Provisioning Responses to Environmental Change in South Africa’s Winter Rainfall Zone: MIS 5-2

Abstract

The later Middle Stone Age of southern Africa witnesses a number of important changes in lithic technology including the early appearance of bifacial point and microlithic systems. Though radiometric ages for these changes remain contested, they can in places be reconciled with elements of climatic variation. This paper examines the organization of provisioning systems through four successive industrial phases – the Still Bay, early Howiesons Poort, later Howiesons Poort, and post-Howiesons Poort – using data from rock-shelters and open sites. We show that the dominant means of technological delivery shifted from individual to place provisioning and back to individual provisioning through these industries, likely reflecting variation in humidity through the last glacial. We also show that the apparent abundance of sites and richness of assemblages in industries such as the Howiesons Poort may be in part a consequence of a research focus on rock-shelters; we found limited evidence for Howiesons Poort sites in the open. This is in contrast to the other industries, most clearly the Still Bay, for which we identified several large open-air gearing-up locations. Finally, we suggest that while interrogation of the archaeological record at the industry level is viable, it also masks behaviorally meaningful variation that should serve to encourage finer-scaled analyses.