Late Holocene Artifact Patterns and the Introduction of Herding to Semi-Arid Coastal Namaqualand, South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12808129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jayson Orton (0000-0003-4827-0221, University of South Africa, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 78-94 |
| Publication date | 2016-09-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1556-4894 • E-ISSN: 1556-1828 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15564894.2016.1228719 |
| OpenAlex | W2521951772 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 40 |
Considerable change occurred in the Late Holocene Later Stone Age of Namaqualand, northwestern South Africa. Focusing on stone artifacts, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads, the cultural sequence for the area is described. Two additions are identified, complicating the traditional model for the introduction of herding into the country. From the mid-Holocene onward, lithic assemblages are based on milky and/or clear quartz and cryptocrystalline silica and initially contain many backed tools with scrapers more common during the first millennium BC. These are hunter-gatherer assemblages. During the final centuries BC, backed bladelet-rich assemblages based on clear quartz appear, with the earliest examples demonstrating typological continuity with the existing assemblages. About 1,500 years ago, expedient assemblages lacking retouch and based on poorer quality quartz appear. The three types co-occur during the last 1,500 years, occasionally in combination with one another. This contrasts strongly with other parts of South Africa where just two distinct assemblage types are identified, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer-herder dichotomy is not universally valid. The artifact patterns between about 200 cal BC and cal AD 500 and the introduction of livestock suggest considerable cultural and social change, heralding the onset of a local Neolithic, but the exact mechanisms remain unclear
Archaeology · Arid · Artifact (error · Assemblage (archaeology · Biology · Geography · Herding · Holocene · Hunter-gatherer · Later Stone Age · Pleistocene · Pottery · Stone Age · Zooarchaeology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology · Geology · Paleontology
Pastoralism in Africa
The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History
Mousterian Cultures in France
The First Spread of Food Production to Southern Africa
The social impact of pastoralism in the southwestern Cape
Feasting on Kasteelberg
Changes in Shellfish Species Composition and Mean Shell Size from a Late-Holocene Record of the West Coast of Southern Africa
The First Herders at the Cape of Good Hope
The Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope. Seventeeth-Century Drawings in the South African Library
Einiqualand
On Ceramic Variation in the South-Western Cape, South Africa
Khoekhoe Ceramics of the Upper Seacow River Valley
Excavations in the South-Western Cape, South Africa, and the Archaeological Identity of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers within the Last 2000 Years
Herders and Foragers on Kasteelberg
The Archaeological Identity of Hunters and Herders at the Cape over the Last 2000 Years
Patterns in Stone
Opportunistic Subsistence Strategies among Late Holocene Coastal Hunter-Gatherers, Elands Bay, South Africa
A late Pleistocene microlithic Later Stone Age assemblage from coastal Namaqualand, South Africa
The Size Variability of Ostrich Eggshell Beads from Central Namibia and Its Relevance as a Stylistic and Temporal Marker
SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–50,000 Years cal BP
Development of the Radiocarbon Calibration Program
The Neolithic of Southern Africa
Tortoise burials in Namaqualand
A Preliminary Analysis of Functional Variability in the Mousterian of Levallois Facies
A New Archaeological Perspective on Nomadic Pastoralist Expansion in South-western Africa
The late pre-colonial site of Komkans 2 (KK002) and an evaluation of the evidence for indigenous copper smelting in Namaqualand, southern Africa
What is consumed is wasted
Late Holocene Archaeology in Namaqualand, South Africa
Small Mammal Bones on Later Stone Age Sites from the Cape (South Africa)
The Cape Herders
Prehistoric pastoralism in the Southwestern Cape, South Africa
The chronology of the introduction of pastoralism to the Cape, South Africa
An early date for cattle from Namaqualand, South Africa
Taking Stock
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,56 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2024 (8) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |