hunter–gatherer land use patterns in later stone age east africa

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18, 165–200 (1999)Article ID jaar.1998.0335, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Hunter–Gatherer Land Use Patterns in Later Stone Age East Africa

Sibel Barut Kusimba

Department of Anthropology, Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605

E-mail: [email protected]

Received February 28, 1998; revision received August 17, 1998; accepted September 8, 1998

This paper discusses land use patterns of hunter–gatherers inhabiting arid grasslands of laterPleistocene East Africa, inferred from an analysis of raw material economy in five Later StoneAge (LSA) lithic assemblages from Lukenya Hill, southern Kenya. Later Stone Age lithicassemblages at Lukenya fall into two groups, one based predominantly on the use of quartz tomanufacture scrapers and other flake tools, and the second using greater amounts of rarer chertand obsidian lithic materials to manufacture microliths. Aspects of raw material use, coupledwith ethnographic data on how food and water abundance affects Kalahari forager land use,indicate that the first group of sites had longer occupations by groups with smaller home ranges.The second group of sites had shorter occupations by more mobile groups with larger homeranges. The paper compares the land use patterns of arid grassland LSA foragers, like those atLukenya Hill, with those in woodland and forest areas of Central and Southeastern Africa.Improvements in the ability to procure food, such as the development of fishing and fowlingtechnologies or better hunting projectiles, allowed grassland groups to become more mobile inthe later LSA, while foragers in wetter parts of Africa, including woodlands, riverine areas, andlakeshores, seem to have intensified the procurement of fish and plant foods. The processes ofeconomic specialization taking place in both grassland and woodland areas of Later Stone AgeAfrica may have parallels in other parts of the Old World. © 1999 Academic Press

INTRODUCTION major impetus to technological and cul-

In East Africa, the Later Stone Age(LSA) began as early as 42,000 B.P. (Am-brose 1998; Manega 1993:103). Because theLSA marks the first widespread use ofmicrolithic tools, bone tools, art and per-sonal adornment, and economic special-izations around fish and plant foods, it isusually considered Africa’s first fullymodern culture (Brooks and Smith 1987; J.Deacon 1984; Klein 1992; Robbins et al.1996). In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa,this period was cooler and drier than to-day (Deacon and Landcaster 1988; Hamil-ton 1982). Forests shrank and grasslandswere more widespread than at present. Infact, dry grasslands have posed majorchallenges to African hominids through-out the Pleistocene and may have been a

165

tural evolution (Avery 1995).Ethnographic and ecological studies

have illuminated some of the strategiesof pastoralists and early hominids inadapting to constraints of tropical grass-lands, which include seasonal drought(Blumenschine 1987; Fratkin 1991; Frat-kin and Smith 1994; Harris 1980; Mar-shall 1994; Speth 1987). Little is known,however, about the adaptations of mod-ern hunter– gatherers in African grass-lands. During the Neolithic, most EastAfrican grassland hunter– gathererswere displaced or incorporated by foodproducers (Bower 1991). Archaeology isthus an important source of informationon grassland foragers. This paper devel-ops models of forager land use in aridAfrican grasslands and evaluates them

0278-4165/99 $30.00Copyright © 1999 by Academic PressAll rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

166 SIBEL BARUT KUSIMBA

against the LSA archaeological recordfrom Lukenya Hill, Kenya, one of thelargest early LSA localities in East Africa(Barut 1997; Gramly 1976; Merrick 1975;

FIG. 1. Location of majo

Fig. 1). It examines the role of grasslandenvironments in the development ofmodern hunter– gatherer adaptationsduring the East African LSA.

SA sites in East Africa.
r L

THE GOALS OF THIS ANALYSIS large migratory grazers (Klein 1978, 1980).

167LATER STONE AGE HUNTER–GATHERER LAND USE

In this paper I review previous archae-ological models of hunter–gatherer landuse in African grasslands and then exam-ine the ethnographic literature on forag-ers in similar environments, including theEast African Hadzabe and Kalahari hunt-er–gatherers. I describe variation in LSAlithic assemblages from Lukenya Hill andexamine the roles of time, function, andraw material use in determining differ-ences among the assemblages. I then usethe differences in raw material use in theassemblages to interpret prehistoric landuse patterns (M. Nelson 1992) and explainchanging land use patterns at LukenyaHill by examining how water availabilitydetermines mobility and exchange rela-tionships in similar African environments,especially the Kalahari Desert (Barnard1992). Finally, I compare land use patternsat Lukenya Hill with those at contempo-raneous African sites to identify someland use pattern differences betweengrasslands and other African environ-ments.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODELS OFHUNTER–GATHERERS IN AFRICAN

GRASSLANDS

Gifford et al. (1980) proposed thathunter–gatherers in East African grass-lands moved across the landscape follow-ing herds of migratory ungulates. Thishigh-mobility strategy would requirelarge home ranges and maintenance ofcontact with herds through either predict-able movements or visual sightings fromlookouts on high terrain. Herd followersmay have inhabited sites seasonally orbriefly. A herd-following adaptation hasalso been ascribed to makers of the SouthAfrican Robberg Industry (18,000–12,000B.P.). Robberg sites are ephemeral rock-shelter occupations including unre-touched bladelets and faunal remains of

H. Deacon (1976) proposed that Robbergpeoples were herd followers of migratoryantelope who had large group sizes, lowpopulation densities, and large, overlap-ping territories.

Some aspects of a herd-following sce-nario are plausible. An arid climate mayhave necessitated greater reliance on ani-mal foods (Jacobson 1984:77). Plentiful,scavengeable sick and drowning animalsare left in the wake of a migration path(Capaldo and Peters 1995). Lions travel upto 25 km/day when migrating animals en-ter their territories (Schaller and Lowther1969:329). Some humans might match thisdistance for a limited period. Ambroseand Lorenz (1990) also argue that LSA for-agers placed much emphasis on animalfoods, which involved higher mobility(but not necessarily herd following). Fur-ther, they argue that the superior huntingtechnologies of LSA groups, relative tothose of Middle Stone Age (MSA) peo-ples, allowed them to hunt and eat morelarge game animals. Superior technolo-gies may have included more accurate orlonger-flying projectiles, more reliablemultibarbed weapons that could be easilyrepaired, and poison arrows (Clark 1970:154; Mitchell 1988, 1992).

Critics of the herd-following hypothesisstress its inefficiency. Burch (1972:345)cautions that humans are too slow to fol-low herds at this pace over long distances.Herd following requires moving at night,which would expose humans to predators(Schaller and Lowther 1969:334). Humangroups were probably too slow and, likesocial carnivores, had young too small andhelpless to allow whole groups to followlong migrations. Ambushing and drivingare more efficient hunting methods(Burch 1972:345; H. Deacon 1995; Schallerand Lowther 1969:334). Grassland herbi-vores often have little fat, especially in dryseasons (Sinclair 1975), and a diet basedon such animals would be physiologically

TABLE 1


unsound (Speth and Spielmann 1983).Other herders of large game, such as thepaleo-Indians of the Americas, are knownto have subsisted on plants during certainseasons (Bamforth 1991; Meltzer 1993).Recently H. Deacon (1995) has dismissedthe possibility of Robberg herd followingand suggested that large grazers eitherwere not migratory at all or culled alongmigration routes at certain seasons.

