Lithic Technology and Hunting Behaviour during the Middle Stone Age in Tanzania
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Date
2012-02
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Stone tools have a critical role to play in our understanding of the behavior of early
humans. In particular, the types of raw materials that are present in stone tool
assemblages, and the sources from which they are acquired, provide information
relating to decision-making processes, planning, the organisation of technology and
group mobility. The characterisation of Stone Age lithic artefact assemblages from
two rockshelter sites in southern Tanzania, Magubike and Mlambalasi, allowed for
the evaluation of inter- and intra-assemblage variability. Raw material characterisation
was conducted using macroscopic and microscopic analyses.
Numerous raw material sourcing studies have been undertaken on Stone Age lithic
assemblages recovered from sites in Tanzania and the rest of East Africa. Generally,
these studies have concentrated on identifying the sources of a particular type of
stone raw material, such as chert, obsidian and basalt; however, the attributes of the
whole assemblage have only rarely been examined. Furthermore, few archaeologists
describe stone materials in terms of their basic petrographic characteristics. Both of
these weaknesses are the direct result of the lack of a standardised methodology for
describing lithic raw materials. This thesis therefore outlines a strategy for raw
material sourcing, with a focus on description and grounded in geoarchaeological
theory. When combined with typological and technological analyses, the results of the
raw material analyses suggest the exclusive use of locally acquired stone
Description
Full text can be accessed at
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0067270X.2011.647952
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Citation
Bushozi, P., 2012. Lithic Technology and Hunting Behaviour during the Middle Stone Age in Tanzania. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 47(1), pp.128-129.