That High Lonesome Sound: The MIS 5a (~80 ka) Middle Stone Age Lithic Assemblages from Melikane Rockshelter, Highland Lesotho

Summary

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.

Multidisciplinary research suggests Marine Isotope Stage 5 (~130–74 ka) was an important evolutionary stage in African deep history. Population expansion and growth spurred changes in material culture and the exploration of previously unoccupied regions and ecosystems. The archaeological sequence at Melikane Rockshelter in southern Africa's Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains stretches from the late Holocene back to sub-stage 5a, ~80 ka. The site’s earliest strata represent one of the earliest known examples of a sustained human presence in high mountain systems worldwide. This paper deals with the lithic assemblages from those levels, which are currently the oldest radiometrically dated archaeology in Lesotho. The results of a typo-technological analysis of the assemblages are presented, suggesting that the afromontane foragers who resided at Melikane employed both blade-focused and bipolar flaking systems, curated a maintainable tool kit suited to frequent residential moves, and used a hybrid provisioning system adapted to their immediate environment. Comparisons with other late Last Interglacial assemblages across the subcontinent suggest highland populations at this time were largely disconnected from their lowland counterparts. This implies that as Last Interglacial populations in southern Africa expanded into new environments, they also fragmented, adapting to local conditions rather than adhering to a universal technological system.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33500