scholarly journals Dreams of the Stone Age dated for first time in southern Africa

Nature ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 545 (7652) ◽  
pp. 14-15
Author(s):  
Sarah Wild
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
First Time

Changing Patterns in the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Prehistory of Southern Africa as Seen from the Nelson Bay Cave Stone Artifact Sequence

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Stone Artifact

The dating of the Stone Age sequence in southern Africa has been considerably revised over the last decade, and one of the anomalies which has resulted is that the Middle Stone Age, now dated to beyond 30,000 B.P., does not immediately precede the Later Stone Agesensu stricto. The excavation and analysis of occupation horizons dating between the most recent Middle Stone Age assemblages and the Holocene is therefore of particular interest. Nelson Bay Cave, situated on the southern coast of South Africa, contains deposits which partly fill the “gap” between the Middle and Later Stone Ages, and the occupation horizons dating between about 18,000 and 5000 years ago are described in this paper. Changes in the habitat in the vicinity of the site caused by sea-level and vegetation changes coincident with the amelioration of temperatures at the end of the Pleistocene are clearly marked in the faunal remains at the site. Largely correlated with the faunal changes (which includes the introduction of marine resources to the cave at about 12,000 B.P.) are changes in the stone artifact assemblages. Three industries are recognized in the sequence: the Robberg, characterized by microbladelets produced from bladelet cores and a few small scrapers and backed tools; the Albany, characterized by large scrapers and an absence of backed tools; and the Wilton, characterized by a variety of Formal Tools including relatively large numbers of small scrapers and backed tools. These changes in artifact-manufacturing traditions are interpreted as signaling adjustments to changing environmental conditions. An explanation for these adjustments is not sought in a simple cause-and-effect relationship between the environment and the cultural response; artifact changes are seen instead as the result of a twofold process, with the environment acting as an external stimulus to change, and the direction of the artifact change governed by the selection of a range of possibilities offered by the technology of the Later Stone Agesensu latothat was widespread in subequatorial Africa during the last 20,000 years.

Esotericism in Botswana

Aries ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Podolecka ◽  
Leslie Nthoi
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
New Age ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Shamanic Healing ◽  
First Time

Abstract The article argues that “esotericism” can usefully be applied to a number of religious currents in Southern Africa. With a focus on Botswana, we survey a range of practices, from traditional “shamanic” healing to Pentecostal NRM s to New Age spiritualities and neoshamanism, some presented here for the first time. The term esotericism is useful for analysing the religious situation in Southern African contexts for three reasons. First, through a typological understanding of esotericism as initiation-based knowledge systems, we define one part of the landscape (usually termed “shamanism”) as constituting a form of “indigenous esotericism”. Second, through the European colonial expansion, this indigenous esotericism faced a violent rejection campaign that parallels the construction of “rejected knowledge” in Europe. While this forced many practices underground, they have resurfaced within Southern African Christianity. Third, “western” esoteric currents have recently been imported to Southern Africa and enter into dialogues with the “indigenous” forms.

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W. Kandel ◽  
Michael Bolus ◽  
Knut Bretzke ◽  
Angela A. Bruch ◽  
Miriam N. Haidle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Macro Scale

New radiocarbon dates for Eastern and Southern Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. G. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

This article is a follow-up to that of Mr D. W. Phillipson published in this Journal in 1970, and to the six earlier lists compiled for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa by Dr B. M. Fagan. I have endeavoured to include here all radiocarbon dates for archaeological sites of the Iron Age and most of those of the end of the Stone Age in the eastern and southern part of Africa—that is from Ethiopia, the Upper Nile and the Congo Basin southward—which have been published or made available since the preparation of the former articles. Some of these dates are already included in recent numbers of the Journal Radiocarbon, or have been mentioned in publications elsewhere, as indicated in the footnotes. A large proportion of these new dates, however, have not yet been published, and are included here through the agreement of the various individual archaeologists and research bodies, all of whom I wish to thank for their cooperation. In particular, I am indebted to Mr David Phillipson for his willing assistance in providing a number of contacts and relaying information from southern Africa.

Some Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Eastern and Southern Africa

1977 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Maggs
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Age Sequence ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

This Article follows in the series started by Fagan and continued for eastern and southern Africa by Phillipson, Sutton and Soper. The scope remains much the same, covering in time the later part of the Stone Age sequence as well as the Iron Age. Geographically, however, there are some changes: the Sudan has been excluded as it was covered by the recent review of North and West African dates, while a detailed chronological review of francophone Central Africa is in progress and therefore this region has been excluded.

scholarly journals Redescription of Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) elliptica (Koch, 1844), an old taxon of the Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) leachi group from East and southern Africa, and of Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) leachi (Audouin, 1826) (Ixodida, Ixodidae

2007 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Apanaskevich ◽  
I.G. Horak ◽  
J-L. Camicas
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Junior Synonym ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Nomen Nudum ◽  
Immature Stages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wild Carnivores ◽  
First Time

Koch (1844) originally described only the male of Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) elliptica (Koch, 1844), which he named Rhipistoma ellipticum. For the past century, however, this name has been considered a junior synonym of Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) leachi (Audouin, 1826), or a nomen nudum. We redescribe here the male and larva of H. (R.) elliptica and describe the female and nymph for the first time. Our redescription is based on the male holotype, plus numerous specimens from southern and East Africa. The adults of this tick parasitize domestic and wild carnivores, and the immature stages infest rodents in these regions. For comparative purposes redescriptions of all parasitic stages of H. (R.) leachi are provided. It parasitizes the same hosts as H. (R.) elliptica in Egypt, and in northeastern, Central, West and East Africa.

Hunting and Hunting Technologies as Proxy for Teaching and Learning During the Stone Age of Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlize Lombard
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Context Specific

Human hunting represents one of the most difficult foraging activities. It is a skill-intensive pursuit with an extended learning process. Different from other animals, Stone Age hunter-gatherers used complex strategies and technologies to outsmart and pursue their prey. Such strategies and technologies were grounded in extensive knowledge that facilitated context-specific solutions during different phases of weapon production and hunting. Apart from subsistence behaviour, Stone Age hunting technologies also inform on a suite of associated skills, behaviours and levels of cognition. At least since the start of the Holocene in southern Africa, and probably much earlier, behaviours associated with hunting permeated almost every sphere of hunter-gatherer life, and I argue that the theme is a suitable angle from which to explore broader aspects of the evolution of teaching and learning. I provide a brief overview and broad timeline of the ‘evolution’ of hunting technologies associated with the southern African Stone Age record and present some ethnographic hunter-gatherer examples of teaching and learning associated with hunting. The aim is to start situating the archaeological and ethnographic data within a theoretical framework of teaching and learning evolution.

The Earlier Stone Age of Southern Africa

2000 ◽  
Vol 55 (172) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Stone Age

The late Quaternary landscape at Sehonghong in the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (269) ◽  
pp. 623-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial ◽  
Rock Shelters

In the rough and rugged country of the Lesotho highlands, rock-paintings and archaeological deposits in the rock-shelters record hunter-gatherer life-ways; at Sehonghong, a long sequence runs from recent times to and through the Last Glacial Maximum. Survey of the region's Middle and Later Stone Age sites shows a pattern of concentrations that likely applies to other parts of the Lesotho highlands.

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