 2016;van der Drift, 2012;Villa et al., 2012;Wadley, 1993Wadley, , 1996 However, variations of the original population replacement model live on. Most recently, Bousman and Brink (2018) proposed that the MSA/LSA transition actually consisted of two transitions centered around demographic events at ~43 and ~25 ka. ...
... Retouched artifacts were classified based on the typology outlined in Carter (1978) with modifications to allow for comparison to more recently excavated assemblages. Types are consistent with those used in analyses of Melikane's older deposits (Pazan et al., 2022). ...
... It is disproportionately represented in comparison to its frequency in the rest of the assemblage (p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.143, 0.190]; OR2). This mirrors the pattern seen in the Melikane MIS 5a assemblage, which was interpreted as the result of different provisioning strategies for CCS and other materials (Pazan et al., 2022). Because sandstone and hornfels can be exploited in larger nodules, core reduction is more likely to occur at the source, minimizing transport costs. ...
Melikane, a large sandstone rockshelter in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho, preserves an 80,000-year-old archaeological sequence including an occupation pulse dated to the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ~27–23 kcal BP. Paleoenvironmental proxies indicate that temperature depressions of ~6 °C below present values provoked changes in vegetation distribution around the site. The onset of the LGM also coincides with a global shift towards microlithization, expressed in southern Africa as the Later Stone Age Robberg bladelet industry. Bousman and Brink’s (Quaternary International 495:116–135, 2018) rapid replacement hypothesis asserts that this technocomplex was adopted nearly simultaneously across the subcontinent ~24 ka cal BP, replacing the Early Later Stone Age technologies that preceded it. An alternative model, which we term the LGM acceleration hypothesis, suggests that the Robberg developed slowly as existing technologies were modified and expanded to function flexibly in a variety of LGM environments. In this paper, we test these hypotheses at Melikane through attribute and morphometric analyses of > 17,000 lithic artifacts. Intrasite continuities and gradual, asynchronous changes in flaking systems are inconsistent with rapid replacement. Instead, the subtle refinement of bladelet reduction strategies alongside climate shifts and a reorganization of mobility and settlement systems supports our LGM acceleration hypothesis. However, Melikane’s combination of highland-specific idiosyncrasies and shared flaking systems with sites in less marginal environments suggests a complex role for cultural transmission. We suggest that periodic isolation throughout the LGM encouraged the development of new flaking systems, the most flexible of which were adopted in a variety of environments when biogeographic barriers to transmission were lifted.
... These Rift Valley water sources probably acted both as catalysts and barriers to human interaction [34], as they do ethnographically [35]. High-altitude landscapes have been highlighted as potential refugia owing to their enhanced humidity in contrast with surrounding lowlands, such as in the Ethiopian Rift [36,37] or the Lesotho Highlands [38,39]. Similarly, enhanced precipitation experienced in proximity to the coast has been indicated as a feature that may have supported enduring occupation of sites in eastern and southern Africa (e.g. ...
... The Lesotho Highlands are a consistent feature of both refugia, whereas the Ethiopian Highlands only feature within the 95% refugia. The earliest currently known occupation in Lesotho dates to 80 ka [38], whereas the history of highland occupation in Ethiopia is shorter, dating to 40 ka [36]. This potentially indicates that high-altitude regions demanded specific adaptations and, given that their occupation has not spanned the entire Late Pleistocene, may be excluded from more general models of African refugia for human populations. ...
Homo sapiens have adapted to an incredible diversity of habitats around the globe. This capacity to adapt to different landscapes is clearly expressed within Africa, with Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens populations occupying savannahs, woodlands, coastlines and mountainous terrain. As the only area of the world where Homo sapiens have clearly persisted through multiple glacial-interglacial cycles, Africa is the only continent where classic refugia models can be formulated and tested to examine and describe changing patterns of past distributions and human phylogeographies. The potential role of refugia has frequently been acknowledged in the Late Pleistocene palaeoanthropological literature, yet explicit identification of potential refugia has been limited by the patchy nature of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records, and the low temporal resolution of climate or ecological models. Here, we apply potential climatic thresholds on human habitation, rooted in ethnographic studies, in combination with high-resolution model datasets for precipitation and biome distributions to identify persistent refugia spanning the Late Pleistocene (130–10 ka). We present two alternate models suggesting that between 27% and 66% of Africa may have provided refugia to Late Pleistocene human populations, and examine variability in precipitation, biome and ecotone distributions within these refugial zones.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.
... Though, it must be noted that interpreting movements involved in this transport is not a straightforward task as transport may have occurred across a single direct route, a complex multiple step path, or be separated by years (Brantingham, 2006;Close, 2000;Lin and Premo, 2021). Kuhn (1995) argues for provisioning of individuals, identifiable through portable, multifunctional, maintainable, long use-life tools, and place provisioning through stockpiling of raw material in anticipation of future requirements (Clarkson, 2016;Kuhn, 1992Kuhn, , 1994Kuhn, , 1995Nelson, 1991;Pazan et al., 2022). Tactical adjustments within individual provisioning are expected to generate differences in raw material types, levels of reduction at discard, and shifts in the ratio of core to retouched flakes and small flaking debris. ...
... El primero que llamó la atención sobre esto fue Alex Mackay, con su proyecto en el Cederberg, que realizó una labor encomiable proponiendo trabajos que combinaban aspectos tecnológicos, geoarqueológicos y paleoambientales (Mackay et al. 2022). Posteriormente se han desarrollado proyectos en Lesoto, Limpopo, Cabo Norte, Estado Libre, KwaZulu-Natal, el Kalahari o en la Provincia Oriental del Cabo (e. g. Pazan et al. 2022;Val et al. 2020; entre otros). ...
RESUMEN Se resume tanto la formación del concepto de Middle Stone Age en Sudáfrica, como las principales claves de su investigación a lo largo de los siglos xx y xxi. Asi-mismo, se exponen algunos de los problemas que acusa su investigación de índole tecnológica, paleoantropoló-gica, cronológica y geoarqueológica. La tradición prehistórica sudafricana ha demostrado que la Middle Stone Age constituyó una fase de inno-vaciones tecnológicas y simbólicas que denotan solu-ciones culturales complejas a lo largo del Pleistoceno superior. ABSTRACT The formation of the Middle Stone Age concept in South Africa, as well as the main keys to its research throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, is summarized. Moreover, some of the problems that the investigation of this Stone Age phase of South African Prehistory accuses are exposed, notably: technology, paleoanthropolo-gy, chronology and geoarchaeology. South African prehistoric tradition has shown that the Middle Stone Age was a phase of technological and symbolic innovations showing complex cultural solutions throughout the Late Pleistocene.
... Spitzkloof A was first excavated in 2010 and again in 2011 under the 'Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age' (AMEMSA) project run through the Universities of Toronto (Genevieve Dewar) and Michigan (Brian Stewart) , 2017Loftus et al., 2015;Pazan et al., 2020;Stewart et al., 2012Stewart et al., , 2016Stewart et al., , 2020. The goal is to use a biogeographic approach to study when, how and under what conditions people were able to colonize regions with unpredictable resources, including drylands, like northern Namaqualand and the Namib. ...
Spitzkloof A Rockshelter (28.863° S, 17.077° E) is currently located 30 km due south of the Orange River and 30 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the Richtersveld Municipality, Namaqualand, South Africa (Fig. 1). The shelter is the largest of three eroded bowls within a folded outcrop of quartzite in the Stinkfontein subgroup overlooking quartz gravel plains of northern Namaqualand. Immediately in front of the shelter is a dry tributary of the Holgat River that drains west into the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 2). The site is significant because there are very few in Namaqualand that preserve deep sequences with potential for developing chronologically controlled records of Late Quaternary human behavior paired with palaeoenvironmental proxy data. To date the site possesses evidence of occupation during two climatic phases: Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 (57–29 ka) and 2 (29–14 ka), which includes the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).