ETHNOGRAPHIC MODELS OFDESERT HUNTER–GATHERERS

In spite of the importance placed onhunting and animal foods by archaeolo-gists, ethnographic data show that forag-ers in dry, tropical environments relymostly on plant foods for subsistence.Both Kalahari hunter–gatherers (Barnard1992; Lee 1979) and Hadzabe of northernTanzania (Woodburn 1968, 1972) eatmostly plant foods. Furthermore, it is notthe location of animals, but the location ofwater sources, that determines much ofindividual and group movement.

Cashdan (1983) and Barnard (1979, 1980,1992) have shown how differences in wa-ter availability affect land use and subsis-tence among !Kung, Gwi, Nharo, and !Xohunter– gatherers. Although band areaand group size are highly variable (Hitch-cock and Ebert 1989), settlement patternsare strongly linked to the varying surface

Environment and Territoriality among F

Rainfall(mm)

Resourcepatches Famil

Nharo 400 Yes No!Kung 400 Yes NoG/wi 345 No Someti!Xo 325 No Yes

Source. After Barnard 1992:236.

water patterns of each group. Groupsblessed with concentrated or self-renew-ing food resources tend to stay in an arealonger and form larger groups (Table 1).Among the Nharo (Barnard 1980), for ex-ample, several bands live year-round nearlarge waterholes on the Ghanzi ridge, alimestone formation. Nharo families maydisperse during wet seasons, moving of-ten around small water pans. SeveralNharo bands form a social unit called aband cluster, which is associated with aparticular territory rarely shared withother clusters. These territories can be assmall as 30 km2 (Hitchcock and Ebert1989). The bands within a band cluster arehighly ephemeral and are not associatedwith particular territorial areas.

In areas occupied by !Kung, seasonalvariations in water availability are moremarked. !Kung do not form band clusters.Rather, each !Kung band occupies a homerange that overlaps with that of otherbands; essentially, they recognize territo-rial claims but share them (Lee 1976).Bands move across highly variable, over-lapping territories of 800 to 4000 km2

(Hitchcock and Ebert 1989), being dis-persed in wet seasons and aggregated atlarge water holes in dry seasons. Bandmembership is fluid, individual move-ment is high, and kinship groups arespread over wide areas in an “anucluate”pattern (Yellen and Harpending 1972). A

r Groups of Kalahari Hunter–Gatherers

Territorial at level of

GiftexchangeBand?

Bandcluster?

Yes Yes ilaiHomerange — Hxaro

s Yes — NoYes Yes No

ou

y?

me

particular group claims rights to the re- change system is unknown among !Xo


sources of an area, but it can allow otherstemporary forage rights, and indeedrarely refuses such rights. Kinship andfriendship are the primary means throughwhich such rights may be gained. Rightsto land are expressed through gift ex-change or hxaro (Wiessner 1982). Hxaropartners in far away areas, or in areas ofcomplementary resources, are preferred(Wiessner 1986:107). Visits to give hxarogifts may take from 2 weeks to 2 years;such visits cause about 20% of !Kung toemigrate or immigrate every 10 years(Wiessner 1986). Barnard (1992) recordshxaro among !Kung and Nharo (where it iscalled //ai), but not among other groups(Table I).

Unlike Nharo and !Kung, the Gwi and!Xo lack large resource patches and reli-able water holes and do not share territo-ries. In Gwi and !Xo areas, resources arefew and widely scattered. Group sizes aresmall and aggregations are short-lived.The !Xo live in one of the harshest areas ofthe Kalahari (Table 1). Unlike the !Kung,the !Xo rarely cross territorial boundaries.Like the Nharo, the !Xo also recognize theband cluster, a group of bands associatedwith an exclusive territory (Barnard 1992:66–67; Heinz 1979). Band cluster bound-aries, unlike the overlapping territories ofthe !Kung, are separated by unoccupiedstrips of no-man’s land. Among the !Xo, atleast, contact with a neighboring cluster,including foraging or marriage, is rare(Heinz 1972, 1979:472–3). In times of ex-treme local scarcity, the !Xo prefer to for-age in the land of a neighboring bandbelonging to their cluster, but they may beforced to ask permission. Although clusterboundaries are occasionally crossed, theyusually mark distinct land use, kinship,and dialect differences (Barnard 1992). Inconclusion, then, in contrast to the greaterfluidity of !Kung groups, those of the !Xoare relatively nucleate. The hxaro ex-

(Heinz 1972, 1979).Barnard (1992) and Cashdan (1983) have

used the data on settlement patternsamong different bushman groups to ex-amine the relationship between territori-ality and environment, in particular thedistribution of food and water. Cashdandefines territoriality as “the maintenanceof an area within which the resident con-trols or restricts use of one or more envi-ronmental resources” (Carpenter andMacmillan 1976:639, in Cashdan 1983:47).Among Kalahari hunter–gatherers, thereis generally a positive relationship be-tween degree of territoriality and resourceabundance. In Barnard’s (1992) scheme,territoriality and nucleation are leastamong the !Kung and Nharo but increaseamong the Gwi and especially the !Xo(Barnard 1992:234; Cashdan 1983). Al-though one can conceivably imagine anenvironment with resources so scarce thatterritoriality is absent, environments ofscarce resources generally inspire greaterterritoriality. The more productive envi-ronments of large resource patches andwaterholes, on the other hand, are associ-ated with greater sharing of rights to ter-ritory, with the presence of exchange sys-tems, with less nucleate kinship groups,and, possibly most important for archae-ologists, with longer occupational staysaround patches.

Cashdan (1983) notes that !Kung, ratherthan defending territory itself like animalsdo, defend socially recognized rights toforage in particular areas. This “socialboundary maintenance” does not incurincreasing costs with territory size, be-cause band membership is being de-fended, rather than land itself. On theother hand, benefits of territoriality will begreater in the harshest environments, likethat of the !Xo, where people face thegreatest competition. Thus territoriality isgreatest in the sparest environments ofthe Kalahari. Further, the highly localized,

rich patches of resources in the !Kung and patchy environments, people and ex-


Nharo areas make widespread alliancesadvantageous. In situations of local scar-city, resources may be abundant in other,nearby areas. In contrast, the conditions ofregional, as well as local, scarcity amongthe !Xo and Gwi negate the risk-reducingfunction of gift exchange.

