Pub Date : 2019-12-02DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190007
S. Harmand, J. Lewis, N. Taylor, C. Feibel, X. Boës, S. Prat, H. Roche
{"title":"Reply to Domínguez-Rodrigo and Alcalá: Interpretation Without Accurate Evidence Is Fantasy","authors":"S. Harmand, J. Lewis, N. Taylor, C. Feibel, X. Boës, S. Prat, H. Roche","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43388737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-12-02DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190017
Molebogeng K. Bodiba, M. Steyn, P. Bloomer, M. Mosothwane, F. Rühli, Abigail S. Bouwman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii Abstrak --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iv Acknowledgements -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------v List of figures ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ix List of tables --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x Abbreviations and definitions--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------xi Chapter 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{"title":"Ancient DNA Analysis of the Thulamela Remains: Deciphering the Migratory Patterns of a Southern African Population","authors":"Molebogeng K. Bodiba, M. Steyn, P. Bloomer, M. Mosothwane, F. Rühli, Abigail S. Bouwman","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190017","url":null,"abstract":"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii Abstrak --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iv Acknowledgements -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------v List of figures ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ix List of tables --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x Abbreviations and definitions--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------xi Chapter 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48064191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-13DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190015
M. Schoeman, B. Aub, J. Burrows, G. Hall, S. Woodborne
Terrace farming flourished in Bokoni from the sixteenth century CE onwards. Bokoni farmers’ resilience strategies, however, were severely tested during the third occupation phase (approx. 1780 to 1840 CE), when the mfecane destabilised the region. In order to reflect on the environmental conditions Bokoni farmers faced in this period the stable carbon isotope proxy rainfall records from Prunus africana and Pittosporum viridiflorum specimens that grew on the Buffelskloof site were studied. Because the Buffelskloof records postdate the occupation, the records are compared with a 1000-year Adansonia digitata rainfall proxy record from the Pafuri region. Deviations between the two are attributed to the juvenile effect, and when these are discounted there is a significant correlation between local and regional rainfall records. This suggests common large-scale synoptic forcing underlies regional rainfall variability, and the decadal-scale variability in the Adansonia digitata records indicates extremely dry conditions in the 1780 to 1840 CE period.
{"title":"Past Climatic Conditions for Bokoni at Buffelskloof, Mpumalanga, Using δ13C Analysis of Prunus africana and Pittosporum viridiflorum Tree Rings","authors":"M. Schoeman, B. Aub, J. Burrows, G. Hall, S. Woodborne","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Terrace farming flourished in Bokoni from the sixteenth century CE onwards. Bokoni farmers’ resilience strategies, however, were severely tested during the third occupation phase (approx. 1780 to 1840 CE), when the mfecane destabilised the region. In order to reflect on the environmental conditions Bokoni farmers faced in this period the stable carbon isotope proxy rainfall records from Prunus africana and Pittosporum viridiflorum specimens that grew on the Buffelskloof site were studied. Because the Buffelskloof records postdate the occupation, the records are compared with a 1000-year Adansonia digitata rainfall proxy record from the Pafuri region. Deviations between the two are attributed to the juvenile effect, and when these are discounted there is a significant correlation between local and regional rainfall records. This suggests common large-scale synoptic forcing underlies regional rainfall variability, and the decadal-scale variability in the Adansonia digitata records indicates extremely dry conditions in the 1780 to 1840 CE period.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49239562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190004
P. Willoughby, K. Biittner, P. Bushozi, Jennifer M. Miller
During the 2010 excavations of Mlambalasi rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania, a single rifle bullet casing was recovered. Analysis of this casing found that it was manufactured in 1877 at the munitions factory in Danzig for the German infantry’s Mauser 71 rifle. This casing is thus directly linked to the period of German colonization of Tanganyika, during which Iringa was a key centre of anti-colonial resistance. Mlambalasi was the location of the last stand of Chief Mkwawa of the Hehe people, and this bullet casing provides a tangible link to his uprising during the 1890s. In light of this colonial context and our ongoing research at Mlambalasi, this find is used to illustrate that a single artifact can reinforce multiple narratives about the past and the significance of an archaeological site.
