J Desmond Clark
Biographic Data
| ID | 84875 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Desmond Clark |
| GIVEN NAMES | J Desmond |
| FAMILY NAME | Clark |
| SIGNATURE | CLARK J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7338-7144 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 133 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1315 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 133 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1947 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 20 |
The Tool Systems Approach
Measuring technological complexity across species, as well as across temporal and spatial scales, is an ongoing challenge among authors who work on primatological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic questions. Researchers in these individual fields have developed a number of innovative ways of approaching this issue that reflect the specific affordances of their data with a known set of limitations. However, comparability between these approache…
Setbacks in the use of a handaxe
From their first appearance in the archaeological record, the varying degree of biface presence in individual assemblages has long been a notable aspect of discussions surrounding the nature of the Early Acheulean. These debates have largely focused on the relative influence of random processes, site formation dynamics, raw material constraints, biological and/or cultural groupings, and differences in ecology and activity. Here, we collate publis…
When to generalise and when to specialise? Climate change and hominin biocultural adaptability in the African early and middle stone age
A growing number of authors have discussed the role of climate change in periods of important biological and cultural transition along the hominin lineage. This paper establishes a biocultural framework elucidating human behavioural adaptations during the African Early and Middle Stone Age, centred on three crucial dimensions of hunter-gatherer adaptation: mobility, social network dynamics, and technology. We contend that landscape properties, sp…
Assessing the Role of Early “Large Cutting Tools” in Flake Production
Acheulean Handaxes in Medieval France
Handaxes have a uniquely prominent role in the history of Palaeolithic archaeology, and their early study provides crucial information concerning the epistemology of the field. We have little conclusive evidence, however, of their investigation or societal value prior to the mid seventeenth century. Here we investigate the shape, colour and potential flake scarring on a handaxe-like stone object seen in the Melun Diptych, painted by the French fi…
Seasonality and Lithic Investment in the Oldowan
Seasonality is a critical driver of resource availability within individual generations and is therefore likely to have exerted selective pressures on hominin evolution. Nonetheless, it has frequently been overlooked in discussions of early technological variability. This paper examines the relationship between seasonality and lithic investment in the Oldowan of eastern Africa, to broaden our understanding of hominin behavioural adaptability. We …
Seasonality and Oldowan behavioral variability in East Africa
Subsurface delineation of doline features associated with Pleistocene clay-with-flints deposits in the Chilterns
New Nation, New History
This essay looks at the national history of the Tajiks of Central Asia that was created in the twentieth century and has continued to develop into the twenty-first century. It traces the notion of Tajik nationalism, which arose in the 1920s under the Soviet Union, largely in response to Uzbek nationalism. Soviet intellectuals and scholars thereafter attempted to construct a new history for the Tajiks. The most important effort in that area was Bo…
Acheulian Hunter-Gatherers of Sub-Saharan Africa
The Acheulian industry has been inadequately known through the collections made from riverine deposits. In sub-Saharan Africa there are obvious difficulties in correlation of local Pleistocene stages with that sequence established even in another nearby region. The evidence from sub-Saharan Africa provides maximum insight into rates of cultural change, composition of artifact assemblages, techniques of manufacture and implement typology, nature o…
Constitutionalists and Cossacks
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The Early Palaeolithic of the eastern region of the Old World in comparison to the West
Beginning about 1.6 myr or before, the large stone artefacts of the Acheulian Industrial Complex (comprising handaxes and cleavers) were introduced, supplementing the former Oldowan chopper and small flake tool assemblages. This second technological development was more or less contemporary with the appearance of the first large-sized hominid, Homo erectus. This hominid spread into all ecological habitats in Africa other than the tropical forests…
Frequent Incompatibilities
Research Article| August 01 2002 Frequent Incompatibilities: Ethnic and Religious Diversity and the Nations of the Middle East James Clark James Clark Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2002) 22 (1-2): 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-22-1-2-36 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation James Clark; Frequent Incompatibilitie…
Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site III. The Earlier Cultures
The Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia
Encyclopedia of Pre-Colonial Africa
This article reviews Joseph O. Vogel, editor, Encyclopedia of Pre-Colonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Linguistics, and Environments. 605 pages, figures, tables, bibliographies, index. Walnut Creek, CA.: Alta Mira Press, 1997. Price: 125.00 cloth. ISBN 0-761-98902-1
The Cambridge History of Africa
Determining Stone Tool Use
The Record of Evolution at Olduvai Gorge
Recent Developments in Human Biological and Cultural Evolution
Introduction to research on the Chiwondo Beds, northern Malawi
African Homo erectus
Fossils and artifacts recovered from the middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar depression sample the Middle Pleistocene transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens . Ar/Ar ages, biostratigraphy, and tephrachronology from this area indicate that the Pleistocene Bodo hominid cranium and newer specimens are approximately 0.6 million years old. Only Oldowan chopper and flake assemblages are present in the lower stratigraphic units, but Acheulean bi…
Digging on
Over the past decade, data-intensive logics and practices have come to affect domains of contemporary life ranging from marketing and policy making to entertainment and education; at every turn, there is evidence of "datafication" or the conversion of ...Read More
New discoveries of Australopithecus at Maka in Ethiopia
Olivine Does Not Necessarily Weather First
The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity
A Reappraisal of the Clacton Spearpoint
The wooden artifact widely known as the Clacton Spear (pl. 1) was discovered by Samuel Hazzledine Warren, F.G.S., in 1911. He dug it out of an undisturbed part of the freshwater sediments, probably a peaty seam, exposed on the foreshore at Clacton-on-Sea, c . 80 km ENE of London (Warren 1911; 1914, and in conversation with K.P.O. 1933). On 30th September 1911, Warren conducted a party of members of the Essex Field Club on a visit to see the outcr…
Fire and its roles in early hominid lifeways
An elephant butchery site at Mwanganda's Village, Karonga, Malawi, and its relevance for Palaeolithic archaeology
Archaeological perspectives in the Nihewan Basin, China
The Potassium-Argon Dating of Late Cenozoic Rocks in East Africa and Italy [and Comments and Reply]
A technique for the potassium-argon dating of high potassium feldspars of less than 50,000 years age is described. The technique is applied to the obtaining of high precision ages in the time-range 60,000-2,000,000 years. Sufficient data are presented to show that the time-scale of Plio-Pleistocene glaciations is greater than 10 years and that the time-scale of hominoids capable of fashioning tools by the working of stone is at least 1.75 10 year…
Human Behavioral Differences in Southern Africa During the Later Pleistocene1
An examination of four "Middle Stone Age" archaeological occurrences with specific attention to details of paleo-environmental conditions (determined from archaeological data and by inference from the contemporary setting) and to the composition of stone artifact assemblages from each, suggests: (1) that each site is strategically located for the exploitation of more than one micro-environment and (2) that the nature of exploitation of specific p…
Determining Stone Tool Use
The Human Revolution [and Comments and Reply]
Except for an introductory discussion of methodology, this paper is an effort at a narrative account of the evolution of our ancestors from proto-hominoid times to the earliest fully human stage
Africa in Prehistory
New Studies on Rhodesian Man
J. Desmond Clark, Kenneth P. Oakley, L. H. Wells, J. A. C. McClelland, New Studies on Rhodesian Man, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 77, No. 1 (1947), pp. 7-32
Use-Wear on Later Stone Age Microliths from Laga Oda, Haraghi, Ethiopia and Possible Functional Interpretations
Excavations in later Stone Age deposits at Laga Oda rock-shelter near Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, yielded a quantity of microliths which retained signs of edge damage. Experiments were conducted in an attempt to replicate the patterns of edge damage observed on the prehistoric material. Several uses are proposed to which the microliths may have been put: some evidently served as knife-blades, suggesting the cutting of grass
Further Excavations at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia
J. Desmond Clark, Further Excavations at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Jul. - Dec., 1959), pp. 201-232
Charcoals, Sands, and Channel Decorated Pottery from Northern Rhodesia1
Human Ecology During Pleistocene and Later Times in Africa South of the Sahara
The Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia
Interpretations of Prehistoric Technology from Ancient Egyptian and other Sources. Part II
Flèches et arcs des San Bushmen de l'Afrique du Sud à l'époque historique sont décrits ici. Les têtes de flèches sont de deux types : à pointes en os ou à microlithes. Les microlithes sont insérés et maintenus par du bitume dos à dos dans une hampe en bois ; leurs extrémités distales sont juxtaposées ; leurs bords rectilignes assemblés pour former un tranchant large et acéré. Les découvertes archéologiques faites en Afrique subsaharienne et en Eg…
