John Parkington

A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa

Ongoing debates about the emergence of modern human behavior, however defined, regularly incorporate observations from the later part of the southern African Middle Stone Age and emphasize the early appearance of artifacts thought to reflect symbolic practice. Here we report a large sample of 270 fragments of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from the Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. Dating from ≈60,000 years ago, these pieces attest to an engraving tradition that is the earliest reliable evidence of what is a widespread modern practice. These abstract linear depictions were made on functional items (eggshell containers), which were curated and involved in daily hunter-gatherer life. The standardized production of repetitive patterns, including a hatched band motif, suggests a system of symbolic representation in which collective identities and individual expressions are clearly communicated, suggesting social, cultural, and cognitive underpinnings that overlap with those of modern people.

Brain-specific lipids from marine, lacustrine, or terrestrial food resources: potential impact on early African Homo sapiens ☆

The polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of the mammalian central nervous system is almost wholly composed of two long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA). PUFA are dietarily essential, thus normal infant/neonatal brain, intellectual growth and development cannot be accomplished if they are deficient during pregnancy and lactation. Uniquely in the human species, the fetal brain consumes 70% of the energy delivered to it by mother. DHA and AA are needed to construct placental and fetal tissues for cell membrane growth, structure and function. Contemporary evidence shows that the maternal circulation is depleted of AA and DHA during fetal growth. Sustaining normal adult human brain function also requires LC-PUFA.Homo sapiens is unlikely to have evolved a large, complex, metabolically expensive brain in an environment which did not provide abundant dietary LC-PUFA. Conversion of 18-carbon PUFA from vegetation to AA and DHA is considered quantitatively insufficient due to a combination of high rates of PUFA oxidation for energy, inefficient and rate limited enzymatic conversion and substrate recycling. The littoral marine and lacustrine food chains provide consistently greater amounts of pre-formed LC-PUFA than the terrestrial food chain. Dietary levels of DHA are 2.5-100 fold higher for equivalent weights of marine fish or shellfish vs. lean or fat terrestrial meats. Mammalian brain tissue and bird egg yolks, especially from marine birds, are the richest terrestrial sources of LC-PUFA. However, land animal adipose fats have been linked to vascular disease and mental ill-health, whereas marine lipids have been demonstrated to be protective. At South African Capesites, large shell middens and fish remains are associated with evidence for some of the earliest modern humans. Cape sites dating from 100 to 18 kya cluster within 200 km of the present coast. Evidence of early H. sapiens is also found around the Rift Valley lakes and up the Nile Corridor into the Middle East; in some cases there is an association with the use of littoral resources. Exploitation of river, estuarine, stranded and spawning fish, shellfish and sea bird nestlings and eggs by Homo could have provided essential dietary LC-PUFA for men, women, and children without requiring organized hunting/fishing, or sophisticated social behavior. It is however, predictable from the present evidence that exploitation of this food resource would have provided the advantage in multi-generational brain development which would have made possible the advent of H. sapiens. Restriction to land based foods as postulated by the savannah and other hypotheses would have led to degeneration of the brain and vascular system as happened without exception in all other land based apes and mammals as they evolved larger bodies.

A Holocene marine climate record in mollusc shells from the Southwest African coast

Abstract Details of short-term climatic variability are often lost from marine sediments through bioturbation in the upper, aerobic sediment layers. Alternatively, a high-resolution and dated record of climatic events may be obtained using material preserved in archaeological deposits. The Holocene history of the southern Benguela upwelling regime has been constructed from the oxygen isotope and mineral analysis of midden shells. Three discrete episodes of significant isotope enrichment corresponded to periods of glacial expansion in the northern hemisphere. Significant changes in shell mineralogy, which is a response to sea-surface temperatures, were also recorded. The timing and duration of these changes approximated those in the isotope record and may provide a link between events affecting the subcontinent and global temperature changes of the late Quaternary.

Approaches to dietary reconstruction in the western Cape: Are you what you have eaten?