... This study contributes to a growing body of work examining the drivers of behavioral variability and mobility dynamics among Lesotho's ancient hunter-gatherers (see Bousman, 1988;Carter, 1976Carter, , 1978Fitchett et al., 2016;Mitchell, 1995Mitchell, , 1996bMitchell et al., 1998;Pazan et al., 2022;Stewart et al., 2012Stewart et al., , 2016Stewart & Mitchell, 2018a). Specifically, our results speak to past peoples' mobility in highland Lesotho during the LGM and the Late Glacial. ...
Archaeologists have long considered climate change a primary mechanism behind human behavioral adaptations. The Lesotho highlands’ Afromontane and climatically extreme environments offer a unique opportunity to examine proposed correlations between topography, climate, and human behavior. Previous studies suggest that warmer temperatures allowed humans to expand their diet breadth and foraging range, whereas colder temperatures restricted humans to resources in riverine corridors. These studies used faunal and floral change as proxies to track changes in forager mobility but did not consider how differential access to stone resources affected human behaviors. To account for this gap, we conducted a survey for knappable rocks around the Sehonghong rock shelter in eastern Lesotho, recording the materials present and their size and shape in the modern environment. We compared the survey results to later Pleistocene (~ 22–11 ka cal. BP) lithic assemblages at Sehonghong to better understand whether archaeological patterns match modern knappable rock availability. Contrary to previous hypotheses, we find that past peoples at Sehonghong were not limited to exclusively riverine resources during colder conditions. We then used flake-to-core and noncortical-to-cortical flake ratios to track changes in mobility and knappable rock procurement patterns. The ratios remain constant up until the Late Glacial, ca. 14 ka cal. BP, when we see an increase in both flake-to-core and noncortical-to-cortical ratios, suggesting increased movement of stone out of Sehonghong. These conclusions show that resource procurement and mobility patterns are not solely dependent on climate change but may be driven by more complicated causal mechanisms such as increased interaction and the formation of social networks across the Lesotho highlands and beyond.
... Mountain systems provide an important example of this, with vulnerability to climate change, cold and dry conditions, and patchy resource distributions representing potential adaptive challenges. In the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of Lesotho, which divide the resource-rich southern African coast from the irregularly distributed resources of the interior (Fig. 1), H. sapiens appears to have inhabited cold, rugged and ecologically variable environments at altitudes greater than 1500 m above sea level (m.a.s.l.) since at least MIS 5a, or about 80 ka [10][11][12]14,[16][17][18][19] . The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains are a particularly key geographical feature when studying human occupation across southern Africa more generally, acting as the headwaters to the region's largest perennial rivers, the Senqu (Orange), Mohokare (Caledon), Thukela (Tugela), and Mzimvubu 20 , sources of abundant and persistent freshwater for much of the surrounding region. ...
Investigation of Homo sapiens’ palaeogeographic expansion into African mountain environments are changing the understanding of our species’ adaptions to various extreme Pleistocene climates and habitats. Here, we present a vegetation and precipitation record from the Ha Makotoko rockshelter in western Lesotho, which extends from ~60,000 to 1,000 years ago. Stable carbon isotope ratios from plant wax biomarkers indicate a constant C3-dominated ecosystem up to about 5,000 years ago, followed by C4 grassland expansion due to increasing Holocene temperatures. Hydrogen isotope ratios indicate a drier, yet stable, Pleistocene and Early Holocene compared to a relatively wet Late Holocene. Although relatively cool and dry, the Pleistocene was ecologically reliable due to generally uniform precipitation amounts, which incentivized persistent habitation because of dependable freshwater reserves that supported rich terrestrial foods and provided prime locations for catching fish.
... Regardless of cause/s, this phase requires more intense scrutiny (Porraz et al. 2018;Jacobs et al. 2020;Lombard et al. 2019;Wilkins 2020;Högberg & Lombard 2022;Pazan et al. 2022), as does the informally named early MSA currently spanning MIS6-8 (Fig. 2). ...
... Apollo 11 Rock Shelter: Wendt, 1972;Vogelsang et al., 2010;Lombard and H€ ogberg, 2018;Klein Kliphaus Shelter: Mackay, 2010;Spitzkloff Rockshelter: Dewar and Stewart, 2012) and mountains (e.g. Melikane Rock Shelter: Stewart et al., 2012;Pazan et al., 2022). The majority of sites are however either associated with the escarpment that rings the sub-continent, including the Drakensberg Mountains and Namibian uplands, or the coast, rather than the interior, though the value and significance of interior, open air sites is beginning to emerge, as exemplified by the recent work at Bundu Farm in the Karoo, where MSA material dated to 300e150 ka is linked to cooler and wetter grassland conditions (Kiberd and Pryor, 2021). ...
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) was a time of great human adaptation and innovation. In southern Africa, coastal locations have been viewed as key places for the development of human resource use and behaviour, with the dryness of the continental interior after c.130 ka regarded as both an obstacle to occupation and a limit on behaviour. Newly excavated MSA sites on the floor of the now-dry palaeolake Makgadikgadi basin, central Botswana, along with accompanying environmental data, have provided a significant opportunity to reassess the nature of MSA adaptation to, and behaviour under, dry conditions. Excavated sites dated to 80–72 ka and post 57 ka reveal purposeful early human use of an extensive 60,000 km² lacustrine basin during dry, as opposed to lake-high, phases, as well as highlighting movement strategies for tool-making resource procurement. Findings have significant implications for theories of early human mobility and innovation, as well as for understanding the drivers, constraints and opportunities for the use of drylands. The deliberate selective movement of lithic raw materials within the basin for artefact manufacture evidences thoughtful adaptation to dry conditions within the lake basin. This research shows that open-air sites in the Kalahari drylands of central southern Africa can make important contributions to debates surrounding the development of human-environment relationships during the MSA, as well as challenging narratives of a hostile and largely empty landscape.
... The basal Layers 27-30 at Melikane Rock Shelter in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho are of late MIS 5 age. These assemblages exhibit specific technological adaptations, including a blade reduction strategy involving soft hammer percussion, the presence of morphologically variable points, and a toolkit dominated by borers/perforators, and different forms of scrapers (Pazan, Dewar, and Stewart 2020). Increasingly, the archaeological record seems to indicate that cultural change and innovation are not just restricted to the SB and HP technocomplexes. ...
The African Middle Stone Age (MSA) is the period in human history spanning roughly from 300,000 until 30,000 years ago. Here, we focus on the archaeological record of South Africa, with occasional glimpses at neighboring countries (Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia). During this time, modern humans evolved in Africa and brought forth a number of key innovations, including art and symbolism, personal ornaments, burial practices, and advanced methods of tool production using different raw materials such as stone, wood, or bone. The MSA is subdivided into several substages based on regional chrono-cultural differences, such as MSA II or Mossel Bay, Still Bay, Howiesons Poort, Sibudan, and the final MSA. Previous research has tended to concentrate on just two of those stages, namely, the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, as they were considered to be pinnacles of innovation. In the past years, however, assemblages from other periods have gained increasing attention. Some of the major research questions include the nature and timing of both the onset and end of the MSA. The focus on diachronic cultural dynamics not only related to the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort techno-complexes and the increasing awareness of regional diversification during different phases, especially during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (57,000–29,000 years ago), but also to the inherent problems arising from them.
