Howiesons Poort

In this paper we present the results of a use-wear study of quartz micro-notches identified during a technological analysis of lithics from the Howiesons Poort layers of Sibudu Cave. Building on the technological analysis and preliminary functional screening of the archaeological material, a series of experiments was designed to evaluate different hypotheses for notch formation (blank production, intentional notching, hafting, projectile use, and trampling). The experimental reference collection was compared with archaeological micro-notches and a large sample of other archaeological quartz pieces (including bladelets, bipolar blanks, flakes and retouched pieces). This allowed us to evaluate the causes of micro-notch formation in the studied assemblage. Results indicate two novelties in the Howiesons Poort hunting technology at Sibudu: the use of quartz barbs and non-retouched quartz blanks. It seems that in addition to backed pieces (segments, obliquely backed points, etc.), unretouched pieces were mounted as elements in hunting weapons during the Howiesons Poort techno-tradition. Seven probable and 29 tentative barbs were identified. We thus present one of the strongest and oldest bodies of evidence for the use of barbs as projectile elements.

The Howiesons Poort techno-complex of southern Africa was a particularly significant phase in the development of complex cognition in Homo sapiens and new sites are crucial to our understanding of this period. Here, we present the results of a taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of Klipdrift Shelter
to investigate subsistence strategies during the Late Pleistocene. In particular, we focus on the taphonomic history of the assemblage. Our analysis shows that the Klipdrift Shelter faunal assemblage is extensively fragmented; probably as a result of anthropogenic processing and post-depositional alteration. As a result, little significant information can be extrapolated from the analysis of skeletal-part abundance per layer. Human involvement in the accumulation of ungulate, small mammal, carnivore and tortoise remains is apparent in all layers. We show evidence of disarticulation, marrow extraction,
skinning, filleting and carnivore consumption and document the processing of low-ranked game and elements. We also discuss the possibility of remote-capture technology at Klipdrift during the Howiesons Poort.

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa, and in particular its Still Bay and Howie-sons Poort lithic traditions, represents a period of dramatic subsistence, cultural, and technological innovation by our species, Homo sapiens. Climate change has frequently been postulated as a primary driver of the appearance of these innovative behaviours, with researchers invoking either climate instability as a reason for the development of buffering mechanisms, or environmentally stable refugia as providing a stable setting for experimentation. Testing these alternative models has proved intractable, however, as existing regional palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental records remain spatially, stratigraphically, and chronologically disconnected from the archaeological record. Here we report high-resolution records of environmental shifts based on stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in ostrich eggshell (OES) fragments, faunal remains, and shellfish assemblages excavated from two key MSA archaeological sequences, Blombos Cave and Klipdrift Shelter. We compare these records with archaeological material remains in the same strata. The results from both sites, spanning the periods 98–73 ka and 72–59 ka, respectively, show significant changes in vegetation, aridity, rainfall seasonality, and sea temperature in the vicinity of the sites during periods of human occupation. While these changes clearly influenced human subsistence strategies, we find that the remarkable cultural and technological innovations seen in the sites cannot be linked directly to climate shifts. Our results demonstrate the PLOS ONE | Data Availability Statement: Due to permit restrictions, photographs of the OES specimens sampled are available from the authors, following a review process by the Curator of the Iziko Museum, Wendy Black. All faunal and shellfish samples listed by quadrant and layer, respectively, are available in the Supporting Information S2 File. Further information can be obtained from JR, SB and KLvN.

