Audax Z P Mabulla
Biographic Data
| ID | 89499 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Audax Z P Mabulla |
| GIVEN NAMES | Audax Z P |
| FAMILY NAME | Mabulla |
| SIGNATURE | MABULLA A Z P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dar es Salaam |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 174 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Plant processing and foodways in the Pastoral Neolithic
Pastoralism has long been conceptualized as an animal-centered lifeway, with plants treated as marginal or ancillary resources. This is particularly true in Africa where rich ethnographic records of present-day pastoralism and scant archaeobotanical evidence have combined to create a focus on livestock in the archaeological record. This study challenges that perspective by demonstrating that plant use formed an integral component of Pastoral Neol…
Detecting architectural features and stratigraphic deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using ground-penetrating radar
New excavations at Nasera Rock (Tanzania)
International audience
Exploring the Middle Stone Age lithic technology at DGS, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Olduvai Gorge, nestled between the East African Rift Valley and the Mozambique Belt, is key to understanding human evolution. Even though extensive archaeological and palaeoanthropological findings have been unearthed here since the 1930s, the Middle Stone Age in this area has nonetheless received less attention than the Oldowan or the Acheulean. This paper presents the lithic technology analysis of Dorothy Garrod Site (DGS), a newly-documented M…
Deciphering Middle Stone Age Technological Behaviors
The Mumba rockshelter, located in the northwest of Lake Eyasi is key to understanding the Stone Age in East Africa. The stratigraphy of the site spans the last 130 ka BP and comprises levels from the Middle Stone Age, the Later Stone Age, the Pastoral Neolithic, and the Iron Age. In terms of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), Mumba has helped to define two lithic industries: Sanzako (130 ka BP) and Kisele (90–50 Ka BP) that characterize this techno-comp…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Human burials at the Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania
OBJECTIVES: The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in eastern Africa are associated with complex evolutionary and demographic processes that contributed to the population variability observed in the region today. However, there are relatively few human skeletal remains from this time period. Here we describe six individuals from the Kisese II rockshelter in Tanzania that were excavated in 1956, present a radiocarbon date for one of the individua…
Grinding-stone features from the Pastoral Neolithic at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The initial spread of food production in eastern Africa is associated with livestock herding during the Pastoral Neolithic. Recent excavation at Luxmanda, Tanzania, a site dating to c. 3000 BP, revealed circular installations of lower grinding stones and numerous handstones. This discovery, unprecedented for this era, challenges previous ideas about pastoralist mobility and subsistence
Physical activity and time budgets of Hadza forager children
OBJECTIVES: To determine the effects of age and sex on physical activity and time budgets of Hadza children and juveniles, 5-14 years old, including both in-camp and out-of-camp activities. METHODS: Behavioral data were derived from ~15 000 hourly in-camp scan observations of 76 individuals and 13 out-of-camp focal follows on nine individuals. The data were used to estimate energy expended and percentage of time engaged in a variety of routine ac…
Bifacial Shaping at the TK Acheulean Site (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Physical activity patterns and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk in hunter‐gatherers
OBJECTIVES: Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is a strong predictor of cardiovascular health, yet few humans living in industrialized societies meet current recommendations (150 min/week). Researchers have long suggested that human physiological requirements for aerobic exercise reflect an evolutionary shift to a hunting and gathering foraging strategy, and a recent transition to more sedentary lifestyles likely represen…
Hadza sleep biology
OBJECTIVES: Cross-cultural sleep research is critical to deciphering whether modern sleep expression is the product of recent selective pressures, or an example of evolutionary mismatch to ancestral sleep ecology. We worked with the Hadza, an equatorial, hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania, to better understand ancestral sleep patterns and to test hypotheses related to sleep segmentation. METHODS: We used actigraphy to analyze sleep-wake patter…
The evolution of human sleep
Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity
Western lifestyles differ markedly from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and these differences in diet and activity level are often implicated in the global obesity pandemic. However, few physiological data for hunter-gatherer populations are available to test these models of obesity. In this study, we used the doubly-labeled water method to measure total daily energy expenditure (kCal/day) in Hadza hunter-gatherers to test whether forager…
New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania
Geochemical and Mineralogic Characterization of Middle Stone Age Tools of Laetoli, Tanzania, and Comparisons with Possible Source Materials
Paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstruction of a freshwater oasis in savannah grassland at FLK North, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
The records of early hominins are commonly localized both temporally and spatially even in archaeologically rich basins like Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The FLK North site was discovered in 1960, but the reason for the exact location of this dense concentration of fossils and stone tools on a lake-margin flat has not been explained. We present new geological and geochemical information from six excavations in upper Bed I, which revealed up to 1.4-m-…
