On the Operation of Retouch in Southern Africa’s Early Middle Stone Age

The southern African Early Middle Stone Age (~ 315–80 ka) is often regarded as a period of behavioural stasis. Though regionalised technological and behavioural adaptions are identified throughout this period, there appears to be a lack of coherent and regular turnover of technological systems that becomes common in later periods. Here, we test if the perception of Early Middle Stone Age technological stasis may be influenced by the typological approaches to the retouched implements that are frequently used as markers of technological change. We deploy an attribute analysis on 498 retouched implements from three Early Middle Stone Age assemblages from the Doring River Catchment, South Africa, to test three hypothetical explanations of variation in implement form: strict typology, reduction-mediated typology, or maximum expediency. We find the strongest support for a maximum expediency model in which retouch was flexibly applied across multiple retouch episodes, facilitated by preferential selection of larger blanks, producing a range of outcomes that rarely conform to classic types. These results encourage an interpretation of Early Middle Stone Age technology as representing a flexible and widely effective technological system, the subtleties of which have been masked by an historical over-emphasis on the limited retouched component

A Multi-User Mobile GIS Solution for Documenting Large Surface Scatters: An Example from the Doring River, South Africa

This article discusses the development and implementation of a mobile GIS catch-and-release system for documenting large surface artifact scatters along the Doring River in South Africa. An integrated, cloud-based mobile GIS solution was built using a suite of ESRI ArcGIS applications with an aim to maximize the speed and breadth of techno-typological data capture, while minimizing data collection errors and post-processing requirements. The system was successfully implemented during the 2019 field season of the Doring River Archaeological Project. With the ability for project-specific customization and interchangeable hardware components, the system transcends geographic region and temporal focus. Moreover, the system accommodates connectivity limitations commonly faced by archaeologists seeking distributed database solutions. Other challenges embraced in the design include rotating personnel throughout a field season, scalability without large financial investment, and the ability to accommodate data collection needs of other components of the larger multi-disciplinary research project

Middle Stone Age technology from MIS 6 and MIS 5 at Klipfonteinrand 1, South Africa

Klipfonteinrand 1 (KFR1) is a foundational but poorly documented Middle Stone Age (MSA) site located in the south west of South Africa. Originally excavated by John Parkington in 1969 but undated for more than 50 years, the MSA component of the sequence formed a part of Thomas Volman\u27s influential culture-historic technocomplex scheme. Renewed excavations identified four distinct MSA stratigraphic units at the site, the oldest two of which date to ∼85 ka and ∼156 ka. This paper presents an analysis of ∼4500 artefacts from the oldest units to test the viability of Volman\u27s scheme and its derivatives. Coeval assemblages from other regional sites are also reviewed to test alternative models of regional technological variability driven by demographic dynamics in MIS 6 and MIS 5. We find that assemblages from neither of the deepest two stratigraphic units at KFR1 map perfectly to prevailing technocomplex schemes for southern Africa, and that they are also distinct from nearby assemblages of comparable age. Ultimately, KFR1 provides an important data point furthering the identification of variable technological adaptations during an important phase in the evolution of human behaviour

The origins and early elaboration of projectile technology

The ability of Homo sapiens to kill prey at a distance is arguably one of the catalysts for our current ecological dominance. Many researchers have suggested its origins lie in the African Middle Stone Age or the European Middle Palaeolithic (∼300-30 thousand years ago), but the perishable components of armatures rarely preserve. Most research on this subject therefore emphasises analysis of armature tip size, shape, and diagnostic impacts or residues. Other lines of evidence have included human skeletal anatomy or analyses of the species composition of faunal assemblages. Projectile Impact Marks (PIMs) on archaeofaunal remains offer an ideal complement to this work, but their potential has been restricted mainly to the later Eurasian zooarchaeological record. A review of current evidence and approaches shows that systematic PIM research could add much to our understanding of early projectile technology, especially in Africa