Barnard’s and Cashdan’s ethnographiccomparisons are not based on qualitativeinformation; indeed, Hitchcock andEbert’s (1989) literature review shows thatquantitative measures of Kalahari foragergroup size, range size, and length of campresidence are highly variable. Further,many Kalahari groups practice some cli-entship or exchange with pastoralists orranchers and have been coevolving withfood producers for millennia (Wilmsen1989). For modern hunter– gatherers,trade and work opportunities, rather thanplants or animals, are the major influenceon residence patterns (Laden 1992;Mabulla 1996). Their ethnic identities andrelationships with the environment andwith neighboring groups have changedmuch over the centuries and changegreatly from year to year, despite the shortfield seasons of many ethnographers.Some of these reasons may explain theremaining contradictions in understand-ing Kalahari forager land use. Why, forexample, do both the Nharo and !Xo rec-ognize relatively endogamous band clus-ter groups in spite of their contrasting en-vironments?

In spite of remaining questions, the cor-relations between food and water distri-butions and human land use that emergefrom the ethnographic literature probablyalso prevailed prehistorically in similarenvironments. The chief pattern thatemerges from the Kalahari data is the in-fluence of water on human movements.On the one hand, environments with rel-atively large or self-renewing water andresource patches allow longer occupa-tional stays (Hitchcock and Ebert 1989). In

change items move across overlappingband territories following the changingavailability of resource patches acrosstime and space. The East African Hadzabebehave like the !Kung in this way. Occu-pations are relatively long when largepatches of mongongo nuts, baobab, ber-ries, or tubers are fruiting (Lee 1976;Mabulla 1996). On the other hand, whenresources are few, small, and scattered,rather than patchy, such as among /Gwiand !Xo, groups move residences muchmore often. Further, they move within ex-clusive territories, rarely crossing intotheir neighbors’ lands. In nonpatchy envi-ronments, groups do not practice ex-change. Exchange is not beneficial be-cause resources are uniformly scarce.

LUKENYA HILL—ENVIRONMENTAND PALEOENVIRONMENT

The Lukenya Hill inselberg in southernKenya is one of the larger inselbergs in theAthi–Kapiti plains, a semi-arid Acacia/Commiphora bushland with erratic, butroughly biennial, rainfall. The hill is one ofthe largest late Pleistocene archaeologicaloccurrences in East Africa, including fiveknown sites spanning much of the dura-tion of the LSA (Fig. 2). Weathering hasexposed bedrock on the southeastern sideof the hill and caused large blocks to breakalong joints and fall downslope, formingnumerous rock overhangs and shelterssuitable for human use. The five sites,concentrated on the southeast side of thehill, are rock overhangs [GvJm19, GvJm22(Gramly 1973), and GvJm62 (Barut 1997)],a rockshelter around 80 m2 in protectedarea [GvJm16 (Merrick 1975)], and anopen-air site [GvJm46 (Miller 1979)].

Site Dating

Samples of bone apatite and collagenfrom the Lukenya Hill sites have been

FIG

.2.

Loc

atio

nof

LSA

site

son

and

arou

nd

Lu

ken

yaH

ill,K

enya

.


rwCcd(ccwitiscamwit

TABLE 2


radiocarbon-dated to the late Upper Pleis-tocene (Table 2).1 Unfortunately, the accu-racy of such radiocarbon dates on bone isproblematic. Archaeological bone is proneto contamination with modern carbonfrom soil carbonate and humic acids,which often makes radiocarbon dates tooyoung (Taylor 1987). Other East AfricanLSA sites which have been radiocarbondated, using bone, to the late Upper Pleis-tocene have yielded much earlier datesusing other dating methods. For example,a bone radiocarbon date from the LSA site

1 Because of the large number of LSA lithic mate-ials available from Lukenya, some of the collectionsere sampled by square and depth below surface.riteria for sample selection included size, degree of

ompleteness, and association with a Pleistocene ra-iocarbon date. Three of 12 excavated pits at GvJm46

Miller 1979) reached 200 cm in depth, representing aomplete LSA sequence. One of these, Pit 3, washosen for analysis. At GvJm62 (Barut 1997), Level C,hich yielded the bulk of excavated artifacts, was

ncluded in this analysis. At GvJm22 (Gramly 1976),wo high-density Pleistocene LSA levels were exam-ned and radiocarbon-dated. One of these, Level E,quare C, was a complete collection and was in-luded in this analysis. At GvJm16 (Merrick 1975),pproximately half the excavated Pleistocene LSAaterial was examined. At GvJm19, levels 115–150,hich dated to the latest Pleistocene, were included

n the analysis. Upper levels of this site are dated tohe Holocene (Nelson and Mengich 1984).

Bone Apatite and Collagen Dfor Analysis from Luken

SiteLevels selected

for analysisRadiocarb

years B.

GvJm46 0–180 cm, Pit 3 19,330 6 920,780 6 1

GvJm62 Level C, 220–315 cm 21,535 69GvJm22 135–145 cm, Square C 13,730 6 4

15,320 6 4GvJm16 Upper shelter, 0–200 cm 17,670 6 8

17,700 6 7GvJm19 115 –150 cm 13,705 6 4

Source. Marean 1990:228; Merrick 1975:35.

at the Naisiusiu Beds, Olduvai Gorge, is17,550 6 1000 B.P., similar to the datesfrom GvJm16 and GvJm22 (Table 2;Leakey et al. 1972:329). However, theNaisiusiu Beds site was redated to42,000 6 1000 B.P. based on single crystal40Ar/39Ar dating of volcanic tuffs cappingthe LSA materials. Such dating discrepan-cies underscore the unreliability of manyLSA radiocarbon dates on bone (Manega1993:94).

Although the Lukenya Hill dates are in-accurate in an absolute sense, they wereproduced at only two laboratories, andthey link the sites according to relativedating. They clearly demonstrate that theanalyzed materials come from roughlytwo time periods within the LSA. GvJm46and GvJm62 date to significantly earlierthan 20,000 B.P. (Table 2). The other threesites, GvJm22, GvJm16, and GvJm19,formed 10,000 years or more later.

Paleoenvironment of the East African LSA

Marine oxygen isotope records showthat global temperatures were lower thanat present during the last half of the Up-per Pleistocene, reaching a minimum atthe Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around

s for Artifact Levels SelectedHill LSA Assemblages

Material

Depth belowdatum of

radiocarbondated material

(cm) Lab number

Apatite 51–54 GX-5350Apatite 87–90 GX-5350Apatite 220–230 GX-5774Collagen 190–200 GX-3698Collagen 180–185 GX-3699Collagen 135–140 UCLA-1709Collagen 140–145 UCLA-1709Apatite 115–120 GX-6758

ateya

onP.

