Republic of South Africa (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
326-350 (502 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Local and/or Exotic Interactions: Symbols, Materials, and Societies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle Stone Age was a period of important innovations for Homo sapiens, including but not restricted to heat-treatment of silcrete, hafting adhesive, symbolic behaviors such as engravings, or exploitation of ochre. Though southern African Middle Stone Age lithics and ochre are commonly studied, combined studies of...
The Olduvai bifaces: technology and raw materials (1994)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
On claims for "Advanced" Ironworking Technology in Precolonial Africa (1996)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
On the alleged complexity of early and recent iron smelting in Africa: Further comments on the preheating hypothesis (1987)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
On the Edge of the Kalahari: New Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Deposits at Olieboomspoort, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Olieboomspoort is one of the few rockshelters in South Africa documenting phases of use going back to the Acheulean and up until the very end of the Later Stone Age. Previous work has focused on the recent phases, consistent with traces left by the last...
oNdini, the Zulu royal capital of King Cetshwayo ka Mpande (1873-1879) (1999)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
One Hundred Years of Mozambican Archaeology: Past, Present, Future, and Challenges (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in Mozambique: Current Issues and Topics in Archaeology and Heritage Management" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mozambique, as a country located in the East as well as Southern Africa, has a diversity of important archaeological remains uncovered in the last 100 years as a result of individual enthusiasm and systematic academic research. However, large parts of this past remain poorly explored and...
One More for the Road: Beer, Sacrifice and Commemoration in Ancient Nubian Burials of the Classic Kerma Period (2017)
The funerary equipment of the Classic Kerma elite community included sets of ceramic vessels accompanying the primary deceased and sacrificed individuals. Stacks of beakers were placed in communal areas of graves, suggesting that the vessels were intended for group use in the afterlife. Graves with extraordinary organic preservation include woven giraffe-hair implements placed near the vessels. In comparison with ethnographic examples, these tools are beer strainers. Two graves also had vessels...
Ongoing Excavations at FxJj20Main-Extension-0, Koobi Fora, Kenya (2017)
Original excavation of FxJj20 sites in Koobi Fora, Kenya revealed nine oxidized patches described as combustion features associated with artifacts. Here we describe new excavations at a nearby new locality described as FxJj20Main-Ext-0. This excavation extends previous work in order to explore potential combustion features with newer techniques. Three squares adjacent to a reddened feature yielded 18 bones and 33 stone artifacts. All bone was fragmented. Most stone artifacts were basalt. Nearest...
Online Education on African Archaeology and Heritage: The ONLAAH Platform (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in Mozambique: Current Issues and Topics in Archaeology and Heritage Management" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Onlaah platform is formed by a consortium of institutions and partners, from Africa and around the world, such as the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), the University of Namibia (UNAM), the University Eduardo Mondlane (Angola), the ICArEHB (Algarve University, Portugal), the Autonoma...
The organisation of hornfels blade production during the Early Later Stone Age (ELSA) in the eastern Cederberg, Western Cape, South Africa (2017)
The Early Later Stone Age (ELSA) represents the onset of sustained microlithic technology in southern Africa. The ELSA is, however, poorly defined with respect to its technological characteristics and organisation. In this paper we identify key features of the ELSA at Putslaagte 8 (PL8) rockshelter in the south-west of southern Africa, dating ~25-22 ka. The assemblage features relatively expedient production of hornfels blades using natural ridges of cobbles from the nearby Doring River. A...
The Origin of Iron Smelting in Africa (1975)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
The origins of pastoralism in Eastern Africa: new human dental evidence from mid-Holocene Pillar Sites in the Turkana Basin (2017)
Herding spread into Eastern Africa ~5000 BP, but mechanisms of spread are still debated (migration, diffusion, or a mix). If herders migrated from desiccating areas of the Sahara, Sahel, or Ethiopian Rift, they would have passed through the Turkana Basin, where the earliest livestock coincides chronologically with the construction of megalithic "pillar sites." Recent excavations at 3 pillar sites revealed extensive human burials, plus caprine remains and zoomorphic artifacts suggesting these...
Ostrich Eggshell taphonomy and distribution at Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (2017)
Analysis of ostrich eggshell (OES) fragment distribution at Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH-1) revealed taphonomic patterns. The variation of OES features and its distribution indicates that the OES was being used and processed differently in temporal and spatial context. KEH-1, a cave on the southern coast of South Africa, was inhabited by early modern humans throughout the Middle and Late Stone Age. Hearth features are prevalent throughout the sequence, providing evidence of occupational...
