University of Cape Town November, 2011
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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University The Sword in the Stone: Lithic Raw Material Exploitation in the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, Southern Cape, South Africa Town Cape of by Kyle S. Brown Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy UniversityFaculty of Science University of Cape Town November, 2011 Department of Archaeology Dr. David Braun Dr. Judith Sealy The Sword in the Stone: Lithic Raw Material Exploitation in the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, Southern Cape, South Africa “Among environmental factors which may greatly affect the kinds of artifacts produced, the nature of the materials available to the artisan is of primary importance.” (Goodman 1944) “Change in raw material coincided with some changes in technology but alteration of the biome still has to be recognized.” (Clark 1980:53) Town Cape ofby Kyle S. Brown Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Science University of Cape Town November, 2011 University Department of Archaeology Dr. David Braun Dr. Judith Sealy Abstract Sites along the southernmost coast of Africa preserve the best known record of the behaviour of early modern humans. Until recently, there has been only one relatively well-described long-sequence site, Klasies River, which has been taken as the reference sequence for the MSA. The bulk of the excavations at Klasies were carried out in the 1960s. This thesis presents a description and analysis of the lithic artefacts from the recently excavated site of Pinnacle Point 5-6, Mossel Bay, from a sequence dating between ~50-85ka. PP5-6 has been excavated to the highest contemporary standards, enabling a more detailed analysis of the lithics than is possible for Klasies. Although the PP5-6 lithic sequence conforms with the overall trends of MSA artifact manufacture, a number of differences from other sites are identified here for the first time - a significant step towards understanding behavioral variability and complexity among early modern humans. Town The increased use of fine-grained raw materials at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6) and other stratified coastal southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites is contemporary with the widespread appearance Capeof material culture often cited as evidence for the early expression of behavioral modernity in southern Africa. The observed patterning in raw material use (typically sofilcrete and quartzite), which also corresponds with a period of extreme climate instability, has led to differing interpretations of the behavioral complexity of raw material selection in the MSA. The PP5-6 assemblage is unique in that it is well-dated and is currently the only coastal MSA site that has a complementary stable carbon and oxygen isotopic record and coastline model that provides detailed local paleoenvironmental context. The methodology forUniversity this study includes a survey of raw materials in the Mossel Bay region and the formulation and testing of a new model that predicts how paleoenvironmental change may have affected raw material availability and technological organization at Pinnacle Point. The PP5-6 assemblage is described in detail and then a focused technological analysis examines raw material procurement patterns, lithic heat treatment, and aspects of raw material economy for the predominant stone materials used in the assemblage. The results of this dissertation demonstrate that there are consistent technological differences in patterns of procurement, preparation, debitage size, and conservation i between silcrete and quartzite lithics at PP5-6 that establishes a record of complexity in raw material use well in advance of the proliferation of fine-grained raw materials and formal tool production commonly observed at MSA sites between c. 60-75ka. The technological variability at PP5-6 is partially correlated with changes in the paleoenvironment, but tool production may be viewed as a parallel strategy where the choice in material selection considered the costs and functional advantages of each raw material balanced by the opportunities or constraints imposed by the dynamic paleolandscape. Heat treatment of silcrete has been demonstrated in this thesis to occur early in the PP5-6 sequence at approximately 85ka. Fire-assisted engineering of materials is a technological innovation that signals an elevated ability for advanced planning and supports an increasingly early origin for technological complexity in the MSA of southern Africa. Town Cape of University ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors, David Braun and Judith Sealy, who put a lot of trust in my ability to make progress while spending most of my time working away from UCT in Mossel Bay. I could not have finished without their guidance, encouragement and advice. I also appreciate the very helpful comments and insight provided by the external examiners. This dissertation was immeasurably improved by their suggestions. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Institute for Human Origins at Arizona State University during the four years that I was living and conducting research in Mossel Bay. The intellectual interaction with SACP4 project members and other visiting scientists during field seasons stimulated many of the ideas presented in this dissertation. In particular I would like to thank the personal and professional guidance of Curtis Marean, a friend and mentor who gave me the opportunityTown to direct excavations at PP5-6 and the freedom to study the Pinnacle Point collections. A special thanks to Zenobia Jacobs for permission to use unpublished OSL ages, and to Erich Fisher and Mira Bar-Matthews for leading the research effortsCape that provided most of the environmental context for the research presented here. The MAPCRM team at the Dias Museum,of headed by Betina du Plessis, deserves a lot of credit for making sure that the collections are always well managed and ready for analysis. Lwando Magxidolo meticulously organized the PP5-6 lithics in preparation for this study. Benjamin Schoville, Simen Oestmo, Jocelyn Bernatchez, and Amy Rector assisted in raw material collection and heat treatment experiments. Finally, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my family for their encouragementUniversity and support, and particularly to my wife Kathy, who patiently shouldered the load during my physical and often mental absence from family responsibilities while conducting research and writing. iii Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments ..........................................................................................................iii Table of Contents.............................................................................................................iv List of Tables.....................................................................................................................vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................ viii 1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................ 1 2.0 Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Early Stone Age .................................................................................................25 2.2 Later Stone Age .................................................................................................28 2.3 Southern African MSA ......................................................................................30 3.0 The Cape MSA Raw Material Pattern.................................................................47 3.1 Existing Models .................................................................................................51 3.2 PP5-6 Site Context Model .................................................................................53 3.3 Model Evaluation Methodology ........................................................................57 3.4 Summary of Model Expectations and Assumptions..........................................58 4.0 Introduction to PP56 ............................................................................................62 4.1 PP5-6 Site Formation Model .............................................................................64Town 4.2 PP5-6 Excavation Strategies..............................................................................65 4.3 Excavation Methods...........................................................................................66 4.4 PP5-6 Stratigraphy/Context of Lithic Samples..................................................68 5.0 Lithic Raw Material Distributions......................................................................74 5.1 Primary Context Lithologies..............................................................................75Cape 5.2 Secondary Context Materials.............................................................................80 5.3 Raw Material