Browsing by Author "Wilkins, Jayne"

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    A quantitative comparison of the Howiesons Poort lithic assemblage from Kathu Pan 6 in the Northern Cape with other Howiesons Poort assemblages in Southern Africa
    (2024) Matlhoko, Khumo; Wilkins, Jayne; Parkington, John
    Howiesons Poort (HP) lithic assemblages have sparked many debates around their significance It is now widely accepted that the HP forms part of the Middle Stone Age, stratified above the Still Bay (SB) and/or beneath MSA III assemblages, however, reasons for the appearance and disappearance of the HP is still up for debate, and little work has been done to characterize its variability across geographic space. In my research I quantitatively compare data from published HP assemblages found in various coastal rock and cave sites in southern Africa to the HP sequence found in Kathu Pan 6 (KP6), an inland open-air site in the Northern Cape. The results of this quantitative analysis between KP6 and other sites, namely Klipdrift Shelter, Klasies River Mouth, and Pinnacle Point 5-6, will allow me to characterize geographical variability in the HP and identify possible explanations for this variability, including different foraging and mobility strategies in different environments across southern Africa.
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    Early human social transmission during Marine Isotope Stage 5: a perspective from the Kalahari Basin
    (2024) Maenzanise, Precious; Sahle, Yonatan; Wilkins, Jayne
    The social transmission of cultural information is widely recognized as a crucial component contributing to the survival and prosperity of our species. This thesis studies lithic technological systems to assess the extent of the transmission of cultural information between different early human groups across the Kalahari Basin and adjoining regions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (~130-74 ka), a key time and place for understanding the emergence and expansion of complex behaviors in Africa. It has been proposed that glacial periods (e.g., MIS 4) in southern Africa were characterized by coalescence, while interglacial periods (e.g., MIS 5) were characterized by population fragmentation. While these previous hypotheses represent important examples for testing the degrees of population interconnectedness during MIS 5, they were based primarily on sites outside of the Kalahari Basin and its environs. Therefore, the central inquiry of this thesis is to investigate the presence and extent of cultural transmission among hunter-gatherer populations in and around the Kalahari Basin, assessing whether patterns of population fragmentation observed during MIS 5 are discernible in these regions. This inquiry is achieved by studying lithic assemblages from multiple sites and comparing them using a behavioral approach to cultural transmission. The samples studied are from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Kathu Pan 6, Erfkroon, and Florisbad in South Africa, and ≠Gi and White Paintings Rockshelter in Botswana. The results of this study indicate there are many technological similarities across most of the studied sites, including the predominant use of local raw materials, recurrent Levallois methods, hard hammer percussion technique, core maintenance primarily by débordant removals, manufacturing of similar products, mostly with faceted platforms, and a low frequency of formal tools. This homogeneity may reflect technological information exchange and connections between human groups at these sites. The connectivity is inferred to be closely linked to their adaptation to the drier climatic conditions that persisted in the Kalahari Basin and its adjoining regions, in contrast to coastal and other inland areas. The arid and semi-arid environments may have necessitated the formation of social ties to access scarce and potentially unpredictable resources. In contrast to some other regions that show fragmentation during interglacial periods, the Kalahari Basin and adjacent regions did not follow the same pattern.
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    An experimental investigation of the functional hypothesis and evolutionary advantage of stone-tipped spears
    (Public Library of Science, 2014) Wilkins, Jayne; Schoville, Benjamin J; Brown, Kyle S
    Stone-tipped weapons were a significant innovation for Middle Pleistocene hominins. Hafted hunting technology represents the development of new cognitive and social learning mechanisms within the genus Homo , and may have provided a foraging advantage over simpler forms of hunting technology, such as a sharpened wooden spear. However, the nature of this foraging advantage has not been confirmed. Experimental studies and ethnographic reports provide conflicting results regarding the relative importance of the functional, economic, and social roles of hafted hunting technology. The controlled experiment reported here was designed to test the functional hypothesis for stone-tipped weapons using spears and ballistics gelatin. It differs from previous investigations of this type because it includes a quantitative analysis of wound track profiles and focuses specifically on hand-delivered spear technology. Our results do not support the hypothesis that tipped spears penetrate deeper than untipped spears. However, tipped spears create a significantly larger inner wound cavity that widens distally. This inner wound cavity is analogous to the permanent wound cavity in ballistics research, which is considered the key variable affecting the relative ‘stopping power’ or ‘killing power’ of a penetrating weapon. Tipped spears conferred a functional advantage to Middle Pleistocene hominins, potentially affecting the frequency and regularity of hunting success with important implications for human adaptation and life history.
