The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies.
The classification of archaeological assemblages in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa in terms of diversity and temporal continuity has significant implications with respect to recent cultural evolutionary models which propose either gradual accumulation or discontinuous, episodic processes for t...
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doaj-4dec19b5105b41718dc9996e6b4329542020-11-25T02:04:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01107e013112710.1371/journal.pone.0131127The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies.Sylvain SorianoPaola VillaAnne DelagnesIlaria DeganoLuca PollaroloJeannette J LucejkoChristopher HenshilwoodLyn WadleyThe classification of archaeological assemblages in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa in terms of diversity and temporal continuity has significant implications with respect to recent cultural evolutionary models which propose either gradual accumulation or discontinuous, episodic processes for the emergence and diffusion of cultural traits. We present the results of a systematic technological and typological analysis of the Still Bay assemblages from Sibudu and Blombos. A similar approach is used in the analysis of the Howiesons Poort (HP) assemblages from Sibudu seen in comparison with broadly contemporaneous assemblages from Rose Cottage and Klasies River Cave 1A. Using our own and published data from other sites we report on the diversity between stone artifact assemblages and discuss to what extent they can be grouped into homogeneous lithic sets. The gradual evolution of debitage techniques within the Howiesons Poort sequence with a progressive abandonment of the HP technological style argues against the saltational model for its disappearance while the technological differences between the Sibudu and Blombos Still Bay artifacts considerably weaken an interpretation of similarities between the assemblages and their grouping into the same cultural unit. Limited sampling of a fragmented record may explain why simple models of cultural evolution do not seem to apply to a complex reality.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4498762?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Sylvain Soriano Paola Villa Anne Delagnes Ilaria Degano Luca Pollarolo Jeannette J Lucejko Christopher Henshilwood Lyn Wadley |
spellingShingle |
Sylvain Soriano Paola Villa Anne Delagnes Ilaria Degano Luca Pollarolo Jeannette J Lucejko Christopher Henshilwood Lyn Wadley The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Sylvain Soriano Paola Villa Anne Delagnes Ilaria Degano Luca Pollarolo Jeannette J Lucejko Christopher Henshilwood Lyn Wadley |
author_sort |
Sylvain Soriano |
title |
The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. |
title_short |
The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. |
title_full |
The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. |
title_fullStr |
The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. |
title_sort |
still bay and howiesons poort at sibudu and blombos: understanding middle stone age technologies. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2015-01-01 |
description |
The classification of archaeological assemblages in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa in terms of diversity and temporal continuity has significant implications with respect to recent cultural evolutionary models which propose either gradual accumulation or discontinuous, episodic processes for the emergence and diffusion of cultural traits. We present the results of a systematic technological and typological analysis of the Still Bay assemblages from Sibudu and Blombos. A similar approach is used in the analysis of the Howiesons Poort (HP) assemblages from Sibudu seen in comparison with broadly contemporaneous assemblages from Rose Cottage and Klasies River Cave 1A. Using our own and published data from other sites we report on the diversity between stone artifact assemblages and discuss to what extent they can be grouped into homogeneous lithic sets. The gradual evolution of debitage techniques within the Howiesons Poort sequence with a progressive abandonment of the HP technological style argues against the saltational model for its disappearance while the technological differences between the Sibudu and Blombos Still Bay artifacts considerably weaken an interpretation of similarities between the assemblages and their grouping into the same cultural unit. Limited sampling of a fragmented record may explain why simple models of cultural evolution do not seem to apply to a complex reality. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4498762?pdf=render |
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