| KHOISAN PERSONAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE LATER STONE |
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| Written by Bradlox | |
| Thursday, 04 June 2009 | |
KHOISAN PERSONAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE LATER STONE AGEThe purpose of my study is to determine variation within the manufacture of personal ornaments and how these functioned in a symbolic role within Khoisan society. The material of interest for my master thesis will be examined and analysed carefully under microscope, and a detailed description of size, weight, raw materials, wear traces etc. will be given. The focus will be set on the Nassarius kraussanius tick shell beads from Blombos Cave and OES beads. The N. kraussanius beads are similar to those from the 75.000 years old MSA levels at BBC, the oldest known personal ornaments yet recovered (d’Errico et al. 2005). My study will not entirely focus on the physical properties of the material, but also on the personal ornament’s social meanings and how they functioned symbolically within LSA societies. Ethnographic accounts of the Khoisan people in southern Africa will be useful in this matter. ARK303 UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN KHOISAN PERSONAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE LATER STONE AGE LEVELS AT BLOMBOS CAVE AND SITES IN THE BLOMBOSCHFONTEIN REGION, SOUTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA INGRID VIBE EXAMINEE #154082 TABLE OF CONTENT 1: INTRODUCTION AND APPROACHING THE PROBLEM 3 2: HISTORY OF RESEARCH 4 2.1 Archaeological and ethnographical studies in South Africa 4 2.2 Blombos Cave and other sites in the Garcia State Forest Nature Reserve / Byneskranskop 1 5 2.3 Personal ornaments in Khoisan societies 6 3: MATERIAL 7 3.1 Sites 7 3.2 Personal ornaments 8 4: METHODOLOGY 9 4.1 Classification and laboratory research 9 4.2 Khoisan ethnography 10 5: ANTICIPATED RESULTS 11 6: PRELIMINARY LAYOUT OF THE PROJECT 11 7: TIMETABLE 12 REFERENCES 13 1: INTRODUCTION AND APPROACHING THE PROBLEM The shift between the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the Later Stone Age (LSA) in South Africa about 20.000 years ago is marked by a tendency toward a general elaboration of material culture, and a series of technological innovations, that among others include decorative items or personal ornaments like beads and pendants of shell and ostrich eggshell (Deacon&Deacon 1999:108-109). A few examples of personal ornaments have also been found in MSA contexts, but they are not abundant in the archaeological record until the LSA. However, it is only within the last 10.000 years that assemblages of ethnographically known elements of material culture are common at most sites (Deacon 1984:222). Seashell ornaments found at inland sites shows interaction between inland and coastal peoples. Ostrich eggshell (OES) is the most common raw material for manufacturing of beads in the LSA, and the material is still used for bead-making today. During the last 10.000 years there is consistent evidence for deliberate burial of the dead, and LSA burials are often elaborately decorated with OES beads and shell beads and pendants, suggesting a symbolic meaning for the ornaments (Deacon&Deacon 1999:139-140). The preliminary title of my master thesis is “Khoisan personal ornaments from the Later Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave and sites in the Blomboschfontein region, Southern Cape, South Africa”. The Khoisan are the indigenous peoples of southern Africa, and the sites of interest for the project are all coastal sites situated in the Garcia State Forest Nature Reserve in the Blomboschfontein region near Still Bay in the southern Cape, South Africa. I will be studying the personal ornaments recovered from the LSA levels from Blombos Cave (BBC) and those from the other LSA sites in Garcia State Forest (GSF). The nine sites in GSF, including Blombos Cave, were excavated by Professor Henshilwood in 1991 and 1993 as part of his PhD project (Henshilwood 1995). The excavations in Blombos Cave are still going on. If time allows it, I will probably expand my project to do comparative analyses of the extracted personal ornaments from the LSA levels at Byneskranskop 1, which is also located in the Southern Cape Province. The purpose of my study is to determine variation within the manufacture of personal ornaments and how these functioned in a symbolic role within Khoisan society. The material of interest for my master thesis will be examined and analysed carefully under microscope, and a detailed description of size, weight, raw materials, wear traces etc. will be given. The focus will be set on the Nassarius kraussanius tick shell beads from Blombos Cave and OES beads. The N. kraussanius beads are similar to those from the 75.000 years old MSA levels at BBC, the oldest known personal ornaments yet recovered (d’Errico et al. 2005). My study will not entirely focus on the physical properties of the material, but also on the personal ornament’s social meanings and how they functioned symbolically within LSA societies. Ethnographic accounts of the Khoisan people in southern Africa will be useful in this matter. 