Charred Organic Matter in the Middle and Later Stone Record in South Africa: Exploring Multiple Anthropogenic Processes and Origins

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Charred Organic Matter in the Archaeological Sedimentary Record" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Middle and Later Stone caves and rockshelters in South Africa are commonly rich in organic matter. The formation history of the organic component in the archaeological deposits is still unclear and several natural and anthropogenic processes can be considered. This paper will focus on a discussion of possible anthropogenic processes of organic matter deposition and their alteration by burning. People transported plant material to sites as food, tools, construction materials and fuel. Microcontextual analyses of deposits have proven very helpful in identifying the latter two. At Sibudu, for example, plant beddings make up the bulk of the organic matter component of the deposits and many of these beddings were burnt as a form of site maintenance behavior. In other sites, preservation conditions are less ideal. Combustion features and beddings are prone to destruction by reworking and other post-depositional alterations including human behavior, for example rake out and dumping of material. This raises the question if and how much of the (charred) organic matter in Stone Age deposits in South Africa results from the variable forms of fire use, bedding construction and site maintenance behaviors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Charred Organic Matter in the Archaeological Sedimentary Record   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25811