Abstract
Stone Age societies are understood largely in terms of their technology. The way in which
we frame our research and understanding of these past societies is based almost
exclusively on stone tools and ceramics, yet these materials represent only a small
percentage of recent hunter-gatherer paraphernalia and may not necessarily reflect the
complexity of cultural adaptations and technological achievements of the past. Pointed
bone tools are present in the archaeological record of almost every ancient society and
time-period; yet, for various reasons, they seldom have been afforded the same attention
as their stone equivalents. Unless all aspects of past technological systems are
acknowledged and understood we risk providing a distorted image of the past.
This theGis begins to explore the variable and diverse functions of pointed bone artefacts in
southern Africa during the Later Stone Age from approximately 18 000 years ago until a
few hundred years ago when the hunter-gatherer societies practicing a stone age economy
came under the influence of immigrant Iron Age farmers. A comprehensive study of bone
tools has the potential to provide information about past societies that is simply not
available from stone tools and ceramics. In this thesis I look at one aspect of past
technology, namely pointed bone tools, that has seldom formed the focus of research. I
present the results of a metrical analysis and three use-trace analyses (micro-residue, usewear
and macrofracture), each designed to provide complementary information about the
past function/s of pointed bone tools. Over 300 tools are examined from 12 archaeological
sites.
Evidence presented here shows that while manufacturing techniques remain relatively
constant throughout the last 18 000 years, greater functional variability among bone points
is evident during the last 6000 years and largely parallels the sustained focus on hunting
smaller animals. Changes in bone tool form and function do not correlate neatly with lithic
technology oscillations or environmental fluctuations and seem to occur during rather than
at the boundaries of stone tool technocomplexes. Evidence that bone points were reused
after they fractured suggests the importance attached to these tools and raw material.
Finally, a range of different arrow forms are recognised that may have the potential to
provide an avenue for relative dating.
D.Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology)