Browsing by Author "Sealy, Judith C"
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- ItemOpen AccessEarliest stone-tipped projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift date to> 279,000 years ago(Public Library of Science, 2013) Sahle, Yonatan; Hutchings, W Karl; Braun, David R; Sealy, Judith C; Morgan, Leah E; Negash, Agazi; Atnafu, BalemwalProjectile weapons (i.e. those delivered from a distance) enhanced prehistoric hunting efficiency by enabling higher impact delivery and hunting of a broader range of animals while reducing confrontations with dangerous prey species. Projectiles therefore provided a significant advantage over thrusting spears. Composite projectile technologies are considered indicative of complex behavior and pivotal to the successful spread of Homo sapiens . Direct evidence for such projectiles is thus far unknown from >80,000 years ago. Data from velocity-dependent microfracture features, diagnostic damage patterns, and artifact shape reported here indicate that pointed stone artifacts from Ethiopia were used as projectile weapons (in the form of hafted javelin tips) as early as >279,000 years ago. In combination with the existing archaeological, fossil and genetic evidence, these data isolate eastern Africa as a source of modern cultures and biology.
- ItemOpen AccessThe early inhabitants of the Upemba depression, the Democratic Republic of Congo(2014) Dlamini, Nonhlanhla; Morris, Alan; Sealy, Judith CThis research set out to shed light on the contradiction between the archaeological evidence pointing towards cultural continuity and the Luba’s rejection of ancestral relationships with the human skeletal remains found in the Upemba Depression of Central Katanga, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was done by assessing the biological variation of the human skeletal remains of the early inhabitants from the Upemba Depression in the southeast of the Katanga Province (DRC) by using metric and non-metric dental morphological traits. Dental analyses of these Iron Age people have revealed homogeneity between the sexes, time periods and sites in Central Katanga. This is in contrast with the oral history from the Luba, who believe that the Iron Age remains are of their enemies who came from the northeast. In support of the archaeology, the dental morphological results from the current research have confirmed that present-day Luba people can trace their origins in Central Katanga as far back as AD 700.The analysis of patterns of dental disease, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes as well as phytoliths demonstrate that the diets and behaviours varied amongst these Iron Age communities. This may have been related to differences in food preparation and hygiene.
- ItemOpen AccessHominin technological behavior during the later middle Pleistocene in the Gademotta formation, main Ethiopian rift(2013) Chemere, Yonatan Sahle; Braun, David R; Sealy, Judith CIncludes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.
- ItemOpen AccessStable carbon isotopic assessment of prehistoric diets in the south-western Cape, South Africa(1984) Sealy, Judith C; Van der Merwe, Nikolaas JThis thesis consists of a stable carbon isotopic assessment of the diets of the Holocene human inhabitants of the southwestern Cape, South Africa. Samples of the foods these people ate were collected from each of the four major physiographic zones in the area, and their ¹³C/¹²C ratios measured. A total of more than 200 such analyses enabled the estimation of the average δ¹³C values of prehistoric human diets in each zone. This information is used to interpret δ¹³C measurements on a series of archaeological human skeletons. The results are consistent with a model of prehistoric subsistence behaviour in which people living at the coast made intensive use of marine food resources throughout the Holocene, consuming such a large proportion of these foods that they must have spent much, if not all of their time at the coast. Inland skeletons reflect an almost entirely terrestrial diet. These results contradict hypotheses about seasonal population movements between the coast and the interior generated from excavated archaeological material. Considerable changes in many of our current views of the Late Stone Age of the south-western Cape will have to be made in order to accommodate these data.