{"title":"A German Rifle Casing and Chief Mkwawa of the Wahehe: the Colonial and Post-Colonial Significance of Mlambalasi Rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania","authors":"P. Willoughby, K. Biittner, P. Bushozi, Jennifer M. Miller","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000During the 2010 excavations of Mlambalasi rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania, a single rifle bullet casing was recovered. Analysis of this casing found that it was manufactured in 1877 at the munitions factory in Danzig for the German infantry’s Mauser 71 rifle. This casing is thus directly linked to the period of German colonization of Tanganyika, during which Iringa was a key centre of anti-colonial resistance. Mlambalasi was the location of the last stand of Chief Mkwawa of the Hehe people, and this bullet casing provides a tangible link to his uprising during the 1890s. In light of this colonial context and our ongoing research at Mlambalasi, this find is used to illustrate that a single artifact can reinforce multiple narratives about the past and the significance of an archaeological site.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43516763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190005
Rocco Rotunno, A. Mercuri, A. Florenzano, A. Zerboni, S. Lernia
Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Holocene hunter-gatherer occupation at Takarkori rock shelter (SW Libya, central Sahara). Our results show that Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) were managed as early as ~9500 years cal BP, mostly with the rearing of juveniles. Palynological analysis of individual pellets suggests a seasonal confinement of the animals and the selection of fodder. GIS analysis of coprolite distribution also indicates sophisticated strategies of Barbary sheep “herding” and spatial differentiation of specialized areas within the rock shelter, including the construction and use of a stone-based enclosure for corralling animals. These highly structured and organized forms of control over wild animals are interpreted as a potential co-evolutionary trigger for the subsequent rapid adoption and integration of the incoming pastoral Neolithic economy.
{"title":"Coprolites from Rock Shelters: Hunter-Gatherers “Herding” Barbary Sheep in the Early Holocene Sahara","authors":"Rocco Rotunno, A. Mercuri, A. Florenzano, A. Zerboni, S. Lernia","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Holocene hunter-gatherer occupation at Takarkori rock shelter (SW Libya, central Sahara). Our results show that Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) were managed as early as ~9500 years cal BP, mostly with the rearing of juveniles. Palynological analysis of individual pellets suggests a seasonal confinement of the animals and the selection of fodder. GIS analysis of coprolite distribution also indicates sophisticated strategies of Barbary sheep “herding” and spatial differentiation of specialized areas within the rock shelter, including the construction and use of a stone-based enclosure for corralling animals. These highly structured and organized forms of control over wild animals are interpreted as a potential co-evolutionary trigger for the subsequent rapid adoption and integration of the incoming pastoral Neolithic economy.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45613360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190002
Adil Moumane, Jonathan Delorme, Adbelhadi Ewague, J. Alkarkouri, Mohamed Gaoudi, Hassan Ista, Mohamed Moumane, Hammou Mouna, Ahmed Oumouss, Abdelkhalk Lmejidi, Noreddine Zdaidat
The authors, with the help of a team of researchers, have discovered twelve rock shelters with inside paintings on the southern slopes of the Jbel Bani Mountains in southern Morocco. The paintings vary in subject and time period and span multiple rock art styles. Majestic creatures that once inhabited southern Morocco are depicted next to hunters, pastoralists, and warriors. The shelters and paintings cast upon their walls illustrate a transfer of culture, beliefs, technology, and ideas between people groups of the Meridional and Central Sahara and the Jbel Bani region. These discoveries were all made along a mountain path in the Bani Mountains known as Foum Laachar and may help trace ancient human migration routes.