A spring and wooded habitat at FLK Zinj and their relevance to origins of human behavior
The 1959 discovery of the hominin fossil Zinjanthropus boisei brought the world's attention to the rich records at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Subsequent excavations of archaeological level 22 (FLK Zinj) Bed I uncovered remains of Homo habilis and a high-density collection of fossils and Oldowan stone tools. The occurrence of this unusual collection of bones and tools at this specific location has been controversial for decades. We present paleoecol…
Phytoliths infer locally dense and heterogeneous paleovegetation at FLK North and surrounding localities during upper Bed I time, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
The phytolith content of 10 samples collected immediately under Tuff IF (~ 1.785 Ma) at FLK N and other surrounding localities (~ 2 km2) provides a direct botanical evidence for woody vegetation in the eastern margin of Olduvai Gorge during uppermost Bed I time. Observation and counting of 143 phytolith types (5 to >150 μ) reveal dense but heterogeneous woody cover (~ 40–90%) of unidentified trees and/or shrubs and palms associated to the freshwa…
The Middle to Later Stone Age Technological Transition in East Africa. New Data from Mumba Rockshelter Bed V (Tanzania) and their Implications for the Origin of Modern Human Behavior
Recent re-excavation of Mumba Rockshelter unearthed an unbiased lithic sample from Bed V. Technological analysis has permitted a reinterpretation of the so-called Mumba Industry, a transitional industry between Middle and Later Stone Ages originally defined by Mehlman (1989). Our data confirm Mehlman’s observation that the “evolutionary” markers in Mumba Bed V are basically typological. However, our study differs from his in that we classify all …
The Rock Art of Mara Region, Tanzania
Strategy for Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) in Africa
Olduvai Gorge
New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Strategy for Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) in Africa
Hadza sleep biology
OBJECTIVES: Cross-cultural sleep research is critical to deciphering whether modern sleep expression is the product of recent selective pressures, or an example of evolutionary mismatch to ancestral sleep ecology. We worked with the Hadza, an equatorial, hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania, to better understand ancestral sleep patterns and to test hypotheses related to sleep segmentation. METHODS: We used actigraphy to analyze sleep-wake patter…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
The evolution of human sleep
The Rock Art of Mara Region, Tanzania
Exploring the Middle Stone Age lithic technology at DGS, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Olduvai Gorge, nestled between the East African Rift Valley and the Mozambique Belt, is key to understanding human evolution. Even though extensive archaeological and palaeoanthropological findings have been unearthed here since the 1930s, the Middle Stone Age in this area has nonetheless received less attention than the Oldowan or the Acheulean. This paper presents the lithic technology analysis of Dorothy Garrod Site (DGS), a newly-documented M…
Deciphering Middle Stone Age Technological Behaviors
The Mumba rockshelter, located in the northwest of Lake Eyasi is key to understanding the Stone Age in East Africa. The stratigraphy of the site spans the last 130 ka BP and comprises levels from the Middle Stone Age, the Later Stone Age, the Pastoral Neolithic, and the Iron Age. In terms of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), Mumba has helped to define two lithic industries: Sanzako (130 ka BP) and Kisele (90–50 Ka BP) that characterize this techno-comp…
Human burials at the Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania
OBJECTIVES: The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in eastern Africa are associated with complex evolutionary and demographic processes that contributed to the population variability observed in the region today. However, there are relatively few human skeletal remains from this time period. Here we describe six individuals from the Kisese II rockshelter in Tanzania that were excavated in 1956, present a radiocarbon date for one of the individua…
Olduvai Gorge
Strategy for Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) in Africa
The Rock Art of Mara Region, Tanzania
The Middle to Later Stone Age Technological Transition in East Africa. New Data from Mumba Rockshelter Bed V (Tanzania) and their Implications for the Origin of Modern Human Behavior
Recent re-excavation of Mumba Rockshelter unearthed an unbiased lithic sample from Bed V. Technological analysis has permitted a reinterpretation of the so-called Mumba Industry, a transitional industry between Middle and Later Stone Ages originally defined by Mehlman (1989). Our data confirm Mehlman’s observation that the “evolutionary” markers in Mumba Bed V are basically typological. However, our study differs from his in that we classify all …
Paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstruction of a freshwater oasis in savannah grassland at FLK North, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
The records of early hominins are commonly localized both temporally and spatially even in archaeologically rich basins like Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The FLK North site was discovered in 1960, but the reason for the exact location of this dense concentration of fossils and stone tools on a lake-margin flat has not been explained. We present new geological and geochemical information from six excavations in upper Bed I, which revealed up to 1.4-m-…
A spring and wooded habitat at FLK Zinj and their relevance to origins of human behavior
The 1959 discovery of the hominin fossil Zinjanthropus boisei brought the world's attention to the rich records at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Subsequent excavations of archaeological level 22 (FLK Zinj) Bed I uncovered remains of Homo habilis and a high-density collection of fossils and Oldowan stone tools. The occurrence of this unusual collection of bones and tools at this specific location has been controversial for decades. We present paleoecol…
