Reports on Completed Research for 2015

Reports on Completed Research for 2015 “Supporting worldwide research in all branches of Anthropology” REPORTS ON COMPLETED RESEARCH The following research projects, supported by Foundation grants, were reported as complete during 2015. The reports are listed by subdiscipline, then geographic area (where applicable) and in alphabetical order. A Bibliography of Publications resulting from Foundation-supported research (reported over the same period) follows, along with an Index of Grantees Reporting Completed Research. ARCHAEOLOGY Africa: DR. CHARLES P. EGELAND, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, was awarded funding in April 2015 to aid research on “Geochemical and Physical Characterization of Lithic Raw Materials in the Olduvai Basin, Tanaznia.” The study of raw materials has traditionally been deeply embedded in analyses of the Early Stone Age (ESA), and the impact of source rock characteristics on early hominin ranging behavior and technological variation is now widely acknowledged. Northern Tanzania’s Olduvai Basin is home to dozens of ESA sites and a great diversity of lithic raw material sources. In order to better chacaterize ESA technologial behavior, this study collected samples from over 200 rock specimens from seven potential raw material sources in the Olduvai Basin to analyze their geochemical (via x-ray fluorescence) and physical (via standard hardness tests) properties. These data provide information on, respectively, the chemical signature and tool suitability of rock sources. Preliminary results indicate that quantitative estimates of hardness differ significantly between major rock types, which have important implications for raw material choice during the ESA. ANNEKE JANZEN, then a graduate student at University of California, Santa Cruz, California, was granted funds in October 2012 to aid research on “Mobility and Herd Management among Early Pastoralists in East Africa,” supervised by Dr. Diane Gifford- Gonzalez. Cattle-based pastoralism emerged in Kenya around 3000 years ago and has adapted with changes in the social and ecological landscape to this day. Ethnographic research documented significant changes in herding strategies among pastoral groups throughout colonial and post-colonial periods. Stable isotope analysis elucidates whether mobility was crucial in maintaining herds before agricultural populations entered in the region. Sequential sampling of livestock tooth enamel presents an isotopic record of diet during tooth formation, and reflects individual animals’ movements across the landscape. Analyses were done on teeth of modern livestock with known life histories to confirm the usefulness of these methods for East African archaeological dentitions. Livestock teeth from Savanna Pastoral Neolithic sites in the Central Rift Valley and neighboring plains of Kenya were then analyzed for their strontium stable isotope composition, which tracks movements across geologically distinct environments. Monitoring such movements across a landscape required establishing a baseline strontium isotope map of the region. Animals with small home ranges were collected throughout the study area, yielding strontium signatures for local environments. Results show low mobility among early pastoralists, indicating that the more dynamic mobility patterns seen among East African pastoralists today developed relatively recently. 2 DR. MARY PRENDERGAST, St. Louis University, Madrid, Spain, and DR. AUDAX MABULLA, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, et al., were awarded an International Collaborative Research Grant in November 2011 to aid collaborative research on “Archaeological Investigation of a ‘Moving Frontier’ of Early Herding in Northern Tanzania.” A team of international researchers and Tanzanian students conducted surveys and excavations in the Engaruka and Manyara basins and on the Mbulu plateau. This is often thought to be a “southern frontier” for early herders interacting with local foragers. The surveys documented all site types, including large numbers of Middle and especially Later Stone Age lithics, while Stone Age ceramics were quite rare. However, one site has proven to be the largest intact Pastoral Neolithic site in Tanzania, and the southernmost secure evidence of early herders in eastern Africa. This and other ceramic sites produced a series of precise and relatively early dates, placing the arrival of pastoralism in the early third millennium BP; the dates, when compared with those in Kenya, show no north-south cline, as expected based on existing models of the spread of herding. Connections between northern and southern Pastoral Neolithic sites are demonstrated through sourcing of obsidian artifacts, as well as through similarities in ground stone tools and bowls and, in some cases, ceramics. The survey has identified productive areas for future research, in addition to providing new chronologies and large ceramic, lithic and faunal assemblages from which one can examine early herders’ daily lives. DANIELA E. ROSSO, then a graduate student at University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, received funding in October 2013 to aid research on “Technological and Physicochemical Characterization of MSA Pigments from Porc-Epic Cave (Dire Dawa, Ethiopia),” supervised by Dr. Francesco D’Errico. Novel methodology was applied to the analysis of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) ochre and ochre-processing tools from Porc-Epic cave (Dire Dawa, Ethiopia) with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the emergence of pigment related technology in this region, and discussing its implications for the debate on the origin of “behavioral modernity.” This research shows that the MSA layers of this site have yielded the richest collection of pigment thus far, with 40 kg of ochre fragments and 23 ochre-processing tools. Porc-Epic cave is one of the rare palaeolithic sites at which most of the stages of ochre treatment are recorded. Elemental and mineralogical analyses show that ferruginous rocks, with variable proportions of iron, silicon, and aluminum, rich in hematite, goethite and clay minerals, were used to produce ochre powder, probably for a variety of functions (utilitarian and symbolic). The identification of different types of modification marks on the ochre fragments, and the presence of grindstones of a variety of raw material, show that a complex ochre treatment system, previously unknown in the Horn of Africa MSA, was used by the inhabitants of Porc-Epic cave. DR. EDWIN WILMSEN, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, received funding in March 2015 to aid engaged activities on “Reciprocal Relations: Expanding the Benefits of Research in the Study Area, Botswana.” Initial discussions/seminars with Botswana National Museum and University of Botswana personnel focused on concerns about the relevance of ethnography for interpreting archaeological data and on new legislation regarding access to clay resources. It is unclear if this applies to small-scale operators such as potters whose access to clays could be in jeopardy; urgent steps must be taken to clarify the matter. Another concern was an increasing tendency for potters to adopt mechanical rather than traditional modes of potting, the fear being that a significant facet of Tswana heritage will be lost. A workshop (including the screening of the grantee’s film on Pilikwe potters) addressed traditional and contemporary constraints on resource procurement as aspects of land tenure, the technical steps taken by the potters in 3 transforming raw material into clay, and analytic procedures used to identify clays and how such data aid in identifying prehistoric social interactions. Visits to Pilikwe and Manaledi potters revealed substantial changes taking place in Pilikwe—which is being absorbed into a labor catchment area where potters “don't want to stay ‘traditional,’ we want production”— while in Manaledi traditional potting is thriving, this difference largely a matter of geographical location. Both potters need market exposure and we will investigate ways to accomplish this. ANDREW M. ZIPKIN, then a graduate student at George Washington University, Washington, DC, received funding in October 2012 to aid research on “Material Symbolism and Ochre Use in Middle Stone Age East-Central Africa,” supervised by Dr. Alison S. Brooks. The discovery of ochre pigments at African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites has been widely interpreted as relating to the onset of modern human symbolic behavior. However, an alternate hypothesis holds that ochre’s first function was technological rather than symbolic. This project asked, “When routine human acquisition of ochreous minerals began during the MSA, was this activity motivated primarily by symbolic or technological considerations?” Using ochre artifacts from the site of Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia, as well as samples of mineral pigment deposits from Zambia, Kenya, and Malawi, this project refined geochemical methods of matching ochre artifacts to their source on the landscape. In addition, ochre streak colorimetry combined with analysis of how ochre artifacts from Twin Rivers were modified by humans determined that pigments with a saturated purple color were preferentially modified by grinding, likely to produce powdered pigment, relative to other types of ochre available near the site. Finally, an experimental archaeology study of ochre and resin adhesives determined that ochre fillers do not yield a significantly stronger adhesive than other widely available minerals like quartz,

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