Atlas of African Prehistory
A Middle Stone Age occupation site at Porc Epic Cave, Dire Dawa (east-central Ethiopia)
The Distribution of Prehistoric Culture in Angola
Acheulian Occupation Sites in the Middle East and Africa
The Spread of Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa
After the end of the Pleistocene, sub-Saharan Africa seems to have been more receptive of than contributory to cultural progress in the Old World as a whole. By that time favourable localities in the subcontinent—the margins of lakes and watercourses, the sea coasts, the peripheral regions of the equatorial forest—were sometimes supporting nearly, or entirely, sedentary communities of hunting-collecting peoples who were enabled to live in this wa…
An upper palaeolithic shrine in India
There is little doubt that a religious belief imparting a sense of law and order and helping to control the relationships between human populations and the other components of their environment, is highly developed among present-day hunter/gatherers. Such beliefs not only help to provide a feeling of unity stretching far beyond the hunting band itself, but they afford an ordered interconnexion between the foragers and the spiritual processes whic…
The Influence of Environment in Inducing Culture Change at the Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site
Transitions
New Studies on Rhodesian Man
J. Desmond Clark, Kenneth P. Oakley, L. H. Wells, J. A. C. McClelland, New Studies on Rhodesian Man, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 77, No. 1 (1947), pp. 7-32
The Newly Discovered Nachikufu Culture of Northern Rhodesia and the Possible Origin of Certain Elements of the South African Smithfield Culture
J. Desmond Clark, The Newly Discovered Nachikufu Culture of Northern Rhodesia and the Possible Origin of Certain Elements of the South African Smithfield Culture: Presidential Address, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Sep., 1950), pp. 86-98
The Victoria Falls
Dancing Masks from Somaliland
The Pleistocene Fauna of Two Blue Nile Sites, by A. J. Arkell, D. M. A. Bate, L. H. Wells and A. D. Lacaille. British Museum (Natural History) Fossil Mammals of Africa , Series No. 2. London 1951. Pri…
THE PLEISTOCENE FAUNA OF TWO BLUE NILE SITES, by A. J. Arkell, D. M. A. Bate, L. H. Wells and A. D. Lacaille. British Museum (Natural History) Fossil Mammals of Africa, Series No. 2. London 1951. Price 15s. - Volume 28 Issue 110
A Provisional Correlation of Prehistoric Cultures North and South of the Sahara
The Quaternary Sequence in the Middle Zambezi Valley
account of the extremely interesting results obtained, but we consider that an initial summary of these results should be published as soon as possible. The middle reaches of the Zambezi River lie in a wide and deep valley called the Gwembe by the local indigenous peoples. This valley varies considerably in width but on an average is probably some 40-50 miles (65-80 km.) wide. It is bounded on either side by escarpments up to 2,000 ft. (650 m.) h…
An Early Upper Pleistocene Site at the Kalambo Falls on the Northern Rhodesia/Tanganyika Border
The Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site
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The Prehistoric Cultures of the Horn of Africa
Human Skeletal and Cultural Material from a Deep Cave at Chipongwe, Northern Rhodesia
Congres Pan-Africain de Prehistoire. Actes de la IIe Session, Algiers. 1952
Pre-European Copper-Working in South Central Africa
Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Livingstone, 1955
The Natural Fracture of Pebbles from the Batoka Gorge, Northern Rhodesia, and its bearing on the Kafuan Industries of Africa
At the Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, held in Livingstone in 1955, there was a symposium on the early Pebble Cultures of Africa. It became apparent from the discussion that followed that there was considerable divergence of opinion among prehistorians as to the criteria that distinguished artificial from natural fracture. Specimens that were acceptable as artifacts to some were not acceptable to others and it became clear that consider…
The Chifubwa Stream Rock Shelter, Solwezi, Northern Rhodesia
Some Stone Age Woodworking Tools in Southern Africa
Schematic Art
The Importance of Distribution Maps in the Study of Prehistoric Cultures
Certain Industries of Notched and Strangulated Scrapers in Rhodesia, Their Time Range and Possible Use
J. Desmond Clark, Certain Industries of Notched and Strangulated Scrapers in Rhodesia, Their Time Range and Possible Use, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 50 (Jun., 1958), pp. 56-66
Points from Correspondence
Further Excavations at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia
J. Desmond Clark, Further Excavations at Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Jul. - Dec., 1959), pp. 201-232
A Note on Early River-Craft and Fishing-Practices in South-East Africa
Human Ecology During Pleistocene and Later Times in Africa South of the Sahara
Bone Harpoons
Archaeology (97 works) · Geography (95 works) · History (69 works) · History (53 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (52 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (41 works) · Prehistory (30 works) · Geology (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (23 works)