45050803050006030

18,000 –20,000 B.P. (Johnsen et al. 1992; Grevy’s zebra, both found in dryer envi-


Martinson et al. 1987). Land-based evi-dence for this time period shows that low-latitude climates were cold and dry (Clap-perton 1993; Iriondo and Latrubesse 1994;Rognon and Williams 1977; Vogel 1984).Despite a bias toward high-altitude areas,data from lake level studies, sedimentol-ogy, palynology, glacial features on EastAfrican mountains, and faunal data sup-port a picture of cold and greater ariditythan today.

From 50,000 to 20,000 B.P., pollen se-quences show that climate fluctuated, be-ing colder and dryer than today, espe-cially before 32,000 B.P., but becomingwarmer around 25,000 B.P., when severalEast African lakes experienced highstands (Perrott and Street-Perrott 1982).During the LGM, East African glaciersreached their greatest extent. Underlyingvegetation belts of Afroalpine grassland,ericaceous bushland and thicket, and drymontane forest shifted 700–1000 m down-ward in altitude, expanding grasslands atthe expense of most forest types (Coetzee1967; Hamilton 1982, 1987; van ZinderenBakker and Coetzee 1972). Around theLGM, most of the Rift Valley lakes in thiszone dried up or reached low stands(Gasse and Street 1978; Haberyan andHecky 1987; Richardson and Dussinger1986; Street and Grove 1976). Tempera-tures dropped from 5.1 to 8.8°C at theLGM, and precipitation decreased10–15% below present levels (Hastenrathand Kutzbach 1983:151). Late Pleistocenerainfall would have been similar to that ofthe Kalahari today (Butzer et al. 1972; Ri-chardson and Dussinger 1986:169).

In spite of overall cold and aridity dur-ing this period, faunal evidence showsthat some areas remained well watered.At Lukenya Hill (Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez 1991), Pleistocene faunal assem-blages are dominated by dry-adapted spe-cies, such as an extinct small alcelaphinewith hypsodont teeth, as well as oryx and

ronments today (Marean 1992a:238).Lukenya’s Holocene fauna contains moreclosed habitat and water-dependent spe-cies. The faunas from Kisese II, however,imply a contrasting pattern of environ-mental change. Unlike at Lukenya Hill,the Kisese sequence shows little change inthe proportions of open- and closed-hab-itat bovids across the Pleistocene/Holo-cene boundary (Marean et al. 1990). Kis-ese II is located on a large hill of closedwoodlands, where more browsing speciescould have thrived than in the open sur-roundings of Lukenya (C. Marean, per-sonal communication, May 1995). Simi-larly, Upper Pleistocene fauna fromNasera Rockshelter, presently in semi-arid grassland and woodland (White 1983:123), include species typical of such habi-tats, as well as water-loving reduncinesand duikers, suggesting more vegetatedareas were nearby (Mehlman 1989). Al-though average later Pleistocene climaticconditions were cold and dry, archaeolog-ical faunal assemblages show that differ-ences in local habitat were profound.Some areas, such as inselbergs, moun-tains, gallery forests, and seasonallyflooded grasslands, may have supportedlarge resource patches like those so wellexploited today among !Kung and Had-zabe (Lee 1979; Mabulla 1996; Ng’weno1992). Contemporaneous faunal commu-nity differences at Lukenya Hill, Kisese,and Nasera underscore the importance oflocal areas of greater water and resourceavailability that were doubtless a magnetfor humans.

Lukenya Hill’s ecotonal location be-tween the open Athi Plains and the morewooded Machakos Hills to the south, aswell as its relative proximity to the high-land areas surrounding and within theRift Valley, suggests groups occupyingLukenya may also have inhabited theseregions seasonally or occasionally. Atpresent the nature of such habitation is

unknown, although Enkapune ya Muto Naivasha in Kenya’s Central Rift Valley,


near Lake Naivasha has occupations con-temporaneous to the Pleistocene LSA atLukenya (Ambrose 1998; Marean 1992b;Fig. 1). Resources of both these areas mayhave complemented those on the AthiPlains and may have included more plantfoods and small browsing fauna in theCentral Rift Valley (Mwajumwa et al.1991).

Lukenya Hill Lithic Raw Materials

Obsidian, chert, and quartz are themain raw materials in the Lukenya assem-blages. Obsidian bombs and lapilli werelocated on top of, weathering out of, andembedded within a welded tuff that out-crops over several kilometers on the AthiPlains about 5 km east of Lukenya Hill.Most of these bombs are between 1 and 2cm in diameter (Barut 1997). Chert nod-ules are also widely scattered throughoutthe Athi Plains both in riverbeds and onthe plains. The chert source closest toLukenya Hill is GvJm298, the dry bed ofthe Stony Athi River, 5 km from GvJm62(Fig. 2), although localized chert sourcescan be found in similar riverbeds aroundthe Athi Plains. Most chert nodules arebetween 2 and 4 cm in diameter.

Unlike chert and obsidian, which arerelatively localized sources on the sur-rounding plain, quartz is ubiquitous onboth the hill and surrounding plain. Itsdistribution thus overlaps that of the chertand obsidian, but it is more diffuse ratherthan clumped. Large quartz veins can befound in the inselberg bedrock adjacent tothe GvJm62 and GvJm46 sites. LukenyaHill vein quartz appears as rounded cob-bles or angular fragments that vary in uni-formity and grain size, including quartzcrystal.

Chemical analysis (Barut 1997; Mer-rick and Brown 1984a, 1984b) showssome Lukenya obsidians are derivedfrom large flow outcrops around Lake

150 km northwest of Lukenya Hill (Fig.3), or from the Kedong Escarpment, 65km west of Lukenya Hill. These outcropsyield pieces larger than the local bombs,and they are easier to flake into a widervariety of tools.

In this paper I have assumed that landuse strategies are primarily determinedby water availability, according to the eth-nographic data reviewed above. For manyhunter–gatherers, however, other factorssuch as the need for lithic raw materialsitself motivated human movements (Bam-forth 1986; Gould and Saggers 1984). How-ever, such cases of “disembedded” lithicprocurement are always associated withtechnologies that require high-quality rawmaterial sources, such as the large out-crops of unflawed chert paleo-Indiansneeded to make fluted points and largebifaces, to which they made special trips(Seeman 1994). African LSA microlithictechnologies, however, such as theNachikufan (Miller 1969) and Lemuta In-dustries (Mabulla 1996; Mehlman 1989),were successfully made using only veinquartz, despite its many fracture planes.Where suitable raw materials are com-mon, as at Lukenya Hill, special trips forraw material are unnecessary, and em-bedded procurement is more likely. Thelarger size of nonlocal obsidians may haveoffered knappers a greater degree of flex-ibility in tool design, but, because micro-lithic technologies can be made entirelyon quartz, it is unlikely that obsidian andchert were essential enough lithic sourcesto require LSA groups to make specialtrips.

