Evaluating the Nature and Behavioral Implications of Laterally Extensive Occupation Deposits
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-10-14

Evaluating the Nature and Behavioral Implications of Laterally Extensive Occupation Deposits in the Middle Stone Age Levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa 

The spatial patterning of archaeological remains has been studied at several southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites, yet intra-site activity patterns for this time period are not well understood, and the spatial configuration of prehistoric MSA hunter-gatherer camp sites remains largely elusive. There are several reasons for this. First, relatively few MSA sites have been excavated, and fewer still have been excavated over a large enough surface area that allow for behaviourally meaningful intra-site spatial analyses. Second, some MSA contexts simply do not contain laterally extensive, continuous and undisturbed occupation deposits and their general lack of spatial and stratigraphic integrity make them unsuitable for conventional archaeological site structure analysis. Third, many MSA sites are located in caves and rock-shelters where the recurrent use of the same confined space, by multiple depositional agents over time, have led to the formation of complex deposits that contain a combination of in-situ, partially in-situ, and completely reworked deposits. These complex, often laminated deposits can contain a high-resolution record of individual occupational events. However, the thin, finely laminated nature of the sediments makes it difficult to recover information on lateral spatial patterning using standard excavation techniques. In this study, we aim to identify and characterize intra-site spatial activity patterns through site-wide micromorphological microfacies analysis at the MSA site of Blombos Cave (BBC), South Africa. At this cave site, more than 18 m2 of the interior has been excavated, and the sedimentary sequence – which is more than 3 m deep – contains numerous lenses and micro-contexts, many of which are laterally extensive and can be associated with different phases of prehistoric human occupation. We focus on micromorphological samples collected from four different MSA occupation phases at the site: M1 (Still Bay, c. 72 ka), M2 Upper (Still Bay, c. 77 ka), M3 Upper (85 ka) and M3 Lower (101 ka). By combining micromorphology, microspectroscopy and organic petrology with high-resolution site documentation our objective is to study the lateral and vertical variability of anthropogenic microfacies, in particular in terms of their genetic interpretation (behavioral implications), temporal and spatial resolution (chronological implications) and intra-site spatial distribution (implications for prehistoric site use and organization of cave space).

Magnus M. Haaland 1, Christopher E. Miller 2,3, Karen van Niekerk 1, Ole F. Unhammer 1, Bertrand Ligouis 5, Christopher S. Henshilwood 1,4

1 Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway

2 Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany

3 Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany

4 Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

5 Laboratory for Applied Organic Petrology (LAOP) – Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany