Ochre communities of practice in Stone Age Eswatini

Brandi Lee MacDonald · Elizabeth C. Velliky · Bob Forrester · Svenja Riedesel · Jörg Linstädter · Alexa Kuo +3 more

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Archaeology and Rock Art Studies Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis

Abstract

Our species and other hominins have used earth mineral pigments since at least ~500,000 years ago, if not earlier. Its preservation and ubiquity within archaeological records across sub-Saharan Africa are well documented, but regional-scale networks of mineral selection, mining, transport, and use is an underdeveloped field. Here, we present a framework for interpreting regional variations within an overarching ochre-behavioral community of practice. Deep-time records of ochre provisioning span the final Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age in modern day Eswatini, revealing longstanding cultural continuities in the intergenerational transmission of shared knowledge on landscapes, geology, and the desired physicochemical properties of mineral pigments. These communities of practice did not develop in isolation, and were part of a wider system of relations that were influenced and mediated by social interactions, such as technological learning, seasonal traveling, material culture exchange, and symbolic expression. We use compositional analyses to determine localized ochre procurement strategies and long-distance transport across a network of fifteen archaeological sites and mineral resources. Newly refined chronologies from Lion Cavern at Ngwenya using optically stimulated luminescence dating also reaffirm its antiquity as the oldest known evidence for intensive ochre mining worldwide (~48,000 years ago). Mineral pigments have been used by humans and human ancestors for at least 500 thousand years. Here, the authors document ochre provisioning in Middle and Late Stone Age Eswatini, demonstrate the presence of transport networks across 15 sites, and suggest that Lion Cavern is the oldest intensive ochre mine.

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1991Situated Learning 1996Teaching, as Learning, in Practice 2007Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene 1983Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies 2011A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa 2001An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language 2018Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age 2010A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa

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