Middle and late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age lithic technology from Pinnacle Point 13B (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa)

Pleistocene Archaeology and Chronology of Putslaagte 8 (PL8) Rockshelter, Western Cape, South Africa

“…Occupation at this time appears to have been largely episodic and stone artefact assemblages quite small. The production of unretouched levallois points and other convergent flakes, as well as some equivocal evidence for the production of small blades, predominantly on quartzite, have been noted in the MIS 6 layers at Pinnacle Point along with the collection and processing of ochre (Marean et al 2007, Thompson et al 2010). …”

“…Later MIS 5 technologies at Klasies River exhibit an emphasis on convergent flakes (Wurz 2002) while those at Pinnacle Point possibly reflect an alternation between blade and point production (Thompson et al 2010), though it should be noted in the latter case that neither form accounts for a substantial proportion of the assemblage analysed. In addition to these sites, undated potentially late MIS 5 assemblages are known from the Fynbos sites of Rivier 3 (Högberg & Larsson 2011, Minichillo 2005, Porraz et al 2013a, Volman 1980).…”

Blade production ∼500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: support for a multiple origins hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene blade technologies

“…Blades characterize Upper Paleolithic and Later Stone Age assemblages after 50 thousand years ago (ka), but are also a common component in many Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblages w300e50 ka (e.g. Bar-Yosef and Kuhn, 1999;Delagnes and Meignen, 2006;Mellars, 1973;White, 1982; for the MSA see Morgan and Renne, 2008;Thompson et al, 2010;Wurz, 2000Wurz, , 2002Soriano et al, 2007;Van Peer, 1992;Villa et al, 2010). Strong evidence for blade production securely dated to the earlier part of the Middle Pleistocene (>350 ka) is currently emerging in the Levant, East Africa, and South Africa.…”

A Middle Stone Age Paleoscape near the Pinnacle Point caves, Vleesbaai, South Africa

“…Dating of the PP13B sediments shows that its sequence ranges from~162 ka to~90 ka (Marean et al, 2007Jacobs, 2010). Thompson et al (2010) published the lithic sequence from PP13B, noting the predominance of quartzite, largely from cobble sources, convergent points, parallel sided blades, and frequent prepared, point, and blade cores. No temporally-vectored changes in the lithic sequence were found, although significant variation in the typological frequency of detached pieces was noted.…”