... Further to the east, at Rose Cottage Cave, charcoal assemblages from the latest MIS 5 occupation at~78 ka (layer Kusel, pre-HP) show the presence of deciduous woodland typical of a humid environment (Lennox and Wadley, 2022;Pienaar et al., 2008). In the Maloti-Drakensberg, the basal portion of the Melikane sequence (Layers 30e27), which includes pre-HP artifacts dated tõ 83e80 ka, yielded a phytolith assemblage dominated by C 3 grass short cells, consistent with a humid and cool grassland at high altitude (Pazan et al., 2022;Stewart et al., 2012Stewart et al., , 2016. ...
Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 and 4 are periods of major cultural innovations in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa. While extensive data is available for the coast, far less is known about the interior, in particular its central plateau. This is likely due to the large geographic extent of this area and a general paucity of caves and rock shelters that can provide long stratigraphic sequences and environmental records. The lack of information and systematic research has hindered our understanding of regional variation and patterns of human dispersal within the subcontinent. Our research at the open-air MSA site of Lovedale situated on the Modder River addresses this issue. Using sediment micromorphology, infrared spectroscopy of bones and sediments, phytolith and faunal analyses, as well as luminescence dating, we have reconstructed the evolution of paleoenvironments in this region at specific points over the last ∼80,000 years. Our results help contextualize human occupation and hunting strategies associated with a pre-Howiesons Poort technology that occurred in a wetland environment during a short-lived warm, dry period dated to ∼70 ka. These results show that humans settled the grasslands of the central interior at the onset of MIS 4 and confirm the importance of wetlands in human subsistence strategies, especially in times of climatic stress.
In order to investigate seasonal changes in diet, environment and climate, we analyzed the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of intra-tooth sequential profiles (14 teeth, 282 enamel samples) of Hippopotamidae, Equidae, Bovidae and Suidae from Melka Kunture, Upper Awash Valley, central Ethiopian Highlands (2000 – 2200 m a.s.l.).
We found that during the Early Pleistocene, between 1.95 and 1 Ma, most of the analyzed hippos display a seasonally stable C4 diet, even if the δ13C values within hippos show a degree of variability that we interpret as the outcome of feeding on plants that use different C4 photosynthetic pathways. Several hippo specimens display a seasonal shift from C4 to mixed C3-C4 diets. The sampled equid, bovid and suid specimens recorded both stable C4 diets and mixed C3-C4 feeding with a seasonal progressive increase of δ13C values. When affected by seasonal changes, the serially analyzed taxa show different niche partitioning: hippos increase the consumption of C3 vegetation, whereas equids and suids include more C4 vegetation in their diets. The intra-individual δ18O variability in the analyzed taxa is interpreted as the outcome of different water sources, depending on animal habitat, behavior and mobility patterns.
Our data are placed in controlled stratigraphic and chronological sequences and combined with the outcome of other proxies, allowing us to evaluate the site paleoecology comprehensively. We suggest that the central Ethiopian Highlands, where MK is located, possibly acted as a refugium-like area during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, characterized by a specific type of montane vegetation (DAF) and diverse faunal and hominin species that demonstrated their resilience and adaptability to changing environments and climates.
This paper describes the first excavations of Spitzkloof D rockshelter located in the semi-arid desert of northern Namaqualand, South Africa. The site is in a dry river valley 30 km south of the Orange River, which currently acts as a lifeline for pastoralists with mixed sheep and goat herds. A surface survey of the site revealed pottery, lithics, domesticate remains, ostrich eggshell (OES) fragments and jewellery, glass beads and iron fragments. The stratigraphy is complex reflecting multiple occupations with six layers consisting of large hearths, ash deposits, and multiple pits, some with potential votive (faunal) offerings in their base. Faunal analysis reveals a broad subsistence strategy consisting of low-intensity sheep-keeping combined with the hunting of wild species found on the landscape today. The presence of Equus zebra, a locally extinct water obligate species, suggests occupation during a climatic period that was more humid than today. Radiocarbon dates from the upper layers confirm a Little Ice Age occupation between AD 1667-1936, when the region was cooler and wetter, and a peak in radiocarbon dates indicates a population pulse in the region. Glass trade beads, iron implements, OES beads, as well as fish remains and a limpet shell, potentially indicate that the people occupying Spitzkloof D were part of an extensive trade/interaction network. Future analysis will include increasing sample sizes through continued excavation, detailed lithic analysis, and further radiocarbon dating.
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.
Melikane, a large sandstone rockshelter in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho, preserves an 80,000 year-old archaeological sequence including two layers (4 & 5) dated to the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ~ 24 kcal BP. Paleoenvironmental proxies indicate that these layers were associated with increasing aridification and changes in resource distribution. An analysis of > 17,000 lithic artifacts combining attribute and morphometric approaches reveals that these environmental changes occurred alongside the adoption of Later Stone Age (LSA) Robberg bladelet technology at the site (Layer 4), which developed out of an early microlithic industry we classify as “incipient Robberg” (Layer 5). We argue that the accelerated implementation and standardization of bladelet technology in Layer 4 was the consequence of modifying and expanding existing technologies to function in a high-stakes LGM environment. While intrasite continuities and gradual changes in flaking systems at Melikane are inconsistent with the Robberg’s arrival via population replacement or migration (cf. Bousman and Brink, 2018), shared flaking systems with penecontemporary sites also implicate a role for cultural transmission in the Robberg’s development and demand an alternate explanation for its use in nonmarginal environments. We attribute its adoption in southern Africa more broadly to the extraordinary flexibility of bladelet technology and an ongoing cycle of connectivity and isolation throughout the LGM, encouraging the development of new flaking systems and their subsequent coalescence and diffusion.
This contribution focuses on the recently excavated lithic assemblage from Border Cave Members 1 RGBS, 3 BS, 2 WA and 2 BS. These members were attributed by Beaumont to the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort Industries of the southern African Middle Stone Age. Here we consider lithics as indicators of cultural behaviour, site formation processes, and occupation intensity. As such, the assemblage is explored in depth through lithic technology attribute analysis, particle size distribution, and spatial analysis. These lines of inquiry follow the new allostratigraphic divisions proposed for the deposits by Stratford and colleagues. Results show that the lower members share a degree of similarity in terms of flaking strategies and raw material selection, whereas the upper members record a dissimilar set of features, with differentiation between them. The technological and spatial analyses suggest the sporadic presence of different groups at the site, each characterized by distinct sets of knapping techniques and methods but employing related knapping strategies and using similar raw materials. The interpretation of these members as a palimpsest of sporadic occupation is supported by the low number of archaeological finds by sediment volume. The evidence at hand does not support a Howiesons Poort attribution for the lowest members. The data show that lithics from part of Member 2 WA and 2 BS are in accordance with those of the recently defined Sibudan technocomplex.
The Maloti-Drakensberg of Lesotho and South Africa is Africa's highest and most expansive mountain system south of Kilimanjaro (Tanzania). Its name is hyphenated because the mountain ranges it incorporates span political and modern language and cultural regions and, accordingly, the mountains are seen from different perspectives. Maloti in the Sesotho language means 'mountains'; the Africaner trekboere saw them as dragon's ('drakens') mountains, today often coupled with the isiZulu term uKhahlamba, or 'barrier of spears'. The region labelled 'Drakensberg' on the KwaZulu-Natal (South African) side of the range simply refers to the escarpment (Mazel, this volume), whereas the highest peaks are inside the Kingdom of Lesotho. Although the mountains themselves were formed during uplift of the central plateau some 20 million years ago, it was the late Quaternary that saw the peopling of the area, with recurrent occupations from at least 83,000 years ago in the Lesotho Highlands (Pazan et al., 2022, this volume). This Special Issue highlights selected topics pertaining to the varied Late Quaternary peoples and environments of the mountains across time and space.
