INTERPRETATIVE TOOLS FOR STUDYING STONE AGE HUNTING TECHNOLOGIES: EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY, MACROFRACTURE ANALYSES AND MORPHOMETRIC TECHNIQUES. Justin Pargeter A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg, 2011 i DECLARATION I declare that this dissertation is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Science to the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination at any other university. Signed Justin Harry Pargeter On this the 05 day of April 2011 ii ABSTRACT This dissertation contains an assessment and use of the macrofracture and morphometric methods for detecting Later Stone Age hunting weaponry. Two sets of replicated unretouched stone artefacts were trampled by cattle and humans to determine the formation of impact fractures under these, and knapping conditions. The results suggest that small frequencies (c. 3 %) of certain impact fracture types do occur on flakes subject to trampling and knapping forces. Macrofracture and morphometric data were recorded for stone artefacts (bladelets, backed artefacts and convergent pieces) from Robberg (c. 18 000 - 12 000 years ago) and Wilton (c. 8000 - 2000 years ago) Later Stone Age assemblages on the southern Cape coast. Impact fracture frequencies were similar in these two samples, but were significantly higher than in the trampling experiments. The morphometric data suggests, on average, congruence between Later Stone Age tools with impact fractures and experimental, archaeological and ethnohistoric spear and arrow tips. Based on these results it appears likely that Wilton backed artefacts, specifically segments, were used as arrowheads and it is unclear at present what weapon types were used during the Robberg phase although the use of spears seems probable. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is dedicated to all the hooves and feet that made the experiments possible. I would like to thank all my family and friends who gave support, advice and input into this project and I would especially like to thank my supervisors, post-graduate support staff and the PAST and NRF foundations for financial and academic assistance during this project. iv CONTENTS PAGE DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................................... II ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ VIII LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................... XI 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 MACROFRACTURE ANALYSIS AND TRAMPLING/KNAPPING EXPERIMENTS .............................................. 1 1.2 ASSESSING HUNTING WEAPONRY USING MACROFRACTURE ANALYSIS ................................................... 2 1.3 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................... 4 2 CHAPTER 2: MACROFRACTURE METHOD BACKGROUND .................................................. 6 2.1 FRACTURE TYPES, NOMENCLATURE AND VARIABLES ............................................................................. 7 2.2 MACROFRACTURE EXPERIMENTS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL USES OUTSIDE OF AFRICA .......................... 12 2.3 MACROFRACTURE EXPERIMENTS IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST .................................................. 18 2.4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE MACROFRACTURE METHOD IN AFRICA ............................... 26 2.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 28 3 CHAPTER 3: BACKGROUND TO MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSES ......................................... 29 3.1 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 31 4 CHAPTER 4: BACKGROUND TO EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY ................................. 32 4.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 32 4.2 THEORETICAL TENETS OF EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY ................................................................... 33 4.3 BUILDING ANALOGIES ALONG EXPERIMENTAL LINES ........................................................................... 34 4.4 THE APPLICABILITY OF EXPERIMENTS IN ARCHAEOLOGY .................................................................... 35 4.5 REFERRING TO THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD ................................................................................... 37 4.6 A TYPOLOGY OF EXPERIMENTS IN ARCHAEOLOGY ............................................................................... 38 4.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 40 5 CHAPTER 5: BACKGROUND TO THE FUNCTIONAL STUDY OF BLADELETS, BACKED ARTEFACTS AND CONVERGENT PIECES .............................................................................. 41 5.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 41 5.2 BACKGROUND TO BLADELETS, BACKED ARTEFACTS AND CONVERGENT PIECES................................... 41 5.3 HUNTING WEAPONRY FORMS AND FUNCTIONS ..................................................................................... 50 5.4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR MECHANICAL AND NON-MECHANICAL HUNTING WEAPON TYPES..................................................................................................................................... 53 v 5.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 56 6 CHAPTER 6: BACKGROUND TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND SAMPLES ................. 57 6.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 57 6.2 BACKGROUND TO NELSON BAY CAVE ................................................................................................. 57 6.3 BACKGROUND TO BYNESKRANSKOP 1 ................................................................................................. 66 6.4 BACKGROUND TO BLOMBOSFONTEIN NATURE RESERVE SITE 4 .......................................................... 74 6.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 79 7 CHAPTER 7: EXPERIMENTAL METHODS ................................................................................. 80 7.1 INTRODUCTION AND AIMS .................................................................................................................... 80 7.2 BACKGROUND TO THE TRAMPLING EXPERIMENTS ................................................................................ 81 7.3 EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS ................................................................................................................. 82 7.4 EXPERIMENTAL METHODS ................................................................................................................... 86 7.5 MACROFRACTURE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................... 91 7.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 91 8 CHAPTER 8: MACROFRACTURE AND MORPHOMETRIC METHODS ............................... 92 8.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 92 8.2 APPLICATION OF THE MACROFRACTURE METHOD ................................................................................ 92 8.3 MORPHOMETRIC AND STATISTICAL METHODS EMPLOYED IN THIS STUDY ............................................ 94 8.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 99 9 CHAPTER 9: RESULTS OF MACROFRACTURE ANALYSIS ON THE EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS ................................................................................................................................... 100 9.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 100 9.2 MACROFRACTURE RESULTS ON THE TRAMPLING AND KNAPPING EXPERIMENTAL FLAKES ................. 100 9.3 RESULTS AS PER DEPOSITIONAL DEPTH .............................................................................................. 107 9.4 RESULTS AS PER ROCK TYPE..............................................................................................................