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Understandings of past human behaviour in southern Africa are hampered by a site-based approach to prehistoric technological systems that relies on spatially isolated samples from one or a few key 'typesites'. Lithic technological behaviour, however, was a landscape-scale process with raw material acquisition, reduction, transportation, use, maintenance and discard taking place at varied locations. This study takes a landscape approach to the investigation of Early Later Stone Age (ELSA) technology on the Doring River by exploring two points in what we believe to be one system. It compares data from an openair lithic scatter from Uitspankraal 7 (UPK7) located on the Doring, the major river and lithic source in the area, with a published rockshelter sample from Putslaagte 8 (PL8) located 2 km from the Doring and 15 km to the northwest of UPK7. Differences between the two assemblages support a scenario in which hornfels blades and flakes were produced at the river and transported into the surrounding landscape, with limited transportation of cores. Intriguingly little evidence of quartz-bipolar reduction was found in the open-air sample at UPK7, raising the possibility that different ELSA technological components were organised in distinct patterns across the landscape. Results suggest that the composition of ELSA assemblages is highly situational, with proportions of quartz and/or bipolar technology, for instance, appearing responsive to local context. Overall, this study highlights the importance of taking a landscapeorientated approach to investigating the nature and cause of continuity and variability in the archaeological record. Such an approach will inevitably lead to a more comprehensive understanding of early LSA technology, behaviour and land-use patterns.

VR003 has been excavated over five seasons between 2009 and 2016. The initial two seasons had the primary objective of assessing the potential of the deposit, and only selected finds were plotted. The final three seasons 2014-2016 involved plotting of all cultural items using different size cut-offs for different classes of material (≥20 mm for lithics, ≥25 mm for bone). Some classes of material, notably OES, were only plotted if modified. All plotted artefacts were assigned unique provenience ID's and individually bagged. Sedimentary aggregates were plotted with a single indicative point location, and volume was quantified as proportional bucket volume (FULL, ¾, ½, ¼). All aggregates were sieved on site through nested 3 mm and 1.5 mm mesh, and the residues from each bagged separately. All plotting was undertaken using a local grid, managed by control points emplaced around the site.We currently recognise nine archaeological horizons and eight geological horizons in the Main Area sequence (1); for the sake of simplicity in this paper we refer to the lower two archaeological horizons (I-08 and I-09) in aggregate as the Lower Deposits. All horizons in the Main Area are associated with the MSA. Inside the small extant shelter (known as Sector III) we identify 23 geological horizons (III-01 through III-23), with Late Holocene LSA comprising the upper 14 strata (0.6-0.9 m depth). In the Main Area, I-04 was assigned to the Howiesons Poort and Still Bay (1), though initially dated by OSL in the Main Area to 45.7 ±2.8 ka. Inside the shelter in Sector III, Howiesons Poort artefacts occur in strata III-18 through III-23, with initial OSL ages of 42.3 ±2.7 ka and 41.7 ±2.9 (1) (Still Bay has yet to be encountered in this part of the site). In both areas these ages are unusually young for the Howiesons Poort. We provide a redating here (SI Geochronology below) using OSL on quartz grains from III-18 to III-20 that places the Howiesons Poort between 71.6±6.2 and 60.8±5.2, consistent with ages elsewhere, with ages for the immediately overlying post-Howiesons Poort stratum III-17 of 55.7 ±4.4 and 66.1 ±5.3 ka (Figure S1).The fossiles directeur for the Howiesons Poort and Still Bay (backed artefacts and bifacial points respectively) occur as a discrete band across the entire site and include a single piece of engraved OES in the Link Trench (Figure S1). In the Main Area there is no recurrence of such artefacts in the underlying deposits, which we assign to the pre-Still Bay MSA.

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Abstract Miniaturized stone tools made by controlled fracture are reported from nearly every continent where archaeologists have systematically looked for them. While similarities in technology are acknowledged between regions, few detailed inter-regional comparative studies have been conducted. Our paper addresses this gap, presenting results of a comparative lithic technological study between Klipfonteinrand and Sehonghong – two large rock shelters in southern Africa. Both sites contain Late Glacial (~18-11 kcal BP) lithic assemblages, though they are located in regions with different geologies, climates and environments. Results demonstrate that lithic miniaturization manifests differently in these different regions. Both assemblages provide evidence for small blade production, though key differences exist in terms of the specific technological composition of this evidence, the raw materials selected, the role played by bipolar reduction and the manner in which lithic reduction was organized. Patterned variability of this nature demonstrates that humans deployed miniaturized technologies strategically in relation to local conditions.

Open-air archaeology plays a limited role in southern African Late Pleistocene research, with most studies focused on rock shelter assemblages. Recently, archaeologists have noted discrepancies in the composition of Late Pleistocene lithic assemblages between some of the region's open-air and rock shelter sites. For example, although relatively abundant in rock shelters, Late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (LSA, c. 44-12 kcal. BP) bipolar cores are rare in open-air contexts. In this paper, we assess this discrepancy by testing for differential preservation of specific artefact classes and sizes in semi-arid open-air conditions. We placed a replicated assemblage of miniaturised cores and flakes on an archaeologically sterile sediment surface in the Doring River Valley (South Africa) and recorded their movements over 22 months. Our results indicate that bipolar and freehand cores moved comparable distances within the study interval and that surface slope is the strongest predictor of miniaturised tool movement. We also show that (1) relatively flat lithics move disproportionately more and (2) random artefact orientations do not preclude local (i.e. metre) scale artefact transport. In terms of the archaeology of our study area, the observed clustering of surface artefacts on sediment bodies likely results from their recent exposure. Our data suggest that the paucity of open-air bipolar artefacts in Late Pleistocene LSA assemblages may have more to do with human behavioural variability at landscape scales than differential preservation. Southern Africa's rich rock shelter record is, therefore, unlikely to represent the full suite of prehistoric hunter-gatherer behaviours.

Emphasis on the production of small unretouched blades is the strongest defining technological characteristic of southern African assemblages referred to as the Robberg – a ‘technologically uniform’ technocomplex identified across the sub-continent. This paper explores the spatial organisation of Robberg blade technology from three rockshelter sites in the Doring River catchment of the eastern Cederberg Mountains. The Doring is both a key source of water and toolstone, and the three sites are located at varying distances from it. Blades and blade cores from these sites are used to explore the influence of distance to source on the abundance of raw materials, staging of production and maintenance/reduction of transported artefacts. Results suggest key differences in procurement and provisioning strategies for different materials. Hunter-gatherers ‘geared up’ with hornfels and silcrete blades at the river before moving up the tributaries where toolkits were supplemented by small numbers of blades made from transported silcrete cores and the situational use of local rock types such as quartz. Results demonstrate the importance of understanding local-scale controls on technological organisation before inferring patterns of broader behavioural import.