Significance
Hunter-gatherers like the Ju/’hoãnsi (!Kung) San use exchange networks to dampen subsistence and reproductive risks, but almost nothing is known of how, when, and why such practices emerged. Strontium isotope analysis of one preferred San exchange item, ostrich eggshell beads, from highland Lesotho shows that since the late Middle Stone Age ∼33 ka, such networks connected ecologically complementary regions over minimal distances of several hundred kilometers. Rapidly changing environmental conditions during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (∼59 to 25 ka) likely placed a premium on developing effective means of mitigating subsistence and demographic risks, with ostrich eggshell beads providing a uniform medium of personal decoration and exchange highly suitable for binding together extended open social networks.
Blade technology, long associated solely with the Upper Paleolithic (UP) as an indicator of modern behavior, appears as early as the Middle Pleistocene and is present during the Middle Paleolithic (MP) and the Middle Stone Age (MSA). The nature behind the appearance of early laminar assemblages remains poorly understood. Yet current excavations at Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) have yielded MIS 5 lithic assemblages that contribute to the understanding of the diversity of blade technologies during the MSA.
Following the chaîne opératoire approach, we explain how the knappers at Sibudu developed a laminar reduction strategy characterized by unidirectional cores with a lateral crest opposite a flat surface. The core configuration facilitated the production of blades with different intended morphological characteristics. Our results highlight the distinctiveness of the laminar reduction system of the D-A layers and foster the discussion on the role of this technological choice within the Southern African MSA.
The marginalization of surviving hunter-gatherer groups to Africa’s ecological and sociopolitical fringes makes it certain that very different societal forms existed in the past. In relatively recent periods, such as the late Holocene, rich, well preserved archaeological records can mitigate this issue. Much more challenging are the problems created in the temporal dimension, particularly across deep time. For example, it is now abundantly clear that Africa played host to our species’ behavioral evolution, and that this occurred during — and was at least in part fuelled by — later Pleistocene climatic and environmental change. The nature, scale, and pace of these changes have no parallels in the Holocene, including, of course, the ethnographic present. Beyond climatic flux, moreover, Africa during the bulk of the later Pleistocene experienced effective temperatures substantially lower than those of today. What forms did African hunter-gatherer societies take during periods of pronounced climatic instability or cooling, i.e. when conditions differed most from those of the ethnographic present? We address this question here by integrating later Pleistocene and Holocene paleoenvironmental and archaeological data to explore hunter-gatherer adaptive diversity in one of the continent’s most temperate regions: the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of Lesotho. We consider the fish assemblages from three archaeological sites: Sehonghong, Pitsaneng, and Likoaeng. Between them, they provide a history of highland fish exploitation over more than 30,000 years. We show that humans often managed to adjust to ecological pressure by transforming their dietary base, with knock-on implications for settlement, technology, and perhaps sociopolitical structures. Our analysis furthers ongoing efforts to move African hunter-gatherer archaeology beyond the shadow of the Kalahari Desert.
In this paper, we present a revised stratigraphy and results of preliminary analyses of the archaeological material from Mwulu’s Cave. This arises from two excavation campaigns conducted in 2017, 71 years after the site was initially investigated by P.V. Tobias. This cave, located in Limpopo Province (South Africa), preserves one of the few known Middle Stone Age sequences in the northeastern part of the country. Here, we revisit the stratigraphic sequence of the site and provide new analyses of sediments, palynomorphs, phytoliths, ochre and lithics. The renewed excavations and reappraisal of the archaeological material from Mwulu’s Cave form part of a larger research project exploring Middle Stone Age variability in the northeastern part of South Africa, with a specific focus on the so-called Pietersburg industries.
In the past few decades, a diverse array of research has emphasized the precocity of technically advanced and symbolic practices occurring during the southern African Middle Stone Age. However, uncertainties regarding the regional chrono-cultural framework constrain models and identification of the cultural and ecological mechanisms triggering the development of such early innovative behaviours. Here, we present new results and a refined chronology for the Pietersburg, a techno-complex initially defined in the late 1920’s, which has disappeared from the literature since the 1980’s. We base our revision of this techno-complex on ongoing excavations at Bushman Rock Shelter (BRS) in Limpopo Province, South Africa, where two Pietersburg phases (an upper phase called ‘21’ and a lower phase called ‘28’) are recognized. Our analysis focuses on the ‘28’ phase, characterized by a knapping strategy based on Levallois and semi-prismatic laminar reduction systems and typified by the presence of end-scrapers. Luminescence chronology provides two sets of ages for the upper and lower Pietersburg of BRS, dated respectively to 73±6ka and 75±6ka on quartz and to 91±10ka and 97±10ka on feldspar, firmly positioning this industry within MIS5. Comparisons with other published lithic assemblages show technological differences between the Pietersburg from BRS and other southern African MIS5 traditions, especially those from the Western and Eastern Cape. We argue that, at least for part of MIS5, human populations in South Africa were regionally differentiated, a process that most likely impacted the way groups were territorially and socially organized. Nonetheless, comparisons between MIS5 assemblages also indicate some typological similarities, suggesting some degree of connection between human groups, which shared similar innovations but manipulated them in different ways. We pay particular attention to the end-scrapers from BRS, which represent thus far the earliest documented wide adoption of such tool-type and provide further evidence for the innovative processes characterizing southern Africa from the MIS5 onwards.
Dating to roughly 80,000 to 70,000 years ago, components of the Still Bay technocomplex of southern Africa and their potential behavioural implications have been widely discussed. Stone points with invasive retouch, as defined over 90 years ago by Goodwin and van Riet Lowe, serve as markers for Still Bay assemblages, yet many Still Bay sites remain undated and comprehensive,
comparable sets of data for their point assemblages remain unpublished. Much of the Middle Stone Age at the site of Apollo 11 in Namibia was undated until 2010, when a potential Still Bay
component was announced. Although a Still Bay assemblage at Apollo 11 would represent the most northwesterly and inland expression of this technocomplex, its points have never been fully
analysed. This paper presents their morphometric data and an interpretation of point-production strategies. These results are then compared with data obtained for two South African sites: Hollow Rock Shelter in the Western Cape and Umhlatuzana in KwaZulu-Natal. This comparison demonstrates that whereas there are no statistically significant differences in the morphometric
data sets between the three sites, there are both similarities and differences in point-production strategies, cross-section shapes and the use of raw materials for knapping. It is suggested that
these similarities and variations represent aspects of how knowledge-transfer systems and knapping conventions were followed on both intra-regional and inter-regional scales.
Definitions of our species as unique within the hominin clade have tended to focus on differences in capacities for symbolism,
language, social networking, technological competence and cognitive development. More recently, however, attention has been
turned towards humans’ unique ecological plasticity. Here, we critically review the growing archaeological and palaeoenvironmental
datasets relating to the middle–late Pleistocene (300–12 thousand years ago) dispersal of our species within and
beyond Africa. We argue, based on comparison with the available information for other members of the genus Homo, that our
species developed a new ecological niche, that of the ‘generalist specialist’. Not only did it occupy and utilize a diversity of
environments, but it also specialized in its adaptation to some of these environmental extremes. Understanding this ecological
niche provides a framework for discussing what it means to be human and how our species became the last surviving hominin
on the planet.
Definitions of our species as unique within the hominin clade have tended to focus on differences in capacities for symbolism, language, social networking, technological competence and cognitive development. More recently, however, attention has been turned towards humans’ unique ecological plasticity. Here, we critically review the growing archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets relating to the Middle–Late Pleistocene (300–12 thousand years ago) dispersal of our species within and beyond Africa. We argue, based on comparison with the available information for other members of the genus Homo, that our species developed a new ecological niche, that of the ‘generalist specialist’. Not only did it occupy and utilize a diversity of environments, but it also specialized in its adaptation to some of these environmental extremes. Understanding this ecological niche provides a framework for discussing what it means to be human and how our species became the last surviving hominin on the planet.
We challenge the view that our species, Homo sapiens, evolved within a single population and/or region of Africa. The chronology and physical diversity of Pleistocene human fossils suggest that morphologically varied populations pertaining to the H. sapiens clade lived throughout Africa. Similarly, the African archaeological record demonstrates the polycentric origin and persistence of regionally distinct Pleistocene material culture in a variety of paleoecological settings. Genetic studies also indicate that present-day population structure within Africa extends to deep times, paralleling a paleoenvironmental record of shifting and fractured habitable zones. We argue that these fields support an emerging view of a highly structured African prehistory that should be considered in human evolutionary inferences, prompting new interpretations, questions, and interdisciplinary research directions.
Ancient DNA pushes human emergence back
Anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa, but pinpointing when has been difficult. Schlebusch et al. sequenced three ancient African genomes from the Stone Age, about 2000 years old, and four from the Iron Age, 300 to 500 years old. One of the oldest samples, sequenced to 13× coverage, appears most closely to resemble individuals from the present-day San population. However, this individual seems to have lacked genetic contributions from other modern African populations, including pastoralists and farmers, which were observed in modern San individuals. Thus, the earliest divergence between human populations may have occurred 350,000 to 260,000 years ago.
Science , this issue p. 652
Projectile technology is considered to appear early in the southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the rich and high resolution MSA sequence of Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal has provided many new insights about the use and hafting of various projectile forms. We present the results of a functional and technological analysis on a series of unpublished serrated bifacial points recently recovered from the basal deposits of Sibudu Cave. These serrated tools, which only find equivalents in the neighbouring site of Umhlatuzana, precede the Still Bay techno-complex and are older than 77 ka BP. Independent residue and use-wear analyses were performed in a phased procedure involving two separate analysts, which allowed the engagement between two separate lines of functional evidence. Thanks to the excellent preservation at Sibudu Cave, a wide range of animal, plant and mineral residues were observed in direct relation with diagnostic wear patterns. The combination of technological, wear and residue evidence allowed us to confirm that the serration was manufactured with bone compressors and that the serrated points were mounted with a composite adhesive as the tips of projectiles used in hunting activities. The suite of technological and functional data pushes back the evidence for the use of pressure flaking during the MSA and highlights the diversity of the technical innovations adopted by southern African MSA populations. We suggest the serrated points from the stratigraphic units Adam to Darya of Sibudu illustrate one important technological adaptation of the southern African MSA and provide another example of the variability of MSA bifacial technologies.
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.
The late Quaternary African hominin fossil record provides a tantalizing glimpse into considerable temporal and geographic morphological diversity
within the genus Homo. A total of 50 sites that can be constrained from MIS 6-2 have yielded specimens ranging from isolated teeth to nearly complete skeletons. However, only a dozen or so provide particularly informative or interesting evidence spanning this period of nearly 200 kyr. In addition to the rather paltry nature of the record, one of the seemingly more intractable problems that bedevil its interpretation is the nature of the chronometric record for many of the sites. The Late Pleistocene terrestrial climatic record for Africa is also rather patchy, making continent-wide generalizations difficult. Attempts to link large-scale environmental perturbations in Africa to patterns of human evolution and behavior are even more problematic. Although the African fossil (and archaeological) record is most often viewed from the perspective of a single lineage culminating in the appearance of Homo
sapiens
and thence modern humans, the degree of morphological diversity evident even in this meager assemblage can be rather striking. Some of this diversity
may be related to geographic and/or temporal differences, but in other instances, there are noticeable differences among remains that are contemporaneous, or at least penecontemporaneous. The Late Pleistocene African hominin fossil record, despite its manifestly incomplete nature, finds consistency with an impressive array of genetic evidence that points to an African origin for our species, and it also has consilience with genetic data that indicate a coalescence of lineages to the common ancestor
of Homo
sapiens
at around the beginning of MIS 6. Although multiple lines of genetic evidence indicate a deep separation of lineages, with the ancestors of the southern African Khoesan diverging early on from that which gave rise to all other groups, there is a notable paucity of human remains that predate MIS 2 that exhibit strong phenetic resemblance to recent African populations. A number of the human dental samples from Late Pleistocene South African sites possess morphological variants that characterize the teeth of the recent inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, but these similarities do not necessarily signify a close evolutionary relationship with any of these populations because they appear to be plesiomorphic.
The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) of southern Africa represents a poorly defined period in terms
of chronology, palaeoenvironments, subsistence strategies and technological traditions. This lack of
understanding is directly related to the low number of EMSA deposits that have been excavated, but
concomitantly, it also reflects the poor interest accorded by most of the recent archaeological projects.
In this context, the excavation that we undertook at Elands Bay Cave (EBC) in the West Coast of South
Africa in 2011 provides a good opportunity to discuss the oldest occupations at the site, which have
been assigned to the ‘MSA 1’ by T. Volman (1981) and which purportedly belong to the earliest MSA
traditions of southern Africa.
In the present paper, we provide a technological study of the ‘MSA 1’ lithic assemblage. Our results
demonstrate the near-exclusive use of local quartzite by the inhabitants of EBC. This raw material was
preferentially selected in the form of slabs and large flakes to produce blanks that were used without
further retouching. We identified various reduction sequences that we unify under a concept referred to
as ‘POL-reduction strategy’. Furthermore, we perform intersite technological comparisons and conclude
that on technological grounds the ‘MSA 1’ of Elands Bay Cave dates back to MIS 6, in agreement with
the luminescence dating. We acknowledge current difficulties in building a chrono-cultural framework at
a subcontinental scale. Thus, we discuss the relevance of the term ‘MSA 1’ and instead advocate a more
neutral and generic label of ‘EMSA’ (understood here as late Middle Pleistocene MSA technologies). The
analysis of the EMSA of EBC sheds new light on the patterns and changes that characterise behaviours
and organisations of Anatomically Modern Humans over the last 200 ka.
It has been suggested that technological variations associated with Still Bay assemblages of southern Africa have not been addressed adequately. Here we present a study developed to explore regional and temporal variations in Still Bay point-production strategies. We applied our approach in a regional context to compare the Still Bay point assemblages from Hollow Rock Shelter (Western Cape) and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter (KwaZulu-Natal). Our interpretation of the point-production strategies implies interregional point-production conventions , but also highlights variability and intra-regional knapping strategies used for the production of Still Bay points. These strategies probably reflect flexibility in the organisation of knowledge-transfer systems at work during the later stages of the Middle Stone Age between about 80 ka and 70 ka in South Africa.
Climate change velocity is a vector depiction of the rate of climate displacement used for assessing climate change impacts. Interpreting velocity requires an assumption that climate trajectory length is proportional to climate change exposure; longer paths suggest greater exposure. However, distance is an imperfect measure of exposure because it does not quantify the extent to which trajectories traverse areas of dissimilar climate. Here we calculate velocity and minimum cumulative exposure (MCE) in degrees Celsius along climate trajectories for North America. We find that velocity is weakly related to MCE; each metric identifies contrasting areas of vulnerability to climate change. Notably, velocity underestimates exposure in mountainous regions where climate trajectories traverse dissimilar climates, resulting in high MCE. In contrast, in flat regions velocity is high where MCE is low, as these areas have negligible climatic resistance to movement. Our results suggest that mountainous regions are more climatically isolated than previously reported.
