The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 10;10(7):e0131127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131127. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The classification of archaeological assemblages in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa in terms of diversity and temporal continuity has significant implications with respect to recent cultural evolutionary models which propose either gradual accumulation or discontinuous, episodic processes for the emergence and diffusion of cultural traits. We present the results of a systematic technological and typological analysis of the Still Bay assemblages from Sibudu and Blombos. A similar approach is used in the analysis of the Howiesons Poort (HP) assemblages from Sibudu seen in comparison with broadly contemporaneous assemblages from Rose Cottage and Klasies River Cave 1A. Using our own and published data from other sites we report on the diversity between stone artifact assemblages and discuss to what extent they can be grouped into homogeneous lithic sets. The gradual evolution of debitage techniques within the Howiesons Poort sequence with a progressive abandonment of the HP technological style argues against the saltational model for its disappearance while the technological differences between the Sibudu and Blombos Still Bay artifacts considerably weaken an interpretation of similarities between the assemblages and their grouping into the same cultural unit. Limited sampling of a fragmented record may explain why simple models of cultural evolution do not seem to apply to a complex reality.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anthropology, Cultural
  • Archaeology*
  • Caves*
  • Cultural Evolution
  • Fossils*
  • Humans
  • South Africa
  • Technology*
  • Time Factors
  • Tool Use Behavior

Grants and funding

Research of PV, SS, and AD at Sibudu was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS 0613319 to PV). PV's research was also funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Paleontological Scientific Trust, and the Frison Institute. The Paleontological Scientific Trust with its Scatterlings of Africa programme supported LP with postdoctoral funding in 2008. PV and LP acknowledge support from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. Financial support for CSH was provided by a European Research Council Advanced Grant, TRACSYMBOLS No. 249587, awarded under the FP7 programme at the University of Bergen, Norway, and by a National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology funded Chair at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.