Peer-reviewed publications by Justin Pargeter
Archaeometry, 2025
Stone artifacts (lithics) preserve for extended periods; thus they are key evidence for probing t... more Stone artifacts (lithics) preserve for extended periods; thus they are key evidence for probing the evolution of human technological behaviors. Africa boasts the oldest record of stone artifacts, spanning 3.3 Ma, rare instances of ethnographic stone tool-making, and stone tool archives from diverse ecological settings, making it an anchor for research on the long-term temporal and spatial trends in human evolution. This paper reviews the application of scientific methods for studying African stone artifacts and highlights several popular research themes on the continent, including the origins of flaked stone technology, hunter-gatherer mobility and landscape use, technological variability, function, biocultural evolution, and ancient human cognition. We conclude by outlining some key challenges to future lithic research in Africa.
American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 2024
Objectives: This study investigates the energetic costs associated with Oldowanstyle flake produc... more Objectives: This study investigates the energetic costs associated with Oldowanstyle flake production and how skill differences influence these costs. Materials and Methods: Nine adult participants, including novice and expert toolmakers, underwent a 2-h experimental session where we measured energy expenditure and flaking outcomes. We measured body mass (kg), percent body fat, and fatfree mass (kg) and used open-circuit indirect calorimetry to quantify energy expenditure. The lithic analysis used standard linear and mass measurements on the resulting cores and flakes. Qualitative observations from the video recordings provide insight into the subject's body positions and hand grips. Results: Results reveal significant differences in energy expenditure between novice and expert toolmakers, with experts demonstrating lower overall energy expenditure. Additionally, experts produced more flakes, reduced greater core mass per unit of energy expenditure, and exhibited distinct body positions, hand grips, and core/flake morphologies compared with novices. Discussion: The study provides novel insights into the bio-cultural impacts of stone toolmaking skill acquisition, suggesting that skilled performance reduces the metabolic costs of stone tool production. These findings contribute to debates surrounding the origins of human cultural capacities and highlight the importance of including energy expenditure measures in knapping experiments. Moreover, the results suggest that the presence or absence of expertise in the Paleolithic would have fundamentally altered selective pressures and the reliability of skill reproduction. This study enhances our understanding of differences in stone toolmaking skill and their implications for human energy allocation strategies during early technological evolution.
Archaeometry, 2024
Backing is a procedure for retouching a stone tool edge
to an angle of or near 90 . Archaeologist... more Backing is a procedure for retouching a stone tool edge
to an angle of or near 90 . Archaeologists have
recorded backed lithic specimens in the Pleistocene and
Holocene around the world. One prominent hypothesis
for the occurrence of backing is that it increases a stone
tool’s adhesion relative to what it would have otherwise
been with unmodified, sharp edges. We conducted a
highly controlled semi-static tensile test in which we
assessed lithic specimens that possessed both a backed
and a non-backed edge, opposing each other. We
hafted each specimen’s backed and non-backed edges
to wood, and the bi-hafted stone implement was then
pulled apart using an Universal Instron Materials Tester,
allowing for a direct ‘head-to-head’ comparison of
the two edge types’ adhesive properties. Our tensile test
results suggested no significant difference between
backed and non-backed edges in terms of adhesion,
which does not support the hypothesis that backing
increases a lithic specimen’s adhesion
AZANIA, 2024
Boomplaas Cave in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is
one of only a few African sites wi... more Boomplaas Cave in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is
one of only a few African sites with inland archaeological
deposits spanning Marine Isotope Stages 4–1. Work conducted
half a century ago predicted Boomplaas to be a meagre plantfood
location. We reassess this interpretation here by presenting
updated lists of the current vegetation and foodplants growing
within roughly a day’s foraging distance from the cave. By doing
so, we increase the known foodplant species potentially available
to Stone Age foragers by 356% and show that almost all the
plant species/genera in the Boomplaas archaeobotanical
assemblage still grow within a day’s range of the site. We present
nutritional values for some of the plant foods, highlighting those
richest in moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and
energy and suggesting that such foods may have been important
staples in the dietary ecology of the Stone Age foragers who
used the site. Lastly, we demonstrate that the Boomplaas Cave
foodplant fitness landscape is relatively rich and varied compared
to similar data from other Cape sites such as Klasies River Main
Cave, Diepkloof Rock Shelter and Hollow Rock Shelter.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2024
With a rich sequence of floral and faunal remains spanning the past >65,000 years, Boomplaas Cave... more With a rich sequence of floral and faunal remains spanning the past >65,000 years, Boomplaas Cave is among the more important paleoenvironmental archives from South Africa's southern Cape. However, over the last several decades, its paleoenvironmental records have been the subject of conflicting interpretations, fueling uncertainty over fundamental aspects of Quaternary climate change in the region. Most significantly, researchers have variably interpreted the fossil plant and animal assemblages dating to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as indicating harsh and arid or humid and productive conditions. This review critically examines the paleoenvironmental evidence from Boomplaas Cave, focusing on its LGM deposits and how they relate to the contentious problem of moisture availability through time. We show that interpretations of aridity during the LGM either (i) lack robust ecological links between the evidence and the paleoenvironmental interpretation, or (ii) are based on spurious patterns arising from sampling effects. In contrast, interpretations of relatively humid conditions during the LGM are grounded in present-day ecological observations and are consistent with both local and regional paleoenvironmental datasets. Overall, the evidence strongly supports the characterization of the LGM as a time of relatively humid conditions, with the transition to the Holocene characterized by increasing aridity. Several lines of evidence from Boomplaas Cave further suggest that this phase of increased humidity was associated with a dominance of winter rainfall, in contrast to the aseasonal rainfall regime that characterizes the southern Cape today.
Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology in Africa, 2023
Flaked stone (lithic) artifacts are a ubiquitous cultural material at Pleistocene sites and first... more Flaked stone (lithic) artifacts are a ubiquitous cultural material at Pleistocene sites and first appear in the archaeological record 3.3 million years ago (Ma) in East Africa (Harmand et al., 2015). The African stone artifact record thus covers the longest time span of human prehistory compared to other world regions. Lithic artifacts preserve well, and they are often the only cultural materials remaining at a site. Archaeologists have therefore dedicated considerable effort to describing stone artifacts and to developing theory to interpret them in light of the behavioral and biological evolution of hominins. Below we briefly describe the major lithic technologies that appeared in Africa during the Pleistocene. Additionally, this chapter reviews the common analytical approaches that researchers employ when studying lithic assemblages from diverse contexts. We then discuss how archaeologists have used lithic artifacts to interpret other aspects of hominin evolution and the issues that confound these interpretations. Here, stone “artifacts” are preferred as opposed to stone “tools” to refer to all intentionally flaked stones because the term “artifact” does not presume their use as tools per se.
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 2023
Archaeologists have long considered climate change a primary mechanism behind human behavioral ad... more Archaeologists have long considered climate change a primary mechanism behind human behavioral adaptations. The Lesotho highlands' Afromontane and climatically extreme environments offer a unique opportunity to examine proposed correlations between topography, climate, and human behavior. Previous studies suggest that warmer temperatures allowed humans to expand their diet breadth and foraging range, whereas colder temperatures restricted humans to resources in riverine corridors. These studies used faunal and floral change as proxies to track changes in forager mobility but did not consider how differential access to stone resources affected human behaviors. To account for this gap, we conducted a survey for knappable rocks around the Sehonghong rock shelter in eastern Lesotho, recording the materials present and their size and shape in the modern environment. We compared the survey results to later Pleistocene (~ 22-11 ka cal. BP) lithic assemblages at Sehonghong to better understand whether archaeological patterns match modern knappable rock availability. Contrary to previous hypotheses, we find that past peoples at Sehonghong were not limited to exclusively riverine resources during colder conditions. We then used flake-to-core and noncortical-to-cortical flake ratios to track changes in mobility and knappable rock procurement patterns. The ratios remain constant up until the Late Glacial, ca. 14 ka cal. BP, when we see an increase in both flake-to-core and noncortical-to-cortical ratios, suggesting increased movement of stone out of Sehonghong. These conclusions show that resource procurement and mobility patterns are not solely dependent on climate change but may be driven by more complicated causal mechanisms such as increased interaction and the formation of social networks across the Lesotho highlands and beyond.
American Antiquity, 2023
The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions ... more The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions of human behavioral variability. Despite their importance, lithic artifacts can be problematic to study because lithic analysts differ widely in their theoretical approaches and the data they collect. The extent to which differences in lithic data relate to prehistoric behavioral variability or differences between archaeologists today remains
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.
Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2019
Open-air archaeology plays a limited role in southern African Late Pleistocene research, with mos... more Open-air archaeology plays a limited role in southern African Late Pleistocene research, with most studies focused on rock shelter assemblages. Recently, archaeologists have noted discrepancies in the composition of Late Pleistocene lithic assemblages between some of the region's open-air and rock shelter sites. For example, although relatively abundant in rock shelters, Late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (LSA, c. 44-12 kcal. BP) bipolar cores are rare in open-air contexts. In this paper, we assess this discrepancy by testing for differential preservation of specific artefact classes and sizes in semi-arid open-air conditions. We placed a replicated assemblage of miniaturised cores and flakes on an archaeologically sterile sediment surface in the Doring River Valley (South Africa) and recorded their movements over 22 months. Our results indicate that bipolar and freehand cores moved comparable distances within the study interval and that surface slope is the strongest predictor of miniaturised tool movement. We also show that (1) relatively flat lithics move disproportionately more and (2) random artefact orientations do not preclude local (i.e. metre) scale artefact transport. In terms of the archaeology of our study area, the observed clustering of surface artefacts on sediment bodies likely results from their recent exposure. Our data suggest that the paucity of open-air bipolar artefacts in Late Pleistocene LSA assemblages may have more to do with human behavioural variability at landscape scales than differential preservation. Southern Africa's rich rock shelter record is, therefore, unlikely to represent the full suite of prehistoric hunter-gatherer behaviours.
Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2023
Despite the extensive literature focusing on Acheulean handaxes, especially the sources and meani... more Despite the extensive literature focusing on Acheulean handaxes, especially the sources and meaning of their morphological variability, many aspects of this topic remain elusive. Archaeologists cite several factors that contribute to handaxe morphological variability, including knapping skill and mental templates. Integrating these two lines of literature into a broader theoretical framework of cultural reproduction, here we present new results from a multidisciplinary study of Late Acheulean handaxe-making skill acquisition involving thirty naïve participants trained for up to 90 h in Late Acheulean style handaxe production and three expert knappers. We compare the experimental handaxe shapes to the Late Acheulean handaxe assemblage from Boxgrove, UK. Through the principal component analysis of morphometric data derived from images, our study suggested that knapping skill acquisition has a differential effect on the cultural reproduction of different aspects of handaxe morphology. More specifically, compared with elongation and pointedness (PC2), cross-sectional thinning (PC1) is more constrained by knapping skill. Our findings thus shed new light on how skill learning can bias the cultural reproduction of artifact morphology.
Lithic Technology, 2023
The Oldowan is the archaeological record's oldest consistent evidence of hominin technical behavi... more The Oldowan is the archaeological record's oldest consistent evidence of hominin technical behavior. First appearing ∼2.6 Ma in East Africa, the Oldowan is characterized by simple core and flake technology using direct hard hammer percussion. Archaeologists debate whether Oldowan assemblages are uniform and what role hominin cultural abilities played in generating these assemblages. To improve existing methods for studying Oldowan technical uniformity, we conducted experiments involving 23 novices and one expert knapper. Subjects made simple stone tools under two different instructional conditions (observation-only and direct active instruction) over two hours. We used the resulting cores to track flaking efficiency, reduction intensity, and knapping errors. We find significant differences in the expert and novice core uniformity. Direct active teaching increased core flaking efficiency and reduced knapping errors. Comparisons between our experimental results and an Oldowan sample from Gona, Ethiopia, show core variability patterns that match our expert and actively taught novices.
Scientific Reports, 2023
Stone-tool making is an ancient human skill thought to have played a key role in the bio-cultural... more Stone-tool making is an ancient human skill thought to have played a key role in the bio-cultural co-evolutionary feedback that produced modern brains, culture, and cognition. To test the proposed evolutionary mechanisms underpinning this hypothesis we studied stone-tool making skill learning in modern participants and examined interactions between individual neurostructural differences, plastic accommodation, and culturally transmitted behavior. We found that prior experience with other culturally transmitted craft skills increased both initial stone tool-making performance and subsequent neuroplastic training effects in a frontoparietal white matter pathway associated with action control. These effects were mediated by the effect of experience on pre-training variation in a frontotemporal pathway supporting action semantic representation. Our results show that the acquisition of one technical skill can produce structural brain changes conducive to the discovery and acquisition of additional skills, providing empirical evidence for bio-cultural feedback loops long hypothesized to link learning and adaptive change.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2022
Stone tools provide key evidence of human cognitive evolution but remain challenging to interpret... more Stone tools provide key evidence of human cognitive evolution but remain challenging to interpret. Stone tool skill-learning has been understudied even though (1) the most salient cognitive demands of tool-making should occur during learning, and (2) variation in learning aptitude would have provided the raw material for any past selection acting on tool-making ability. However, we know very little about the cognitive prerequisites of learning under different information transmission conditions that may have prevailed during the Paleolithic. This paper presents results from an exploratory study to trial new experimental methods for studying the effect of learning conditions and individual differences on Oldowan stone tool skill acquisition. We trained 23 participants for two hours to make stone flakes under two different instructional conditions (observation only vs. direct active teaching). We employed appropriate raw materials, a moderate practice time, and in-person, fully interactive instruction. Participant performance was evaluated through an analysis of the stone artifacts produced. We compared performance across experimental groups with respect to individual participant differences in grip strength, motor accuracy, and cognitive function measured for the study. Our results show that a 2h training window is insufficient to document learning-related performance change. However, direct active teaching reduces variability in knapping rate, methods, and outcomes during early-stage learning, thus increasing the reliability of skill reproduction. Instruction also altered knapping quality vs. quantity trade-offs in the two groups and dramatically changed the effects of individual differences in strength, visuospatial working memory, and social learning tendencies on knapping outcomes. Our results provide further support for the hypothetical co-evolution of teaching, language, and tool-making, and suggest that the presence/absence of direct active teaching can fundamentally alter learning-related selection pressures on individuals. The study provides lessons for future experimental design. Aditi Majoe is an independent researcher.
Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2022
Stone tool backing repeatedly occurred on several continents throughout the Pleistocene and Holoc... more Stone tool backing repeatedly occurred on several continents throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Yet, any potential utilitarian advantages or disadvantages of backed stone tools relative to non-backed tools has been experimentally under-explored. Modern engineering experiments involving adhesion mechanics suggest an inverse relationship between surface area and the strength of a bond, especially on heterogeneous surfaces like stone. Some stone flakes, especially those with longer edges, may have been backed to make them easier to hold and safer to use. Further, Stone Age humans hafted both backed and un-backed tools for millennia in many parts of the world, suggesting effective hafting could occur with or without backing. Backing itself is a relatively simple technique providing toolmakers with an easy way to shape stone flakes. Some archaeologists have even hypothesized backed tool shaping was an end to communicate social information via stone symbols. This is the first pilot in a series of experiments testing a straightforward null and alternative hypothesis assessing the relationship between backing and adhesion and shaft damage with respect to projectile weaponry. Overall, our experimental results suggested two central conclusions with respect to backing. First, backing does not appear to improve adhesion but instead significantly worsens it. Second, laterally backed tools seem to increase the chances of shaft splitting relative to laterally hafted non-backed tools. Assuming for a moment that our results are supported by our future experimental research, our findings suggest that factors other than increased adhesion, such as intentional 'failure,' drift, or non-functional bias during social signaling or symbolic communication events, may have been responsible for the adoption and transmission of backed tools.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
Archaeomalacological analysis is generally undertaken on recovered macro-remains to characterize ... more Archaeomalacological analysis is generally undertaken on recovered macro-remains to characterize the overall composition of faunal remains in a deposit. Given the susceptibility of shell middens to a variety of taphonomic processes, it is assumed that the prior presence of shell in deposits may therefore occasionally be missed. Deteriorated micro-remains can mix indistinguishably into surrounding sediments and make their analyses and identification difficult, particularly in older deposits and in environments that experience rapid rates of weathering. This paper explores whether microscopic remains of deteriorated molluscs can be distinguished from other microscopic remains at the coastal rock shelter site of Waterfall Bluff in Mpondoland, South Africa. The methodology uses a multi-scalar approach integrating shell mineralogy and microstructure using the taxonomic distinctiveness of these features. The diagnostic features (e.g., morphology, hinges, spires, and apertures) used for identifying macro-remains are absent in micro-remains, therefore unique methods of identification are needed to identify these microscopic mollusc fragments. Through mineralogical analyses and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging, the nacreous remains of Mytilidae shell were identified from previously unidentified degraded shell remains as well as sediment samples from Waterfall Bluff. These methods thus recovered 'invisible' evidence of shellfish remains providing further evidence of continued coastal foraging from Marine Isotope Stage 3 to the early Holocene (ca or ⁓ 40 ka to 10 ka) on the southeastern African coast.
Communications Biology, 2021
Stone toolmaking is a human motor skill which provides the earliest archeological evidence motor ... more Stone toolmaking is a human motor skill which provides the earliest archeological evidence motor skill and social learning. Intentionally shaping a stone into a functional tool relies on the interaction of action observation and practice to support motor skill acquisition. The emergence of adaptive and efficient visuomotor processes during motor learning of such a novel motor skill requiring complex semantic understanding, like stone toolmaking, is not understood. Through the examination of eye movements and motor skill, the current study sought to evaluate the changes and relationship in perceptuomotor processes during motor learning and performance over 90 h of training. Participants' gaze and motor performance were assessed before, during and following training. Gaze patterns reveal a transition from initially high gaze variability during initial observation to lower gaze variability after training. Perceptual changes were strongly associated with motor performance improvements suggesting a coupling of perceptual and motor processes during motor learning.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2020
Waterfall Bluff, in Eastern Mpondoland (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa), is a recently excav... more Waterfall Bluff, in Eastern Mpondoland (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa), is a recently excavated archaeological site with deposits spanning Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 to the Middle Holocene. Here, we present preliminary results of a multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study combining macro-botanical remains, charcoal, phytoliths, pollen and plant waxes derived from the same archaeological record. We aim to understand the interactions between hunter-gatherer plant foraging and climate and environmental change in coastal Mpondoland from MIS 3 to the Early Holocene at Waterfall Bluff. The charcoal and pollen records at Waterfall Bluff show the gathering of a variety of woody taxa characterised by their combustion and medicinal properties (e.g., Millettia grandis and Apodytes dimidiate). The leaves identified in the macrobotanics and in the phytolith record might belong to some of these taxa and it is likely that they were used for medicinal purposes. From a palaeoenvironmental perspective, our results indicate low precipitation and low rainfall seasonality under cool conditions during MIS 3 and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Under these conditions, open woodlands interspersed with dry and hygrophilous grasslands and bushveld vegetation with significant representation of fynbos elements occurred in the local landscapes probably along Podocarpus/Afrocarpus forests. The latter could have been (1) present along river valleys and scarps on the Mpondoland exposed continental shelf towards the south and west of Waterfall Bluff, supported by palaeo-rivers and cool temperatures favouring low evapotranspiration, or (2) present in the interior with pollen grains possibly transported to the site by intensified westerly winds. These forests contracted as a result of the post-glacial marine transgression or reduced westerlies following the LGM. During the Early Holocene, the palaeoenvironmental signal points to higher summer rainfall and higher (summer) seasonality than during MIS 3, the LGM and the LGIT. These changes are coeval with an increase of coastal forests and C 4 mesic grasslands with localized wetland vegetation around Waterfall Bluff. These multi-proxy archaeobotanical and biochemical data show that landscapes surrounding Waterfall Bluff changed in relation to marine transgressions/regressions and changes in rainfall intensity and seasonality. The people of Waterfall Bluff foraged the coasts during glacial periods to collect wood.
