Middle Stone Age Levels, Artefact Review

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THE MIDDLE STONE AGE LEVELS

Artefact Review - Part 2

Beads

More than forty Nassarius kraussianus perforated shell beads have been recovered from the Blombos Cave (BBC) M1 phase dated at 75 000 years and two from the older M2 phase that probably derive from the phase above. Commonly called the tick shell, it is a scavenging gastropod adapted to estuarine environments. The estuaries closest to BBC are those of the Duiwenhoks and Goukou Rivers, located 20 km west and east of BBC respectively.

We know that the shells were not brought to the site accidentally by animals as Natica tecta, the only known predator, is a gastropod confined to the same biotope as N. kraussianus . It was also unlikely to be a human food item as the 100 living shells we collected in the Goukou and Duivenhoks estuaries yielded a dry soft tissue mass of .814 g – hardly sufficient to warrant their collection as food. The distribution of the age classes of the shell beads is evidence that they were not introduced to the cave via wracks of dead Zostera capensis, an estuarine grass know to have been used as bedding material by LSA people. This method of introduction would result in all ages/sizes occurring but this is not the case in the MSA levels. We are therefore certain that the shell were deliberately collected at the estuaries and brought back to the cave to be used as personal ornaments.

All the recovered MSA shells are deliberately perforated, and most have unique medium size perforations located near the lip. These perforation types are absent in living populations and almost absent in dead collections. However, the most important evidence showing they were strung as beads, possibly for necklaces or clothing decoration, is that microscopic analysis of MSA tick shells reveals a distinct use-wear consisting of facets which flatten the outer lip or create a concave surface on the lip. None of these features are present in natural dead or living populations.

A similar concave facet is often seen opposite to the first one, on the parietal wall of the aperture. The use-wear patterns on the tick shells are consistent with friction from rubbing against thread, skin, or other beads and are the principal factor that defines the MSA shells as beads. Microscopic residues of ochre detected inside the MSA shells may also result from such friction or deliberate colouring of the beads. No similar wear patterns or ochre are present on natural tick shell assemblages

Although tick shells are also found in the less than 2000 year old LSA levels at the cave we know that the MSA beads do not derive from these levels. First, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements on single quartz grains from the dune layer that separates the MSA and LSA indicate that sand from this layer is not contaminated by grains of different ages as would be the case if mixing had occurred (see Jacobs at al, 2003a,b). This confirms the integrity of the underlying archaeological layers and artefacts. Second, the size distribution of the MSA shells is significantly different, as confirmed by a Mann-Whitney U-test (p < 0.0001), from that of the LSA shells.

Other factors supporting the antiquity of the MSA beads are: N. kraussianus beads from LSA levels have no wear facets similar to those on the MSA beads; shell beads from the MSA are dark orange or black in colour, those from the LSA are white or pale beige; 52% of the LSA shell beads have broken lips while this is observed on only two MSA specimens; almost all MSA shells were found in groups of two to seventeen beads cllustering in the same or neighbouring 50x50 cm excavation squares, with each group being recovered in a single excavation day. Within a group, shells display a similar size, shade, use-wear pattern and type of perforation. Each cluster may represent beads coming from the same beadwork item, lost or disposed during a single event.

ALL MSA shell beads and selection of LSA beads from BBC

In hunter-gatherer societies beads communicate, among other things, the personal, social and ethnic identity of the holder. Fully syntactical language is arguably an essential requisite to sharing and transmitting the symbolic meaning of each beadwork. Since the use and transmission of such means of visual communication imply contacts with surrounding groups, sharing similar needs, the Blombos shell beads cannot represent an isolated or idiosyncratic behaviour.

Evidence for an early origin of modern human behaviour has long remained elusive. Recent finds in > 70 000 year old African sites of objects bearing abstract engravings, large quantities of pigment and formal bone tools have been rejected as clear-cut evidence for behavioural modernity on the grounds of context, dating and/or because deliberate symbolic intent could not be warranted. The BBC beads add an unambiguous marker of symbolically mediated behaviour to the list of innovations already identified in the MSA. It clearly reflects the acquisition of fully modern cognitive abilities by southern African populations 75,000 years ago.

Francesco d'Errico & Marian Vanhaeren in the Bordeaux lab with BBC shell beads

Drs. Francesco d'Errico & Marian Vanhaeren in the Bordeaux laboratory with the BBC shell beads

Suggested reading

Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., Jacobs, Z. (in press). Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science.

Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., Jacobs, Z. (in press). Modern human behaviour in the Middle Stone Age: 75 ka marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa. Antiquity.

Henshilwood, C.S. & Marean, C.W. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour: A review and critique of models and test implications. Current Anthropology 44 (5): 627-651.