Still Bay' is the name given to a cultural phase within the southern African Middle Stone Age, which remains critical to our understanding of modern human behavioural evolution. Although represented in only a handful of sites, the Still Bay is widespread geographically and, at certain localities, persisted over a substantial period of time. Many studies have focused on tracing the temporal range and geographic reach of the Still Bay, as well as inferring degrees of early modern human demographic connectedness from these parameters. Variation within the Still Bay, relative to the accuracy with which it can be identified, has received considerably less attention. However, demographic models based on the spread of the Still Bay in space and time hinge on the reliability with which it can be recognized in the archaeological record. Here we document patterns of bifacial point shape and size variation in some key Still Bay assemblages, and analyse these patterns using the statistical shape analysis tools of geometric morphometrics. Morphological variation appears to be geographically structured and is driven by the spatial separation between northeastern and southwestern clusters of sites. We argue that allometric variation is labile and reflects environmentally driven differences in point reduction, whereas shape differences unrelated to size more closely reflect technological and cultural fragmentation. Our results suggest that the biogeographic structure of Middle Stone Age populations was complex during the period associated with the Still Bay, and provide little support for heightened levels of cultural interconnec-tedness between distantly separated groups at this time. We briefly discuss the implications of our findings for tracing classic techno-traditions in the Middle Stone Age record of southern Africa, and for inferring underpinning population dynamics from these patterns.
Scientists have identified a series of milestones in the evolution of the human food quest that are anticipated to have had far-reaching impacts on biological, behavioural and cultural evolution: the inclusion of substantial portions of meat, the broad spectrum revolution and the transition to food production. The foraging shift to dense and predictable resources is another key milestone that had consequential impacts on the later part of human evolution. The theory of economic defendability predicts that this shift had an important consequence—elevated levels of intergroup territoriality and conflict. In this paper, this theory is integrated with a well-established general theory of hunter–gatherer adaptations and is used to make predictions for the sequence of appearance of several evolved traits of modern humans. The distribution of dense and predictable resources in Africa is reviewed and found to occur only in aquatic contexts (coasts, rivers and lakes). The palaeoanthropological empirical record contains recurrent evidence for a shift to the exploitation of dense and predictable resources by 110 000 years ago, and the first known occurrence is in a marine coastal context in South Africa. Some theory predicts that this elevated conflict would have provided the conditions for selection for the hyperprosocial behaviours unique to modern humans.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.
Recently, it has become commonplace to interpret major transitions and other patterns in the Palaeolithic archaeological record in terms of population size. Increases in cultural complexity are claimed to result from increases in population size; decreases in cultural complexity are suggested to be due to decreases in population size; and periods of no change are attributed to low numbers or frequent extirpation. In this paper, we argue that this approach is not defensible. We show that the available empirical evidence does not support the idea that cultural complexity in hunter–gatherers is governed by population size. Instead, ethnographic and archaeological data suggest that hunter–gatherer cultural complexity is most strongly influenced by environmental factors. Because all hominins were hunter–gatherers until the Holocene, this means using population size to interpret patterns in the Palaeolithic archaeological record is problematic. In future, the population size hypothesis should be viewed as one of several competing hypotheses and its predictions formally tested alongside those of its competitors.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.
Significance
Archaeologists have long tried to understand why cultural complexity often changed in prehistory. Recently, a series of highly influential formal models have suggested that demography is the key factor. According to these models, the size of a population determines its ability to invent and maintain cultural traits. In this paper, we demonstrate that the models in question are flawed in two important respects: They use questionable assumptions, and their predictions are not supported by the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence. As a consequence, little confidence can be invested in the idea that demography explains the changes in cultural complexity that have been identified by archaeologists. An alternative explanation is required.
The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains
are southern Africa’s highest and give rise to South Africa’s largest river, the Orange-Senqu. At Melikane Rockshelter
in highland Lesotho
(~1800 m a.s.l.), project AMEMSA (Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age) has documented a pulsed human presence since at least MIS 5. Melikane can be interrogated to understand when and why early modern humans chose to increase their altitudinal range. This paper presents the results of a multi-proxy paleoenvironmental analysis of this sequence. Vegetation shifts are registered against a background signal of C3-dominated grasslands, suggesting fluctuations in temperature, humidity and atmospheric CO2 within a generally cool highland environment with high moisture availability. Discussing Melikane in relation to other paleoenvironmental and archeological archives in the region, a model is developed linking highland population flux to prevailing climate. It is proposed that short-lived but acute episodes of rapid onset aridity saw interior groups disperse into the highlands to be nearer to the Orange-Senqu headwaters, perhaps via the river corridor itself.
Stone tools represent some of the best remaining evidence of prehistoric behavior and cognition. Interpreting this evidence properly requires models based on observable phenomena in the modern world. For this reason, ethnographic research was undertaken among the adze makers of the village of Langda in Indonesian Irian Jaya. This research, involving observation, interviews, and analysis of lithic products, revealed a technology of great sophistication and complexity. Adze-making skill is acquired through a period of apprenticeship that may last five years or more, during which time the community of adze makers provides a social scaffold for the learning process. Adze production is itself a social phenomenon, defined as much by personal and group relations, social norms, and mythic significance as by specific reduction strategies and technical terminology. Adze-making ability is associated not only with well-developed perceptual-motor and cognitive skills but also with a wealth of technological knowledge. Although much of the complexity of the Langda adze industry would be invisible to an archaeologist, evidence of knapping skill is preserved in attributes of the durable stone artifacts produced. This evidence may be used to develop productive hypotheses about the psychological implications of prehistoric stone tools. © 2002 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.
Blombos Cave is well known as an important site for understanding the evolution of symbolically mediated behaviours among Homo sapiens during the Middle Stone Age, and during the Still Bay in particular. The lower part of the archaeological sequence (M3 phase) contains 12 layers dating to MIS 5 with ages ranging from 105 to 90 ka ago (MIS 5c to 5b) that provide new perspectives on the technological behaviour of these early humans. The new data obtained from our extensive technological analysis of the lithic material enriches our currently limited knowledge of this time period in the Cape region. By comparing our results with previously described lithic assemblages from sites south of the Orange River, we draw new insights on the extent of the techno-cultural ties between these sites and the M3 phase at Blombos Cave and highlight the importance of this phase within the Middle Stone Age cultural stratigraphy.
Evidence for human occupation of southern Africa's high-altitude Maloti–Drakensberg Mountains is surprisingly common in the last glacial, yet the attraction of this relatively severe, cold region for hunter-foragers remains unclear. Sehonghong Rockshelter (1870 m asl), in the eastern Lesotho Highlands, provides evidence for human occupation spanning Marine Isotope Stage 3 through the late Holocene. Excellent organic preservation provides opportunities for establishing multiple palaeoenvironmental proxy records to address this conundrum. In high-altitude zones, the proportions of C 3 and C 4 plants archived in soil organic matter and faunal enamel provide sensitive indicators of past temperature shifts. We first extended the radiocarbon chronology to ca. 35 ka using ABOx-SC radiocarbon dates of charcoals. Next we analysed stable isotopes in soil organic matter from the sedimentary sequence, and in faunal tooth enamel from the newly dated lower strata. The results suggest, predictably, that C 3 vegetation and low temperatures prevailed until early warming at ca. 15 ka, with a series of sharp shifts thereafter. Low values for d 13 C and d 18 O in faunal enamel ca. 33 ka suggest a negative temperature excursion at this time, and potentially greater precipitation as snowfall in the highlands compared with lower altitudes.