2: HISTORY OF RESEARCH 2.1 Archaeological and ethnographical studies in South Africa The numerous shell middens along the coast in position far above the reach of the sea, and the remarkable wealth of Stone Age artefacts in the landscape caught pioneering researchers’ interest in the mid 1800’s, and this marks the beginning of archaeological research in South Africa. Thomas Holden Bowker was the first person to recognise and make a collection of South African stone artefacts in the 1850’s and 1860’s. In 1900 Louis Péringuey, a French-trained ethnomologist, claimed that Stone Age artefacts from Stellenbosch were as old as the most ancient in Europe. Today we know that these artefacts are indeed older than any in Europe, as they are actually half a million or more years old. The first South African to be trained as an archaeologist was John Goodwin. In 1929 he published, in collaboration with Clarence van Riet Lowe, a paper called Stone Age Cultures of South Africa that proposed a three-stage division of the Stone Age into Early, Middle and Later Stone Age. A further legacy of the Goodwin and van Riet Lowe publication was the terms derived from the names of places where type or reference collections were found. The term Wilton is an example of this. Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe were the dominant figures in South African archaeology from the 1920’s until their deaths in the 1950’s. In the 1960’s and 1970’s South African archaeology was influenced by the theory in European and North American Archaeology. The processual movement, “New Archaeology”, and the competing post-processualist theoretical movement, became the paradigms of the 1960’s and 1970’s (Deacon & Deacon 1999:8). In the 1970’s and1980’s new standards where set for excavation and these facilitated larger projects on paleoenvironments and regional ecosystems and introduced systems thinking to South African archaeology (Mitchell 2002:35). Drawing on anthropological studies of Kalahari foragers the effects of resource availability on human behaviour were explored, and in the past decades also stressed rock art research. South African archaeology has made a huge contribution to world archaeology. South African archaeological sites of all ages are known to be numerous and are a considerable cultural resource of more than national significance. This includes fossil sites of early representatives of human kind and more than 10.000 rock art sites. The so-called “ethnographic record” is observations of anthropologists, ethnographers, ethno-archaeologists and others who have recorded their impressions of the lifestyles of societies different from their own. The use of analogies from living societies and cultures can enrich the results of archaeological research and be used to construct an archaeological history of the people and their foragers. We only have patchy historical records on the distribution, society and economy of LSA people in South Africa because at the time of the first European contact few colonists wrote about their encounters with them. The most detailed descriptions from South Africa on the technology, economy and religious beliefs of the San are from a small group of /Xam San in the 1870s. German linguist Dr. Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law, Lucy Lloyd interviewed four /Xam men, and one /Xam woman. Some of the records were published by L. Lloyd as “Specimens of Bushman Folklore” in 1911, and by Bleek’s daughter Dorothea for the journal Bantu Studies in the 1930’s. Until the middle of the 19th century the /Xam San inhabited several areas of the northwestern Cape Colony, but as they were hunted down by white farmers, the /Xam San were already dying out at the time ethnographers first encountered them, and they are now extinct (Barnard 1992:79). However, most of the ethnographic info of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa comes from a series of studies of the Kalahari !Kung San in Botswana and Namibia conducted between the 1950s and the 1990s. The !Kung San is one of the most studied ethnic groups in the world, and among the ethnographers is the Marshall-family, Richard Lee, Megan Bisele, Mathias Guenther and Polly Wiessner. 2.2 Blombos Cave and other sites in the Garcia State Forest Nature Reserve / Byneskranskop 1 The nine sites in GSF, including Blombos Cave, were excavated by Professor Henshilwood in 1991 and 1993 as part of his PhD project (Henshilwood 1995). The excavations in Blombos Cave are still going on. The findings from the Blombos Cave MSA levels have made a huge impact on the debate concerning the origin of modern human behaviour. Finely worked bone tools, bifacial points, a fragment of a engraved bone, engraved ochre pieces and the earliest example of personal ornaments yet recovered; deliberately perforated and worn Nassarius kraussanius beads, support an early origin of modernity in Africa at about 75.000 years ago (Henshilwood et al. 2001, d’Errico et al. 2003, Henshilwood et al. 2002, d’Errico et al 2005). All the nine coastal sites in GSF have been carbon dated, by conventional dating of shell and charcoal samples and AMS determination of sheep bones, from 6960 ± 70 BP to 290 ± 20 BP except from Blombos Cave witch also has MSA deposits (Henshilwood 1995, 1996). The Blombos Cave MSA layers and the aeolian dune sand that separates the LSA layers from the uppermost MSA phase have been dated by different methods, including thermoluminescence (TL), single-grain laser luminescence (SGLL) and single and multiple aliquot optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to secure accurate dates (Henshilwood, C.S. et al. 2001). Byneskranskop 1, which also is a cave site, was excavated by Franz R. Schweitzer in 1973-1976. Its three meters of deposit yielded a possibly unbroken occupation sequence spanning the last 12.700 years (Schweitzer&Wilson 1982:22). A human burial, presumably of an 8-9 years old child, was recovered in layer 6 (not dated). The pentagonoid form of the cranial vault is indicative of a Khoisan child probably assignable to the San group (Schweitzer&Wilson 1982:97). 