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Border Cave and the Beginning of the Later Stone Age in South Africa

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Border Cave and the Beginning of the Later Stone Age in South Africa Border Cave and the beginning of the Later Stone Age in South Africa Paola Villaa,b,c,1, Sylvain Sorianod, Tsenka Tsanovae, Ilaria Deganof, Thomas F. G. Highamg, Francesco d’Erricoc,h, Lucinda Backwelli,j, Jeannette J. Lucejkof, Maria Perla Colombinif, and Peter B. Beaumontk aUniversity of Colorado Museum, Boulder, CO 80309-0265; bSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, iBernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, School of Geosciences, and jInstitute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, South Africa; cCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)–Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université Bordeaux 1, 33405 Talence, France; dArchéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité, Université Paris Ouest, CNRS, 92023 Nanterre, France; eMax-Planck- Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany; fDipartimento di Chimica, Università di Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; gResearch Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, England; hInstitute for Archaeology, History, Cultural and Religious Studies, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway; and kArchaeology Department, McGregor Museum, Kimberley 8300, South Africa Edited* by Richard G. Klein, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved June 26, 2012 (received for review February 14, 2012) The transition from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) to the Later Stone jects], together with high frequencies of microliths made by the Age (LSA) in South Africa was not associated with the appearance of bipolar technique and hafted with pitch, and of scaled pieces mark anatomically modern humans and the extinction of Neandertals, as the beginning of the LSA (early LSA or ELSA) at Border Cave. in the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Western Europe. It Some scholars have accepted this interpretation (10); others has therefore attracted less attention, yet it provides insights into have rejected it (11), expressed doubts about the association of patterns of technological evolution not associated with a new organic artifacts (11–13), or suggested that the transition MSA– hominin. Data from Border Cave (KwaZulu-Natal) show a strong LSA took place between 32 and 22 ka, setting the beginning of – pattern of technological change at approximately 44 42 ka cal BP, the LSA at 22 ka (14, 15). The temporal boundary between the marked by adoption of techniques and materials that were present MSA and the LSA and how the transition took place in the re- but scarcely used in the previous MSA, and some novelties. The gion remain controversial. New data are warranted. agent of change was neither a revolution nor the advent of a new species of human. Although most evident in personal ornaments Results and symbolic markings, the change from one way of living to an- The Sequence. The post-HP is subdivided into four main layers: other was not restricted to aesthetics. Our analysis shows that: (i)at 2WA, 2BS Lower C, 2BS Lower A+B, and 2BS UP. ELSA Border Cave two assemblages, dated to 45–49 and >49 ka, show a gradual abandonment of the technology and tool types of the layers are 1WA and 1BS Lower B+C (Table 1 and SI Appendix, post-Howiesons Poort period and can be considered transitional in- Dating, Fig. S1, and Table S1). We have done a comprehensive dustries; (ii)the44–42 ka cal BP assemblages are based on an expe- study of three post-HP layers and of the two ELSA layers. Our dient technology dominated by bipolar knapping, with microliths focus is on the technology of stone artifacts and the analysis of hafted with pitch from Podocarpus bark, worked suid tusks, ostrich hafting adhesives and bored stones. We discuss the origins of eggshell beads, bone arrowheads, engraved bones, bored stones, bow and arrow technology. The organic materials (Table 2) are and digging sticks; (iii) these assemblages mark the beginning of the the subject of another article (9) in PNAS. LSA in South Africa; (iv) the LSA emerged by internal evolution; and (v) the process of change began sometime after 56 ka. Lithic Raw Materials. Several varieties of raw material were used at Border Cave; their frequencies change through time (SI Ap- human behavior | hafting pitch | hunting weapons | gathering equipment pendix, Table S2). The most common variety is a porphyritic rhyolite with plagioclase phenocrysts in a fine-grained glassy he period between ca. 40,000 and 20,000 y ago in South matrix; less common is aphanitic rhyolite of better