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This dissertation describes the technological behaviors represented by the ~500-thousand-year-old stratum 4a lithic assemblage from Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), Northern Cape, South Africa, and situates new evidence from this site into evolutionary context. The findings highlight the significance of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa for understanding behavioral evolution in later Homo. The stratum 4a assemblage at KP1 represents a mainly flake and blade-based industry that employed multiple strategies to produce blanks that were retouched into a variety of forms, including unifacially retouched points. Diverse core reduction strategies at KP1 suggests that KP1 hominins were flexible to the demands of local raw materials, consistent with increased degrees of ‘behavioral variability’ and adaptability. Several lines of evidence indicate that the KP1 points were used as spear tips. Points from sites ~300 thousand years ago (ka) and younger were often used as weapon tips, and evidence for this behavior can now be pushed back to ~500 ka, with important implications for cognition and social behavior among early Middle Pleistocene hominins. Raw materials in the KP1 assemblage were acquired from multiple local sources. Based on comparisons with a sample from the underlying stratum 4b Acheulean assemblage, the stratum 4a assemblage does not exhibit major changes in the kinds or quality of raw material exploited; thus, the technological changes represented by the stratum 4a assemblage are not explained by changes in raw material. New evidence from KP1 poses problems for current models that link the appearance of Middle Stone Age technologies to speciation and dispersion ~300 ka. Middle Stone Age technologies appear in the African archaeological record by ~500 ka. The new timing for the origins of Middle Stone Age technologies provides a parsimonious explanation for technological similarities between the lithic assemblages of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens, who share a common ancestor in the early Middle Pleistocene. Limits imposed by the nature of the African archaeological record and chronometric analyses may explain why the antiquity of these technological changes was not previously recognized.

This dissertation describes the technological behaviors represented by the ~500-thousand-year-old stratum 4a lithic assemblage from Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), Northern Cape, South Africa, and situates new evidence from this site into evolutionary context. The findings highlight the significance of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa for understanding behavioral evolution in later Homo. The stratum 4a assemblage at KP1 represents a mainly flake and blade-based industry that employed multiple strategies to produce blanks that were retouched into a variety of forms, including unifacially retouched points. Diverse core reduction strategies at KP1 suggests that KP1 hominins were flexible to the demands of local raw materials, consistent with increased degrees of ‘behavioral variability’ and adaptability. Several lines of evidence indicate that the KP1 points were used as spear tips. Points from sites ~300 thousand years ago (ka) and younger were often used as weapon tips, and evidence for this behavior can now be pushed back to ~500 ka, with important implications for cognition and social behavior among early Middle Pleistocene hominins. Raw materials in the KP1 assemblage were acquired from multiple local sources. Based on comparisons with a sample from the underlying stratum 4b Acheulean assemblage, the stratum 4a assemblage does not exhibit major changes in the kinds or quality of raw material exploited; thus, the technological changes represented by the stratum 4a assemblage are not explained by changes in raw material. New evidence from KP1 poses problems for current models that link the appearance of Middle Stone Age technologies to speciation and dispersion ~300 ka. Middle Stone Age technologies appear in the African archaeological record by ~500 ka. The new timing for the origins of Middle Stone Age technologies provides a parsimonious explanation for technological similarities between the lithic assemblages of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens, who share a common ancestor in the early Middle Pleistocene. Limits imposed by the nature of the African archaeological record and chronometric analyses may explain why the antiquity of these technological changes was not previously recognized.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA. (Archaeology))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-139). Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

abstract: In recent years, southern Africa has figured prominently in the modern human origins debate due to increasing evidence for precocious behaviors considered to be unique to our species. These significant findings have included bone tools, shell beads, engraved ostrich eggshell, and heavily ground and engraved ochre fragments. The presence of ochre in Middle Stone Age (MSA, ~250-40kya) archaeological sites in southern Africa is often proposed as indirect evidence for the emergence of symbolic or artistic behavior, a uniquely modern human trait. However, there is no remaining artwork from this period and there is significant debate about what the ochre may have been used for. With a few exceptions, ochre has gone largely unstudied. This project tested competing models for ochre use within the Pinnacle Point (PP), South Africa research area. Combined results from characterization and sourcing analyses, color classification, heat treatment analysis, and hafting experiments suggest MSA ochre is tied to early symbolic or ritual behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2012

The Olieboomspoort (OBP) shelter is central to this reconstruction of the Later Stone Age (LSA) history in the lowlands of the Limpopo in the Waterberg. The archaeological excavations were undertaken to answer questions that arose during previous research conducted on the plateau. OBP was clearly an important place in the landscape over time. Preliminary excavations established a sequence of occupations that began with the apparent intermittent use of the shelter by Early Stone Age people who left some of their large cutting tools on what is now bedrock. Subsequently, during the many thousands of years that humans frequented OBP during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), they brought in enormous quantities of lithics. OBP is cited for the remarkably large assemblages of ochre recovered from the MSA contexts (Mason 1962, 1988; Volman 1984; Watts 1998, 2002; Mitchell 2002; Wadley 2005a), but my recent research demonstrates a similar focus on the collection of haematite and ochre during the more recent periods. Such iron oxides feature prominently during ritual activities and in symbolic behaviour of modern hunter-gatherers and it is likely that they also did so in the past. The Holocene occupational sequence is extensive, but my excavations and analyses focussed on the last 2000 years of complex LSA history. Apart from the remarkably large lithic assemblage and many thousands of ostrich eggshell beads and blanks produced at OBP, favourable preservation conditions resulted in the recovery of a wide range of tool types made from organic materials, as well as a representative assemblage of macroscopic plant taxa. The data are used to demonstrate how the formal spaces were differentially structured over time by multi-band clusters and small hearth groups to meet their particular social and economic requirements. The differential use of space through time, and the spatial distributions of the different classes of material remains and waste, are explored by using a model of unconstrained cluster analysis (UCA) (Whallon 1984). As the OBP deposits are palimpsests of repeated visits, the UCA, which defines broad boundaries within distinct clustering, detailed general trends in behaviour and site use, and highlighted how the use of shelter space changed when only nuclear groups frequented OBP during the more recent period. Data from the last 2000 years of occupation at OBP chronicle some of the responses of the hunter-gatherers to rapid change in the area as a result of advancing social, economic and political frontiers. The two main pulses of intensification at approximately 2000 BP and again at 1500 BP correspond to the movement of herders and African farmers into the lowlands of the Waterberg. OBP remained a central venue for the aggregation of multi-band groups for more than a thousand years before and during the initial contact period. During these alliance visits, diverse socio-economic activities resulted in the deposition of a rich lithic and non-lithic assemblage. The lithic assemblage is characteristic of classic Wilton. Cryptocrystalline silicas and quartz crystals were the preferred materials used to produce a comprehensive range of formal microliths, and felsites featured prominently in the production of larger tool types. Demographic changes following on contact are underscored by marked changes in site use. Over the last few hundred years the incremental decrease in the production of all classes of subsistence goods reflects social disintegration. In as much as there are evidently continuities in the material culture, the markedly lower frequencies of the lithics and a sharp decrease in the production of decorative items such as ostrich eggshell beads make it likely that only nuclear groups continued to frequent the shelter. Changes in site use, intrusive economic elements, and the production of the different rock arts suggest some fundamental transformations in the economic and ideational landscape. On the Waterberg Plateau similar post-contact changes were evident in the archaeological assemblages. The Waterberg Mountain Bushveld of the plateau cannot support such a large and varied animal biomass as the Limpopo Sweet Bushveld (Estes 1991; Low & Rebelo 1998; Driver et al. 2005; Skinner & Chimimba 2005), and the intensive occupation of this region from approximately 800 years ago parallelled the movement of farming communities onto the plateau. The archaeological data as well as historic documents emphasise that huntergatherers participated in complex interaction networks. The expansion of indigenous farmer settlements ultimately enforced the displacement of many of the hunter-gatherers, whereas others were incorporated into farmer polities. Contemporary lithic assemblages on the Waterberg Plateau are characteristic of the post-classic Wilton stone tool technology, and felsite and quartz crystals were the preferred raw materials. Whereas the composition of the archaeological assemblages of the lowlands and plateau corresponds broadly, the differential use of raw materials, a broader range of subsistence tools and decorative items, and much higher frequencies of all tool types at OBP demonstrate the central position of this locality within the hunter-gatherer landscape. The environment not only provided sustenance, but OBP became a social space with real meaning linked to the identities of the people who frequented the locality over thousands of years. The regional differentiation found within the Waterberg is parallelled by the sequences in the Soutpansberg (Van Doornum 2005) where similar differential use of a particular environment underscores the diversity and complexity evident in hunter-gatherer lifestyles.At OBP a representative assemblage of African farmer ceramics and a markedly larger collection of Bambata ceramics also contrast with sites on the plateau where mostly Eiland farmer pottery and a few sherds of Bambata were present. The ceramic sequence contains a particularly fine collection of the enigmatic Bambata, the stylistic origins of which are addressed in the discussion. The identities of the users and makers of the distinctive densely decorated and thin-walled early ceramics collectively known as Bambata have not yet been resolved. Whereas the paintings certainly indicate the presence of herders on the landscape, it is not clear whether they or the African farmers introduced the Bambata to the huntergatherers who were indisputably using most of the ceramics, as suggested by their continued presence and production of lithic and non-lithic assemblages at OBP. There is also a full complement of the local Early to Late African farmer pottery traditions of Happy Rest, Eiland, Broadhurst, and Icon/Moloko. The San, herder and indigenous farmer paintings, which are representative of the regional sequences, illustrate the continuing central role of OBP. Rock art is widely recognized to reflect religious beliefs and social concerns. The San rock art also served as a medium through which power relations were negotiated between first peoples and newcomers. The region is a renowned repository of rock art. The different arts and their contents complement the findings based on the excavations and the vast body of southern African ethnography. The data are applied to explore how OBP served as an arena where people with different world views and customs performed their ritual and social practices. Historical documents on the Waterberg confirm the archaeological data that suggest a gradual disintegration of hunter-gatherer organisation, and their ultimate displacement to the fringes of African farmer and colonist polities. Small dispersed groups of hunter-gatherers continued to wander through the lowlands of the Limpopo or withdrew to areas where they felt safe from oppression. Some moved across the border to Botswana and into the Kalahari. The remainder were gradually incorporated into farmer societies through intermarriage or as subordinates, living either at farmer villages or in their own small settlements. Today very few traces of the Waterberg hunters, gatherers and fishers remain apart from some corrupted names of places where they once lived.