2.3 Personal ornaments in Khoisan societies Different methods have been applied in order to determine both production techniques and the meaning of personal ornaments in Khoisan societies. Among them: ethnographic descriptions, experimental replication and scientific analyses of the ornaments themselves. OES beads are still made in Southern Africa today and the continuity in making them makes a valuable source for studying both the production techniques and their symbolic meaning. Studies of the manufacture of OES beads in modern day communities have been carried out and recorded by ethnoarchaeologists (Wingfield 2003). Reconstruction of manufacture through experiments on modern shells has also proved useful; a team of researchers reconstructed the perforation technique and tested different tools that might have been used on the MSA BBC N. kraussanius beads through experiments on modern shells (d’Errico et al. 2005). Taphonomic and morphological studies of shells, and microscopic analyses of perforations and wear-marks can determine if a bead is an actual human-made bead and how it was made and worn (d’Errico et al. 2005). Ethnographers have recorded the use of ornaments and their symbolic meaning in modern Khoisan societies. OES beads are still made and in use today, sown onto clothing and accessories or worn directly as necklaces, bracelets etc. Research on the gift-exchange system Hxaro among the present day !Kung San was carried out by Polly Wiessner in the 1970’s and 1980’s (Mitchell 2003:35, Wiessner 1986). Hxaro involves a balanced but non-equivalent delayed exchange for gifts, whose continuous flow gives both partners information of an underlying relationship – a bond of friendship accompanied by mutual recipitory and access to resources (Wiessner 1986:105). Beadwork is by far the most frequently given hxaro gift, although outside influences might have substituted glass beads for much of the original use of OES beads. Receiving a valuable gift confers social status, because it is a sign that others care greatly about that person. Finds of seashells at LSA sites far inland suggest trade in such items, and possibly gift exchange as well, have a long history. 3: MATERIAL 3.1 Sites The nine sites that will be investigated are all situated in Garcia State Forest, a 3.5 sq. km nature reserve located on the coast 20 km west of Still Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa. The sites, named GSF 1 to GSF 9, are all coastal sites located within a 1.5 km radius and dates from 6960 ± 70 BP to 290 ± 20 BP. Seven of the sites, GSF 1-7, are open station shell middens and predate 3000 BP. The other two, GSF 8 and 9, are shelters located in the coastal cliffs to the south of GSF and postdate 2000 BP (Henshilwood 1995:8). Blombos Cave also has MSA deposits, but the material from these deposits will not be part of my project. Byneskranskop 1 is located near the top of a limestone hill that overlooks the valley of the Uilkraals River, not far from Walker Bay in the Aghulas region in the Western Cape (Schweitzer&Wilson 1982:7). The cave’s deposits are dated to about 12.700-225 BP 3.2 Personal ornaments The material from all the GSF sites has been analysed previously by Professor Henshilwood as a part of his PhD project, and the personal ornaments extracted (Henshilwood 1995). This, however, excludes much of the material from GSF 8, BBC because it was excavated at a later time. OES beads, finished and unfinished, ranging from two in GSF 9 to 108 in GSF 7, were found at all sites, apart from GSF 1,2 and 6 (Henshilwood 1995:202). OES fragments, however, where found at all sites in varying quantities, ranging from a single piece in GSF 9 to 889 pieces in GSF 2. Fragments with ground edges only came from GSF 7 (79 out of 354 pieces). These might be parts of discs or pendants. Decorated fragments only occur at GSF 4. Two types of decoration were recorded; parallel incised lines and looped circles. In addition, one flask opening, presumably from a water bottle, was recovered from GSF 3. Two perforated and ground Conus shells and a single ground Turbo pendant were recovered from GSF 8, Blombos Cave. Similar items are fund in Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1, and Turbo pendants also at inland sites, suggesting they were in widespread use during the Mid- and Late Holocene (Henshilwood 1995:201). Two bone tubes, possibly used as beads, were also found in GSF 8 (ibid.). In addition, 1003 N. kraussanius tick shells were recovered in the BBC LSA levels. Some information on these shells has already been published along with the analyses of the MSA shells (d’Errico et al. 2005). 