Phytoliths infer locally dense and heterogeneous paleovegetation at FLK North and surrounding localities during upper Bed I time, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
The phytolith content of 10 samples collected immediately under Tuff IF (~ 1.785 Ma) at FLK N and other surrounding localities (~ 2 km2) provides a direct botanical evidence for woody vegetation in the eastern margin of Olduvai Gorge during uppermost Bed I time. Observation and counting of 143 phytolith types (5 to >150 μ) reveal dense but heterogeneous woody cover (~ 40–90%) of unidentified trees and/or shrubs and palms associated to the freshwa…
Geochemical and Mineralogic Characterization of Middle Stone Age Tools of Laetoli, Tanzania, and Comparisons with Possible Source Materials
Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity
Western lifestyles differ markedly from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and these differences in diet and activity level are often implicated in the global obesity pandemic. However, few physiological data for hunter-gatherer populations are available to test these models of obesity. In this study, we used the doubly-labeled water method to measure total daily energy expenditure (kCal/day) in Hadza hunter-gatherers to test whether forager…
New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania
Physical activity patterns and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk in hunter‐gatherers
OBJECTIVES: Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is a strong predictor of cardiovascular health, yet few humans living in industrialized societies meet current recommendations (150 min/week). Researchers have long suggested that human physiological requirements for aerobic exercise reflect an evolutionary shift to a hunting and gathering foraging strategy, and a recent transition to more sedentary lifestyles likely represen…
Hadza sleep biology
OBJECTIVES: Cross-cultural sleep research is critical to deciphering whether modern sleep expression is the product of recent selective pressures, or an example of evolutionary mismatch to ancestral sleep ecology. We worked with the Hadza, an equatorial, hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania, to better understand ancestral sleep patterns and to test hypotheses related to sleep segmentation. METHODS: We used actigraphy to analyze sleep-wake patter…
The evolution of human sleep
Bifacial Shaping at the TK Acheulean Site (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Physical activity and time budgets of Hadza forager children
OBJECTIVES: To determine the effects of age and sex on physical activity and time budgets of Hadza children and juveniles, 5-14 years old, including both in-camp and out-of-camp activities. METHODS: Behavioral data were derived from ~15 000 hourly in-camp scan observations of 76 individuals and 13 out-of-camp focal follows on nine individuals. The data were used to estimate energy expended and percentage of time engaged in a variety of routine ac…
Human burials at the Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania
OBJECTIVES: The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in eastern Africa are associated with complex evolutionary and demographic processes that contributed to the population variability observed in the region today. However, there are relatively few human skeletal remains from this time period. Here we describe six individuals from the Kisese II rockshelter in Tanzania that were excavated in 1956, present a radiocarbon date for one of the individua…
Grinding-stone features from the Pastoral Neolithic at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The initial spread of food production in eastern Africa is associated with livestock herding during the Pastoral Neolithic. Recent excavation at Luxmanda, Tanzania, a site dating to c. 3000 BP, revealed circular installations of lower grinding stones and numerous handstones. This discovery, unprecedented for this era, challenges previous ideas about pastoralist mobility and subsistence
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Deciphering Middle Stone Age Technological Behaviors
The Mumba rockshelter, located in the northwest of Lake Eyasi is key to understanding the Stone Age in East Africa. The stratigraphy of the site spans the last 130 ka BP and comprises levels from the Middle Stone Age, the Later Stone Age, the Pastoral Neolithic, and the Iron Age. In terms of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), Mumba has helped to define two lithic industries: Sanzako (130 ka BP) and Kisele (90–50 Ka BP) that characterize this techno-comp…
Exploring the Middle Stone Age lithic technology at DGS, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Olduvai Gorge, nestled between the East African Rift Valley and the Mozambique Belt, is key to understanding human evolution. Even though extensive archaeological and palaeoanthropological findings have been unearthed here since the 1930s, the Middle Stone Age in this area has nonetheless received less attention than the Oldowan or the Acheulean. This paper presents the lithic technology analysis of Dorothy Garrod Site (DGS), a newly-documented M…
Plant processing and foodways in the Pastoral Neolithic
Pastoralism has long been conceptualized as an animal-centered lifeway, with plants treated as marginal or ancillary resources. This is particularly true in Africa where rich ethnographic records of present-day pastoralism and scant archaeobotanical evidence have combined to create a focus on livestock in the archaeological record. This study challenges that perspective by demonstrating that plant use formed an integral component of Pastoral Neol…
Detecting architectural features and stratigraphic deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using ground-penetrating radar
New excavations at Nasera Rock (Tanzania)
International audience
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (18 works) · Geography (17 works) · Archaeology (15 works) · Tanzania (12 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (10 works) · Geology (8 works) · Geology (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Pleistocene (7 works)