Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa

Abstract

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early behavioral innovations, expansions of modern humans within and out of Africa, and occasional population bottlenecks. Several innovations in the MSA are seen in an archaeological sequence in the rock shelter Sibudu (South Africa). At ~77,000 years ago, people constructed plant bedding from sedges and other monocotyledons topped with aromatic leaves containing insecticidal and larvicidal chemicals. Beginning at ~73,000 years ago, bedding was burned, presumably for site maintenance. By ~58,000 years ago, bedding construction, burning, and other forms of site use and maintenance intensified, suggesting that settlement strategies changed. Behavioral differences between ~77,000 and 58,000 years ago may coincide with population fluctuations in Africa.

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

“…This theme of ungulate research extends even to diet breadth models, which remain restricted to within larger mammal taxa rather than considering the suite of other faunal remains that are often found in the same deposits as the ungulates (Dusseldorp, 2012). Part of the problem is taphonomic because plants from 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Nutritional value of tortoises and foraging implications at Blombos Cave 27 this time period are mainly represented by the charred remnants of fuel or bedding, rather than subsistence resources (Cartwright, 2013;Miller et al, 2013;Wadley et al, 2011). A new approach is taken here: to examine ungulate and tortoise data together from the same deposits so that both ‗hunted' and ‗collected' resource types can be explored in the contexts of human subsistence and social behaviour.…”

Sociality influences cultural complexity

“…On the empirical side, field evidence consistent with these models has begun to emerge. This evidence includes analyses of the complexities of toolkits among populations [15][16][17] as well as detailed studies of particular archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistorical cases [7,11,[18][19][20]. Thus, technological sophistication may depend on sociality, on the size and interconnectedness of populations.…”

Use of wood anatomy to identify poisonous plants: Charcoal of Spirostachys africana

“…It has a sequence of archaeological layers from the Middle Stone Age, dated by single-grain optically stimulated luminescence to approximately 77-38 ka. [2][3][4][5][6] Some of the evidence for the behaviour of the anatomically modern people who visited and lived at Sibudu includes stone tools, ochre, bone, perforated seashells and hearths [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] , as well as evidence for the making and use of compound adhesives 16 , and circumstantial evidence for snares 17 and bows and arrows 18 . There is evidence of the use of plant resources from pollen, phytoliths, seeds, nutlets, stems, charcoal and leaves excavated at Sibudu.…”

“…There is evidence of the use of plant resources from pollen, phytoliths, seeds, nutlets, stems, charcoal and leaves excavated at Sibudu. 2,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] The relevance of identifying Spirostachys africana…”