16% of the LSA shells are not perforated. Wear is present, also on the LSA beads, all along the keyhole edge of shells with large perforations (d’Errico et al. 2005:15). Through wear, the first body whorl is removed completely on most LSA beads. The LSA beads are significantly smaller than those from the MSA levels, and while the MSA beads are dark orange or black those from the LSA are white or pale beige. The most common MSA perforation type is present on <1% of the LSA shells, the LSA beads do not have the wear facets found on MSA specimens, and 52% of the LSA beads have broken lips, compared to only 5% of MSA beads, suggesting they were strung in different ways. It is only recently, however, that one became aware of the importance of the N. kraussanius shells recovered in Blombos Cave. No N. kraussanius shells has been reported from the other GSF sites, simply because one did not look for them. It does not mean that they are not there, and new studies of the material will most probably reveal presence of N. kraussanius. It is also highly likely that the actual number of the shells from Blombos Cave will increase after new studies of the material. Byneskranskop 1 has yielded a great range of personal ornaments from all layers. It is not until about 6.000 years ago though, that they become common and increase in sophistication (Schweitzer&Wilson 1982:88). Bone beads and pendants, marine shell ornaments of different types and OES ornaments are all present. Over 7.000 OES beads (whole and incomplete), some of them ochre-stained, have been recovered (Schweitzer&Wilson 1982:90). All but three pendants (66 in total) are made of Turbo sarmaticus. The most common types of perforated whole shells are Glycimeris queketti (127 pieces) and Nassarius kraussanius (50 pieces). 4: METHODOLOGY My master project will address two questions of fundamental importance: how were LSA beads and pendants made and what were they used for? There are several approaches to these two questions – the purely archaeological, the scientific analysis of objects, the ethnographic, and the experimental. Taphonomic and morphological analyses should always constitute a basis for further studies of organic artefacts. They can determine whether they can be used as evidence for human agency or not. Modern microscopic analysis can tell us a great deal about the different methods for manufacture or use of an artefact, and experimental archaeology and study of wear patterns, manufacture etc., either individually or in conjunction with each other, are highly effective in helping us determine the function as well as the manufacturing techniques of shell beads and other organic artefacts. If used with care, evidence from ethnography and ethnoarchaeology can also shed light on both general and specific questions concerning technology. 4.1 Classification and laboratory research The excavated material from all the GSF sites is stored at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, and that is also where I will be doing the laboratory research for my MA thesis. All shell, bone and OES material from the nine GSF sites will be carefully examined all over again, some of the material from BBC for the first time, to extract any personal ornament that might have been missed during previous analyses of the material. It is highly likely that especially the number of recovered N. kraussanius beads will increase after this examination. To determine whether shell beads are actual human-made beads one have to consider the taphonomy and the morphology of the shells. Non-human taphonomic processes are known to produce pseudo personal ornaments that appear morphologically similar to human-modified and used beads (d’Errico&Villa 1997, d’Errico et al.2005). All ornaments will be measured and weighed and analysed under microscope to locate perforations, wear traces, any residues of ochre etc., and to determine perforation techniques. The appearance and location of perforations and worn areas on the shells will be recorded with a digital camera. The method will also separate any natural “ornament” from actual human made personal ornaments. 4.2 Khoisan ethnography The Khoisan people were until recently using artefacts similar to the LSA people, and we can be quite confident that the LSA people who lived 20.000 years ago are the direct ancestors of the modern San. The so-called “ethnographic record” is observations of anthropologists, ethnographers, ethno-archaeologists and others who have recorded their impressions of the lifestyles of societies different from their own. The use of analogies from living societies and cultures can enrich the results of archaeological research and be used to construct an archaeological history of the people and their foragers. However, it is important to keep in mind that the Khoisan people are not the makers of LSA artefacts wherever these occur (Deacon&Deacon 1991:130). People with this technology did not necessarily have the same beliefs, speak the same language, have the same social structure etc. as the Khoisan people of today. Moreover, it is unrealistic to believe religious beliefs and social organisation. No ethnographic material from the specific area of concern for my project exits. The libraries of Iziko South African Museum and the University of Cape Town and the South African Public Library, all in Cape Town, has good collections of Khoisan ethnography from Southern Africa which I will be using for my master’s project. 5: ANTICIPATED RESULTS My project will hopefully reveal some new information about the hunter-gatherers of the Later Stone Age. I hope to answer some of the questions regarding the production techniques used to make personal ornaments and what kind of role they played in LSA societies, i.e. how people used them to express themselves symbolically. Furthermore, I expect the number of personal from the investigated sites to increase after I have inspected the material. A higher number of items might make it easier to interpret the material. 