J. Desmond Clark

Stratigraphic, chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia

Clarifying the geographic, environmental and behavioural contexts in which the emergence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens occurred has proved difficult, particularly because Africa lacked adequate geochronological, palaeontological and archaeological evidence. The discovery of anatomically modern Homo sapiens fossils at Herto, Ethiopia, changes this. Here we report on stratigraphically associated Late Middle Pleistocene artefacts and fossils from fluvial and lake margin sandstones of the Upper Herto Member of the Bouri Formation, Middle Awash, Afar Rift, Ethiopia. The fossils and artefacts are dated between 160,000 and 154,000 years ago by precise age determinations using the 40Ar/39Ar method. The archaeological assemblages contain elements of both Acheulean and Middle Stone Age technocomplexes. Associated faunal remains indicate repeated, systematic butchery of hippopotamus carcasses. Contemporary adult and juvenile Homo sapiens fossil crania manifest bone modifications indicative of deliberate mortuary practices.

The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity

The history of research into the Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the present state of knowledge of this time period is examined for the region as a whole, with special reference to paleoenvironments. The known MSA sites and occurrences are discussed region by region and attempts are made to fit them into a more precise chronological framework and to assess their cultural affinities. The conclusion is reached that the Middle Stone Age lasted for some 150,000 years but considerably more systematic and in-depth research is needed into this time period, which is now perceived as of great significance since it appears to span the time of the evolution of anatomically Modern humans in the continent, perhaps in East Africa.

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 outcrop of Pleistocene fluviatile deposits on the shore west of Clacton Pier, and in the brief report on this excursion, reference was made to the occurrence of fossil mammalia and Palaeolithic flint artifacts. At first Henri Breuil tentatively identified the worked flints with the Mesvinian industry of Belgium; but after Warrens amassment of a larger collection, he recognized that the Clacton flint artifacts represented a distinct Palaeolithic industry, or tradition, for which he proposed the name Clactonian (see Warren 1922 and 1926; Breuil 1932).

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.

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 years. Several other points on the time-scale of human evolution are presented. The time-scale of rift faulting in Kenya is established and the ages of several Italian volcanoes are presented.

Archaeological perspectives in the Nihewan Basin, China

Abstract Paleolithic archaeological sites in the Nihewan Basin (previously Nihowan) in northern China were visited and their excavated materials examined in order to assess their potential for future research. Paleomagnetic studies have indicated that the older sites here may extend back to the late Early Pleistocene (ca. 1 m.y.a.); radiocarbon dates for the later sites indicate later Late Pleistocene age (ca. 11,000 B.P.). Previous work has found the earlier sites in the sedimentary seqeunce to be contained within magnetically reversed sediments believed to lie below the Jaramillo Subchron (ca. 0·97 m.y.a.), and thus they may represent some of the earliest occupations ofHomo erectus in eastern Asia. The stratigraphic contexts of these sites were examined in the field, excavated artefacts were studied in the laboratory, and preliminary artefact replication experiments were carried out. Artefact assemblages at the earlier sites are made primarily in local cherts and are technologically simple industries predominated by unmodified flakes and fragments, with some flaked cobbles and chunks but relatively few modified or retouched pieces. Most of the sites are in fine-grained sediments indicating low-energy conditions of deposition in fluvial/lacustrine environments, and their artefacts are in very good, fresh condition; thus they may preservein situ evidence of activity patterns. An in-depth analysis is being conducted of Donggutuo, one of the earlier sites. Preliminary results of this study indicate good potential for conjoining of flaked artefacts, microwear analysis, analysis of cut-marked and carnivore-gnawed bone, and intrasite spatial studies of possible activity patterns ofHomo erectus in eastern Asia in the Early Pleistocene.

Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site III. The Earlier Cultures: Middle and Earlier Stone Age

1. Introduction History of research Geology and sedimentation Chronology J. D. Clark 2. The Stone Age cultural sequence: terminology, typology and raw material J. D. Clark and M. R. Kleindienst 3. A re-analysis and interpretation of palynological data from Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site David Taylor, Robert Marchant and Alan Hamilton 4. The archaeology from the Mbwilo member, sands and rubble: the Siszya and Nakisasa industries of the Lupemban industrial complex J. D. Clark 5. The archaeology from the Mkamba member, ochreous sands bed. The Chipeta industry of the Sangoan industrial complex J. D. Clark 6. The Bwalya industry of the Acheulean industrial complex. Aggregates from the white sands and dark clay beds of the Mkamba member: Inuga phase (Final Acheulean) and Moola phase (Upper Acheulean) J. D. Clark 7. An examination of Kalambo Falls Acheulean site (B5) from a geoarchaeological perspective Kathy D. Schick 8. Modified, used and other wood specimens from Acheulean horizons J. D. Clark 9. The Kalambo Falls large cutting tools: A comparative metrical and statistical analysis Derek A. Roe 10. Experiments in quarrying large flakes at Kalambo Falls I Nicholas Toth 11. A modern knappers assessment of the technical skills of the late Acheulean biface workers at Kalambo Falls Stephen W. Edwards 12. An allometric comparison of Sangoan core-axes and Acheulean handaxes from Kalambo Falls John A. G. Gowlett 13. An overview of archaeological culture and context at Kalambo Falls J. D. Clark 14. A view of the Kalambo Falls Early and Middle Stone Age assemblages in the context of the old world Palaeolithic Derek A. Roe Appendix A. Plant foods in African prehistory J. D. Clark Appendix B. Geography and Kalambo Falls clays J. D. Clark Appendix C. Carbowax and other materials in the treatment of water-logged Paleolithic wood R. M. Organ Appendix D. Curtis McKinney Appendix E. The Kalambo Falls flakes and fragments study of a sample of Acheulean flakes and fragments from site A4 1963 river face extension at Kalambo Falls.

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 way due to the permanent presence of one or more staple sources of food: freshwater fish, water animals and plants, and sea foods; and forest foods (the Dioscoreas, Elaeis guineensis , and other oil-bearing plants), either perennial or capable of being stored. Evidence of such occupation is seen in the midden accumulations in both cave and open sites at this time. Populations could thus become more concentrated and an increase in density may be inferred, the limiting factor being the maximum that any one environment could support by intensified collecting methods (fig. I).

A Study of the Work of a Modern Tanner in Ethiopia and Its Relevance for Archaeological Interpretation

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a study of the work of a modern tanner in Ethiopia and its relevance for archaeological interpretation. In interpreting the prehistoric function of end-scrapers, several possible uses have been suggested, ranging from chopping to cutting, scraping, chiseling, and grooving. The chapter explains that a great deal still remains to be undertaken in respect to studies of Fuga-Chawa obsidian working and use. It is expected that much of significance for archaeological interpretation result from such studies, as these scrapers are one of the very few kinds of regularly retouched tool made from stone in the world today. Lines of approach that trace the continuity from the present through the historic past to prehistoric times help to interpret the distribution patterns and variability observed in Later Stone Age and Iron Age contexts in Ethiopia and also have some general cautionary message to convey to archaeologists from further afield.

A Re-Examination of the Evidence for Agricultural Origins in the Nile Valley.

Current belief ascribes the origins of agriculture in the Nile to diffusion in the fifth millennium B.C. from southwest Asia of plants and animals the domestication of which had first begun there in the eighth millennium or earlier. A growing body of evidence is now becoming available which shows the cultural pattern in the Nile Valley at the termination of the Pleistocene to have been appreciably more complex than was previously thought and necessitates a re-examination of the evidence on which the belief for the late appearance of domestication in Egypt is based. This pre-agricultural complexity, when examined in the light of the abundant historical and ethnographic evidence for distinctive man/animal, if not also man/plant relationships in north and northeast Africa, suggests that a process of pre-adaption using the local animal and plant resources is most likely to have preceded the introduction of the Asian domesticates. Many of the indigenous practices relating to local animals and plants persisted as late as Middle Kingdom times (2052–1786 B.C.). The appearance of the Asian food plants and animals in the fifth millennium may reflect, therefore, not the beginnings of domestication in Egypt, but the replacement of genetically less suitable local species by more satisfactory, exotic forms, a situation made possible by the beginnings of regular communication between the Nile and the Levant from that time onwards.