Middle Stone Age Lithic Technology at Mvumu, Niassa, Mozambique

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Middle Stone Age Lithic Technology at Mvumu, Niassa, Mozambique UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Middle Stone Age Lithic Technology at Mvumu, Niassa, Mozambique by Tim Bennett A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA June 2011 © Tim Bennett 2011 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-83608-8 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-83608-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Abstract For over ten years the origin of modern human behaviour has been the focus of the majority of Middle Stone Age (MSA) research in Africa. However, the analytical value of the modern behaviour concept has recently been questioned. Critics argue that studying less abstract MSA ecology and behavioural variability would better serve our understanding of the period, but such studies are hindered by the fragmentary and unevenly distributed nature of the fundamental aspects of MSA archaeology. This thesis makes a step forward in filling the gaps in this record by presenting lithic technology from a final MSA open air site called Mvumu in the Niassa basin of northern Mozambique. The results suggest that Mvumu fits well with other Niassa basin sites and sites throughout the south-central African woodlands and forests suggests that Mvumu‟s lithic technology belongs to an overarching technological complex throughout the greater area. ii Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to Julio Mercader for his support and guidance throughout the writing of this thesis. Your vision for the Projecto Património Arqueológico e Cultural (Archaeological and Cultural Patrimony Project or PAC) that led to this thesis and devotion to Mozambican archaeology is inspirational. I would also like to thank the remaining members of my committee, Brian Kooyman and Len Hills, and the entirety of the University of Calgary Department of Archaeology for their support over the years and into the future as I embark on my Ph.D. research. Dale Walde also deserves special mention for his support of my Ph.D. application and as a co-author on several papers published during my MA program. John Gosse of the Dalhousie Geochronology Center made an important contribution to this thesis by providing dates for Mvumu and my fellow PAC members Mussa Raja, Steven Simpson, and Arianna Fogelman also deserve recognition for their role in bringing my research to this point. Much appreciated financial support came from both the University of Calgary and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. My research benefited from the support of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, especially Professors Hilário Madiquida and Solange Macamo. Their involvement with this research and insight into practicing archaeology in Mozambique has been instrumental in my professional development. This research would have been impossible without archaeological permits from the Mozambican Ministry of Education and Culture (03-2003 and 01-2007) and temporary artifact export permits from the Mozambican Chamber of Commerce (Certificate of Origin no. 0134) and the Mozambican Customs Service (Export License no. 24399). I iii also need to thank Lourenço Thawe and his family, Justin and Sofia Sondergaard, and the numerous workers, friends, and authorities in Niassa for their significant contributions to this work. And lastly I need to acknowledge my family and friends for their support. Especially my wife Ingrid Dinsmore for putting up with me disappearing to Africa for months at a time and “barely” batting an eye when I told her I was applying to continue in the Ph.D. program. Also needing special recognition are my parents Bob and Brenda Bennett, band mates from The Drive, Inquisition, and Rx, and Chris Esselmont for his involvement as a co-author and his excellent suggestion, which sadly did not make it into the final version of this text, that my introduction should read “I found some stones, here‟s more than you ever wanted to know about them”. Maybe I‟ll find a place for those words in my dissertation. iv Dedication For Ingrid Dinsmore Throughout it all you were the light that led me home v Table of Contents Approval Page ..................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures and Illustrations ......................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: THE AFRICAN MIDDLE STONE AGE AND THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS .................................................................................................5 2.1 – Theories regarding the origin of Homo sapiens ......................................................6 2.1.1 – Multiregional theories ....................................................................................8 2.1.2 – Out of Africa theories .....................................................................................9 2.1.3 – Fossil evidence for the origins of H. sapiens ...............................................10 2.1.4 – Genetic evidence for the origins of H. sapiens .............................................12 2.2 Archaeological evidence for complexity in Middle Stone Age behaviour ..............14 2.3 – Middle Stone Age technological behaviour ..........................................................22 CHAPTER THREE: ARCHAEOLOGY IN MOZAMBIQUE .........................................37 3.1 – History of archaeology in Mozambique ...............................................................39 3.2 – Archaeology in the Niassa Rift .............................................................................44 3.2.1 – Physiography of the study area .....................................................................46 3.2.2 – Archaeology in Sanga District ......................................................................50 3.2.3 Archaeology in Lago District ..........................................................................53 3.3 – Mvumu ..................................................................................................................55 CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYTICAL METHODS AND LITHIC CLASSIFICATION SCHEME ..................................................................................................................63 4.1 – Study assemblage and methodological approach .................................................63 4.2 – Raw material analytical methods ..........................................................................63 4.3 Lithic Artifact Analytical Methodology ..................................................................64 4.3.1 – Core classification scheme ...........................................................................65 4.3.1.1 – Simple Cores .......................................................................................66 4.3.1.2 – Prepared cores .....................................................................................68 4.3.2 –
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