DESCRIBING LITHIC ASSEMBLAGESFROM LUKENYA HILL

Two groups of sites were discernedbased on raw material proportions, tooland core types, and proportions of nonlo-cal obsidian (Table 3). Although all site


assemblages are dominated by the localvein quartz, sites GvJm46, GvJm62, andGvJm19 (“Group 1 sites”) have very largequantities of quartz artifacts. They alsohave higher proportions of vein quartzrelative to chert and obsidian. GvJm16and GvJm22 (“Group 2”) have moderate

FIG. 3. Location of Lukenya Hill, Kedong, alocalities in Kenya.

quantities of quartz raw material and thushave higher proportions of chert and ob-sidian artifacts. Typologically these as-semblages are dominated by either scrap-ers or microliths and include smallernumbers of burins, points, percoirs, becs,and miscellaneous tools (Barut 1997:207).

Lake Naivasha (Central Rift) obsidian source
nd

TABLE 3


The quartz-rich Group 1 sites are typolog-ically scraper-based assemblages. Side,end, steep, convex, and fan scrapers (aconvex end scraper whose sides are “con-stricted as though for hafting”; Miller1979) are the most common scraper types(Fig. 4). Microliths include crescents,oblique truncations, curved-backed blades,and miscellaneous microliths (Fig. 5) andare much more common in the Group 2sites from GvJm16 and GvJm22.

The two groups of sites also differ mark-edly in the core reduction methods used.Bipolar reduction of cores was much morecommon in Group 1 than in Group 2,where bipolar cores are very rare (Table 3,Fig. 6); this is true of all raw materials(Table 4). With plentiful raw materials,particularly those of poor quality like thelocal quartz, bipolar reduction is an easyway to produce unstandardized flakes(Andrefsky 1994; Masao 1982; M. Nelson1992; Shott 1989). More controlled bipolarflaking can also extend the use life ofsmall raw materials like chert and obsid-ian by producing many straight flakesfrom small cores. Both these strategiesseem to have been important at the Group1 sites.

The two groups of sites also differ inproportions of local to nonlocal obsid-ian. Different East African obsidianflows can be distinguished chemicallyusing electron microprobe analysis, atechnique pioneered by Merrick and

Differences in Raw Material Proin Five LSA Assembl

SiteTotal weightof quartz (g)

% Quartzby

number

% Coresas

quartz %

GvJm46 201,155 92 83GvJm62 64,602 75 49GvJm19 47,339 85 65GvJm22 25,433 68 25GvJm16 7,481 46 21

Brown (1984a, 1984b). Barut (1997:264)determined using the same method thatobsidian from Lukenya Hill can be reli-ably distinguished from other East Afri-can sources using quantitative measuresof chlorine, manganese, and titanium.

tions and Tool and Core Typess from Lukenya Hill

crapers % Microliths% Bipolar

cores% Nonlocal

obsidian

61 14 5760 12 42 3053 20 6419 44 10 4722 60 18 73

FIG. 4. Scrapers from Lukenya Hill. Top, chertconvergent scraper from GvJm62; middle, left andright, chert fan scrapers from GvJm62; bottom,quartz steep scraper from GvJm19.

porage

S

GtasEs“nma


While proportions of local to nonlocalobsidian vary through time at singlesites like GvJm16 (Merrick and Brown1984a), in general, the proportion ofnonlocal obsidian is greater in Group 2than in Group 1.2

EXPLAINING THE TWO GROUPSOF SITES: TIME

The GvJm62 and GvJm46 scraper-basedassemblages are older than the microlithicGvJm22 and GvJm16 assemblages. Similartypological change through time is foundat many East, Southeastern, and Southern

2 Data on nonlocal obsidian from sites GvJm16 andvJm22 is from Merrick and Brown (1984a:143). In

his paper, Merrick and Brown list separately thertifacts from “Group W,” at that time an unknownource. Further work with chemical signatures ofast African obsidian, especially looking at within-ource variability (Barut 1997:269), indicates thatGroup W” is a chemical variant of the local Luke-ya Hill obsidian source. H. Merrick (personal com-unication 1992) arrived at the same conclusion at

n earlier date.

FIG. 5. Microliths from Lukenya Hill. Top rowright, obsidian miscellaneous microlith, GvJm46miscellaneous microlith; and right, crescent, Gv

African sequences. Scraper assemblagesthat are nevertheless LSA in character (in-cluding few, if any, MSA types, such asprepared cores, points, or bifacial pieces,and sometimes including small numbersof microliths or blade cores) predate as-semblages containing many microliths.These sequences include Nasera andMumba Shelters (Mehlman 1989) and Kis-ese II in northern Tanzania (Inskeep 1962);Matupi Cave in Uganda (van Noten 1977);Nsalu Cave, Zambia (Miller 1979);Kalemba, Zimbabwe (Phillipson 1976);and Depression Cave, Botswana (Robbins1990). Scraper and microlith proportionsin LSA assemblages thus may have someculture-historical meaning, but other fac-tors are also involved. For example, theGvJm19 site at Lukenya Hill, the youngestof the sites, shows patterns of typologyand raw material use more consistent withthe older group of sites. Stylistically, how-ever, the GvJm19 assemblage is distinctfrom GvJm62 and GvJm46 and is clearlynot the same industry; its microlithic com-

ft and center, obsidian crescents from GvJm62;ttom row: left, chert oblique truncation; center,

19.

: le. BoJm


ponent, though small, is much more stan-dardized (Fig. 5; Barut 1997:211). Clearly,function and raw material use, as well asculture history or tradition, are influenc-ing the typological differences betweenGroups 1 and 2.

EXPLAINING THE TWO GROUPSOF SITES: FUNCTION

Function is also a determinant of typo-logical differences between Groups 1 and

FIG. 6. Freehand and bipolar cores from Lfreehand cores from GvJm62; right, obsidian bGvJm19. Bottom row: chert bipolar cores, GvJm

2. In fact, microlith- and scraper-basedLSA sites have been found in other areasof Africa. In the LSA of the Dobe area ofBotswana and the Namib Desert, Brooks(1984:48) and Jacobson (1984:76) havefound both scraper-dominated and micro-lith-dominated sites. They suggest thatthe microlith-dominated sites are hunt-ing-related, while the scraper-dominatedsites were residential bases where foodprocessing and manufacturing took place.

nya Hill. Top row: left and center, obsidianlar core, GvJm62. Middle: chert freehand core,

ukeipo62.

TABLE 4


Use-wear studies (Clark 1977; Clark et al.1976; Moss 1983; Odell 1981:330 –332;Odell and Cowan 1986; Phillipson 1976:218; Phillipson and Phillipson 1970) indi-cate that both scrapers and microlithswere multifunctional, although their func-tions were probably different. The smalleredge angles of microliths are much moreefficient for cutting, while the larger edgeangles of scrapers are inefficient cuttingtools (Siegel 1985). Although typologyshows that activity differences distinguishGroup 1 and 2 sites, these differences donot always imply broad differences in ad-aptation or economy. J. Deacon (1984:305),for example, has noted that the proportionof scrapers, particularly convex scrapers,in Holocene assemblages is high in areaswhere hide clothing is found ethnograph-ically, while scraper proportions are lowin areas where bark cloth was used forclothing.

