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Technological Change in the Early Middle Pleistocene: the Onset of the Middle Stone Age at Kathu Pan 1, Northern Cape, South Africa

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Technological Change in the Early Middle Pleistocene: the Onset of the Middle Stone Age at Kathu Pan 1, Northern Cape, South Africa Technological Change in the Early Middle Pleistocene: The Onset of the Middle Stone Age at Kathu Pan 1, Northern Cape, South Africa by Jayne Wilkins A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Toronto © Copyright by Jayne Wilkins 2013 Technological Change in the Early Middle Pleistocene: The Onset of the Middle Stone Age at Kathu Pan 1, Northern Cape, South Africa Jayne Wilkins Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Toronto 2013 Abstract 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. ii 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. iii Acknowledgments I have many people to thank for helping me with the completion of this dissertation. My supervisor, Michael Chazan, has been an excellent mentor, always available for engaged conversations about interpreting the Paleolithic record that often urged me to step back and appreciate differing perspectives on an issue. I also appreciate that Michael encouraged me to explore the questions and problems that interest me the most. I am grateful for the guidance I received from my committee members Max Friesen and Genevieve Dewar. The comments from my external reviewer, Alison Brooks, were extremely helpful and I am honored that she participated in my defense. I would also like to thank my additional defense participants, Susan Pfieffer and Ed Swenson for additional insight on my findings. Peter Beaumont deserves special acknowledgement for pioneering research at Kathu Pan and for ensuring that all the materials from his excavations were carefully provenienced and curated for future study. I am privileged to be able to build upon the foundation he established. I also owe thanks to the current team investigating Kathu Pan 1, including Liora Horwitz, Naomi Porat, and Rainer Grün, whose pivotal research provided the basis for my dissertation. David Morris at the McGregor Museum was instrumental in organizing access to the Kathu Pan 1 collection, facilitating export of the points, and helping with the logistics of field research. Research collaborators Ben Schoville and Kyle Brown were key to the success of this project, particularly the functional analysis of the KP1 points. I would like to thank them for their research contributions, but more importantly for being excellent role models; their enthusiasm for Stone Age science is infectious. I look forward to much collaboration in the future. The guidance I received while conducting my Master’s research was instrumental in helping me gain lithic analysis skills required for conducting this dissertation project, and for that I am mostly indebted to Kathy Kuman. It is also because of my first field school under the direction of Kathy Kuman and Luca Pollarolo that I decided to pursue graduate studies in the South African iv Stone Age. I had my very first and very memorable Palaeolithic course with Mary McDonald at the University of Calgary. Part of my success in the project to the encouragement, guidance, and inspiration I received from Mary, Kathy, and Luca during my undergrad and MA programs. I would also like to thank Vincent Dinku, Jane Joubert, and Chantel Wilson for assisting me with my research of the collections and Koot Msawula, Mark McGranaghan, Hilary Duke, Sarah Ranlett, Anna Phillips, and Ian Watts for helping me with raw material surveys. Thank you to Ed Swenson for granting me access to his microscope for viewing my thin- sections, and to Heather Miller and Greg Braun for assisting me with the rock saw. My office mates and good friends Danielle Macdonald and Matthew Walls helped me work through a lot of these ideas and I will miss our ‘work-a-thons’ in the ‘power office’. Danielle has always been exceptionally supportive and I treasure the friendship we developed during my time in Toronto. This research was primarily supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, but I am also grateful for funding from other sources, including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, the Department of Anthropology, and the University of Toronto. Finally, I would like to express appreciation to Scott, for his love and support, even when distance and stress challenged us, and to my Mom, who always believes in me and is always there to back me. I dedicate this dissertation to my father, Raymond Wilkins, who I know would be proud. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................x 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 2 Hominin Evolution in the Middle Pleistocene .................................................................5 2.1 The African Stone Age ........................................................................................................5 2.2 Morphological Evolution in the Middle Pleistocene ...........................................................8 2.3 The Significance of Technological and Morphological Change in the Middle Pleistocene .........................................................................................................................14 2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................32 3 Technological Change in the Middle Pleistocene ..........................................................34 3.1 Chronology of the ESA-MSA ‘transition’ .........................................................................34 3.2 Defining and Evaluating the Fauresmith Industry .............................................................45 3.3 Blade Production in the Middle Pleistocene ......................................................................62 3.4 MSA Points and Point Function ........................................................................................69 3.5 Raw Material Foraging in the ESA and MSA ...................................................................75 3.6 Summary ............................................................................................................................80 4 Kathu Pan 1 (KP1) ...........................................................................................................82 4.1 Geological and ecological setting ......................................................................................82 4.2 Previous Research at KP1 ..................................................................................................84 4.3 Lithic Collection Catalogue and Documentation ...............................................................91 4.4 A consideration of site formation processes ......................................................................98 4.5 Summary ..........................................................................................................................102
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