knapping TAfrica is poorly known, and the timing of the Middle Stone quality. Other materials are chalcedony, which occurs as small Age (MSA) to Late Stone Age (LSA) transition is debated. In nodules not larger than 6 to 7 cm in diameter, and small nodules 1999 the LSA was defined (1) as a culture-stratigraphic unit that or pebbles of milky quartz. Crystal quartz is rare or absent in the includes all assemblages dated within the last 20,000 y, charac- MSA but becomes more frequent in ELSA. Quartzite, dolerite, terized by artifacts such as hafted microlithic tools; bored stones and hornfels occur in negligible quantities. Rhyolite is the local used as digging-stick weights; bows and arrows; polished bone bedrock; the cave itself was formed by differential weathering of tools, such as awls, linkshafts, and arrowheads; fishing equip- a less-resistant agglomerate within the Lebombo rhyolites (16). ment; beads of shell and ostrich eggshell; and engraved deco- Chalcedony and quartz occur in vesicles within the rhyolite; these ration on bone and wood items. seem to be most common 40 km from the site (4). In the ELSA The earliest technological expression of the LSA would be the layers the outer surface of some quartz and chalcedony artifacts – – Robberg Industry dated ca. 22 21 to 12 ka BP (1 3). show alluvial cortex, suggesting that they were collected from the In the 1970s Beaumont and colleagues described the Border Ingwavuma river gravels (2.4 km south of the site), together with Cave stratigraphic sequence (SI Appendix, The Site) ranging from few cobbles of quartzite and dolerite. ca. 200 ka to the present (4–8). In the upper part of the sequence two layers, 1WA and 1BS Lower B+C, now dated 44–42 ka cal BP, contain evidence of some remarkable changes in stone and organic Author contributions: P.V. and S.S. designed research; P.V., S.S., T.T., T.F.G.H., and P.B.B. tool manufacture and in the making of decorated objects and performed research; P.V., S.S., T.T., I.D., T.F.G.H., F.d., L.B., J.J.L., and M.P.C. analyzed data; personal ornaments. Some of these innovations have antecedents and P.V., S.S., and I.D. wrote the paper. in the preceding Howiesons Poort (HP) and Still Bay periods (1), The authors declare no conflict of interest. but they disappear or are extremely scarce in the following post-HP *This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor. period, ca. 60–40 ka (9). According to Beaumont, the appearance 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. of new tools and ornaments [bored stones, digging sticks, ostrich This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. eggshell (OES) beads, bone points, engraved bone, and wood ob- 1073/pnas.1202629109/-/DCSupplemental. 13208–13213 | PNAS | August 14, 2012 | vol. 109 | no. 33 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1202629109 Downloaded by guest on September 25, 2021 Table 1. Border Cave: Lithic assemblage composition of layers 2WA to 1BS Lower Categories 2WA 2BS LR A+B 2BS UP 1WA 1BS LR B+C n 766 406 369 4,729 722 Flakes and flake proximal fragments 61.4 64.5 60.4 27.1 66.9 Blades and all blade fragments 31.9 21.7 12.2 2.5 2.2 Cores and core fragments 0.8 1.7 3.0 0.7 2.5 Bipolar cores and fragments 0.0 1.5 5.4 12.6 5.8 Bipolar flakes and bladelets 0.5 6.2 18.4 53.8 16.3 Scaled pieces 0.3 1.0 0.0 2.7 6.0 Retouched pieces 5.2 3.4 0.5 0.6 0.3 Values are percentages except where noted. MSA 3/Post-HP reaches its maximum in layer 1WA. Reduction sequences are sim- 2WA is a white ash layer ca. 14 cm thick, dated to 60 ± 3kaby pler. Cores have a discoid morphology but are organized in short, electron spin resonance (ESR) (7) and directly overlying 3BS, the successive, unidirectional sequences without any visible prepara- last HP layer (SI Appendix, Fig. S1B). Blades and elongated flakes tion (SI Appendix, Fig. S8). The strong increase in bipolar cores fl with parallel sides are the main objective of the debitage. Core and akes in 2BS UP indicates change toward LSA technology fl exploitation proceeded with bidirectional removals from two op- (Fig. 1). A similar increase in bipolar cores, bipolar akes, and posed striking platforms using the wide face of the core, as is scaled pieces and a decline in the production of blades has been common in the European Middle Paleolithic (17). This gives rise observed in the post-HP at Rose Cottage in layer THO dated by ± to a variety of end-products, mainly pointed forms (SI Appendix, thermoluminescence (TL) to 47.1 10.2 ka (19). Post-HP assemb- Fig. S6). Many flakes with unidirectional or bidirectional scars lages directly above THO show almost complete absence of blade probably come from the same reduction sequences. There is, cores, and the blades present are less standardized.
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