Book contents
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- 22 Animal palaeocommunity variability and habitat preference of the robust australopiths in South Africa
- 23 Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present
- 24 African Genesis revisited: reflections on Raymond Dart and the ‘predatory transition from ape(-man) to man’
- 25 Shared intention in early artefacts: an exploration of deep structure and implications for communication and language
- 26 Sibudu Cave: recent archaeological work on the Middle Stone Age
- 27 The oldest burials and their significance
- Index
- Plate Section
26 - Sibudu Cave: recent archaeological work on the Middle Stone Age
from Part IV - In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- 22 Animal palaeocommunity variability and habitat preference of the robust australopiths in South Africa
- 23 Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present
- 24 African Genesis revisited: reflections on Raymond Dart and the ‘predatory transition from ape(-man) to man’
- 25 Shared intention in early artefacts: an exploration of deep structure and implications for communication and language
- 26 Sibudu Cave: recent archaeological work on the Middle Stone Age
- 27 The oldest burials and their significance
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequence at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, includes pre-Still Bay, Still Bay and Howiesons Poort assemblages that pre-date 60 ka. More recent MSA lithic assemblages have ages of ~58 ka, ~48 ka and ~38 ka derived from luminescence dating of quartz grains. Discrete hearths and ash-patches are present throughout, while palimpsests of hearths characterise the ~48 ka occupations. The people who lived at Sibudu were skilled encounter-hunters who killed a wide range of animals of all sizes. Their prey included zebra and dangerous animals such as buffalo and bushpig. Unifacially or bifacially retouched lithic points were parts of weapons for hunting, but, sometimes, points seem to have been used as butchery implements. Use-trace analysis supports both interpretations. Points were absent during the Howiesons Poort Industry when small animals, from moist, evergreen forests, were the focus of hunters whose toolkits contained backed stone implements and worked bone. Bedding made from sedges seems present throughout the sequence. The environmental setting for cultural activities changed through time. Combined evidence from magnetic susceptibility, phytoliths, charcoal, pollen, seeds, mineralogy, macromammals and micromammals suggests that cold Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4) and warmer MIS 3 conditions are represented at the site. The changing temperatures, moisture availability and distance from the coast during MIS 4 and MIS 3 influenced vegetation, sediments and animal populations. Much of the sequence from ~58 ka onwards was associated with open grassland and with more large grazers than is the case in the area today. Proportions of evergreen and deciduous taxa fluctuated, with an increase of deciduous taxa possibly coinciding with warmer temperatures and increased evapotranspiration at ~48 ka.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African GenesisPerspectives on Hominin Evolution, pp. 531 - 553Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012