Debate has arisen over the extent of marine food consumption and by implication coastal residence among Holocene hunter-gatherers in the Cape Province of South Africa. Whereas bioarchaeological methods have been assumed to imply short-term probably seasonal coastal visits, stable carbon isotope results are held to demonstrate heavy marine food intake and almost permanent coastal dwelling. Here a metabolic critique of the isotope interpretation is offered, in which the suggestion is made that marine food signals are exaggerated in skeletons because of protein induced high turnover rates. In a second critique, the palaeoenvironmental implications of isotope readings are shown to demonstrate a higher inland C4 component than has hitherto been recognized. Some enrichment of skeletons may-well result from terrestrial rather than marine food consumption.

The social impact of pastoralism in the southwestern Cape

Abstract In this paper we suggest that the social and ecological impact of the appearance of domestic animals in the western Cape is visible in a number of different kinds of archaeological observations. Looking at the changes in site distributions through time, at the location of painted sites in relation to other occupied localities, at the kinds of subsistence evidence now accumulating, and at the literature on ritual and stress we see a relatively coherent response emerging. We suggest, as a working hypothesis, that the intrusion of pastoralists increased stress on residual hunter-gatheres and stimulated both ecological and social responses, two of the latter being an intensification of ritual and an increase in painting.

Late Holocene environments at verlorenvlei, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract Evidence on late Quaternary palaeoenvironments of the western and southwestern Cape of South Africa has facilitated detailed reconstructions mainly for the mountains, where organic sediment accumulation has been favoured by relatively humid climates. On the lowlands, particularly those of the west coast region, the search for sites traditionally regarded as suitable for the accumulation of sediments containing preserved fossil pollen has commenced only more recently. This area of the Western Cape Province has, however, provided Quaternary scientists with a rich archaeological record that has yet to be tested against independent lines of palaeoecological evidence. A sequence of sediments which have accumulated in what is today a large freshwater coastal lake, Verlorenvlei, has been sampled at Grootdrift, 15 km inland of the coast. A series of seven sediment cores was extracted during 1991 and three of these have now been sub-sampled, radiocarbon dated and subjected to a range of palaeoenvironmental techniques, in particular pollen analysis, sedimentology and geochemistry. Three pollen diagrams are presented which reveal the vegetation history of both the immediate Grootdrift environment and the wider catchment during several periods over the last 5500 years. A mid-Holocene higher sea-level is evident in two of the cores which were examined for pollen throughout their length. The surrounding area appears at this time to have been somewhat more arid than today. Following a hiatus in sedimentation some time after 4300 BP, the marine conditions at the site disappear and are replaced by fresh water as the dominant hydrological and ecological influence. Around the time of colonial occupation of the region, some 300 years ago, lacustrine conditions prevailed at Grootdrift and greater moisture availability is indicated in the catchment. During the last 300 years, the picture revealed by high resolution palynology of the third core is one of progressive levels of human disturbance both in and around the Verlorenvlei. Evidence from a textural and geochemical analysis of the sediments is consistent with the interpretation based on fossil pollen. The implications of this information are examined against the archaeology and palaeoecology of several cave sites in the vicinity of the vlei. The consistency apparent in the range of types of evidence suggests that some reliance can be placed on the mid-late Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at Verlorenvlei. The paper thus provides insight into the nature of the complex interactions between late Holocene climate change, sea-level fluctuation, vegetation change, vlei hydrology and human activity in the Western Cape coastal region.

