AFRICA (Geographic Keyword)
451-475 (520 Records)
Variations in design and function of any tool represent adaptive strategies employed by humans to exist within a landscape. With the increased application of both chemical analysis and microscopy to archaeological material, the identification of hafting adhesives, the glue of composite tools, provides a means by which we may evaluate how members of our species existed within dynamic environments and exploited its resources. In southern Africa, the well-preserved assemblages of the Later Stone...
‘Stuck like Glue’: A Multi-method Analysis of Hafting Adhesives from Later Stone Age Assemblages in Southern Africa (2017)
The characterization of hafting adhesives, the glue of composite tools, by chemical analysis and microscopy provides a means by which we may evaluate the organic components of technologies. In southern Africa, the well-preserved assemblages of the Later Stone Age (LSA) present a unique opportunity to evaluate the procured raw materials related to tool manufacture, with a focus on the ingredients of these plastic components. This paper presents the findings of a multi-site study of hafting...
Swahili Agriculture and Power Dynamics in Regional Perspective (2017)
Urbanization along the Swahili coast coincided with an increasing importance of Islam, stone architecture, and materials traded through connections built inland as well as with Indian Ocean merchants. Archaeobotanical data from the town of Chwaka on Pemba Island, Tanzania (AD 1100-1500) suggest that foodways turned towards Asian crops, including rice and legumes, during the urbanization process. Beyond subsistence, crops held political power. Jeffrey Fleisher (2010) has suggested that feasting...
Systematic Differences in Sieved and Point-Provenienced Fauna Ecofacts from PP5-6, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In zooarchaeological analysis, there is a tendency to give point-provenienced ecofacts analytical priority over ecofacts found in sieved material. To test for the effects of this bias, we conducted a zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of faunal ecofacts (n = 841) found in the 10 mm sieved material from...
Take Me Home Desert Roads…Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis and Migration in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt (2015)
Analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios in adult bone apatite and tooth enamel from the Kellis 2 cemetery (50-450 AD) in the Dakhleh Oasis allows for greater insight into ancient migration between this remote locality and the Nile Valley. Analyses of 45 adult males and 35 adult females are compared against δ18O values from three contemporaneous Roman-Christian sites and one New Kingdom site located along the Nile Valley. The average δ18Ovsmow value for the Nile Valley sample is -31.61‰ +/-...
A Tale of Two Tombs: the relationship between Khonsu's funerary monument and that of Userhat (2015)
Egypt is well known for its long-running funerary traditions, and one of the most fruitful avenues of research on the topic is the study of decorated tombs at the ancient site of Thebes (modern Luxor). The cemetery complex that served this large settlement and religious center during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 BCE) contains thousands of graves. This paper examines two nearly contemporaneous tombs that although commissioned to hold the burials of different men, have a great deal in...
Taphonomic and geological approaches to the identification of in situ versus ex situ archaeological material: a case study from BK East, Bed II, Olduvai Gorge (2017)
A variety of post-depositional processes can add to, subtract from, and/or spatially reconfigure archaeological deposits. The challenge for archaeologists, then, is to unravel these processes in order to assess the fidelity with which a given deposit reflects hominin behavior. BK East, an early Pleistocene locality in Olduvai Gorge’s middle/upper Bed II, preserves stone tools, butchered animal bones, and hominin remains. This rich archaeo-paleontological collection rests within an interbedded...
Taphonomic evidence for human accumulation of small mammals from Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 and other MSA sites in South Africa (2015)
Our capacity to detect the utilization of small prey resources by MSA humans can help shed light on subsistence strategies, cognition, and social organization during this critical period in human evolution. Recent analyses of South African MSA faunas suggest an expansion of dietary breadth after ~100 ka with the increase in the exploitation of small mammals (<5 kg) during MIS 4, but until now there has been little taphonomic evidence to support these conclusions. I present the results of a...
