Geochemical and Sedimentary-Based Reconstruction of the Palaeoenvironment and Formation of the Late Stone Age Site of Txina-Txina (Massingir, Mozambique)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study aimed to reconstruct Txina-Txina site (located between the junction of Machampane and Chifati rivers, Southeastern Mozambique) paleoenvironment and site formation processes to better understand its occupation pattern, preservation of archaeological materials and the impact of palaeoenvironmental changes on human evolution. For this, we collected sediment samples from test pits and sections on the wall of Txina-Txina for textural, morphometric and geochemical analysis. Additionally, the number and weight of lithics was measured on the test pits. These data allowed us to conclude that next to the hill slope there are colluvial sediments with angular boulders. These sediments were overlaid by a conglomerate covered by fine sediments episodically interrupted by gravel layers. The presence of a conglomerate and round gravel layers indicates that there were high energy events along the rivers. According to the dates, the gravel layers were deposited in wet periods that occurred before 29000 and after 14000 years ago, during the African Humid Period. Although our interpretation is that the fine sediments have a colluvial origin, more analysis will be carried out to confirm this hypothesis. The lithic concentrations showed that the site occupation was likely to have been more intense during drier periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24162