Multiple functions for an assemblage of Middle Stone Age Points: Use-Wear Evidence from Magubike Rockshelter, Tanzania.

Summary

Preliminary lithic use-wear evidence from Magubike Rockshelter, Tanzania, suggests a mixed function for an assemblage of Middle Stone Age points, including a possible projectile point role. The development of hafted hunting weapons during the Middle Stone Age is thought to have marked a major juncture in human behavioural evolution. Not only did the emergence of this technology likely have a major impact on the foraging strategies of hunting and gathering populations, many have speculated that the composite nature of these weapon systems reflects an important improvement in the cognitive abilities of contemporaneous Pleistocene hominins. Nonetheless, one of the primary challenges in understanding this process and its significance has been identifying and demonstrating the function of pointed artifacts. In this paper, the author makes use of a newly developed use-wear technique that relies on plotting edge damage distribution using GIS software. This method is combined with a more conventional means of high-velocity impact detection to reconstruct possible tool uses. These results reinforce the notion that pointed artifacts, sometimes assumed to be exclusively projectile points, likely assumed a variety of purposes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17159