Out of Africa, or How Earlier Forms of African Governance Can Save the World (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Essential Contributions from African to Global Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the consequences of European colonialism is the narrowing of the world’s political imagination. When colonists began to carve up Africa in the late nineteenth century, they were met with a dizzying range of governance systems—systems most famously pondered by academics in Fortes and Evans-Pritchard’s (1940) *African...
Out with a Whimper or a Bang? Hunter-Gatherer Response to the End of the African Humid Period in Northern Malawi (2018)
The modern climate of the southernmost African Rift Valley is characterized by a single warm-wet season, which receives almost all annual precipitation. The other six months are arid, and surface water is confined to major river and lake features. In the northern basin of Lake Malawi, at the southern extent of the modern ITCZ, core records show a rapid increase in water surface temperatures peaking at ~5.5 ka, followed by a major expansion of grasslands. This coincides with the end of the...
The Oyo Empire, ca. 1570–1840: The Art of Being a Compositional State (2024)
This is an abstract from the "States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives." session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Yoruba sovereign states matured about the eleventh century in ideology, symbols of authority, and organizational structure. Governed by a system of monarchy comprising the divine king/palace officials and non-royal lords, theirs was a political arrangement that placed the king as first among equals with the...
Pacific basketmakers: a living tradition: catalog of the 1981 Pacific basketmaker's symposium and exhibition. (Fairbanks, Alaska) Symposium of traditional basketmakers; Honolulu, 1981.05. (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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
The Palace of Muweis and Its Medieval Necropolis (2017)
Muweis is located in the Shendi reach, about 300 kms north from the capital of Sudan, Khartoum. Its palace has been excavated by the Louvre Museum since 2007. It is part of the Meroitic Kingdom (350 BCE - 350 CE), which covered an area of 1500 kms on the Middle Nile Valley, making it the most important political structure known in Sub-Saharan Africa until the 19th century. In 2008 a medieval necropolis was discovered among the remains of the palace, under the debris of a small house situated at...
Paleoecological Assessment of the Douglas Korongo East and Bell's Korongo East Sites, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2017)
Current work at DKE and BKE in concert with The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) has exposed Bed I and Bed II deposits, respectively. At DKE a series of tuffs and siltstones, including paleosols, indicates DKE hosted a series of productive landscapes through time. Paleosols have well-developed blocky structure and host large concentrations of fossils. At BKE sandy fluvial deposits adjacent to siliceous siltstones confirm previous descriptions of site materials. Cultural...
Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Holocene Southern Mozambique: Multiproxy Data from Coastal Lake Nyalonzelwe Cores (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To understand the role climate played in facilitating the development and expression of human behaviors, our interdisciplinary research team cored the interdunal Nyalonzelwe lake (Inhambane coast, southern Mozambique) during the summer of 2019. Lake Nyalonzelwe sits 5 m above MSL and is sheltered from the Indian Ocean by a Pleistocene dune system. Its...
Paleolandscape Reconstruction Using Geoproxy Evidence at Erfkroon, a Middle to Later Stone Age Occupation in South Africa’s Continental Interior (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Erfkroon is situated in South Africa’s Modder River Valley and is known for its well-stratified fluvial landscape and archaeologically rich terrace systems. The Orangia terrace is the subject of ongoing investigations because it is characterized by abundant in situ alluvial deposits containing Middle and Later Stone Age artifact assemblages in context with...
Paleolithic Survey on the Upper Luangwa Valley, Zambia (2017)
The northern half of the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, a southern branch of the East African rift system, is archaeologically unexplored territory in an area that may have served as an important biogeographic corridor between eastern and southern Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. This paper summarizes the first systematic survey in this region. Paleontological reconnaissance in 2013 incidentally revealed multiple Paleolithic sites which may range from the Acheulian through the MSA. Representative...
Paleoproteomic Perspectives on the Subsistence Decisions of Later Stone Age Herders in Namaqualand, South Africa (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic-bound protein characterization, or paleoproteomics, can provide vital insight into the species-specific dietary decisions preserved in the pottery of past populations. This insight is particularly relevant for understanding the subsistence choices of Later Stone Age (LSA) herders living in the Namaqualand coastal desert of South...
A Pathway to Attain Sustainable Development in Africa (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Initiative for Sustainable Development in Africa (ISDAf) was conceived in 2020 to raise awareness of the need to engage local indigenous and descendent (LID) communities as equal partners in Strategic Environmental and Social Assessments (SESA) and Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) for development and conservation projects at the...