Lawrence Barham
Biographic Data
| ID | 77948 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lawrence Barham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lawrence |
| FAMILY NAME | Barham |
| SIGNATURE | BARHAM L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5474-4668 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 527 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Lithic use-wear analysis of Lupemban Middle Stone Age core-axes from Kalambo Falls, Zambia
Old Fossils, New Information: Insights into Site Formation Processes of Two Pleistocene Cave Sequences in Zambia from Enamel Amino Acid Geochronology
Intra-crystalline protein degradation (IcPD) analysis was undertaken on 80 fossil tooth enamel samples from four taxonomic groups (rhinocerotid, suid, equid, bovid) excavated from two archaeological cave sites in Zambia (Twin Rivers and Mumbwa Caves). Seventy-two (90%) of these fossils showed evidence of closed-system behaviour. The fossils’ relative extent of protein degradation between the sites was consistent with their known ages, with sample…
Kalambo Falls, Zambia
Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic
This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus . This controversial claim is based on a broad theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce’s theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact …
Implications of a new chronology for the interpretation of the Middle and Later Stone Age of the upper Zambezi Valley
From Chaîne Opératoire to Observational Analysis: A Pilot Study of a New Methodology for Analysing Changes in Cognitive Task-Structuring Strategies Across Different Hominin Tool-Making Events
The chaîne opératoire (CO) approach is a well-established method for the analysis of tool creation, use and discard, and associated cognitive processes. Its effectiveness in respect of cognition, however, is occasionally challenged. We briefly review key critiques of its epistemological and methodological limitations and consider alternative options. We suggest a new epistemological position and methodology which can link CO with alternative cogn…
Excavations at Site C North, Kalambo Falls, Zambia: New Insights into the Mode 2/3 Transition in South-Central Africa
We report on the results of small-scale excavations at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia. The site has long been known for its stratified succession of Stone Age horizons, in particular those representing the late Acheulean (Mode 2) and early Middle Stone Age (Mode 3). Previous efforts to date these horizons have provided, at best, minimum radiometric ages. The absence of a firm chronology for the site has limited its pote…
New investigations at Kalambo Falls, Zambia: Luminescence chronology, site formation, and archaeological significance
Fluvial deposits can provide excellent archives of early hominin activity but may be complex to interpret, especially without extensive geochronology. The Stone Age site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia, has yielded a rich artefact record from dominantly fluvial deposits, but its significance has been restricted by uncertainties over site formation processes and a limited chronology. Our new investigations in the centre of the Kalambo Basin have…
The Invention of Hafting
This chapter focuses on hafting, with particular emphasis on when, where, how, and why it was invented. On the basis of available archaeological evidence from the Middle Pleistocene, it examines what is involved in making a hafted tool and why hafting is a cognitively demanding technology. Starting with the knife, it considers the stresses that affect the components during use and which are incorporated into the design of the handle and haft. It …
A Revolution without Heroes
This book has investigated the combinatorial principle that underlies the invention of hafting. Drawing on the ideas of complexity theorist W. Brian Arthur, it has described the combinatorial principle as a way of thinking about technology that began with hafting and has since spread to all forms of manufacture. It has also examined why hafting was invented in the Middle Pleistocene and not before and looks at the integrative technologies of the …
Something New from Something Old
This chapter examines the archaeological evidence for the precursors of hafting. More specifically, it looks at the innovations which preceded the innovation of hafting, where they happened and the environmental conditions under which they happened, and what cognitive abilities were involved. It first considers the diversity of tool-making humans in Africa, Europe, and Asia during the Middle Pleistocene and the environments in which they lived an…
From Hand to Handle: The First Industrial Revolution
Mankind's utter dependency on technology extends back approximately three million years to the first stone tools, but it was only with the innovation of hafting, some 300,000 years ago, that technology took its first modern form and revolutionized our social and economic lives. The development of handles and shafts, which were added to some tools previously made of single materials and hand-held, made the tools not only more efficient but improve…
Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The stratigraphic sequence of the site is admittedly complex, but it deserves a more careful analysis than that offered by Herries. This detailed response…
The dating and interpretation of a Mode 1 site in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
Genetic perspectives on forager‐farmer interaction in the Luangwa Valley of Zambia
The transformation from a foraging way of life to a reliance on domesticated plants and animals often led to the expansion of agropastoralist populations at the expense of hunter‐gatherers (HGs). In Africa, one of these expansions involved the Niger‐Congo Bantu‐speaking populations that started to spread southwards from Cameroon/Nigeria ∼4,000 years ago, bringing agricultural technologies. Genetic studies have shown different degrees of gene flow…
The First Africans
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers
Africa has the longest record – some 2.5 million years – of human occupation of any continent. For nearly all of this time, its inhabitants have made tools from stone and have acquired their food from its rich wild plant and animal resources. Archaeological research in Africa is crucial for understanding the origins of humans and the diversity of hunter-gatherer ways of life. This book is a synthesis of the record left by Africa's earliest homini…
On ‘Rethinking the human revolution’ or ‘That dog won't hunt’
New Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Iron Age in the Luangwa Valley, Eastern Zambia
Pliocene femur of Theropithecus from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
Bone tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) cave, Zambia, and their evolutionary significance
Shaped bone tools are now recognised as part of the technological repertoire of some Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Currently accepted dates for the earliest bone working technology in the region range from ~70–90 ka. This study re-examines three bone objects from the site of Broken Hill (Kabwe), Zambia, that were described in the 1940s as formal bone tools. Broken Hill is well known for its fossils of Homo heidelbergensis,…
Backed tools in Middle Pleistocene central Africa and their evolutionary significance
Systematic Pigment Use in the Middle Pleistocene of South-Central Africa
Automated Analysis of Environmental Degradation of Paint Residues
Possible Early Pigment Use in South-Central Africa
Systematic Pigment Use in the Middle Pleistocene of South-Central Africa
Backed tools in Middle Pleistocene central Africa and their evolutionary significance
The Bipolar Technique in Southern Africa: A Replication Experiment
Bipolar flaking is a technique with a long ancestry, widely distributed across southern Africa. Artefacts of bipolar origin occur in assemblages from the Upper Pleistocene through the Holocene andfrom the southern Cape to eastern Zaire, but the bipolar technique and the conditions under which it occurs remain largely unexamined in southern Africa. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to replicate the stages of bipolar reducti…
Possible Early Pigment Use in South-Central Africa
Bone tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) cave, Zambia, and their evolutionary significance
Shaped bone tools are now recognised as part of the technological repertoire of some Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Currently accepted dates for the earliest bone working technology in the region range from ~70–90 ka. This study re-examines three bone objects from the site of Broken Hill (Kabwe), Zambia, that were described in the 1940s as formal bone tools. Broken Hill is well known for its fossils of Homo heidelbergensis,…
New investigations at Kalambo Falls, Zambia: Luminescence chronology, site formation, and archaeological significance
Fluvial deposits can provide excellent archives of early hominin activity but may be complex to interpret, especially without extensive geochronology. The Stone Age site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia, has yielded a rich artefact record from dominantly fluvial deposits, but its significance has been restricted by uncertainties over site formation processes and a limited chronology. Our new investigations in the centre of the Kalambo Basin have…
Current events: An early date for the Middle Stone Age of central Zambia
Excavations at Site C North, Kalambo Falls, Zambia: New Insights into the Mode 2/3 Transition in South-Central Africa
We report on the results of small-scale excavations at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia. The site has long been known for its stratified succession of Stone Age horizons, in particular those representing the late Acheulean (Mode 2) and early Middle Stone Age (Mode 3). Previous efforts to date these horizons have provided, at best, minimum radiometric ages. The absence of a firm chronology for the site has limited its pote…
Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The stratigraphic sequence of the site is admittedly complex, but it deserves a more careful analysis than that offered by Herries. This detailed response…
The dating and interpretation of a Mode 1 site in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
Implications of a new chronology for the interpretation of the Middle and Later Stone Age of the upper Zambezi Valley
Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic
This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus . This controversial claim is based on a broad theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce’s theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact …
Let's Walk before We Run: An Appraisal of Historical Materialist Approaches to the Later Stone Age
Lawrence S. Barham, Let's Walk before We Run: An Appraisal of Historical Materialist Approaches to the Later Stone Age, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 155 (Jun., 1992), pp. 44-51
Pliocene femur of Theropithecus from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
From Chaîne Opératoire to Observational Analysis: A Pilot Study of a New Methodology for Analysing Changes in Cognitive Task-Structuring Strategies Across Different Hominin Tool-Making Events
The chaîne opératoire (CO) approach is a well-established method for the analysis of tool creation, use and discard, and associated cognitive processes. Its effectiveness in respect of cognition, however, is occasionally challenged. We briefly review key critiques of its epistemological and methodological limitations and consider alternative options. We suggest a new epistemological position and methodology which can link CO with alternative cogn…
Old Fossils, New Information: Insights into Site Formation Processes of Two Pleistocene Cave Sequences in Zambia from Enamel Amino Acid Geochronology
Intra-crystalline protein degradation (IcPD) analysis was undertaken on 80 fossil tooth enamel samples from four taxonomic groups (rhinocerotid, suid, equid, bovid) excavated from two archaeological cave sites in Zambia (Twin Rivers and Mumbwa Caves). Seventy-two (90%) of these fossils showed evidence of closed-system behaviour. The fossils’ relative extent of protein degradation between the sites was consistent with their known ages, with sample…
Genetic perspectives on forager‐farmer interaction in the Luangwa Valley of Zambia
The transformation from a foraging way of life to a reliance on domesticated plants and animals often led to the expansion of agropastoralist populations at the expense of hunter‐gatherers (HGs). In Africa, one of these expansions involved the Niger‐Congo Bantu‐speaking populations that started to spread southwards from Cameroon/Nigeria ∼4,000 years ago, bringing agricultural technologies. Genetic studies have shown different degrees of gene flow…
New Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Iron Age in the Luangwa Valley, Eastern Zambia
A Preliminary Report on the Later Stone Age Artefacts from Siphiso Shelter in Swaziland
Man on the Kafue: The Archaeology and History of the Itezhitezhi Area of Zambia
The Bipolar Technique in Southern Africa: A Replication Experiment
Bipolar flaking is a technique with a long ancestry, widely distributed across southern Africa. Artefacts of bipolar origin occur in assemblages from the Upper Pleistocene through the Holocene andfrom the southern Cape to eastern Zaire, but the bipolar technique and the conditions under which it occurs remain largely unexamined in southern Africa. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to replicate the stages of bipolar reducti…
A Preliminary Report on the Later Stone Age Artefacts from Siphiso Shelter in Swaziland
Radiocarbon Dates from Nyonyane Shelter, Swaziland
Let's Walk before We Run: An Appraisal of Historical Materialist Approaches to the Later Stone Age
Lawrence S. Barham, Let's Walk before We Run: An Appraisal of Historical Materialist Approaches to the Later Stone Age, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 155 (Jun., 1992), pp. 44-51
Current events: An early date for the Middle Stone Age of central Zambia
Possible Early Pigment Use in South-Central Africa
Automated Analysis of Environmental Degradation of Paint Residues
Bone tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) cave, Zambia, and their evolutionary significance
Shaped bone tools are now recognised as part of the technological repertoire of some Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Currently accepted dates for the earliest bone working technology in the region range from ~70–90 ka. This study re-examines three bone objects from the site of Broken Hill (Kabwe), Zambia, that were described in the 1940s as formal bone tools. Broken Hill is well known for its fossils of Homo heidelbergensis,…
Backed tools in Middle Pleistocene central Africa and their evolutionary significance