{"title":"Jbel Bani Rock Art: Newly-discovered Shelters along Mountain Paths suggest a Significant Link between Central Sahara and North Africa (Zagora, Southern Morocco)","authors":"Adil Moumane, Jonathan Delorme, Adbelhadi Ewague, J. Alkarkouri, Mohamed Gaoudi, Hassan Ista, Mohamed Moumane, Hammou Mouna, Ahmed Oumouss, Abdelkhalk Lmejidi, Noreddine Zdaidat","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The authors, with the help of a team of researchers, have discovered twelve rock shelters with inside paintings on the southern slopes of the Jbel Bani Mountains in southern Morocco. The paintings vary in subject and time period and span multiple rock art styles. Majestic creatures that once inhabited southern Morocco are depicted next to hunters, pastoralists, and warriors. The shelters and paintings cast upon their walls illustrate a transfer of culture, beliefs, technology, and ideas between people groups of the Meridional and Central Sahara and the Jbel Bani region. These discoveries were all made along a mountain path in the Bani Mountains known as Foum Laachar and may help trace ancient human migration routes.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45031503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190001
K. Sadr
Kweneng is an extensive aggregation of stone-walled ruins that represent a pre-colonial Tswana capital. It is located 30 km south of today’s Johannesburg. The Molokwane architectural style predominates at this site. This style dates from around the mid- eighteenth to the mid- nineteenth centuries AD. The northern sector of Kweneng contains some structures in an architectural style from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries AD. Scattered here and there on the fringes of Kweneng are Type N compounds, which represent the oldest architectural style in this region and date to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD. With a long sequence from formation to collapse, Kweneng will shed light not only on the birth of complex urban society in this region, but also in more distant times and places where the evidence might be considerably less intact. This preliminary report introduces the site and the principal features of its built environment.
{"title":"Kweneng: A Newly Discovered Pre-Colonial Capital Near Johannesburg","authors":"K. Sadr","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Kweneng is an extensive aggregation of stone-walled ruins that represent a pre-colonial Tswana capital. It is located 30 km south of today’s Johannesburg. The Molokwane architectural style predominates at this site. This style dates from around the mid- eighteenth to the mid- nineteenth centuries AD. The northern sector of Kweneng contains some structures in an architectural style from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries AD. Scattered here and there on the fringes of Kweneng are Type N compounds, which represent the oldest architectural style in this region and date to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD. With a long sequence from formation to collapse, Kweneng will shed light not only on the birth of complex urban society in this region, but also in more distant times and places where the evidence might be considerably less intact. This preliminary report introduces the site and the principal features of its built environment.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42596227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20190003
Michael Brass
Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex social structures. Here, ethnographic cultural variability is stressed, previous models detailed, and data for the Eastern and Central Sahara summarised and analysed. The emerging picture is of a mosaic of population movements, clustering and experimentation resulting in transient peaks of wealth and the potential for incipient social complexity to become temporarily or permanently manifest. Saharan social diversity serves as a warning against linear models and highlights the importance of an explanatory framework for investigating the evolution of social structures outside of permanently settled communities for North Africa.
{"title":"The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara","authors":"Michael Brass","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20190003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20190003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex social structures. Here, ethnographic cultural variability is stressed, previous models detailed, and data for the Eastern and Central Sahara summarised and analysed. The emerging picture is of a mosaic of population movements, clustering and experimentation resulting in transient peaks of wealth and the potential for incipient social complexity to become temporarily or permanently manifest. Saharan social diversity serves as a warning against linear models and highlights the importance of an explanatory framework for investigating the evolution of social structures outside of permanently settled communities for North Africa.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20190003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44953314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180010
E. Spinapolice, A. Zerboni, M. Meyer, D. Usai
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeological excavation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for understanding cultural site formation and post-depositional dynamics. The stratigraphic sequence at al-Jamrab includes a thick cultural layer rich in Early and Middle Stone Age artefacts, preserved in a deeply weathered palaeosol developed on fluvial sediments. The cultural layer includes a two-fold human occupation covering the Middle Stone Age, with Acheulean and Sangoan bifacial artefacts, although an Early Stone Age/Middle Stone Age transitional phase cannot be excluded. The artefact-bearing unit is attributed to the Upper Pleistocene based on preliminary OSL dating, the local palaeoenvironmental context, and strong pedogenetic weathering. Considering the paucity of archaeological data for the Pleistocene of Sudan and the importance of this region in the study of human dispersal out of Africa, this preliminary work on a new site and its associated stratigraphic context provides insights into the early peopling of Sudan and adds one more tessera to the Eastern Africa picture.