We evaluate the cultural variation between the youngest Howiesons Poort layer (GR) and the oldest post-Howiesons Poort layers (RB-YA) of Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). We first conducted a technological analysis, secondly we performed a cladistic study with all the technological traits and, finally, we compare the technological variability with other data from Sibudu (ochre, micromorphology, fauna and plant remains). The synap-omorphies of the cladistical analysis show numerous lithic technological changes between the youngest Howiesons Poort and the oldest post-Howiesons Poort layers as previously concluded. However, some technological strategies that are present, yet uncommon, in the Howiesons Poort become abundant in the overlying layers, whereas others that were fundamental to the Howiesons Poort continue, but are poorly represented in the overlying layers. We further show that lithic technological strategies appear and disappear as pulses in the post-Howiesons Poort layers studied. Among the most notable changes in the post-Howie-sons Poort layers is the importance of flake production from discoidal knapping methods, the unstandardized retouched pieces and their infrequent representation, and the higher than usual frequency of grindstones. We evaluate various hypotheses to explain the transformation of a Howiesons Poort formal industry to a more 'expedient' assemblage. Since no marked environmental changes are contemporary with the technological transformation, a change in residential mobility patterns seems a plausible explanation. This hypothesis is supported by the changes observed in stratigraphy, lithic technology, site management, ochre and firewood collection.

The Still Bay (SB) and Howiesons Poort (HP) were two significant techno-complexes in the Middle Stone Age and key periods in the expression of behavioral complexity. In this study, we compare the recently excavated fauna from the SB layers at Blombos Cave (BBC) with that from the HP levels at Klipdrift Shelter (KDS) in the southern Cape of South Africa. We consider our findings in the framework of recent models for early human subsistence behavior. In particular, we link our study with models involving resource intensification to examine whether foraging strategies in the HP were more or less intensive than those in the SB. Based on our criteria used to assess intensificationdthe exploitation of low-ranked prey, the processing of low-utility elements, transport decisions, and occupational intensitydintensive subsistence strategies are more evident at KDS than BBC. Our results suggest that low-ranked elements were processed more heavily and diet breath was broader at KDS than at BBC. However, foraging ranges may have been more extensive at BBC than at KDS. Taphonomic data also suggests that the SB at BBC was a low-intensity, sporadically occupied period in contrast to the high-intensity occupations during the HP at KDS. We argue that this may be related to differences in mobility and residential patterns between these techno-complexes.

The invention of the bow and arrow was a milestone in Late Pleistocene technological evolution. Preservation biases and methodological problems impede our ability to detect its presence in the archaeological record. Currently, South Africa has the earliest suggested evidence for arrowheads, amongst others, small quartz backed tools dating 65-60 ka. These artefacts' inferred function is based on their small size, micro and macro wear traces and micro-residues recorded on quartz segments from Sibudu Cave. Experimental support for these inferences, or to show that similar artefacts are associated with bow hunting, are however lacking. Here we describe breakage patterns on 150 quartz backed tools hafted as transverse arrowheads and hand-cast spearheads in simulated hunting experiments. These experiments controlled for hafting variability to test the effects of propulsion velocity on the types, patterns and area of diagnostic impact fractures (DIFs). Our results show step terminating bending fracture, spin-off fracture and impact burination frequencies, DIF locations, and ventrally situated DIF frequencies to be robust means of distinguishing arrowheads from spearheads. Our experiments verify previous observations that overall DIF frequencies differentiate between these weapon types. Importantly, we confirm that DIF size is linked to weapon propulsion velocity, but that fracture area is affected by tool area. These findings provide methods for future testing of the hypothesis that bow and arrow technology was in use at least 65 ka in southern Africa and in other regions where quartz was used to tip weapons.

The Howiesons Poort techno-complex of southern Africa was a particularly significant phase in the development of complex cognition in Homo sapiens and new sites are crucial to our understanding of this period. Here, we present the results of a taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of Klipdrift Shelter to investigate subsistence strategies during the Late Pleistocene. In particular, we focus on the tapho-nomic history of the assemblage. Our analysis shows that the Klipdrift Shelter faunal assemblage is extensively fragmented; probably as a result of anthropogenic processing and post-depositional alteration. As a result, little significant information can be extrapolated from the analysis of skeletal-part abundance per layer. Human involvement in the accumulation of ungulate, small mammal, carnivore and tortoise remains is apparent in all layers. We show evidence of disarticulation, marrow extraction, skinning, filleting and carnivore consumption and document the processing of low-ranked game and elements. We also discuss the possibility of remote-capture technology at Klipdrift during the Howiesons Poort.