Quaternary International, 2020
Here we evaluate the hypothesis that during cold climatic phases, people and resources became inc... more Here we evaluate the hypothesis that during cold climatic phases, people and resources became increasingly packed along highland Lesotho's riverine corridors as the viability of palatable grasslands for large mammal hunting on the upland plateaus declined. These intensification efforts resulted in increased reliance on lower-ranked aquatic (fish) resources with knock-on effects for lithic technological organization. We compare data on the relative contribution of fishing to the diets of highland hunter-gatherers at Sehonghong rockshelter with a faunal proxy widely argued to correlate with subsistence intensification (faunal assemblage evenness). In addition, we compare these data with two measures of lithic technological intensification (cutting edge production and core reduction intensity) to test whether diet intensification tracks technological intensification. We show that at Sehonghong, aquatic resource exploitation is not always correlated with faunal assemblage even-ness. We find that some layers (i.e. RF) show spikes in aquatic resource use irrespective of changes in faunal assemblage evenness. Other layers (i.e. RBL/CLBRF) were intensively occupied, but they do not have many fish. Our data also demonstrate that aquatic resource use is not correlated with lithic technological intensification. These results suggest that while aquatic resource exploitation was a 'fallback' option for some of Lesotho's highland hunter-gatherers, there is considerable variability. Our data show that multiple intensification dimensions were variably combined through the Late Pleistocene at Sehonghong as they were elsewhere in southern Africa.
Archeometry, 2020
Humans were regularly heat-treating stone tool raw materials as early as 130 thousand years ago. ... more Humans were regularly heat-treating stone tool raw materials as early as 130 thousand years ago. The late Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) of South Africa’s Western Cape region provides some of the earliest and most pervasive archaeological evidence for this behaviour. While archaeologists are beginning to understand the flaking implications of raw material heat-treatment, its potential functional benefits remain unanswered. Using silcrete from the Western Cape region, we investigate the impact of heat-treatment on stone tool cutting performance. We quantify the sharpness of silcrete in its natural, unheated form, before comparing it with silcrete heated in three different conditions. Results show that heat-treated silcrete can be significantly sharper than unheated alternatives, with cutting forces halved and energy requirements reduced by approximately two thirds. Our data suggest that silcrete may have been heat-treated during the South African MSA and LSA to increase the sharpness and performance of stone cutting edges. This early example of material engineering has implications for understanding Stone Age populations’ technological capabilities, inventiveness, and raw material choices. We predict that heat treatment behaviours in other prehistoric and ethnographic contexts may also be linked to edge sharpness increases and functional performance concerns.
International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives, 2020
The prehistoric production of composite technologies throughout human evolution was facilitated g... more The prehistoric production of composite technologies throughout human evolution was facilitated greatly by the use of adhesives. One such technology was projectile weaponry, which used adhesive to attach a stone point to a wooden shaft. Prehistoric projectile weaponry is often studied via experimental archaeology, which recreates ancient technologies to understand their manufacture and function. Here, we explore whether a modern thermoplastic adhesive can serve as a suitable replacement for two organic adhesives that would have been used by past peoples-pine rosin and hide glue-in modern experimental tests of prehistoric weaponry. We conducted a ballistics experiment and shot groups of stone-tipped arrows, each group hafted with one of the three adhesives, and assessed the haft bond failure rate. The modern thermoplastic adhesive was similar to that of the pine rosin and significantly failed less often than the hide glue. We conclude that in some cases modern thermoplastic adhesive can be substituted for organic-based adhesives in experimental archaeology. Our results also show that hafting bond failure rate was significantly different between the pine rosin and the hide glue, suggesting that prehistoric hunter-gatherers faced costs or benefits in selecting adhesives for hafting.
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Peer-reviewed publications by Justin Pargeter
to an angle of or near 90 . Archaeologists have
recorded backed lithic specimens in the Pleistocene and
Holocene around the world. One prominent hypothesis
for the occurrence of backing is that it increases a stone
tool’s adhesion relative to what it would have otherwise
been with unmodified, sharp edges. We conducted a
highly controlled semi-static tensile test in which we
assessed lithic specimens that possessed both a backed
and a non-backed edge, opposing each other. We
hafted each specimen’s backed and non-backed edges
to wood, and the bi-hafted stone implement was then
pulled apart using an Universal Instron Materials Tester,
allowing for a direct ‘head-to-head’ comparison of
the two edge types’ adhesive properties. Our tensile test
results suggested no significant difference between
backed and non-backed edges in terms of adhesion,
which does not support the hypothesis that backing
increases a lithic specimen’s adhesion
one of only a few African sites with inland archaeological
deposits spanning Marine Isotope Stages 4–1. Work conducted
half a century ago predicted Boomplaas to be a meagre plantfood
location. We reassess this interpretation here by presenting
updated lists of the current vegetation and foodplants growing
within roughly a day’s foraging distance from the cave. By doing
so, we increase the known foodplant species potentially available
to Stone Age foragers by 356% and show that almost all the
plant species/genera in the Boomplaas archaeobotanical
assemblage still grow within a day’s range of the site. We present
nutritional values for some of the plant foods, highlighting those
richest in moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and
energy and suggesting that such foods may have been important
staples in the dietary ecology of the Stone Age foragers who
used the site. Lastly, we demonstrate that the Boomplaas Cave
foodplant fitness landscape is relatively rich and varied compared
to similar data from other Cape sites such as Klasies River Main
Cave, Diepkloof Rock Shelter and Hollow Rock Shelter.