Africa's Middle Stone Age (MSA) may have lasted almost half a million years, but its earliest expression is not yet well understood. The MSA is best known for innovations that appear in the archaeological record at various times after about 200,000 years ago with the first appearance of Homo sapiens. These novel behaviours embrace hafting technology, the use of compound paints and adhesives, ingenious lithic technology that included pressure flaking and the heat treatment of rock, the engraving of ochre and eggshell with geometric designs, the stringing of shell beads and the production of a wide range of bone implements. Such innovations might have been linked to new types of social behaviour stimulated by demographic pulses and movements within and out of the continent. Population shifts may have occurred repeatedly during the MSA. Southern African sites seem concentrated in the interior of the subcontinent before 130 kya. Thus, the florescence of MSA innovations described here appears to have coincided with the dispersal after 130 kya of populations from the interior to mountainous areas, but, more particularly, to the coastal stretches of the southern and western Cape. Coastal sites are the focus of much of southern Africas research into the MSA and some of the continents most esteemed sites are coastal ones, particularly those containing iconic Still Bay and Howiesons Poort technocomplexes. By 58 kya occupations tended once more to shift away from the southern coast and back into the interior, or to the eastern seaboard. Some of these later MSA sites have extensive footprints, implying population growth or repeated occupations. Regional and even local variability is characteristic of stone assemblages of the time, while sites seem to have fewer ornaments or decorated items than was formerly the case. The variability in late MSA lithic assemblages is matched by apparent flexibility in the timing of the transfer from the MSA to the Later Stone Age.
p>We present an experimental study that considers the Middle Palaeolithic transition from an earlier, predominantly Levallois method of blade production, to a later, predominantly laminar method, and why at some sites they even co-occur. This paper explores the nature of this spatio-temporal diversity by investigating a possible functional explanation: in this case, the amount of cutting edge per artefact, and cutting edge per weight of raw material. While there have been studies that examine laminar blade cutting edge, and Levallois flake cutting edge more generally, studies have not compared these two strategies through the same experimental framework. This study also uses a hard hammer (direct hard stone) percussive method to produce the experimental dataset (the only attested percussive method for blade production used in the Middle Palaeolithic), a method that has not been employed in experimental studies thus far. Results show that the amount of cutting edge does not differ significantly between Levallois and laminar blades. However, analyses suggest that laminar-based strategies were able to produce larger numbers of smaller blade products, and that a decrease in blade size was associated with greater cutting edge per weight of blade. Future studies comparing these techniques in terms of their economisation of raw material, which analyse the entire production sequence, are recommended in order to further explore the difference in blade production strategy as a choice guided by raw material economisation.</p
Klasies River contains an extensive MIS 5 MSA sequence, mostly from what has been described as the MSA ll, MSA 2a or the Mossel Bay techno-complex. The current Witness Baulk excavations undertaken between 2015 and 2016 allows for a renewed and detailed investigation of the variability of the lithic technology from the
lowermost part of the MSA ll. This assemblage is equivalent to Deacon's SASL sub-member and Layers 17a and b of Singer and Wymer. Two phases are recognized: An MIS 5c phase in layer SMONE (Singer & Wymer layer 17a) and an MIS 5d phase in layers BOS One and BOS Two (Singer & Wymer layer 17 b). The two phases are
characterized by commonalities such as a focus on quartzite utilisation, the presence of a main unidirectional reduction system, similar end products which comprise of points, blades and flakes and a low amount of formal tools. However, this high-resolution investigation of the layers reveals temporal variability. In the Shell Midden ONE (SMONE) layer cores and products are relatively lighter and small debitage is more frequent. There are more flake end products and compared to the lower layer, there are fewer tool types. In the Black Occupational Soil (BOS) layer points and blades are more numerous, products are heavier, core types are more variable, and a
higher frequency and variety of tool types occur. Such detailed differences within the MIS 5 assemblages from Klasies River, not described before, shows that the MSA ll is not a homogeneous entity, and that subtle patterning occurs that may link to different technological strategies. Compared to other MIS 5 sites on the southern Cape, namely Blombos Cave, Pinnacle Point and Cape St. Blaize, a common pattern in place provisioning is seen,
although the technology shows differences between the sites. This study indicates the value of more detailed studies of MIS 5 assemblages as a tool to understand variability from a more refined perspective.
The motivations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers for selecting particular lithic raw materials are often explained in rigidly functional or symbolic terms. By examining the exploitation of crystal quartz at two Terminal Pleistocene rockshelter sites (Ntloana Tšoana and Sehonghong) in Lesotho, southern Africa, the authors reveal that lithic reduction required a form of engagement unique to that materi-al's specific properties. The preferential use of quartz crystals-irrespective of the availability of a wider range of raw materials-demonstrates agency and variability in the technological decisions.
Accumulating genomic, fossil and archaeological data from Africa have led to a renewed interest in models of modern human origins. However, such discussions are often discipline-specific, with limited integration of evidence across the different fields. Further, geneticists typically require explicit specification of parameters to test competing demographic models, but these have been poorly outlined for some scenarios. Here, we describe four possible models for the origins of Homo sapiens in Africa based on published literature from paleoanthropology and human genetics. We briefly outline expectations for data patterns under each model, with a special focus on genetic data. Additionally, we present schematics for each model, doing our best to qualitatively describe demographic histories for which genetic parameters can be specifically attached. Finally, it is our hope that this perspective provides context for discussions of human origins in other manuscripts presented in this special issue.
New excavations at Border Cave use high-resolution techniques, including FT-IR, for sediment samples and thin sections of micromorphology blocks from stratigraphy. These show that sediments have different moisture regimes, both spatially and chronologically. The site preserves desiccated grass bedding in multiple layers and they, along with seeds, rhizomes, and charcoal, provide a profile of palaeo-vegetation through time. A bushveld vegetation community is implied before 100,000 years ago. The density of lithics varies considerably through time, with high frequencies occurring before 100,000 years ago where a putative MSA 1/Pietersburg Industry was recovered. The highest percentage frequencies of blades and blade fragments were found here. In Members 1 BS and 1 WA, called Early Later Stone Age by Beaumont, we recovered large flakes from multifacial cores. Local rhyolite was the most common rock used for making stone tools, but siliceous minerals were popular in the upper members.
A central tenet of the so-called demographic hypothesis is that larger populations ought to be associated with more diverse and complex toolkits. Recent empirical tests of this expectation have yielded mixed results, leading some to question to what extent changes in population size might explain interesting changes in the prehistoric archaeological record. Here, I employ computer simulation as a heuristic tool to address whether these mixed results reflect deficiencies in the formal models borrowed from population genetics or problems with the generalizations archaeologists have derived from them. I show that two previously published and highly influential models highlight two different effects of demography. My results illustrate how natural selection and cultural selection weaken the relationship between census population size, cultural diversity, and mean skill level, suggesting that one should not expect population size to predict the diversity or complexity of a cultural trait under all conditions. The concept of effective population size is central to understanding why the effects of population size can vary among traits that are passed by different mechanisms of cultural transmission within the same population. In light of these findings, I suggest ways to strengthen (rather than abandon) empirical tests of the demographic hypothesis.