{"title":"Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan): A Contribution to the Understanding of the MSA of Eastern Africa","authors":"E. Spinapolice, A. Zerboni, M. Meyer, D. Usai","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180010","url":null,"abstract":"The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeological excavation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for understanding cultural site formation and post-depositional dynamics. The stratigraphic sequence at al-Jamrab includes a thick cultural layer rich in Early and Middle Stone Age artefacts, preserved in a deeply weathered palaeosol developed on fluvial sediments. The cultural layer includes a two-fold human occupation covering the Middle Stone Age, with Acheulean and Sangoan bifacial artefacts, although an Early Stone Age/Middle Stone Age transitional phase cannot be excluded. The artefact-bearing unit is attributed to the Upper Pleistocene based on preliminary OSL dating, the local palaeoenvironmental context, and strong pedogenetic weathering. Considering the paucity of archaeological data for the Pleistocene of Sudan and the importance of this region in the study of human dispersal out of Africa, this preliminary work on a new site and its associated stratigraphic context provides insights into the early peopling of Sudan and adds one more tessera to the Eastern Africa picture.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45144603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180011
Kathryn L. Ranhorn, C. Tryon
Late Pleistocene and Holocene evidence from multiple rockshelters in north-central Tanzania suggests a regional pattern of changing technological behaviors through time. We use independent chronological evidence to test if the proposed technological patterns across space were also temporally equivalent. We applied AMS radiocarbon dating methods to the carbonate fraction of five ostrich eggshell fragments from Mehlman’s 1975-1976 excavations at Nasera rockshelter and compared our results to recent re-dating efforts of Mumba rockshelter. We document radiocarbon results >46 ka at Nasera in Level 5, indicating that associated and underlying technologies (including what Mehlman termed the ‘Nasera Industry’) are older than previously documented. Backed pieces first appear >46 ka at Nasera, which is in accordance with recent evidence from nearby rockshelters like Enkapune ya Muto, Panga ya Saidi, and potentially Kisese II. We also provide an age of 11,260-11,710 calBP for the ‘Silale Industry’ of Level 3B. Overall, the shifts in lithic technology previously considered to be shared between Mumba and Nasera rockshelters are not temporally aligned, emphasizing the possibility that intra-site variability was the norm throughout the Late Pleistocene in eastern Africa.
坦桑尼亚中北部多个岩石避难所的晚更新世和全新世证据表明，随着时间的推移，技术行为发生了区域性变化。我们使用独立的时间证据来测试所提出的跨空间技术模式是否在时间上也是等效的。我们将AMS放射性碳年代测定方法应用于Mehlman 1975年至1976年在Nasera岩石避难所挖掘的五个鸵鸟蛋壳碎片的碳酸盐部分，并将我们的结果与最近对蒙巴岩石避难所的重新测年工作进行了比较。我们记录了Nasera 5级>46 ka的放射性碳结果，表明相关和基础技术（包括Mehlman所称的“Nasera工业”）比之前记录的要古老。背面的碎片首次出现在纳赛拉>46 ka，这与附近岩石避难所的最新证据一致，如Enkapune ya Muto、Panga ya Saidi，以及可能的Kiese II。我们还为3B级的“硅烷工业”提供11260-11710 calBP的年龄。总的来说，以前被认为在蒙巴和纳塞拉岩石避难所之间共享的石器时代技术的转变在时间上并不一致，这强调了在整个东非更新世晚期，场地内变异性是常态的可能性。
{"title":"New Radiocarbon Dates from Nasera Rockshelter (Tanzania): Implications for Studying Spatial Patterns in Late Pleistocene Technology","authors":"Kathryn L. Ranhorn, C. Tryon","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180011","url":null,"abstract":"Late Pleistocene and Holocene evidence from multiple rockshelters in north-central Tanzania suggests a regional pattern of changing technological behaviors through time. We use independent chronological evidence to test if the proposed technological patterns across space were also temporally equivalent. We applied AMS radiocarbon dating methods to the carbonate fraction of five ostrich eggshell fragments from Mehlman’s 1975-1976 excavations at Nasera rockshelter and compared our results to recent re-dating efforts of Mumba rockshelter. We document radiocarbon results >46 ka at Nasera in Level 5, indicating that associated and underlying technologies (including what Mehlman termed the ‘Nasera Industry’) are older than previously documented. Backed pieces first appear >46 ka at Nasera, which is in accordance with recent evidence from nearby rockshelters like Enkapune ya Muto, Panga ya Saidi, and potentially Kisese II. We also provide an age of 11,260-11,710 calBP for the ‘Silale Industry’ of Level 3B. Overall, the shifts in lithic technology previously considered to be shared between Mumba and Nasera rockshelters are not temporally aligned, emphasizing the possibility that intra-site variability was the norm throughout the Late Pleistocene in eastern Africa.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42111299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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