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.
to an angle of or near 90 . Archaeologists have
recorded backed lithic specimens in the Pleistocene and
Holocene around the world. One prominent hypothesis
for the occurrence of backing is that it increases a stone
tool’s adhesion relative to what it would have otherwise
been with unmodified, sharp edges. We conducted a
highly controlled semi-static tensile test in which we
assessed lithic specimens that possessed both a backed
and a non-backed edge, opposing each other. We
hafted each specimen’s backed and non-backed edges
to wood, and the bi-hafted stone implement was then
pulled apart using an Universal Instron Materials Tester,
allowing for a direct ‘head-to-head’ comparison of
the two edge types’ adhesive properties. Our tensile test
results suggested no significant difference between
backed and non-backed edges in terms of adhesion,
which does not support the hypothesis that backing
increases a lithic specimen’s adhesion
one of only a few African sites with inland archaeological
deposits spanning Marine Isotope Stages 4–1. Work conducted
half a century ago predicted Boomplaas to be a meagre plantfood
location. We reassess this interpretation here by presenting
updated lists of the current vegetation and foodplants growing
within roughly a day’s foraging distance from the cave. By doing
so, we increase the known foodplant species potentially available
to Stone Age foragers by 356% and show that almost all the
plant species/genera in the Boomplaas archaeobotanical
assemblage still grow within a day’s range of the site. We present
nutritional values for some of the plant foods, highlighting those
richest in moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and
energy and suggesting that such foods may have been important
staples in the dietary ecology of the Stone Age foragers who
used the site. Lastly, we demonstrate that the Boomplaas Cave
foodplant fitness landscape is relatively rich and varied compared
to similar data from other Cape sites such as Klasies River Main
Cave, Diepkloof Rock Shelter and Hollow Rock Shelter.
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.
South Africa has one of the oldest and richest records of human coastal occupation. This research project focuses on South Africa's East Coast where very narrow continental shelf has limited coastline movements during glacial periods. This prevented large coastline movements and created stable coastal ecosystems. In one these places, known as Pondoland, rare records of coastal occupation and resource use during the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 26,000-19,000 years ago) have already been recovered by the P5 Project. These records provide a unique opportunity to study hunter-gatherers living in stable coastal contexts over long time periods and compare evidence of their behaviors to hunter-gatherer groups living inland. The project synergizes researchers from numerous international universities and disciplines to answer complex questions about the evolution of human behavior in a unique and persistent environment along Pondoland's coastline. Detailed archaeological, zooarchaeological, and paleoenvironmental information from excavations at two coastal archaeological sites will be collected as well as datasets from systematic landscape studies and ethnographic observations of modern plant foods and coastal foraging. The research will generate new evidence to test questions about coastal ecological variability across glacial and interglacial periods and how these changes impacted hunter-gatherer food-choice patterns, social networks, settlement patterns, and technology. Situating these data within the broader southern African paleolandscape will bring renewed focus on hunter-gatherer's use of coastal and inland resources across glacial and interglacial cycles and it will provide a more nuanced understanding of human evolution and social complexity across broad bio-geographical contexts. The project's interdisciplinary
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References:[1] Mitchell, P.J., 1988. The Early Microlithic Assemblages of Southern Africa. Archaeopress, Oxford [2] Pargeter, J., 2016.Lithic miniaturization in Late Pleistocene southern Africa, J. Archaeol. Sci.: Reports 10, 221-236 [3] Pargeter, J., Loftus, E., Mitchell, 2016. New ages from the Sehonghong rock shelter: Implications for the late Pleistocene occupation of highland Lesotho. J. of Archaeol. Sci.: Reports 12, 307-315 [4] Dusseldorp, G.L., 2014. Explaining the Howiesons Poort to post-Howiesons Poort transition: A review of demographic and foraging adaptation models. Azania 49, 317-353.
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 29 3:00
Room: Georgia A/B
Technological miniaturization has revolutionized every aspect of contemporary life from biomedical sciences to agriculture, industry, and the storage of renewable energy. Seeing technological miniaturization as all about us, one might suppose it is a recent phenomenon, but it has deep roots in Stone Age technology. Lithic miniaturization, the production of small stone tools from small cores, provides the most enduring and arguably the most consequential example of Pleistocene technological miniaturization (Pargeter 2016). Smaller toolkits enabled humans to exploit raw materials more efficiently, to produce composite tools more efficiently, to reduce a wider range of rocks, and to increase mobility by lightening toolkits. These benefits allowed humans to occupy a wide range of environments, to more effectively maintain resources within existing territories, and to disperse more efficiently. Archaeologists typically associate the production of miniature lithic toolkits with a range of skilled techniques requiring protracted learning and intensive cultural transmission such as pressure flaking and indirect percussion. Yet, ethnographic and experimental data show lithic miniaturization can be as effectively achieved using simple, but not simplistic, strategies such as bipolar percussion (hammer-and-anvil). This paper presents experimental and archaeological evidence for the role of bipolar technology in lithic miniaturization during the late Pleistocene in southern Africa. First, it presents experimental data that challenge the widely held perceptions about the wastefulness of bipolar reduction. Next, it applies these findings to the newly re-dated late Pleistocene lithic record from Boomplaas Cave in South Africa. The results show the integral role bipolar reduction played in lithic miniaturization at Boomplaas and the possible relationship between bipolar reduction and shifting mobility strategies at the site. These results overturn long-held assumptions about the costs of lithic miniaturization and question long-standing progressive models of change in lithic technology.
CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS IN LITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND FUNCTION Room: West Meeting Room 209 (VCC) Time: 9:45 AM–12:00 PM
Chairs: Joao Marreiros, Telmo Pereira and Radu Iovita
Talk time: 10:45
Abstract:
Lithic miniaturization, the systematic production and use of small tools from small cores, was a consequential development in Pleistocene lithic technology (Pargeter 2016). Bipolar reduction is an important, but often overlooked and misidentified, strategy for lithic miniaturization. This experiment addresses the role of axial bipolar reduction in processes of lithic miniaturization on flint and analogous siliceous rocks. The experiments answer two questions: what benefits does axial bipolar reduction provide, and can we distinguish axial bipolar reduction from freehand reduction? Our experiments demonstrate the numerous advantages of bipolar reduction in contexts of lithic miniaturization. Bipolar reduction produces more cutting edge per gram and is more economical than freehand reduction. Our cutting edge to mass values exceed even those obtained with pressure blade production on high-quality obsidian. The experimental results show that bipolar reduction produces cutting edge quicker and is more efficient than freehand reduction. We show that bipolar reduction can be distinguished from freehand reduction with a high degree of confidence using the quantitative criteria in these experiments. These observations overturn long-held perceptions about bipolar reduction. We conclude by discussing the role of bipolar reduction in lithic miniaturization and Stone Age economics more broadly.
in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for
its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize panAfrican comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized
by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international
scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of
Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds. The workshop was held
between November 5th and 6th 2018 at Harvard University (USA),
and funded through the Accelerator Workshop Program of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (https://projects.iq.harvard.
edu/comsafrica). The meeting included short introductory presentations
by all participants followed by a series of more focused roundtable discussions to define the main problems and issues confronting comparative lithic analyses of African MSA assemblages. The final goal was the development of a unified analytical approach. As a two-day workshop was obviously insufficient to solve problems of such magnitude, the final discussion focused on outlining a working model and roadmap for future meetings and collaborations through the CoMSAfrica network.
southern African Holocene “cultures” such as “Wilton” from those of the late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA). The material culture of the LSA was then, and to some extent still is characterized by ground and flaked stone “microlithic” tools and other artifacts thought to be synonymous with the ethnographically documented Bushmen. In the following decades,
archeologists subsumed other sub-Saharan African industries, such as “Somaliland Wilton,” within the LSA, even though those industries had little if anything to do with the Bushmen and were not necessarily of Holocene age.
Africa (Deacon & Deacon 1999). Analogies are a fundamental
component of archaeological research and theory. For example, try explaining how a 300 000-year-old blade was made or used without the aid of an analogy. Analogies help us to understand the rich behavioural component of the archaeological record and they help us to decide which variables are important for documenting changes in human material culture. However, the concepts archaeologists use to describe the broader structure of the archaeological record, such as ‘Stone Ages’ and ’Industries’, are not analogous to any known cultural institutions. V. Gordon Childe noted this half a century ago when he remarked that ’boundaries of the several fields of
culture do not necessarily coincide’ (1951:58). In this article I argue, as many have before me (e.g. Humphreys 2005), that the LSA is an analytical tool to help organise archaeological data, but that it does not easily equate with any living cultural or linguistic grouping. The LSA has many broad and sometimes
disparate meanings and contains a different kind of diversity than that seen in ethnographic hunting and gathering societies. I illustrate some of the key differences between populations living during the earliest parts of the LSA and those San hunter-gatherer groups to which they are most often compared, the
Ju/’hoansi of the north-western Kalahari. I conclude that hunting and gathering takes many different forms in southern Africa and around the world of which the desert-dwelling Ju/’hoansi represent only one variant. In closing, I argue that despite
the immense importance of ethnographic analogies in archaeology, the over-emphasis on the LSA as a representation of San prehistory reduces LSA studies and continues to jeopardise the place of these modern communities in contemporary southern Africa.
While the workshop is introductory and open to all, it will benefit those who have a basic understanding of statistics and are comfortable operating a computer. Participants should bring their own laptops with R installed.
During the past decade our knowledge of lithic technological innovations by Late Pleistocene (MIS 5-2) Homo sapiens in Africa has improved dramatically, revealing a diversity of technological patterns that rarely follow linear trajectories. This has made it increasingly difficult to situate lithic data within the framework of traditional culture/historic stages and associated industries of the Middle and Later Stone Ages. Researchers have begun to make major theoretical and methodological advances in interpreting Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic technological variability and how it relates to hunter-gatherer behaviour. However, these same advances are now become an urgent research agenda for the the initial periods of the African Later Stone Age (LSA).
In order to promote inter-analyst contact and initiate a broader pan-African discussion on what constitutes the “Final MSA”, “MSA/LSA Transition”, “Early LSA” and other aspects of lithic technological variability, we hosted a lithic technology workshop focused upon the Late Pleistocene LSA, held at the University of Witwatersrand on July 12, 2014-a day ahead of the 2014 joint Pan African Archaeological Congress / Society for Africanist Archaeologists meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The workshop focused on the variety of approaches currently being pursued by researchers from across Africa who are investigating aspects of late Pleistocene LSA lithic technologies in Africa. It aimed to promote a pan-African dialogue on what the LSA is and how best to move the next generation of scholars forward with behaviorally-relevant approaches to studying the lithics of this broad time period. The workshop was primarily focused on providing a hands-on approach to learning and the communication of lithic information that was facilitated by a number of lithic collections brought together by workshop attendees from across Africa. In addition, a number of visual presentations of lithic collections were given by researchers unable to bring actual materials to the workshop. The workshop concluded with an open-platform discussion led by Prof. Alison Brooks (George Washington University), Prof. Erella Hovers (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Prof. Lyn Wadley (University of the Witwatersrand).