6: PRELIMINARY LAYOUT OF THE PROJECT Chapter 1: Introduction - Short introduction on the topic of LSA personal ornaments in South Africa - Presentation of my project. What is the purpose of the study: topic and goals. Chapter 2: History of research - What’s been done? Who, when, how? - A short presentation of the development of archaeological and ethnographical studies in South Africa - History of research for Blombos Cave, the other GSF sites and possibly Byneskranskop 1 - Presentation of previous research on personal ornaments from LSA sites in South Africa Chapter 3: Material - A presentation of the sites examined for my study - A presentation of the material, i.e. the personal ornaments, examined for my study Chapter 4: Methodology - Classification and laboratory research: determination of size, weight, raw materials, and wear- traces etc., microscopic analysis and photos. - Khoisan ethnography Chapter 5: Results - Results of laboratory research - Results of ethnographical research Chapter 6: Discussion - Discussion of results - Differences and similarities. GSF sites Vs Byneskranskop 1? Differences between the GSF sites? Chapter 7: Conclusions - Summary - What came out of the study? Questions answered? Questions not answered? - Further studies? 7: TIMETABLE - Beginning of June – first week of August 2006: Sorting material from the GSF sites extracting all personal ornaments at Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town. - Second and third week of August 2006: Excavations in LSA shelter, Kouga Mountains, Eastern Cape, South Africa (not directly related to my MA project). - September – December 2006: Sorting material and laboratory research at Iziko South African Museum. Research in the libraries at Iziko South African Museum, University of Cape Town and other libraries in the Cape Town area. Reading literature and writing chapter 1-5 before returning to Norway. - January –March 2007: Writing chapter 6 and 7. - April 2007: Proofreading and final touches. - Beginning or mid- May 2007: Hand in the Master’s thesis. REFERENCES Barnard, A. 1992. Hunters and herders of southern Africa. Cambridge University Press. Deacon, J. 1984. Later Stone Age people and their descendants in southern Africa in: Klein, R. G. (ed.) Southern African Prehistory and Paleoenvironments. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema. Deacon, H.J. & Deacon, J. 1999. Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip. d’Errico, F. & Villa, P. 1997. Holes and grooves: the contribution of microscopy and taphonomy to the problem of art origin. Journal of Human Evolution, 33: 1-33. d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., Lawson, G., Vanhaeren, M., Tillier, A.M., Soressi, M., Bresson, F., Maureille, B., Nowell, A., Lakarra, J., Backwell, L. and Julien, M. 2003. “Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music- An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective”. Journal of World Prehistory 17 (1): 1-70 d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., Vanhearen, M., van Niekerk, K. 2005. Nassarius kraussanius shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution 48: 3-24. Henshilwood, C.S. 1995. Holocene Archaeology of the Coastal Garcia State Forest, Southern Cape, South Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis: University of Cambridge. Henshilwood, C.S. 1996. A revised chronology for pastoralism in southernmost Africa: new evidence of sheep at c. 2000 b.p. from Blombos Cave, South Africa. Antiquity 70: 945-949. Henshilwood, C.S., Sealy, J.C., Yates, R., Cruz-Uribe, K., Goldberg, P., Grine, F.E., Klein, R.G., Poggenpoel, C., van Niekerk, K. and Watts, I. 2001. Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992-1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels. Journal of Archaeological Science 28: 421-448. Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier, N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. and Wintle, A.G. 2002. Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science 295: 1278-1280. Mitchell, P. 2002. The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mitchell, P. 2003. Anyone for Hxaro? Thoughts on the Theory and Practice of Exchange in Southern African Later Stone Age Archaeology. In: Mitchell, P., Haour, A. & Hobart, J. Researching Africa’s Past. New contributions from British Archaeologists. Oxford: Oxbow Books/Oxford University School of Archaeology. Schweitzer, F. R. & Wilson, M. L. 1982. Byneskranskop 1. A Late Quaternary Living Site in the Southern Cape Province, South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 88(1). Wiessner, P. 1986. !Kung San Networks in a Generational Perspective in: Bisele, M., Gordon, R. & Lee, R. (eds.). The Past and Future of !Kung Ethnography: Critical Reflections and Symbolic Perspectives. Essays in Honour of Lorna Marshall. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Wingfield, C. 2003. Ostrich Eggshell Beads and the Environment, Past and Present. In: Mitchell, P., Haour, A. & Hobart, J. (eds.) Researching Africa’s Past. New Contributions from British Archaeologists. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology. |
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