Taphonomy of a modern landscape bone assemblage in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania (2017)
Bone assemblages from modern landscapes can help address a variety of issues, from the degree to which bone scatters accurately reflect local habitats to what variables condition the deposition, preservation, and spatial distribution of faunal material. In 2015, systematic pedestrian survey recovered ~350 bone specimens within a 200m x 200m area of open grassland about two kilometers north of Olduvai Gorge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). Weathering profiles suggest an exposure,...
Technological Organization Strategies during the East African Late Stone Age: Blade Production and the Evolution of Standardized Technology (2015)
Ol Tepesi rockshelter (GsJi53) is located in Kenya’s central Rift Valley on the southern slope of Mt. Eburu, northwest of Lake Naivasha. Its 30-meter high rear wall and 45-meter wide floor would have provided prehistoric inhabitants with a vast habitable area. Excavated deposits span the most recent 17,000 years, from the Iron Age back to the late Pleistocene LSA. The base of the sequence was not reached and likely extends further back in time. Almost 200,000 artifacts, including pottery,...
"Tell me what you are eating and I tell you who are you": Differences in Subsistence Systems of Elite and Non-Elite Gamo Society of the Ethiopia Highlands during Historical Times (2018)
There is little archaeobotanical data from Ethiopia, in this presentation, we will be comparing samples from two historic domestic archaeological sites spanning from late seventeen centuries to the late eighteen century A.D. within the same environment (Gamo highlands in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia) with the intention of examining status differences through subsistence remains. The food habits of past human societies are of importance because the act of...
Temporal and Spatial Variability in Pre-Aksumite Lithics from Mezber, NE. Ethiopia: Social and Economic Implications (2017)
With over 33,000 total excavated flaked stone artifacts and >18,000 analyzed from deposits in primary context, Mezber offers a unique opportunity to understand the role of lithics in Pre-Askumite societies. Using multiple raw materials and reduction sequences, knappers produced a wide array of LSA/Neolithic tools for domestic use, and a narrower range for specialized activities. Locally available chert was the most common raw material, although pXRF results indicate ≥3 as yet unknown distant...
Terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene settlements in West Turkana (northern Kenya): New radiocarbon dates (2017)
Lake Turkana in northern Kenya has played a central role in generating archaeological and paleoclimatic datasets relevant to studying key transitions in human prehistory. Generally, despite its rich Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the later prehistory of the basin, particularly the period between 50 and 10 ka, remains comparatively underexplored. In this paper, we discuss new radiocarbon dates from two recently excavated sites in West Turkana, namely Kokito 01 (GcJh11) and Kokito 02...
Terminal Pleistocene Foraging Societies in the Nile Valley (2015)
This paper is concerned with interpreting the terminal Pleistocene foragers of the Nile River basin, dating between ca. 22,000 to 11,000 years BP. From Wadi Halfa at the Second Cataract, downriver to Qena, at least twelve archaeological traditions occupied and/or utilized the Nile River ecosystem, with subsistence strategies organized around the Nile floods, and the migration of migrating birds. Some settlement patterns within the confines of the Valley shifted seasonally, while others...
Terminal Pleistocene Lithic Technology and Adaptation from Bulbula River B1s4 Site, Ziway-Shala Basin, Ethiopia (2017)
Archaeological excavation which had been conducted in 2009 and 2010 in the Ziway- Shala Basin, close to the Bulbula River Canyon at B1s4 site, has yielded lithic assemblages and few faunal remains. Two human occupation horizons (PS1 and PS2) were identified which are separated by an occupational hiatus at the very end of the terminal Pleistocene. Analysis of debitage on both unit levels indicates the presence of similar features that lead us to assume that B1s4 lithic industry was oriented...