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    Investigating temporal change in Fauresmith technology: Insights from Rooidam 2, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
    (2020) Eltzholtz, Alyssa Kay; Parkington, John; Wilkins, Jayne
    In southern Africa, stone tool assemblages with both large cutting tools (LCTs) and retouched blanks are ascribed to the Fauresmith Industry, a ‘transitional' industry between the Earlier and Middle Stone Age. ‘Transitional' assemblages are especially relevant for addressing questions concerning the development of increasingly complex behaviors and technological variability associated with later Middle Stone Age assemblages. Few in-situ Fauresmith assemblages have been described, despite the need for a more standardized and behaviorally meaningful understanding of these highly variable assemblages. Rooidam 2 is a pan site lying on the outskirts of Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province, with an excavated sealed and stratified Fauresmith sequence. The site is a suitable choice for investigation, as its sequence spans several strata and the excavated collection has yet to be described or analyzed in any detail. A technological intra-site analysis of ~2000 lithic specimens from Level 5, a dense concentration of artifacts comprised of 10 sub-levels was conducted in order to test for temporal change. Adjacent sub-levels were compared using both quantitative and qualitative data to test for statistically significant changes in the blank production choices and retouched tool morphology within the Fauresmith sequence. The analysis reveals that the Fauresmith assemblage from Level 5 is primarily characterized by centripetally flaked Levallois-like cores, flake and blade blanks, unifacially retouched points, scrapers, and notched pieces. There were no LCTs found in the assemblage, although a single broken fragment with bifacial flaking and a shaped convex edge has a morphology suggestive of a small biface. Although the lithic typology of the analyzed assemblage from Rooidam 2 is generally consistent with Fauresmith assemblages from nearby sites in the Northern Cape, the absence of bifaces and other LCTs is notable. The Rooidam 2 sequence also reflects instances of lithic variability between adjacent sub-levels that may be indicative of a trend towards increased behavioral flexibility in blank production (especially in the frequency of blade and unretouched points), although interestingly there were no significant changes in the retouched tool morphology. The variability within the sequence appears to be isochrestic in nature, and there is no evidence to support either a linear trajectory of lithic complexity or the reality of distinctive temporal phases within the Fauresmith industry at Rooidam 2. The technological characteristics in the assemblage, in addition to the significant instances of variability within the sequence, suggests that the lithic material from Rooidam 2 may be more appropriately described as eMSA rather than Fauresmith.
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    New experiments and a model-driven approach for interpreting Middle Stone Age Lithic Point Function using the Edge Damage Distribution Method
    (Public Library of Science, 2016) Schoville, Benjamin J; Brown, Kyle S; Harris, Jacob A; Wilkins, Jayne
    The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early evidence for symbolic material culture and complex technological innovations. However, one of the most visible aspects of MSA technologies are unretouched triangular stone points that appear in the archaeological record as early as 500,000 years ago in Africa and persist throughout the MSA. How these tools were being used and discarded across a changing Pleistocene landscape can provide insight into how MSA populations prioritized technological and foraging decisions. Creating inferential links between experimental and archaeological tool use helps to establish prehistoric tool function, but is complicated by the overlaying of post-depositional damage onto behaviorally worn tools. Taphonomic damage patterning can provide insight into site formation history, but may preclude behavioral interpretations of tool function. Here, multiple experimental processes that form edge damage on unretouched lithic points from taphonomic and behavioral processes are presented. These provide experimental distributions of wear on tool edges from known processes that are then quantitatively compared to the archaeological patterning of stone point edge damage from three MSA lithic assemblages--Kathu Pan 1, Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, and Die Kelders Cave 1. By using a model-fitting approach, the results presented here provide evidence for variable MSA behavioral strategies of stone point utilization on the landscape consistent with armature tips at KP1, and cutting tools at PP13B and DK1, as well as damage contributions from post-depositional sources across assemblages. This study provides a method with which landscape-scale questions of early modern human tool-use and site-use can be addressed.