Middle Stone Age technological organisation: lithic extraction at Swartkop Hill in the interior of Namaqualand, Northern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Heritage assessments commissioned by commercial mines within the broader ambit of South Africa's environmental and heritage legislative requirements have essentially driven archaeological research in Namaqualand. We demonstrate here how mitigation of heritage resources conducted according to specific imperatives and within compressed time frames is compatible with academic standards of research. A Middle Stone Age (MSA) quarry in Namaqualand was successfully mitigated prior to mining. Investigations at the inland locality of Swartkop Hill recorded extensive raw material extraction. Episodic procurement and knapping activities conducted at outcrops of metamorphosed chalcedonies resulted in high densities of lithics. Technological organisation took advantage of outcrops with quality toolstone while field processing reduced carrying loads. The assemblage probably dates to the southern African MSA 3 that falls within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (~60 to 25 ka). Surprisingly high numbers of awls reflect functional considerations and the incipient development of a regional style.

Au Namaqualand, les études d'impact commissionnées par les compagnie minières sous la bannière des régulations en matière d'environnement et de patrimoine en Afrique du Sud ont été le moteur de la recherche archéologique. Nous démontrons ici comment la mitigation des ressources liées au patrimoine, conduite selon des impératifs spécifiques et dans sous la pression du temps, se trouve compatible avec les standards de la recherche académique. Une carrière du Middle Stone Age (MSA) au Namaqualand a été étudiée en aval des opérations minières. Des recherches dans l'intérieur, à Swartkop Hill, ont identifié une extraction extensive de matières premières. Un procurement ponctuel, et des activités de taille conduits sur des affleurements de chalcédoines métamorphosées, ont résulté en des fortes densités de lithiques. L'organisation technologique tira là parti des affleurements de pierre de qualité, tandis que la taille sur place diminuait les charges à emporter. L'assemblage date probablement du MSA 3 sud-africain, tombant dans le Stade Isotopique Marin (Marine Isotope Stage - MIS) 3 (soit 60 à 25 ka environ). Un nombre étonnamment élevé de burins reflète des considérations fonctionnelles et les débuts d'un style régional.

Keywords:

• Chalcedony
• heritage resources
• lithic quarrying
• Middle Stone Age
• mitigation
• Namaqualand
• South Africa
• technological organisation

Acknowledgements

We should like to acknowledge Jan Smits and Christo Stevens, both of whom assisted with the excavations. We thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments have greatly improved this paper.

Notes on contributors

Maria van der Ryst is a senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of South Africa, and an accredited professional archaeologist for the SADC Region. Her Masters degree (from the University of the Witwatersrand) focused on interactive relationships between hunter-gatherers and African farmers in the Limpopo Province of northern South Africa. For her PhD (also obtained from the University of the Witwatersrand) she investigated a Stone Age shelter, Olieboomspoort, in the Waterberg, Limpopo. Her research there included a reconstruction of settlement chronology and spatial changes emanating from changing settlement patterns after African farmers and herders moved into the region. She is currently working on the MSA of this locality.

Siegwalt Küsel is a landscape architect with an honours degree in archaeology and is based in the Gauteng province of South Africa.