Henshilwood, C.S., Sealy, J.C., Yates, R.J., Cruz-Uribe, K., Goldberg, P., Grine, F.E., , Klein, R.G., Poggenpoel, C., van Niekerk, K.L., Watts, I. 2001a. Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992 – 1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(5): 421-448.

d’Errico F., Henshilwood C., Lawson G., Vanhaeren M., Soressi M., Bresson F., Tillier A.M., Maureille B., Nowell A., Backwell L., Lakarra J.A., Julien M. 2003. The search for the origin of symbolism, music and language: a multidisciplinary endeavour. Journal of World Prehistory, 17 (1): 1-70.

d’Errico, F., P. Jardon-Giner& B. Soler Major. 1993. Etude des perforations naturelles et artificielles sur coquillages. In: Traces et fonction : les Gestes Retrouvés. Liège: ERAUL: 243-54.

Vanhaeren M. & F. d’Errico. 2001. La parure de l’enfant de La Madeleine et du site éponyme (fouilles Peyrony). Un nouveau regard sur l’enfance au Paléolithique supérieur. Paléo 13: 201-40.

Wadley, L. 2001. What Is cultural modernity? A general view and a South African perspective from Rose Cottage Cave. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11: 201-21.

Ochre

More than 8500 pieces of ochre (red haematite of varying hardness) have been recovered from the BBC MSA levels and is most prolific in the M3 phase dated at 100 000 - 140 000 years. Most pieces show evidence of scraping to produce powder. Unusually, more than 25 pieces have single or multiple holes that were drilled by mussels (bivalves) when the ochre source was covered by the ocean during a previous high sea level. Crustacean growth is also visible on some ochre specimens. for example the piece shown at left.

Ochre powder was probably used for ritual or cosmetic purpose at BBC. Some pieces are shaped to a crayon like form, perhaps so that a red colouring could be applied directly to clothing or bodies. There is strong evidence linking ochre use and symbolic behaviour, both ethnographically and in the African past. Ochre may also have served a practical function, such as hide curing.

Among the most remarkable finds from the 75 000 year old levels at BBC are two engraved ochre plaques. Chunks of ochre were selected and carefully ground by rubbing to produce a flat surface and deliberate abstract designs were then engraved on these surfaces using a sharp stone tool. The criss-cross patterns formed are almost certainly symbolic and the meaning behind the designs made by the maker(s) must surely have been understood by community members.

We are unable to precisely determine what these designs mean as the thought processes of people who lived that long ago are not easily accessible through only their material culture. There is considerable debate as to whether these designs can be called 'art' but the jury is still out. Perhaps, if similar artefacts are recovered at Blombos or other MSA sites in the future we may better understand the reasons for the production of such artefacts.

Suggested readings

Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. & Wintle, A.G. 2002. Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science 295:1278-1280.

Henshilwood, C.S. & Sealy, J.C. 1997. Bone artefacts from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa. Current Anthropology 38(5):890-895.

Henshilwood, C.S., Sealy, J.C., Yates, R.J., Cruz-Uribe, K., Goldberg, P., Grine, F.E., , Klein, R.G., Poggenpoel, C., van Niekerk, K.L., Watts, I. 2001. Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992 – 1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(5): 421-448.

Humans

Human teeth found in the MSA levels at Blombos Cave

The amount of human material recovered from the BBC MSA is small – seven teeth. The crown diameters of at least some of these teeth suggest the people at BBC were probably anatomically modern. This conclusion is supported by similar evidence from a nearby archaeological site, Klasies River, that dates to a similar time period.

Deciduous teeth indicates the presence of children, at least at times, and probably that women were also present. The recovery in 2000 of a probably unerupted incisor from a c. 5 month old child at BBC suggests the baby died at or near the site, and it is not unreasonable to expect that adults may have died here also. The lack of any human bone at BBC, apart from teeth, is typical for many MSA sites – possible explanations are that human bodies were not buried or discarded within cave sites or that bodies were processed, perhaps cannibalised, and the remains mostly discarded away from living sites. Removal of bodies or body parts from sites like BBC by scavengers such as hyenas may also account, in part, but the expectation is that some traces of human bone would remain.

Summary

The origins of 'modern’ human behaviour generate lively debate, world wide. Published results from the Blombos excavations complement recent and older findings from a number of African MSA sites that suggest some aspects of modern behaviour evolved during the early Late Pleistocene. Further analyses of the Blombos material and ongoing excavations are helping to provide a firm foundation for assessing the behavioural modernity of southern African hominids more than 70 000 years ago

Suggested readings

Grine, F.E. & Henshilwood, C.S. 2002. Additional Human Remains from Blombos Cave, South Africa: (1999-2000 excavations). Journal of Human Evolution 42: 293-302.

Grine, F.E., Henshilwood, C.S. & Sealy, J.C. 2000. Human remains from Blombos Cave, South Africa: (1997-1998 excavations). Journal of Human Evolution, 37: 755-765.

Further readings

Henshilwood, C.S. & Marean, C.W. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour: A review and critique of models and test implications. Current Anthropology 44 (5): 627-651.

Klein, R. G. 2000. Archeology and the evolution of human behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology 9: 17-36.

McBrearty, S. & A. S. Brooks. 2000. The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453-563.

Wadley, L. 2001. What Is Cultural Modernity? A General View and A South African Perspective From Rose Cottage Cave. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11:201-221.