Reports on Completed Research for 2014 “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 2014. 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. JAMIE LYNN CLARK, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, received a grant in April 2013 to aid research on “The Sibudu Fauna: Implications for Understanding Behavioral Variability in the Southern African Middle Stone Age.” This project sought to gain a deeper understanding of human behavioral variability during the Middle Stone Age through the analysis of the Still Bay (SB; ~71,000 ya) and pre-SB (>72,000 ya) fauna from Sibudu Cave. In addition to characterizing variation in human hunting behavior within and between the two periods, the project had two larger goals. First, to explore whether the data were consistent with hypotheses linking the appearance of the SB to environmental change. No significant changes in the relative frequency of open vs. closed dwelling species were identified, with species preferring closed habitats predominant throughout. This suggests that at Sibudu, the onset of the SB was not correlated with climate change. Secondly, data collected during this project will be combined with lithic and faunal data from later deposits at Sibudu in order to explore the relationship between subsistence and technological change spanning from the pre-SB through the post-Howiesons Poort MSA (~58,000 ya). Preliminary analysis indicates steady, continuous change in the fauna over time, with no marked breaks associated with the major changes in technology. This suggests that technological changes may not have been driven by subsistence needs, and may instead reflect changes in mobility, demography, or social organization. DR. J. CAMERON MONROE, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, was awarded funding in October 2012 to aid research on “The Cana Archaeological Survey.” Urbanism has been a central focus of archaeological research for more than a century. Although archaeologists have long focused on the earliest cities, a variety of urban contexts that thrived in contact settings have emerged as ideal contexts in which to explore urbanism from a broader anthropological vantage point. The Cana Archaeological Survey examines the origins of Cana, a city on the Slave Coast of West Africa during the era of the slave trade (16th through 19th centuries AD). The project sought to understand the changing relationship between Cana, a major precolonial city of the kingdom of Dahomey, located in the modern Republic of Bénin, and its broader hinterlands over the course of the second millennium AD. The project employed systematic regional archaeological survey and test excavation around Cana to provide initial inferences into whether urbanism in Dahomey was: 1) a deeply rooted precontact phenomenon resulting from the close articulation of towns and their respective countrysides; or rather 2) a state-driven process driven by long- distance forces of the Atlantic Era. Collectively, archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence collected suggests that the latter was the case, providing a valuable window onto the political and economic forces shaping urban life in the tumultuous Atlantic Era. 2 DR. IAN D.S. WATTS, an independent scholar in Athens, Greece, was awarded funding in April 2012 to aid research on “The Antiquity and Behavioral Implications of Pigment Use in the Northern Cape (South Africa).” Earth pigment use is widely considered to date back approximately 300,000 years (~300 ka), but several poorly documented claims have been made for earlier use, from Fauresmith and Acheulean contexts in South Africa’s Northern Cape. This project evaluated these claims. At Kathu Pan, scraped specularite—a glittery form of haematite—is associated with some of the earliest blades and points, at ~500 ka. This is currently the earliest compelling evidence for pigment use. Utilized specularite and red pigments were recovered from an undated Fauresmith context at the back of Wonderwerk Cave, where firelight would have been essential. Specularite was also confirmed at Canteen Kopje, associated with early Middle Stone Age or Fauresmith material, with dating estimates for overlying deposits indicating a minimum age of ~300 ka. Claims for Acheulean pigments at Kathu Pan, Kathu Townlands, and Wonderwerk could not be confirmed; indeed, there is good evidence of absence. Minimum distances to specularite outcrops for Wonderwerk and Canteen Kopje are 50km and 170km respectively, with no natural agencies capable of reducing these distances. These findings lend some support to predictions of Power’s “female cosmetic coalitions” model of the evolution of symbolic culture, while challenging predictions of Kuhn’s “honest, low-cost signals” hypothesis. DR. VERONICA N. WAWERU, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, was awarded a grant in October 2009 to aid research on “Chronology of Holocene Innovations and Inventions in West Turkana, Kenya.” Chronology data from this research provide better resolution for dates of innovations in West Turkana between 8.2ka and 0.87ka. The Holocene marks the introduction of domestic fauna in a region that until ~5ka relied on a hunting/gathering/fishing subsistence base. A combination of Thermoluminescence (TL) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) methods were used to refine the timeline for innovations at different paleo-habitats in West Turkana. The study confirms existing dates for the large fishing village of Lothagam and also yields older dates for the Later Holocene lacustrine sites of Lopoy and Napedet than previously known. Aggregate data from the Holocene in the Turkana Basin is uninformative about whether local hunter/fishers adopted pastoralism or if demic movements brought the new socio-economic package of domesticate fauna and pillar-building. Chronology data from this research and that of other scientists in the last 40 years point to the existence of a mixed strategy involving hunting, fishing, and use of small domestic stock up to the very late Holocene. Niche partitioning may explain the existence of multiple economic strategies where different social groups pursued varied subsistence strategies while maintaining exchange relations involving ceramics and domestic stock. Future research will seek to answer this question. DR. EDWIN WILMSEN, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, was awarded a grant in April 2013 to aid research on “Potters, Clays, and Lands: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Social Dimensions of Pottery in Botswana.” A potting clay mine and a nearby archaeological site at Manaledi village in the Tswapong Hills of Botswana were excavated. The work and family histories of current potters in this village, along with those of 41 potters in five other villages, were studied using ethnohistorical methods. Clay from the mine and sherds from the excavations and current potters were prepared as thin section slides and examined by petrography. Uniformity in trace minerals in the Manaledi clays and sherds confirm that clay from the mine has been used for potting exclusively at Manaledi for several generations. Manaledi ancestors, and the Hills 3 themselves, are powerful guardians of the mines and their interests must be protected. Among these interests is procreation, and unlike at other villages, pregnant Manaledi women may work the mines and continue potting. Ancestry and pregnancy are bipolar attributes of community continuity bound together with tenurial rights in land through descent and are emphasized by village potters. Potters at all the villages studied are of varying age, status, religion, and skill levels; most are elderly women (40-79 years old) living in rural areas, but younger women are increasingly becoming apprentices to supplement their income, as demand for clay pots is expanding in both traditional and commercial markets. Asia and the Near East: DR. BRADLEY A. CHASE, Albion College, Albion, Michigan, received a grant in October 2012 to aid research on “Pastoral Land-use and Social Change in Harappan Gujarat: Strontium Isotope Analysis at Gola Dhoro.” This project has established an empirical baseline for further investigations of the land-use changes that may have accompanied the emergence and decline of South Asia’s first urban civilization. This was accomplished through the analysis of strontium isotopes in the tooth enamel of domestic animals excavated from Gola Dhoro, an important crafting and trading settlement of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BC), located in Gujarat, India. Although less than two hectares in areal extent, this settlement rapidly developed into a heavily fortified manufacturing center. Eventually, however, the intensity of industry declined and the residents of the site no longer participated in the interregional networks that had linked them to the inland cities. Preliminary findings suggest that while the residents of Bagasra during its main phase of occupation were largely self-sufficient in the production of small stock raised primarily for meat, they were also dependent to a considerable extent on intraregional exchange networks for the procurement of cattle kept for secondary