Phased haplotype sequences are a key component in many population genetic analyses since variation in haplotypes reflects the action of recombination, selection, and changes in population size. In humans, haplotypes are typically estimated from unphased sequence or genotyping data using statistical models applied to large reference panels. To assess the importance of correct haplotype phase on population history inference, we performed fosmid pool sequencing and resolved phased haplotypes of five individuals from diverse African populations (including Yoruba, Esan, Gambia, Maasai, and Mende). We physically phased 98% of heterozygous SNPs into haplotype-resolved blocks, obtaining a block N50 of 1 Mbp. We combined these data with additional phased genomes from San, Mbuti, Gujarati, and Centre de’Etude du Polymorphism Humain European populations and analyzed population size and separation history using the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent and multiple sequentially Markovian coalescent models. We find that statistically phased haplotypes yield a more recent split-time estimation compared with experimentally phased haplotypes. To better interpret patterns of cross-population coalescence, we implemented an approximate Bayesian computation approach to estimate population split times and migration rates by fitting the distribution of coalescent times inferred between two haplotypes, one from each population, to a standard isolation-with-migration model. We inferred that the separation between hunter-gatherer populations and other populations happened ~120-140 KYA, with gene flow continuing until 30-40 KYA; separation between west-African and out-of-African populations happened ~70-80 KYA; while the separation between Maasai and out-of-African populations happened ~50 KYA.
A central tenet of the so-called demographic hypothesis is that larger populations ought to be associated with more diverse and complex toolkits. Recent empirical tests of this expectation have yielded mixed results, leading some to question to what extent changes in population size might explain interesting changes in the prehistoric archaeological record. Here, I employ computer simulation as a heuristic tool to address whether these mixed results reflect deficiencies in the formal models borrowed from population genetics or problems with the generalizations archaeologists have derived from them. I show that two previously published and highly influential models highlight two different effects of demography. My results illustrate how natural selection and cultural selection weaken the relationship between census population size, cultural diversity, and mean skill level, suggesting that one should not expect population size to predict the diversity or complexity of a cultural trait under all conditions. The concept of effective population size is central to understanding why the effects of population size can vary among traits that are passed by different mechanisms of cultural transmission within the same population. In light of these findings, I suggest ways to strengthen (rather than abandon) empirical tests of the demographic hypothesis.
Here we report the Simons Genome Diversity Project data set: high quality genomes from 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations. These genomes include at least 5.8 million base pairs that are not present in the human reference genome. Our analysis reveals key features of the landscape of human genome variation, including that the rate of accumulation of mutations has accelerated by about 5% in non-Africans compared to Africans since divergence. We show that the ancestors of some pairs of present-day human populations were substantially separated by 100,000 years ago, well before the archaeologically attested onset of behavioural modernity. We also demonstrate that indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andamanese do not derive substantial ancestry from an early dispersal of modern humans; instead, their modern human ancestry is consistent with coming from the same source as that of other non-Africans.
We present a synthesis of archaeological and paleoenvironmental information for the period MIS 6-2 in the Kalahari. Discussion centers on the implications of nine new, internally consistent OSL ages obtained from White Paintings Rock Shelter. These dates provide a better understanding of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) sequence. In addition, the revised chronology dates 11 buried soil A-horizons that were formed during wetter periods. The buried A-horizons, along with dated speleothems and high lake levels in the Kalahari correlate with Antarctic warming events (A) and North Atlantic Heinrich events
(H). We also discuss the implications of the Kalahari megalake, paleolake Makgadikgadi
, for human populations and compare dated changes in the archaeological sequence at WPS with dates established in Khoisan
genetic evolutionary studies.
The interior southern African basin (Kalahari) is a remarkable region, with a complex and dynamic environmental history and a long record of utilization by human populations during the late Quaternary. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions are beginning to provide a spatially detailed record of landscape and hydrological dynamics in the Kalahari, with a strong chronometric underpinning for records of environmental extremes. Theories concerning the distribution of early people in the landscape place great importance on the temporal dynamics of water availability, and may be particularly relevant in the Kalahari where there is significant evidence of hydrologic/climatic-driven landscape change. High amplitude environmental variability during MIS 6-2 is evidenced by periods of dune building within currently stabilized dunefields
and the intermittent existence of large lacustrine systems such as Megalake Makgadikgadi
that remain all but ephemerally dry under present-day conditions. That the wider Kalahari was, at times, a key resource for Stone Age populations is evident from the extensive occurrence of stone tools, most notably in association with the fluvial networks and lake basins of the Okavango-Chobe-Zambezi system. Today, these riparian
corridors link the semiarid
desert region to the southern subtropics and, in the past, drove environmental change in the Kalahari, potentially impacting the occupation and dispersal of hominins within the interior southern African basin.
Bringing together archaeological, paleoenvironmental, paleontological and genetic data, this book makes a first attempt to reconstruct African population histories from our species' evolution to the Holocene. Africa during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 to 2 (~190-12,000 years ago) witnessed the biological development and behavioral florescence of our species. Modern human population dynamics, which involved multiple population expansions, dispersals, contractions and extinctions, played a central role in our species’ evolutionary trajectory. So far, the demographic processes – modern human population sizes, distributions and movements – that occurred within Africa during this critical period have been consistently under-addressed.
The authors of this volume aim at: (1) examining the impact of this period of extreme climatic changes on human group sizes, movements and distributions throughout Africa; (2) investigating the macro- and micro-evolutionary processes underpinning our species’ anatomical and behavioral evolution; and (3) evaluating the state of knowledge of prehistoric population dynamics in Africa so that the continent can benefit from, and eventually contribute to, the increasingly sophisticated theoretical and methodological paleodemographic frameworks developed elsewhere.
Africa has the longest record - some 2.5 million years - of human occupation of any continent. For nearly all of this time, its inhabitants have made tools from stone and have acquired their food from its rich wild plant and animal resources. Archaeological research in Africa is crucial for understanding the origins of humans and the diversity of hunter-gatherer ways of life. This book provides an up-to-date, comprehensive synthesis of the record left by Africa’s earliest hominin inhabitants and hunter-gatherers. It combines the insights of archaeology with those of other disciplines, such as genetics and palaeoenvironmental science. African evidence is critical to important debates, such as the origins of stone toolmaking, the emergence of recognisably modern forms of cognition and behaviour, and the expansion of successive hominins from Africa to other parts of the world. Africa’s enormous ecological diversity and exceptionally long history also provide an unparalleled opportunity to examine the impact of environment change on human populations. African foragers have also long been viewed as archetypes of the hunter-gatherer way of life, a view that is debated in this volume. Also examined is their relevance for understanding the development and spread of food production and the social and ideological significance of the rock art that many of them have produced.
In the rough and rugged country of the Lesotho highlands, rock-paintings and archaeological deposits in the rock-shelters record hunter-gatherer life-ways; at Sehonghong, a long sequence runs from recent times to and through the Last Glacial Maximum. Survey of the region's Middle and Later Stone Age sites shows a pattern of concentrations that likely applies to other parts of the Lesotho highlands.
In this worldwide survey, Clive Gamble explores the evolution of the human imagination, without which we would not have become a global species. He sets out to determine the cognitive and social basis for our imaginative capacity and traces the evidence back into deep human history. He argues that it was the imaginative ability to "go beyond" and to create societies where people lived apart yet stayed in touch that made us such effective world settlers. To make his case Gamble brings together information from a wide range of disciplines: psychology, cognitive science, archaeology, palaeoanthropology, archaeogenetics, geography, quaternary science and anthropology. He presents a novel deep history that combines the archaeological evidence for fossil hominins with the selective forces of Pleistocene climate change, engages with the archaeogeneticists' models for population dispersal and displacement, and ends with the Europeans' rediscovery of the deep history settlement of the earth.