Zooarchaeology of the Middle Stone Age in Magubike Rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania

Masele, Frank; Willoughby, Pamela R.

doi:10.1007/s10437-021-09429-7

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 90 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, from eastern to western Africa, understanding the nature of the relationship between the MSA and LSA remains incomplete, with little consensus on issues ranging from timing to geography to technology. Understanding the temporal and spatial variation in technologies (51)(52)(53), subsistence (54), mobility (55,56), and potential ecosystem modifications (57) of Middle and Late Pleistocene human populations is best accomplished via comprehensive research on stratified, calibrated sequences of timesuccessive, geographically limited archaeological occurrences associated with skeletal remains. The rapidly expanding nexus of MSA localities in the Afar thereby creates additional opportunities for progress in testing the modes and tempos of biological and cultural change and the causes of observed variation (58)(59)(60)(61).…”

Section: Broader Implications and Potentialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift

Niespolo

WoldeGabriel

Renne

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Halibee member of the Upper Dawaitoli Formation of Ethiopia’s Middle Awash study area features a wealth of Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) paleoanthropological resources in a succession of Pleistocene sediments. We introduce these artifacts and fossils, and determine their chronostratigraphic placement via a combination of established radioisotopic methods and a recently developed dating method applied to ostrich eggshell (OES). We apply the recently developed 230Th/U burial dating of OES to bridge the temporal gap between radiocarbon (14C) and 40Ar/39Ar ages for the MSA and provide 14C ages to constrain the younger LSA archaeology and fauna to ∼24 to 21.4 ka. Paired 14C and 230Th/U burial ages of OES agree at ∼31 ka for an older LSA locality, validating the newer method, and in turn supporting its application to stratigraphically underlying MSA occurrences previously constrained only by a maximum 40Ar/39Ar age. Associated fauna, flora, and Homo sapiens fossils are thereby now fixed between 106 ± 20 ka and 96.4 ± 1.6 ka (all errors 2σ). Additional 40Ar/39 results on an underlying tuff refine its age to 158.1 ± 11.0 ka, providing a more precise minimum age for MSA lithic artifacts, fauna, and H. sapiens fossils recovered ∼9 m below it. These results demonstrate how chronological control can be obtained in tectonically active and stratigraphically complex settings to precisely calibrate crucial evidence of technological, environmental, and evolutionary changes during the African Middle and Late Pleistocene.

show abstract

Section: Broader Implications and Potentialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift

Niespolo

WoldeGabriel

Renne

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In other sites with poor preservation, NISP values are higher but identifications are only possible to body part and carcass size, and rarely taxon, limiting some kinds of interpretations. This is the case at Magubike Rockshelter (Masele and Willoughby, 2021), Mlambalasi Rockshelter (Collins and Willoughby, 2010), and open-air Loiyangalani (Masele, 2021(Masele, , 2020Thompson, 2005). LGL, Laas Geel; PEC, Porc-Epic Cave; BUL, Bubula River; FHB, Fincha Habera; MBR, Mochena Borago; KIB, Kibish Formation; RRS, Rifle Range Site; GW, Guli Waabayo; MFG, Mfangano; RUS, Rusinga; KAR, Karungu; EYM, Enkapune ya Muto; LKH, Lukenya Hill; NDU, Ndutu Beds, Olduvai Gorge; GK, Gol Kopjes; NAS, Nasera Rockshelter; MUM, Mumba Rockshelter; MGB, Magubike; KC, Kuumbi Cave; PYS, Panga ya Saidi.…”

Section: Sampling and Preservation Biasmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…A third group of sites are found in higher-elevation grasslands, as in the Athi-Kapiti Plains of Kenya at the Lukenya Hill sites (GvJm19, GvJm22, GvJm46, and GvJm62) (Marean, 1992b), and in the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania at Nasera Rockshelter, Gol Kopjes, Loiyangalani, and the Ndutu Beds at Olduvai Gorge (Eren et al, 2014;Gifford-Gonzalez, 2011;Masele, 2020;Mehlman, 1989). Finally, a fourth group of sites are located in semi-wooded uplands, as at Kisese II Rockshelter in the Irangi Hills and at Magubike and Mlambalasi Rockshelters in the Iringa Highlands (Collins and Willoughby, 2010;Masele, 2017;Masele and Willoughby, 2021;Tryon et al, 2019). These biases limit our understanding of Late Pleistocene foodways in important ways.…”

Section: Biogeographic Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The taphonomic approach, while established in African zooarchaeology by the 1970s and important to Plio-Pleistocene archaeology (Gifford, 1981;Domínguez-Rodrigo and Pickering, 2003), was reinvigorated at the turn of the 21 st century by questions of H. sapiens' 'behavioral modernity' in the Middle and Late Pleistocene (McBrearty and Brooks, 2000). Today, identifying 'modernity' is increasingly problematized (e.g., Scerri et al, 2018), yet taphonomy remains critical to assessing the validity of faunal interpretations, and is an important focus of Late Pleistocene zooarchaeology in eastern Africa (e.g., Collins and Willoughby, 2010;Jenkins et al, 2017;Masele, 2020;Masele and Willoughby, 2021;Ossendorf et al, 2019;Prendergast et al, 2016;Thompson, 2005).…”

Section: Interpreting the Faunal Recordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Small game forgotten: Late Pleistocene foraging strategies in eastern Africa, and remote capture at Panga ya Saidi, Kenya

Prendergast

Miller

Mwebi

et al. 2023

Quaternary Science Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The dik-diks of Guli Waabayo: Late Pleistocene net-hunting and forager sociality in eastern Africa

Jones

2023

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Net-hunting is closely linked to organized labor and hunter-gatherer cooperation in many world regions. At the Rifle Range Site (RRS) in southern Somalia, scholars have argued that Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers developed specialized dwarf antelope hunting strategies—possibly using communal net-drives—to facilitate developing concepts of territoriality around resource-rich inselberg environments during a wet period in the early and middle Holocene. Unfortunately, a lack of radiocarbon dates and faunal data limited detailed zooarchaeological perspectives on changing hunting patterns at the site. The large and well-dated dwarf antelope bone assemblage (1263 specimens) from nearby Guli Waabayo (GW) rock shelter, on the other hand, provides an opportunity to explore proposed relationships between net-hunting and LSA social and economic reorganization in southern Somalia ~ 26–6 thousand years ago (ka). Consistently high dik-dik frequencies (55.2–71.9%) and mortality profiles comprised of individuals from all age groups throughout the sequence do not support previous arguments associating specialized dwarf antelope hunting with territoriality and Holocene climatic amelioration at RRS. Instead, they suggest that LSA foraging groups regularly hunted dik-dik (genus Madoqua) using nets over a ~ 20,000-year period beginning as far back as the arid Marine Isotope Stage 2, 29–14.5 ka. Findings from this study complement recent arguments for greater economic variability in Late Pleistocene eastern Africa and push discussions of forager social change further back in time than previously considered.

show abstract

Zooarchaeology of the Middle Stone Age in Magubike Rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania

Cited by 3 publications

References 90 publications

Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift

Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift

Small game forgotten: Late Pleistocene foraging strategies in eastern Africa, and remote capture at Panga ya Saidi, Kenya

The dik-diks of Guli Waabayo: Late Pleistocene net-hunting and forager sociality in eastern Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About