The full list of workshop attendees was:
Alex Mackay (University of Wollongong)
Alice Leplongeon (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Alison Brooks (George Washington University)
Andrew Zipkin (George Washington University)
Benoit Chevrier (Université de Genève)
Britt Bousman (Texas State University)
Clément Ménard (Université de Toulouse)
David Pleurdeau (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris)
Elena Garcea (University of Cassino)
Elizabeth Hildebrand (Stony Brook University)
Els Cornelissen (Royal Museum for Central Africa)
Emanuele Cancellieri (Italian Institute of Human Paleontology)
Erella Hovers (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
François Bon (Université de Toulouse)
François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar (Université de Toulouse)
Garth Sampson (Texas State University)
Götz Ossendorf (Universität zu Köln)
Guillaume Porraz (CNRS, UMR 7041-ArScAn-AnTET, Université de Nanterre, Paris)
Justin Pargeter (Stony Brook University, University of Johannesburg)
Katherine Ranhorn (George Washington University)
Lyn Wadley (University of the Witwatersrand)
Marina Redondo (Université de Toulouse)
Paloma de la Pēna (University of the Witwatersrand)
Pamela Whilloughby (University of Alberta)
Ralf Vogelsang (Universität zu Köln)
Savino Di Lernia (Sapienza University of Rome)
Stanley Ambrose (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Steven Brandt (Florida State University)
Generous funding was provided by the Paleoanthropological Scientific Trust (PAST) to fund 5 South African students to attend the workshop, they were:
Kyla Bluff (University of Cape Town)
Matthew Shaw (University of Cape Town)
David Witelson (University of the Witwatersrand)
Nicci Sherwood (University of the Witwatersrand)
Scott M. Wilkins (University of Pretoria)
Additional funds to run the workshop were provided by the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida.
“I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth -- rocks!" -- Albert Einstein (1949)
Imagine yourself alone on an African savanna inhabited by some of the meanest and most dangerous animals we know of (giant hyenas, colossal lions, and ill-tempered buffalo), with only a stone tool for protection. Pretty scary right? Well, for over 3 million years this is how our ancestors survived; making and using stone tools for protection, and in the process outcompeting nearly all other animals. Yet, in the most recent 1% of our evolutionary history, humans have replaced stone tools with metals, ceramics, and plastics. In the process we’ve all but lost the ability to make stone tools. Rocks are the most common raw material on earth and they would be an obvious choice from which to make weapons during a Zombie attack. Stone tools have many other uses in a disaster situation such as chopping wood for fuel and structures, skinning animals, and helping to starting a fire.
In this “how to” workshop I will guide you through the story of stone tools in human evolution culminating in you learning to make your own stone tools. By the end of this tutorial you will have a survival skill that has been tried and tested for over 3 million years. To coincide with the season finale of Walking Dead we’ll also be discussing the future role of stone tool technology and how this skill might just be the factor that decides who survives the Zombiepocalypse.
https://experimental-archaeology.com/2019/01/29/the-light-in-the-dark-crystal-quartz-triboluminescence-and-prehistoric-southern-africa/?fbclid=IwAR0ioM3ZVtLkk23rFPFjpKoa-0r1PSQ3EF3jE8FM7wePQpBbe_5lRoLmiLA
The project investigates these issues in two contexts: 1) Paleolithic stone toolmaking, a real-world, evolutionarily relevant skill, and 2) training to use a programming language, a modern technological skill relying on hierarchical action plans. We examine the neural substrates of technological learning using longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data collected during separate training regimens. These data allow us to identify foci of experience-dependent plasticity and contributions of individual variation.
Individual differences in learning aptitude during social reproduction of technological skill provide both the raw material for neurocognitive evolution and a potentially significant source of variability in the lithic products. We use this variation to infer patterns and mechanisms of Paleolithic social learning. This project's lithics component (the concentration of Pargeter's Postdoctoral research) focuses on individual variation in handaxe-making skill acquisition. These data provide the critical connection linking our neurological, behavioral, and experimental observations with the archaeological record. Naïve subjects received ~100 hours training over several months, accompanied by regular behavioral, psychometric, and MRI assessments. To quantify skill, knapping performance was observed after every 10 hours training, the 'handaxes' and associated debris were collected, and each subject's performance was rated using a systematic rubric. Our ongoing lithic analyses apply novel methods integrating photogrammetry and quantitative approaches to lithic shape and attribute analyses to track individual variation across the experiment. These multivariate data will be used to identify morphological correlates of knapping performance whereas parameters and values from individual learning curves can be directly compared with individual differences in brain structure and psychometric performance. Our results are an initial step toward better understanding the roles of skill acquisition and differential aptitude in generating lithic variability and shaping human neurocognitive evolution.