The rock art of Kondoa District, Tanzania

Abstract

The archaeology of East Africa during the last ~65,000 years plays a central role in debates about the origins and dispersal of modern humans, Homo sapiens. Despite the historical importance of the region to these discussions, reliable chronologies for the nature, tempo, and timing of human behavioral changes seen among Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological assemblages are sparse. The Kisese II rockshelter in the Kondoa region of Tanzania, originally excavated in 1956, preserves a ! 6-m-thick archaeological succession that spans the MSA/LSA transition, with lithic artifacts such as Levallois and bladelet cores and backed microliths, the recurrent use of red ochre, and >5,000 ostrich eggshell beads and bead fragments. Twenty-nine radiocarbon dates on ostrich eggshell carbonate make Kisese II one of the most robust chronological sequences for understanding archaeological change over the last ~47,000 years in East Africa. In particular, ostrich eggshell beads and backed microliths appear by 46-42 ka cal BP and occur throughout overlying Late Pleistocene and Holocene strata. Changes in lithic technology suggest an MSA/LSA transition that began 39-34.3 ka, with typical LSA technologies in place by the Last Glacial Maximum. The timing of these changes demonstrates the time-transgressive nature of behavioral innovations often linked to the origins of modern humans, even within a single region of Africa.

Middle and Later Stone Age chronology of Kisese II rockshelter (UNESCO World Heritage Kondoa Rock-Art Sites), Tanzania

“…Ochre, useful as a pigment to color bodies, walls, and beads, as a binder, and for a number of other purposes [ 98 – 101 ], was being transported to and processed at Kisese II before ~45 ka cal BP, and appears to be a common feature among the painted shelters of the Kondoa Rock-Art UNESCO World Heritage Center [ 30 – 33 , 102 ]. Inskeep (in [ 31 ]) reports red (and rare orange and yellow) ochre in all Kisese II strata from spit XXVI (>43 ka cal BP) upwards, and red ochre was used to make many of the extant paintings at the site.…”

“…Kisese II (4°29'30.47"S, 35°48'43.31"E) is a painted rockshelter within the UNESCO World Heritage Kondoa Rock-Art Sites, a region of 2,336 km 2 that contains the richest record of hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoralist rock art in East Africa [ 30 – 33 ]. The site consists of an east-facing overhang on one of two large (>100 m 3 ) adjoining boulders ~200 m below the escarpment of the Irangi Hills ( Fig 1 ), the eastern margin of the Gregory Rift Valley.…”

Human burials at the Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania

“…The site of Kisese II is one of several hundred painted rock shelters in the Kondoa region of north‐central Tanzania (4°29′30.47″S, 35°48′43.31″E; Figure 1), an area with one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Africa (Mabulla & Gidna, 2014) and recognized by UNESCO as the Kondoa Rock Art Sites World Heritage Site. Nearly all of the art at the site is of the naturalistic tradition described by Bwasiri and Smith (2015), red in color with human figures and wild animals as dominant representations. Initial investigation of the rock art in 1935 by L.S.B.…”

From Top Down Under: New Insights into the Social Significance of Superimpositions in the Rock Art of Northern Kimberley, Australia

“…Superimposed images can be found at different rock-art locations around the globe (Baracchini & Monney 2018; Boyd & Cox 2016; Bwasiri & Smith 2015; Carden & Prates 2015; Clegg 1987; Davis 1984; Gunn et al 2010; Hollmann 2015; Lewis-Williams 1972; McDonald & Veth 2013; Monney 2003; Pilavaki 2016; Sauvet & Sauvet 1979; van Tilburg & Lee 1987; Walsh 1994; Welch 1990). Superimpositions, also referred to as ‘overlapping’, are employed by rock-art researchers to describe images that are located on top of/under another image.…”