The Quartz Conundrum : understanding the role of quartz in the composition of late Pleistocene and Holocene lithic assemblages from the Verlorenvlei area, Western Cape

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-303).This research explores the related roles of quartz and bipolar reduction in the composition of Later Stone Age (LSA) lithic assemblages from the Verlorenvlei area, Western Cape Province. With few exceptions, these two elements strongly dominate the assemblages from this area, and the attitudes to and reasons for their continuous use are considered here. Discussions on typology and raw material classification illustrate and attempt to solve problems existing in current systems, and a comprehensive classification scheme for the western Cape area is provided. The use of an innovative analytical technique, in which each raw material is assessed individually, allows considerable variation in the flaking and subsequent use of each material to be demonstrated. While fine~grained rocks are undoubtedly preferred for artefact manufacture, overall raw material proportions are clearly determined by the ubiquitous availability of quartz in the study area, but less important factors, virtually impossible to differentiate from the lithics alone, are undoubtedly also implicated. Technological change related to the use of quartz and bipolar flaking is explored through three critical periods, the late Holocene, the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene, and the late Pleistocene. In order to ascertain the factors governing assemblage composition, the frequencies of various artefact types are compared with those of quartz and bipolar cores by means of scatter plots. Correlation coefficients are calculated to assist the analysis of the data, but due to the small sample sizes some visual interpretation of the graphs based on intuitive archaeological knowledge is also essential. Considerably different approaches to the reduction of quartz are demonstrated for each period, with distinct strategies of raw material conservation, each operating in a different manner, existing throughout most of the LSA. These promoted the variable use of bipolar and non-bipolar reduction techniques and microlithic technology in order to make best use of the relatively intractable quartz on offer in the local landscape. Such strategies only broke down during the late Holocene, possibly due to the changing social relations that must have occurred with the introduction of pastoralism to the area some 2000 years ago. The nature of industrial change is also explored, and it is evident that in this area the LSA lithic sequence constitutes a continuous progression of sporadic change with no distinct breaks or periods of absolute stability being apparent. It is recommended that larger sample sizes be used in similar future analyses in order to alleviate the difficulties inherent in drawing general conclusions from small sets of data. The frequency of chips in any assemblage is shown to be unreliable and their exclusion from comparative typological data will lend greater validity to all lithic analyses

Stone tools beads and a river: two Holocene microlithic sites at Jakkalsberg in the northwestern Richtersveld Northern Cape South Africa

Jakkalsberg N and Jakkalsberg L, located on the bank of the Orange River in the area of South Africa known as the Richtersveld, date to the mid-and late mid-Holocene, respectively. The former is a palimpsest revealing scattered material from other periods. Both contain large assemblages of lithics and bead-manufacturing debris. Their formal tools are diverse and include types uncommon in South Africa but more frequently found through much of the rest of Africa. In particular, these sites contain more than an incidental occurrence of denticulates and triangles, respectively. The formal tool composition indicates continuity with assemblages from both central and southern Africa and supports common origins for many African microlithic industries. The river serves as a lifeline in the hostile Richtersveld environment with fish being a key resource. Despite having been subjected to periodic flooding and siltation, spatial integrity and preservation of artefacts at these sites was sufficient to allow high research value

New excavations at Klein Kliphuis rock shelter, Cederberg Mountains, Western Cape, South Africa: the Late Holocene deposits

Klein Kliphuis (KKH), a rock shelter located in the northern Cederberg Mountains of the Western Cape province, South Africa (Fig. 1), was originally excavated in 1984 with emphasis on the late Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) layer in the top 200 mm of the deposit (Van Rijssen 1992). At that time only one square was excavated to bedrock, which was reached at about 890 mm. The approximately 700 mm of deposit underlying the Holocene LSA were excavated in four layers. Recent examination of this material showed a complex sequence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) artefact-making traditions (Mackay 2006)

Herders and foragers on Kasteelberg: Interim report of excavations 1999-2002

Smith et al. (1991) proposed a model to distinguish the archaeological sites of Khoekhoe pastoralists from those of San. This model was based on information gathered from sites scattered over hundreds of square kilometres and several millennia. Between 1999 and 2002 we re-examined Smith et al. s (1991) model by excavating six neighbouring contemporary sites on the hill Kasteelberg. In a previous survey, three of these sites had been provisionally identified as pastoralist sites and three as forager sites. Here we present a brief comparison of the materials from these six sites. Although there are clear differences between the two sets of sites, the hypothesis that one set represents Khoekhoe herders and the other Bushman hunter-gatherers is not supported. Rather, one set of sites seems to represent a more mobile, herder-forager adaptation with a preference for inland resources while the other set appears to represent a more sedentary herder-forager adaptation with emphasis on shoreline resources. It remains to be determined how the occupants of the two sets of sites related to each other

Supercritical Fluids for Higher Extraction Yields of Lipids from Archeological Ceramics

The extraction and study of organic residues from ceramics has been a subject of interest for the last 50 years in archeology and archeological science. Lipids are among the best-preserved organic substances in archeological contexts and can provide information about the diets of ancient populations as well as past environments. Here, we present a method which demonstrates significantly improved extraction of lipids from archeological pots by replacing liquid organic solvents with supercritical fluids. Optimization of the procedure using response surface methodology (RSM) approach showed that, on our system, optimal conditions for supercritical extraction of lipids from synthetic fired clay ceramics could be achieved using carbon dioxide with 16 vol % of cosolvent EtOH–H2O (95:5 v/v) in 90 min at a flow rate of 2.3 mL/min, for a pressure of 30 MPa and a temperature of 50 °C. For all reference and archeological samples included in this study, lipid yields obtained by supercritical fluid extraction under these optimal conditions were systematically higher than by conventional solvent extraction. This study also highlighted a variability of the ratio of unsaturated versus saturated fatty acids depending on the extraction method. This can have important implications in the identification of the residue(s). The increased extraction efficiency provided by supercritical fluids, as well as their minimally destructive nature, enable new and refined approaches to residue analysis and dating of archeological ceramics

Klein Kliphuis clarifications: A reply to Jerardino

We thank Jerardino (2008) for taking the time to comment on our report (Orton & Mackay 2008) and here wish to provide some feedback. We also thank Dr. Jerardino and the editors of the Bulletin for this opportunity to participate in the great UCT tradition of public debate. We wish to note at the outset that we do not intend to provide a point by point rebuttal ofJerardino�s critique, but rather to make some specific clarifications related to shellfish, and a few more general observations

Klein Kliphuis clarifications: a reply to Jerardino

We thank Jerardino (2008) for taking the time to comment on our report (Orton & Mackay 2008) and here wish to provide some feedback. We also thank Dr. Jerardino and the editors of the Bulletin for this opportunity to participate in the great UCT tradition of public debate. We wish to note at the outset that we do not intend to provide a point by point rebuttal ofJerardino’s critique, but rather to make some specific clarifications related to shellfish, and a few more general observations

New excavations at Klein Kliphuis rock shelter, Cederberg Mountains, Western Cape, South Africa: the late Holocene deposits

Klein Kliphuis (KKH), a rock shelter located in the northern Cederberg Mountains of the Western Cape province, South Africa (Fig. 1), was originally excavated in 1984 with emphasis on the late Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) layer in the top 200mmof the deposit (Van Rijssen 1992). At that time only one square was excavated to bedrock, which was reached at about 890 mm. The approximately 700mmof deposit underlying the Holocene LSA were excavated in four layers. Recent examination of this material showed a complex sequence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) artefact-making traditions (Mackay 2006). The need for more detailed excavation thus became apparent