The Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter sequence: 100 000 years of Stone Age history

Unknown author

140 citations0/0 files storedSouthern African humanities

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Archaeology and ancient environmental studies Archaeology and Rock Art Studies

Abstract

Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter was excavated in 1985. A long and detailed sequence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) stone artefacts were recovered. These provide important information on the MSA, MSA/LSA transition, the Robberg LSA, as well as the relationship between hunter-gatherers and farmers between AD 400-800. The excavation, stratigraphy, stone artefacts, animal and plant remains, worked bone tools, beads, pottery and ochre finds are described. Thereafter I interpret the remains from the site focusing on the following issues: 1. The MSA, which emphasis on the Howiesons Poort. 2. The MSA/LSA transition. 3. The origins of the Late Pleistocene LSA microlithic bladelet assemblages. 4. Interaction between hunter-gatherers and iron-producing farmers. Evidence is presented to show that the MSA/LSA transition occurred between 35000-20000 BP. This transition is gradual with MSA technology being replaced by increasing bladelet production. Pre-dating 18000 BP and post-dating 12000 BP, the bladelet-rich assemblages recovered from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter are the first of their kind to be positively identified in Natal. They show that assemblages of this nature were produced earlier in Natal than elsewhere in southern Africa. The metrical results for bladelet cores and bladelets show a progressive decrease in their mean lengths from the MSA to the LSA, as well as within the LSA sequence. Consequently it is argued that the origins of the (Robberg) bladelet-rich assemblages are to be found in the local MSA. There is also evidence that suggests that a continuation of post-10000 BP bladelet production is centred in the north-east of the country. Hunter-gatherers and farmers interacted during the final phases of the site's history, while it is argued that the final occupants of the site were iron-producing farmers who fled the upheavals of the Mfecane in the 1800s. To cite this article: Kaplan, J. 1990. The Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter sequence: 100000 years of Stone Age history. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 2 : 1-94.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 140 citations exist upstream.

Cited by

2001Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels 2001What is Cultural Modernity? A General View and a South African Perspective from Rose Cottage Cave 2006Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave 2002Variability in the Middle Stone Age Lithic Sequence, 115,000–60,000 Years Ago at Klasies River, South Africa 2015Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa 2007The gripping nature of ochre: The association of ochre with Howiesons Poort adhesives and Later Stone Age mastics from South Africa 2014Coalescence and fragmentation in the late Pleistocene archaeology of southernmost Africa 2008New ages for the post-Howiesons Poort, late and final Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.