EXPLAINING THE TWO GROUPS OFSITES: RAW MATERIAL USE

The two groups of sites differ not onlyin raw material proportions and typologybut also in strategies toward using rawmaterial. These raw material use differ-ences indicate some differences in site usestrategies of the assemblages’ makers. M.

Freehand and Bipolar Cores in

Site Core type Quartz

GvJm46 Freehand 45Bipolar 77





Nelson (1992) defined two strategies to-ward raw material. A raw material may beused expediently, that is, used immedi-ately and then discarded, or it may becurated, that is, procured and manufac-tured for future use. Transport, caching,conservation, and recycling are curatedstrategies. Expedient strategies are oftenassociated with longer occupations orplanned reuse, and curated strategieswith shorter occupations and high mobil-ity (Andrefsky 1994; Kelly 1992; Nelson1992; Parry and Kelly 1987). Both strate-gies may be found in the same assem-blage (Binford and O’Connell 1984).

Group 1 Sites

The procurement and use of localquartz at Group 1 sites show several indi-cators of expedient strategies (M. Nelson1992). In other words, quartz in these as-semblages was procured, used, and dis-carded on the spot. First, quartz cores ap-pear in a wide variety of sizes and arelarger relative to cores of other raw mate-rials, particularly obsidian, suggestingthey were discarded in various stages ofreduction as part of a continuously reusednatural stockpile of raw material (Fig. 7).Second, bipolar reduction, a commonmarker of expedient strategies toward

e Lukenya Hill Assemblages

Chert Obsidian Total

25 38 10827 43 14764 101 23758 26 171

139 109 3145 10 35

53 110 2307 11 50

49 26 15251 24 269

th

very little quartz is retouched relative to

BLE


poor-quality, local raw materials, was verycommon in quartz cores. Third, quartzflake size, like core size, was unstandard-ized and varied widely (Table 5). Fourth,

FIG. 7. Lengths of quartz freehand cores in theGvJm62 assemblage. The box outlines the middle50% of the data cases. The solid line in the middle ofeach box denotes the median of the data. The linesextending from each box denote the upper and lower25% of the data spread and are called the upper andlower hinge spreads. The stars and open circles de-note outliers. The stars are near outliers (beyond theinner fence, defined as the nearest hinge spreadminus 1.5 times the box width). The open circles arefar outliers (beyond the outer fence, defined as thehinge spread minus 3 times the box width).

TASize Ranges for Flakes in

Raw material Site NMean le

(mm

Quartz GvJm46 17 32.3GvJm62 102 26.8GvJm16 140 20.1GvJm19 33 34.1

Chert GvJm46 165 17.2GvJm62 183 18.0GvJm22 100 18.6GvJm16 302 17.8GvJm19 216 20.3

Obsidian GvJm46 144 14.7GvJm62 159 13.9GvJm22 100 16.1GvJm16 285 16.1GvJm19 159 16.0

other raw materials (Table 6), and fifth, norelationship existed between quartz toolsize and extent of retouch, showing noevidence that use life of quartz tools waslengthened through continued reduction.Chert scrapers, by contrast, becomesmaller as the extent of retouch increases(Barut 1997:219). While we can assumethat some quartz may have been treatedwith curated strategies, for example trans-ported away from Lukenya on foragingtrips in the surrounding plains, much of itwas used and discarded at its source, withlittle attention to tool design, size, orshape.

By contrast, Group 1 chert and obsidianuse was maximized and use life length-ened through a variety of means. First,bipolar reduction predominates in chertand obsidian cores. When practiced onvery small raw materials, bipolar reduc-tion maximizes raw material by producingmany small flakes (Parry and Kelly 1987).In many industries, the bipolar core is thelast stage in core reduction after the corebecomes too small to flake through hand-held, freehand flaking. GvJm62 chert andobsidian bipolar cores are smaller than

5e Lukenya Assemblages

hSD

Coefficient ofvariation Range

14.85 .46 14.90–76.1614.49 .54 9.11–83.829.90 .49 9.00–70.00

17.18 .50 14.20–82.106.77 .34 6.84–41.306.33 .35 6.90–42.406.60 .37 7.00–33.007.10 .39 7.00–54.007.47 .37 7.33–54.196.37 .43 5.48–46.565.41 .39 6.00–44.336.30 .39 5.00–38.005.90 .37 5.00–44.004.95 .31 7.13–36.50

th

ngt)

17005100381001

TABLE 6


freehand cores (Figs. 8 and 9). Further-more, chert and especially obsidian coresof all types were more reduced relative tocores of other raw materials. The longestnegative flake scars on obsidian cores areshorter than obsidian flakes, but chert andquartz core flake scars are equal in size tochert and quartz flakes (Fig. 10). Obsidiancores continued to be worked as the flakesproduced from them became smaller thanaverage, while chert and quartz coreswere not worked beyond this point. Theratio of a core’s maximum flake scarlength to core length for the three rawmaterials (Fig. 11) shows that chert andobsidian flake release surfaces on coresare the longest relative to core length,showing they were the most worked out.

At Group 1 sites, the nonlocal obsidianwas similarly conserved. First, much of itappears in the assemblage as tools (Table7). Nonlocal cores also tend to be largerthan local cores (Fig. 12). That many non-local obsidian tools are much larger thancores and whole flakes of the same rawmaterials (Barut 1997:282–277, 278) sug-gests that some nonlocal tools were im-ported as such. While tools made fromlocal obsidian bombs tend to be small,nonlocal tools span a range of sizes and

Percentage of Artifacts as Tools,

Site Raw material C

GvJm46 QuartzChertObsidian

GvJm62, Level C QuartzChertObsidian




are almost always larger than local tools(Fig. 13). Long flakes and blades, whetherretouched or not, are an especially effi-cient way to transport raw material (Kuhn1994). Some blades were not only re-touched, but segmented (C. Nelson 1980)into many smaller, usable blade segments(Fig. 14), which prolongs use life. In sum,in the Group 1 assemblages, the expedientuse of quartz contrasts clearly with thecurated treatment of chert and obsidian,even though it was easily availablenearby. The use life of Central Rift obsid-ian, in particular, was extended throughthe transport of relatively large cores andlong tools and blades. These latter rawmaterials, found in localized settings likeriverbeds, were much less commonly en-countered than vein quartz, which iswidely scattered around inselbegs andsurrounding plains. The expedient use oflarge volumes of vein quartz, particularlyat GvJm46, indicates these occupationswere relatively long-term.