Here we conduct the first direct metric examination of two early regional manifestations of microlithic industries e the Howiesons Poort of southern Africa (c. 65-60 ka) and the Microlithic industry of South Asia (c. 38-12 ka). Inter-regional comparative analysis of microlithic industries is rare, but can contribute much to our understanding of technological systems in the past. Metric and qualitative variables were recorded on cores, debitage, and tools from Rose Cottage Cave and Umhlatuzana, South Africa, and Batadomba-lena, Sri Lanka, with the aim of conducting a first-stage technological assessment of the degree of technological homogeneity and diversity within these rich microlithic assemblages. The lithic methodology employed here uses the full range of lithic by products, as opposed to an approach based on tool typology alone. Preliminary analyses reveal areas of significant variation in inter-regional technological strategies. These include differences in blade production and blank selection, variation in microlith typology and morphology, disparate quartz reduction processes designed to produce similar tool types, varying degrees of utilisation of bipolar technology, and the existence of distinct reduction trajectories within sites. The examination of the diversity of microlithic assemblages through the use of detailed technological attribute analyses demonstrates a useful alternative methodology for the way we examine behavioural variability, and is a first step towards a thorough assessment of the place of microliths in models of human dispersals.

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 abandon-ment 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.

The Howiesons Poort, characterised by sophisticated lithic technologies and evidence of innovative behaviours, was a significant cultural phase in southern Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 4. It also coincided with substantial palaeoenvironmental and possible demographic changes in the southern Cape of South Africa, especially with regard to the shifting palaeo-coastline off the Agulhas Bank. The newly-excavated Klipdrift Shelter in the southern Cape presents a rare opportunity to compare faunal, lithic and palaeoenvironmental evidence from a single Howiesons Poort site along the present-day southern coast of South Africa. Here, we use faunal data from Klipdrift Shelter to explore the relationship between occupational intensity, subsistence behaviour and environment in the southern Cape during the Howiesons Poort period. Our results suggest a shift from a mixed terrain/ browse-dominated environment during the earlier Howiesons Poort to open grasslands in the mid–later Howiesons Poort. This environmental shift corresponds to potential changes in occupational intensity or frequency throughout the sequence with evidence of increased occupations associated with grassier environments. Aspects of the cultural sequence, for example raw material procurement strategies, may be associated with shifting environmental conditions. The faunal evidence suggests links between occupation, environment and prey selection at Klipdrift. This raises interesting questions about the interplay between population density and the environment of the southern Cape, and its influence on subsistence behaviour during Marine Isotope Stage 4.

In 2011 a hominin lower deciduous second molar (hereafter
dm2), labeled KDS, 23-02-11, S29b, PBE (hereafter KDS PBE), was recovered in the HP layer PBE. The base of layer PBE (where the tooth was found) and adjacent quadrats is characterized by a layer of ochre fragments and powder. The specimen itself was covered with ochre, possibly from the powder and tiny pieces found throughout the base of the unit. KDS PBE is the only complete dm2 crown known from the South African later Pleistocene human fossil record

The bow and arrow is thought to be a unique development of our species, signalling higher-level cognitive functioning. How this technology originated and how we identify archaeological evidence for it are subjects of ongoing debate. Recent analysis of the putative bone arrow point from Sibudu Cave in South Africa, dated to 61.7±1.5kya, has provided important new insights. High-resolution CT scanning revealed heat and impact damage in both the Sibudu point and in experimentally produced arrow points. These features suggest that the Sibudu point was first used as an arrowhead for hunting, and afterwards was deposited in a hearth. Our results support the claim that bone weapon tips were used in South African hunting long before the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic.

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.