Systematic Pigment Use in the Middle Pleistocene of South-Central Africa
Pliocene femur of Theropithecus from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
On ‘Rethinking the human revolution’ or ‘That dog won't hunt’
New Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Iron Age in the Luangwa Valley, Eastern Zambia
The First Africans
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers
Africa has the longest record – some 2.5 million years – of human occupation of any continent. For nearly all of this time, its inhabitants have made tools from stone and have acquired their food from its rich wild plant and animal resources. Archaeological research in Africa is crucial for understanding the origins of humans and the diversity of hunter-gatherer ways of life. This book is a synthesis of the record left by Africa's earliest homini…
Genetic perspectives on forager‐farmer interaction in the Luangwa Valley of Zambia
The transformation from a foraging way of life to a reliance on domesticated plants and animals often led to the expansion of agropastoralist populations at the expense of hunter‐gatherers (HGs). In Africa, one of these expansions involved the Niger‐Congo Bantu‐speaking populations that started to spread southwards from Cameroon/Nigeria ∼4,000 years ago, bringing agricultural technologies. Genetic studies have shown different degrees of gene flow…
The dating and interpretation of a Mode 1 site in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The stratigraphic sequence of the site is admittedly complex, but it deserves a more careful analysis than that offered by Herries. This detailed response…
The Invention of Hafting
This chapter focuses on hafting, with particular emphasis on when, where, how, and why it was invented. On the basis of available archaeological evidence from the Middle Pleistocene, it examines what is involved in making a hafted tool and why hafting is a cognitively demanding technology. Starting with the knife, it considers the stresses that affect the components during use and which are incorporated into the design of the handle and haft. It …
A Revolution without Heroes
This book has investigated the combinatorial principle that underlies the invention of hafting. Drawing on the ideas of complexity theorist W. Brian Arthur, it has described the combinatorial principle as a way of thinking about technology that began with hafting and has since spread to all forms of manufacture. It has also examined why hafting was invented in the Middle Pleistocene and not before and looks at the integrative technologies of the …
Something New from Something Old
This chapter examines the archaeological evidence for the precursors of hafting. More specifically, it looks at the innovations which preceded the innovation of hafting, where they happened and the environmental conditions under which they happened, and what cognitive abilities were involved. It first considers the diversity of tool-making humans in Africa, Europe, and Asia during the Middle Pleistocene and the environments in which they lived an…
From Hand to Handle: The First Industrial Revolution
Mankind's utter dependency on technology extends back approximately three million years to the first stone tools, but it was only with the innovation of hafting, some 300,000 years ago, that technology took its first modern form and revolutionized our social and economic lives. The development of handles and shafts, which were added to some tools previously made of single materials and hand-held, made the tools not only more efficient but improve…
Excavations at Site C North, Kalambo Falls, Zambia: New Insights into the Mode 2/3 Transition in South-Central Africa
We report on the results of small-scale excavations at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia. The site has long been known for its stratified succession of Stone Age horizons, in particular those representing the late Acheulean (Mode 2) and early Middle Stone Age (Mode 3). Previous efforts to date these horizons have provided, at best, minimum radiometric ages. The absence of a firm chronology for the site has limited its pote…
New investigations at Kalambo Falls, Zambia: Luminescence chronology, site formation, and archaeological significance
Fluvial deposits can provide excellent archives of early hominin activity but may be complex to interpret, especially without extensive geochronology. The Stone Age site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia, has yielded a rich artefact record from dominantly fluvial deposits, but its significance has been restricted by uncertainties over site formation processes and a limited chronology. Our new investigations in the centre of the Kalambo Basin have…
Geography (26 works) · Archaeology (23 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (22 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (19 works) · Geology (14 works) · History (11 works) · Paleontology (10 works) · Pleistocene (10 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 works) · Geology (8 works)