Group 2 Sites

In the Group 2 assemblages fromGvJm16 and GvJm22, obsidian and chertraw materials are more common, and

es, and Waste, by Raw Material

s Debitage Tools Total

97.6 0.8 91.694.0 3.8 5.191.0 2.6 3.196.2 1.2 75.286.5 7.3 14.785.5 3.4 9.598.0 0.7 68.283.2 10.0 18.880.0 11.0 12.795.6 1.3 45.792.0 5.7 32.985.0 6.8 20.895.6 1.4 85.079.4 11.6 9.483.3 6.8 5.5

Cor

ore

1.52.15.32.26.19.41.06.58.03.02.37.62.68.56.8

tt

imacalprcrr


strategies toward their procurement anduse indicate they were more accessible.First, obsidian, both local and nonlocal,and chert are more common in Group 2sites. At Group 1 sites, chert and obsidiancores were reduced into small bipolarcores, but at Group 2 sites, freehand re-duction predominates in all raw materials(Table 4). Treatment of local quartz is alsovery different. In Group 1 sites, quartzcores, also mostly bipolar, spanned a widerange of sizes, just like quartz raw mate-rial in the area. In Group 2 assemblages,mean quartz cores are significantlysmaller than Group 1 quartz cores (Table8; one-tailed t test, p , .10). Group 2quartz cores are significantly smaller than

FIG. 8. Lengths and widths of chert freehandassemblage.

chert cores from the same assemblages(Table 8; one-tailed t test, p , .10), evenhough quartz raw material is much largerhan chert and obsidian raw materials.

The greater amounts of chert and obsid-an at GvJm16 and GvJm22, and their

ore liberal use, indicate their inhabit-nts had greater access to obsidian andhert sources both around the Athi Plainsnd farther away in the Central Rift Val-ey. Accompanying this shift to a morerofligate use of chert and obsidian was aeduced emphasis on local quartz, whichame to be treated similarly to the otheraw materials, especially in terms of coreeduction. Group 2 foragers had equal ac-

bipolar (B), and combination (C) cores, GvJm62
(F),


cess to all of the lithic raw materials foundin these assemblages.

RELATING RAW MATERIAL USE TOLSA LAND USE PATTERNS

Differences in raw material abundanceand economy at the Lukenya sites showthat bands inhabiting Group 2 sitesmoved more widely in the areas aroundLukenya Hill, had more contact with rarerchert and obsidian sources, and stayed atLukenya Hill for shorter periods thanbands inhabiting Group 1 sites. TheGroup 1 sites, by contrast, were longeroccupations by groups that moved oversmaller distances and had fewer contactswith rarer raw material sources. They car-ried some obsidian as long use-life, seg-

FIG. 9. Lengths and widths of obsidian freeGvJm62 assemblage.

mented blades and large tools, but quartzartifacts adequately served their techno-logical needs. During longer occupationsof Lukenya Hill, Group 1 knappers usedprodigious amounts of local quartz in anexpedient way.

One might argue that the shift fromGroup 1 to Group 2 sites was driven sim-ply by the invention of microlithic tech-nologies, which necessitated the betterchert and obsidian raw materials. Accord-ing to this interpretation, hunter–gather-ers selected these raw materials more of-ten without changing land use patterns.Indeed, quartz, chert, and local obsidianshave essentially overlapping distribu-tions, although chert and obsidian bombsare rarer and more localized sources.

d (F), bipolar (B), and combination (C) cores,
han


However, the changes in raw materialeconomy, especially core treatment, be-tween Group 1 and Group 2 show soundlythat raw material use differences in thetwo assemblages are a result of changes inland use. Looking across the African LSA,one finds that even when chert was avail-able, it was not necessarily preferred orrequired to make microliths. At Bimbe waMpalabwe in Zambia, for example, therewas a slight preference for chert overquartz for the making of microliths. Here,19.7% of microliths were of chert, 18.4% of

FIG. 10. Boxplots comparing lengths of wholein quartz, chert, and obsidian, GvJm62 assembl

microliths were of quartz, and chert wasoverwhelmingly preferred over the com-mon quartz for scrapers (58% of scrapersbeing chert and 31% of scrapers beingquartz; Miller 1969:240). Further, atLukenya Hill, the appearance of microli-ths predates the selection of chert andobsidian for their manufacture (Barut1994).

By analogy with Kalahari hunter–gath-erers, the differences in mobility patternsat Lukenya Hill may represent adapta-tions to two different regimes of surface

kes and lengths of longest flake scars on cores.

flaage

BLE


water availability. Less arid conditionsand more abundant resource patches dur-ing Group 1 times may have allowed these

FIG. 11. Histograms showing the ratio of corelength/length of the longest flake scar, for quartz,chert, and obsidian cores from GvJm62 C. Data arelogged.

TATool Classes by Source Are

Source Unflaked Cor

Highland/variant 11 36Rift Valley/other 1 10Kedong 0 2

Total 12 48

earlier hunter–gatherers to spend longerperiods at Lukenya Hill exploiting largeand small game and plant foods, as do!Kung and Hadzabe (Mabulla 1996). Theyhad less contact with chert and obsidiansources and preferred to use prodigiousquantities of local quartz, which was ade-quate for scraper technologies. The Group2 microlithic sites, on the other hand, mayhave been part of settlement patterns sim-ilar to those of !Xo and Gwi, who live inthe driest part of the Kalahari, where con-centrated food and water is lacking.Group sizes are small, home ranges arelarge, and mobility is frequent. Suchgroups occupying Lukenya Hill had fairlyfrequent contact with scattered patches ofchert and obsidian, including those fromCentral Rift sources. Because their occu-pational stays were short, they did not

7vJm62 Obsidian Artifacts

Debitage Tools Total

168 6 22138 7 5633 2 37

240 15 315

FIG. 12. Lengths of GvJm62 obsidian cores fromLukenya Hill, Kedong, and the Central Rift Valley.

a, G

es


build up large quantities of local quartz. Itis possible that high-ranking foods likemigratory animals played an importantrole in their diets; microlithic technologiesmay have made quest of these animalsmore efficient.

Extending the ethnographic analogy toa consideration of exchange networks, onemight expect the Group 1 occupants, witha !Kung-like adaptation, to have partici-pated in exchange networks, while Group

FIG. 13. Lengths of GvJm62 obsidian tools fValley.

FIG. 14. Segment of an obsidian blade, GvJm62.