A unified lithic taxonomy based on patterns of core reduction

The authors and three students met for workshops on several occasions in Cape Town and Stellenbosch with the goal of defining a taxonomic system for chipped stone artefacts that can be applied to materials from the Early, Middle and Later Stone Age. The motivation for defining a ‘unified taxonomy’ stems from the need to develop a system for classifying multicomponent surface assemblages. The proposed taxonomy revises southern African systems by applying ideas and methods from European approaches to lithic technology. Given that much confusion exists on the classification of cores and core reduction, the lithic workshops focused on this class of artefact. Most of the variation encountered when examining material from Anyskop, Blombos, Geelbek, Hollow Rock Shelter and Klasies River Mouth could be placed within the taxa of Inclined, Parallel and Platform cores. These categories form the basis of the proposed taxonomy with the additional taxa of Initial, Multidirectional, Indeterminate Broken, Bipolar and Other being necessary for a small proportion of the cores that fall outside the range of the three main taxa. Blind tests using assemblages of cores from Blombos, Geelbek and Anyskop yielded a satisfactory degree of reproducibility and lend credibility to the proposed taxonomy. This paper also considers other key variables of cores including: the morphology of end products, degree of reduction, numbers of striking and removal surfaces, and degree of platform preparation.

Coastal adaptations and the Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages from Hoedjiespunt 1 in the Western Cape, South Africa.

New excavations at the Middle Stone Age (MSA) open-air site of Hoedjiespunt 1 (HDP1) on the west coast of South Africa advance our understanding of the evolution of coastal adaptations in Homo sapiens. The archaeological site of HDP1 dates to the last interglacial and consists of three phases of occupation, each containing abundant lithic artifacts, shellfish, terrestrial fauna, ostrich eggshell and pieces of ground ocher. The site provides an excellent case study to analyze human behavioral adaptations linked to early exploitation of marine resources. Here we reconstruct human activities through a detailed study of the lithic assemblages, combining analyses of the reduction sequences, artifact attributes and quartz fracturing. These methods provide insights into raw material procurement, lithic reduction sequences, site use and mobility patterns, and foster comparison with other MSA coastal sites. The main characteristics of the lithic assemblages remain constant throughout the use of the site. Quartz dominates silcrete and other raw materials by almost four to one. Knappers at HDP1 produced different forms of flakes using multiple core reduction methods. Denticulates represent the most frequent tool type. The assemblages document complete, bipolar and hard hammer reduction sequences for the locally available quartz, but highly truncated reduction sequences with many isolated end products for silcrete, a material with a minimum transport distance of 10-30km. This observation suggests that well provisioned individuals executed planned movements to the shoreline to exploit shellfish. Our excavations at HDP1 furthermore demonstrate the simultaneous occurrence of flexible raw material use, anticipated long-distance transport, systematic gathering of shellfish and use of ground ocher. The HDP1 lithic assemblages document a robust pattern of land-use that we interpret as a stable adaptation of modern humans to coastal landscapes as early as MIS 5e.

Stone tools and resources: A case study from Southern Africa

Abstract Taking the Clanwilliam District in the south‐western Cape as a case study, this paper examines the implications of differences in the composition of contemporary tool assemblages from a restricted area. A breakdown of the assemblages from eleven sites is presented, with analyses of the occurrences of adzes, bored stones, scrapers, and backed pieces at each of them. In some situations, the patterning of tool type variability from site to site can clearly be shown to be associated with resource distributions in the region. Should these resources change, the authors argue, tool type patterns may change as well, serving as a useful stratigraphical index of major environmental shifts.

Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time

Proteins persist longer in the fossil record than DNA, but the longevity, survival mechanisms and substrates remain contested. Here, we demonstrate the role of mineral binding in preserving the protein sequence in ostrich (Struthionidae) eggshell, including from the palaeontological sites of Laetoli (3.8 Ma) and Olduvai Gorge (1.3 Ma) in Tanzania. By tracking protein diagenesis back in time we find consistent patterns of preservation, demonstrating authenticity of the surviving sequences. Molecular dynamics simulations of struthiocalcin-1 and -2, the dominant proteins within the eggshell, reveal that distinct domains bind to the mineral surface. It is the domain with the strongest calculated binding energy to the calcite surface that is selectively preserved. Thermal age calculations demonstrate that the Laetoli and Olduvai peptides are 50 times older than any previously authenticated sequence (equivalent to ~16 Ma at a constant 10°C). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17092.001