L’utilisation de l’ocre, interprétée comme la preuve d’une cognition complexe et dans certains cas d’un comportement symbolique, est l’un des traits culturels les plus controversés en contexte paléolithique. Les analyses systématiques de ses différentes phases de traitement sont rares, particulièrement en Afrique de l’Est, malgré l’importance de cette région pour l’étude de l’origine de l’homme moderne. Le but de cette thèse est de reconstruire la chaîne opératoire du traitement de l’ocre à la grotte du Porc-Épic (Dire Dawa, Éthiopie), site clef de la Corne de l’Afrique, afin de déterminer sa fonction et son rôle au sein de populations MSA. Nos résultats montrent que cette collection d’ocre est la plus abondante connue jusqu’à présent dans un site paléolithique, avec 40 kg d’ocre (n = 4213 pièces), 21 outils de traitement et deux galets ocrés trouvés dans des niveaux de ca. 40 ka cal BP. L’analyse de la distribution spatiale a permis de déterminer que la séquence n’a pas été perturbée significativement. Nous avons identifié des zones d’accumulation d’ocre interprétées comme des aires consacrées au traitement de ce matériel. L’analyse technologique a permis d’identifier une grande variété de traces d’utilisation. A travers une analyse par μ-Raman, MEB-EDS et DRX nous avons démontré que les meules et broyeurs ont été utilisés pour traiter différentes types d’ocre. La variété de matières premières et des techniques de traitement indiquent une production de poudres de différentes couleurs et textures, adaptées à des fonctions diverses. Une continuité dans le traitement de l’ocre a été mise en évidence le long de la séquence et interprétée comme le reflet d’une adaptation culturelle transmise au cours du temps. Des analyses rugosimétriques ont montré que l’ocre était traitée pour produire des quantités réduites de poudre. Cela, ainsi que la présence d’un galet possiblement utilisé comme tampon, semblent indiquer une utilisation de l’ocre pour des activités symboliques. Une analyse ethnoarchéologique de l’ocre chez les Hamar (Éthiopie) nous a permis d’évaluer la complexité du traitement de ce matériel et de souligner sa fonction à la fois utilitaire et symbolique. / Ochre is one of the most controversial features found at Palaeolithic sites. It is often interpreted as proof of behavioural complexity and, in some cases, as a marker of symbolically mediated behaviour. Detailed reconstructions of ochre processing techniques are rare, particularly in East Africa, despite the fact that it is one of the most significant areas for the study of the emergence of Homo sapiens. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a detailed reconstruction of the ochre chaîne opératoire at Porc-Epic Cave (Dire Dawa, Ethiopia), key site for the East African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Our approach permits the function of ochre and its significance for late MSA groups to be explored. Our results show that this site has yielded the largest known MSA ochre collection, comprising 40 kg of ochre (n = 4213 pieces), 21 ochre processing tools and two ochre stained artefacts from levels dated to ca. 40 ka cal BP. The analysis of the spatial distribution suggests that no major post-depositional reworking occurred at the site and allowed us to identify ochre accumulations, interpreted as areas devoted to ochre processing. Different types of modification marks were identified. SEM-EDS, μ-Raman and XRD analyses conducted on ochre residues from the processing tools suggest that these tools were used to process different types of ochre.The variety of raw materials and processing techniques indicates that ochre powder of different coarseness and shades was used for a variety of functions. Our results identify patterns of continuity in ochre acquisition, treatment and use, interpreted as the expression of a cohesive cultural adaptation, consistently transmitted through time. Rugosimetric analyses show that ochre was probably processed to produce small amounts of ochre powder. Additionally, a pebble possibly used as a stamp was identified. This seems to suggest a use of ochre for symbolic activities. An ethnoarchaeological analysis of ochre use among the Hamar, Ethiopia, allowed us to evaluate the complexity of the ochre chaîne opératoire and to highlight its use in both functional and symbolic activities.