John E. Yellen

Small mammals: !Kung San utilization and the production of faunal assemblages

Abstract Analysis of !Kung San utilization of small mammals—springhare and porcupine and two antelope species, steenbok and common duiker—serves to focus paleoan-thropological attention on this generally ignored size group. Data on the hunting, butchering, and consumption of these easily obtained animals which tend to have small territories and a general pattern of year round birthing provides the basis for speculation on the role such species played in the development of hominid hunting. They also allow examination of the logic which underlies processing decisions and the extent to which this matches assumptions which faunal analysts often employ. The study demonstrates that subtle distinctions in bone size, conformation, and robusticity as well as perceived value may have major effects on how bones are treated both within and across species and that a concept of “style”, defined from an etic perspective, may prove useful in the archaeological analysis of faunal remains. Conformance to stylistic rules varies greatly by element and is determined by perceived value. The data also suggest that greater ethnoarchaeological attention should be focused on the final stages of the butchering and consumption process.

Small mammals: Post-discard patterning of !Kung San faunal remains

Abstract This, the second of two articles which examine !Kung San utilization of small mammals, focuses on the “cultural” and subsequent “natural” processes which serve to pattern faunal remains. It demonstrates that these two sets of forces are tightly linked and that it may be impossible for the archaeologist to strip the latter cleanly away to reveal underlying cultural information. Two faunal samples permit examination of the effects of butchering, consumption, duration of site occupation, and length of abandonment on differential element survival. Over the short term in this northern Kalahari Desert sample, selective removal by carnivores constitutes the main cause of differential destruction. Appeal to carnivores is determined by both the nature of an element itself and its cultural treatment. Different methods of breaking, cooking, and consumption may have major effects. Surprisingly, extended site occupation confers protection against carnivores to some classes of bones but not to others. Patterns of differential bone destruction vary between !Kung sites occupied for shorter and longer periods of time. Analysis of sites abandoned up to 32 years indicates that differential survival is affected by both an elements shape and its density. Over time, pieces move downward only and are not churned. They do not sort vertically by size.

Man the Hunted: Determinants of Household Spacing in Desert and Tropical Foraging Societies

Abstract Controlled comparisons of ethnographic Western Desert Australian Aborigine and !Kung San campsites reveal significant differences in mean distances between households as well as differences in campsite areas based on nearest neighbor analysis. In terms of campsite areas in m 2 /person, the Aborigines space themselves over areas many times greater than the !Kung. A review of alternative hypotheses to account for these differences supports a combination of kin-ties and larger campsite areas/person to explain the variance, while the gross overall differences in spacing households are structured primarily by the relative effects of predation pressure, which is inversely proportional to both mean distances between households and campsite areas in m 2 /person. Some trial comparisons with other ethnographic cases are offered, along with test implications for archaeology.

Optimization and risk in human foraging strategies

Faunal remains excavated from !Kung Bushman (San) campsites occupied between 1944 and 1975 provide the basis for an examination of foraging strategy. Over this period these inhabitants of the northern Kalahari Desert in Botswana shifted from primary reliance on hunted and gathered foods to dependence on meat and milk derived from their own herds of goats and cattle. Analysis of faunal remains shows that both goats and cattle replace nondomesticates in the same size classes. However the overall structure of the faunal assemblages—measured by number of species, species diversity and distribution of species by size class—remains unchanged. This contradicts diet breadth models which predict specialization when high value food items become abundant, and suggests that these !Kung act to minimize risk in a highly variable and unpredictable semi-arid environment. The cross cultural and diachronic implications of this fact are considered.

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

The Middle Stone Age in Africa The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens. Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science, this issue p. 86, p. 90, p. 95 Social, technological, and subsistence behaviors and pigment use emerged during human evolution more than 300,000 years ago. Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.

Misreading the past: A reply to binford concerning hunter-gatherer site structure

Binford’s critique of our earlier paper comparing Ngatatjara Aborigines and !Kung household spacing in campsites (Gould and Yellen 1987) operates at several levels. It attacks a broad array of issues ranging from specific cases of Australian Aboriginal campsite structure to general arguments about the scientific philosophies and assumptions subsumed under the label “empirical.” In order to respond effectively, we think it best to present our views jointly but also with enough separation to allow the reader to distinguish our own differences clearly. Not surprisingly, a joint paper like ours in 1987 represented a de facto division of labor reflective of our different geographical and topical areas of interest and expertise. This, too, is a joint paper, but the division of labor regarding ideas and evidence will be flagged more clearly in order to identify differences of emphasis and interpretation. Before embarking upon a detailed reply to Binford’s critique, it may be useful to review and summarize the views we share with Binford, since these can easily be lost in the rhetoric of debate: 1. Ethnoarchaeology is a potent source of explanatory ideas for interpreting the archaeological record. It is no accident that much of the most stimulating discussion about the process of archaeological inference today is being generated by “card carrying” ethnoarchaeologists in the context of continuing efforts to provide usable models for archaeological explanation. 2. For explanations of past human behavior to proceed, one must go beyond pattern recognition in the archaeological record. Such pattern

Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa

The Middle Stone Age in Africa The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens. Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science, this issue p. 86, p. 90, p. 95 Changes in fauna, landscapes, and climate were associated with novel adaptive behaviors in the earliest Homo sapiens. Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens. We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.

Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa

The Middle Stone Age in Africa The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens. Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science, this issue p. 86, p. 90, p. 95 Emergence of the Middle Stone Age, a milestone in hominin evolution, occurred in Kenya by about 320,000 to 305,000 years ago. The origin of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) marks the transition from a highly persistent mode of stone toolmaking, the Acheulean, to a period of increasing technological innovation and cultural indicators associated with the evolution of Homo sapiens. We used argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series dating to calibrate the chronology of Acheulean and early MSA artifact–rich sedimentary deposits in the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya rift. We determined the age of late Acheulean tool assemblages from 615,000 to 499,000 years ago, after which a large technological and faunal transition occurred, with a definitive MSA lacking Acheulean elements beginning most likely by ~320,000 years ago, but at least by 305,000 years ago. These results establish the oldest repository of MSA artifacts in eastern Africa.

A Response to “National Science Foundation Funding of Domestic Archaeology in the United States: Where the Money Ain't”

tinually decreased its constant-dollar allotments and funding intensity in this research area over the recent past seems contrary to the requirements of the discipline. It is hoped that archaeologists will carefully examine the funding made available to them in terms of their needs, as well as with regard to the effects of inflation and changes in size and growth of their discipline. Minimally, questions of support for archaeological research should not be addressed only in terms of current dollars. It is hoped that consideration of funding intensity for archaeology will lead to a better understanding of the fiscal realities facing the discipline.