Stuck like glue: Case studies in assessing the variability of hafting adhesives during the southern African Later Stone Age

Summary

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 Age (LSA), though considerably neglected in recent decades, presents a unique opportunity to evaluate raw material procurement strategies related to tool manufacture from an organic perspective. This poster presents the findings of several case studies that are the foundation of a doctoral project utilizing microscopy and molecular analysis in tandem to identify the adhesive composition of hafted technologies from stratified LSA sites located in a variety of geographies and ecologies. This research will attempt to broaden our understanding of the relationship between adhesives, stone tool manufacturing, and the ecology of a surrounding region. The overall aim of this work is to contribute to the long-standing narrative on the appearance and continued application of hafting adhesives in the manufacture of composite tool technologies in southern Africa.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage