Testing for poisoned arrows in the middle stone age : a tip cross-sectional analysis of backed microliths from Southern Africa
- Authors: Lombard, Marlize
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Pleistocene , Howiesons Poort techno-complex , Holocene
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/452749 , uj:39942 , Citation: Lombard, M. 2020. Testing for poisoned arrows in the middle stone age : a tip cross-sectional analysis of backed microliths from Southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Reports 34 (2020): 102630 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102630
- Description: Abstract: Recent work indicated the possibility of hunting with poisoned bone arrowheads more than 60 thousand years ago in southern Africa. The interpretation rests on only a handful of bone points from Middle Stone Age contexts. Two southern African techno-complexes characterised by the knapping of backed microliths have, however, been linked to bow hunting in the past. These are the Wilton, dating from roughly 8000 years until a few centuries ago, and the Howiesons Poort dating to roughly between 67 000 and 58 000 years ago. Here I use the tip cross-sectional method to assess the likelihood of bow hunting with poisoned stone-tipped/barbed arrows for both of these techno-complexes. The results demonstrate that bow hunting with poisoned arrows was probably the preferred hunting strategy during the Holocene Wilton phase. Hunters may have introduced poisoned arrows to their arsenal during the much older Pleistocene Howiesons Poort phase, but they were probably more dependent on hunting with a combination of unpoisoned arrows and javelins (throwing spears). I also show that, during both phases, hunting with poisoned arrows may have been more frequent on the Savanna and Grassland biomes with summer and year-round rainfall regimes, instead of in the Fynbos winter-rain zone...
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Fossil mammals from the Gondolin Dump A ex situ hominin deposits, South Africa
- Authors: Adams, Justin W.
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Paranthropus robustus , Homo , Pleistocene
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/281313 , uj:30269 , Citation: Adams, J.W. 2018. Fossil mammals from the Gondolin Dump A ex situ hominin deposits, South Africa. PeerJ 6:e5393; DOI 10.7717/peerj.5393
- Description: Abstract: The Gondolin palaeokarstic system, located in the UNESCO Fossil Hominids of South Africa World Heritage Site, has been sporadically excavated since the 1970s. Sampling of ex situ dumpsites in 1997 recovered the only two fossil hominin specimens recovered thus far from Gondolin. While one partial mandibular molar (GA 1) remains unattributed, the complete mandibular second molar (GA 2) represents the largest Paranthropus robustus Broom, 1938 tooth identified to date. While subsequent excavations and research at Gondolin has clarified the geological, temporal, taphonomic, and palaeoecologic context for the in situ deposits, this paper presents the first comprehensive description of the fossil assemblage ‘associated’ with the two ex situ hominins. Analysis of 42 calcified sediment blocks and naturally decalcified sediments excavated from three cubic metres of the Dump A deposits reinforce that the dump contains a heterogeneous aggregation of materials from across the Gondolin sedimentary deposits...
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