Terrain Modeling at Orheiul Vechi, Moldova (2015)
The Moldovan site of Orheiul Vechi has been continuously occupied since the Late Paleolithic due in part to its commanding position over the local landscape and its strategic situation on the nexus of Eurasian cultural flows and population movements. From the Iron Age onward, the inhabitants of Orheiul Vechi took advantage of natural fortifications, tributary access to the Dniester River, and nearby chernozem soils to consolidate a long-term power base. Using data from ongoing archaeological...
Territoriality Among Human Foragers: Ecological Models and an Application To Four Bushman Groups (1983)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Testing Differential Frailty in a Nubian Sample (2016)
Periosteal lesions are often used as non-specific indicators of overall levels of stress and health in the past. Using medieval London samples, Sharon DeWitte (2014) demonstrated that distinguishing between active and healed periosteal lesions can significantly improve our understanding of stress and differential frailty. She found that healed lesions correlated with higher levels of survivorship when compared to active or no lesions. This study examines whether such a pattern may be observable...
Testing the Paleo-Agulhas Plain Migration Ecosystem hypothesis with serial isotope analysis of fossil fauna (2015)
In contrast to Holocene sites, late Pleistocene sites along the South African south coast are dominated by large and medium-sized ungulates, many of which are typical of open-habitat grasslands and migration ecosystems. During much of the late Pleistocene, sea levels were substantially lower, exposing the Paleo-Agulhas Plain up to 100 km south of the modern coastline. The Migration Ecosystem hypothesis proposes that the Paleo-Agulhas Plain supported a migration ecosystem driven by summer...
There and Back Again: A Space Archaeology Journey (2016)
This paper will discuss the range and type of studies possible based on past and current advances in the field of satellite remote sensing. It will focus on work in the Middle East, North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, and North Atlantic. The paper will primarily focus on the range and type of questions is it possible to ask (and in some cases answer) using a diverse range of satellite datasets combined with intensive ground survey and excavation. It will also provide a range if...
Thermal Curve Fracture (TCF) as a diagnostic tool for the identification of anthropogenic fire (2015)
Recognizing fire evidence in the record can be challenging and contentious. Aside from baked earth features – hearths, daub, etc. – a widely reported associated artifact is fire-cracked rock (FCR). Unlike flaked stone assemblages, FCR lacks a standardized description, criteria, test or model; archaeologists often learn identification ‘in the field.’ Recent actualistic studies have demonstrated that a previously undescribed type of FCR has likely been unknowingly lumped with other ‘angular...
The tip of the horn: extractive foraging strategies and stone tool technologies in northwestern Ethiopia during the Middle Stone Age (2016)
We present data from open-air MSA sites situated along the trunk tributaries of the Blue Nile River in the lowlands of NW Ethiopia that provide information about the behaviors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens in the Horn near the time of its movement out of Africa. The diverse fauna includes mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish from a wide range of body sizes. Stone raw materials include cryptocrystalline quartz and basalt cobbles, both found on the local gravel bars and in exposed basalt...
Tiv of Nigeria. In: Peoples of Africa (1965)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Tool use across space in the Middle Pleistocene: Novel Techniques of Edge Damage Analysis at Elandsfontein, South Africa. (2017)
Although studies of lithic technology have been ongoing for over a century our knowledge of what tools were used for is still poorly resolved. Detailed analysis of microscopic damage has been the major focus studies of tool use. However, these studies are often limited to a subset of tools that have not undergone post-depositional damage and can be studied microscopically. Recently new approaches to damage patterns on the edges of simple flaked tools have been used to develop assemblage scale...
Tortoises as indicators of diet, site formation, and palaeoenvironments in the Middle Stone Age record of the Southern African coast (2015)
Tortoises are one of the most common faunal components at many Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites on the southern coast of South Africa. They provide protein, fat, and other ‘animal’ resources in a ‘collectable’ package, which gives rare insight into the collected component of MSA diet. At most MSA sites, tortoise assemblages are dominated by Chersina angulata, a medium-sized tortoise with sufficient calories to provide approximately 20 – 30% of the daily energetic requirements for an active adult...