2 peoples, with a !Xo-like adaptation,would have lacked exchange networks.Unfortunately, archaeologists have notbeen able to recognize exchanges fromdirectly procured raw materials in manycontexts. Soffer (1985:438) suggests thattrade can be assumed if source distancesof exotic items are greater than a group’slikely home range or territory. However,gift exchanges among !Kung generallytake place within as well as across bandterritories. The geographic scale of gift ex-changes documented by Wiessner (1986)was similar to the scale of movement ofLSA Central Rift obsidians, which aremost commonly found up to 50 km fromtheir source and are found 150 km fromtheir source at Lukenya Hill itself (Merrickand Brown 1984a). Of the 510 hxaro part-ners of 35 !Kung, 18% lived in the samecamp, 25% within 24 km, 25% within25–49 km, 24% within 50–100 km, and 9%

Lukenya Hill, Kedong, and the Central Rift
rom

TABLE 8


farther than 100 km. Even though Luke-nya and the Central Rift are only 150 kmapart, Central Rift obsidians could haveexchanged hands numerous times beforereaching Lukenya Hill. These networksmay have been an efficient way of ce-menting alliances, managing the move-ment of individuals and groups, and pro-curing lithic raw material. However, onewill have to study more sites to under-stand the means of LSA obsidian trans-port at sites like Lukenya Hill.

Differences in Diet between Group 1 and 2Foragers

Food choice strategies are the primaryinfluence on forager land use patterns.What differences in subsistence might un-derlie the different land use patterns ofGroup 1 and Group 2 hunter–gatherers?Some hunter– gatherers procure high-ranked, very mobile resources that havehigh search and pursuit costs, such aslarge game. Bettinger and Baumhoff(1982) call them travelers. Other hunter–gatherers concentrate on low-ranked but

Size Ranges for Freehand Cor

Raw material Site NMean le

(mm

Quartz GvJm46 40 39.40GvJm62 54 39.20GvJm22 10 17.60GvJm16 33 22.22GvJm19 72 36.82

Chert GvJm46 22 25.98GvJm62 36 26.34GvJm22 40 25.00GvJm16 32 25.30GvJm19 42 25.42

Obsidian GvJm46 30 17.50GvJm62 78 16.13GvJm22 23 17.30GvJm16 63 14.90GvJm19 26 15.65

Note. Data for GvJm16 and GvJm22 are from Merr

predictable sources like plants, althoughthey procure high-yield foods when theyare available at low cost. These hunter–gatherers are called processors. Choosingto be a processor or a traveler depends ona group’s environment, technology, andsocial organization.

In the context of Pleistocene East Af-rica, foragers practicing a traveler adap-tation would concentrate on high-rank-ing migratory game and would movemore often within larger home ranges.While high animal speeds might pre-clude the following of migratory herdsacross long distances, travelers wouldstill move over large areas in search ofhigh-ranked foods and smaller packagesof water or plant foods. Processors, bycontrast, might concentrate on high-ranking species when available butmove to low-ranking but more predict-able species, such as tubers, fruits, ornuts, at other times. In general, this is amore cost-effective strategy (Winter-halder 1981). The Group 1 and Group 2assemblages may be the correlates of

in the Lukenya Assemblages

hSD

Coefficient ofvariation Range

13.87 .35 17.50–66.3022.00 .56 13.40–93.002.70 .15 12.00–22.009.00 .41 7.00–44.00

19.36 .53 13.60–85.306.70 .26 14.70–39.205.70 .22 14.40–38.204.90 .20 16.00–37.006.90 .27 14.00–38.006.84 .27 9.10–41.703.60 .21 10.60–26.853.47 .22 8.80–27.754.30 .25 12.00–27.002.90 .19 10.00–23.002.50 .16 9.59–20.00

(1975).

es

ngt)

ick

processors and travelers and hunter– tions may represent longer term, perhaps


gatherers, respectively. The GvJm16 andGvJm22 may date to colder periods closein time to the LGM, when plant foodswere less reliable than during thewarmer, earlier part of the LSA. Micro-lithic technologies, possibly associatedwith the use of poison, may have en-abled more efficient hunting (Clark 1970;Mitchell 1988). Unfortunately, no directevidence of plant food use was found atGvJm62, although a bored stone frag-ment and several dimpled anvils werefound (Barut 1997:222). These artifacts,which could have been digging stick orhoe weights, grindstones, or nuttingstones (J. Deacon 1984; Kortlandt 1986),show that nut and seed processing tech-nology was known to site inhabitants.

Study of Lukenya Hill faunal remainsfrom MSA and LSA contexts, includingthe Group 1 and Group 2 sites, revealssome evidence of animal foods in theseforagers’ diet, but not the total proportionof these foods in the diet. Marean’s (1990)analysis showed that hunters did indeedconcentrate on high-ranking, medium tolarge, migratory game species. Faunasfrom GvJm46, located at the bottom of asteep cliff, were overwhelmingly from onespecies, a small extinct alcelaphine. Mar-ean (1990:466) suggested that GvJm46 wasa drive site for the alcelaphine during mi-gration season that was used for a varietyof activities at other times of the year.Seasonal use of tactical hunting tech-niques like driving may have been cou-pled with a more catholic hunting andgathering strategy at other times (Marean1997).

Alternative Interpretations

It is difficult, of course, to infer the landuse patterns that Lukenya Hill was a partof without reference to other points on thelandscape that made up the seasonalround. For example, the Group 1 occupa-

dry season, occupations by groups whowere more peripatetic during other sea-sons when more water sources were avail-able. The anomalous GvJm19 assemblage,which is like the Group 1 sites in lithic rawmaterial use but closer to the Group 2sites in age, may be such a seasonal vari-ant or may represent a period when athird, and as yet poorly known, settlementpattern incorporated Lukenya Hill.

LAND USE AND EXCHANGE ATLUKENYA HILL AND OTHER EASTAND SOUTH AFRICAN LSA SITES

This paper has demonstrated that cul-ture-historical, functional, and land usedifferences all contribute to interassem-blage variability at Lukenya Hill, one ofthe largest late Pleistocene occurrences inEast Africa, which spans much of the40,000-year duration of the LSA. Mostlikely, these differences are also related tochanges in diet choice from processor totraveler, although evidence of plant fooduse in the African LSA is very rare (H.Deacon 1993; Opperman and Hydenrych1990). However, such changes should notbe elevated to the level of an evolutionaryor continentwide transition. Faunal re-mains from northern Tanzania indicate arelatively well-watered environment,while those from Lukenya Hill indicate anarid climate (Marean 1992; Marean et al.1990; Mehlman 1989). Around Lake Eyasiin northern Tanzania, Mabulla (1996)found no differences in land use or rawmaterial use during the MSA-to-LSAtransition. Numerous MSA and LSA as-semblages around Lake Eyasi are madealmost exclusively on local quartz, eventhough prodigious chert sources are avail-able at Olduvai Gorge and Lake Natron,50 and 100 km to the north.

Although greater mobility may havecharacterized settlement around LukenyaHill during the GvJm22 and GvJm16 hab-

itations, LSA mobility remained limited in across much of Africa, in accordance with


areas like Lake Eyasi. Given that alliancenetworks and overlapping territories areoften associated with scarce or unpredict-able resources, Ambrose and Lorenz(1990:18) argue that nonlocal lithic rawmaterial proportions are “inversely corre-lated with resource abundance and pre-dictability.” The exclusive use of localquartz at Lake Eyasi suggests that groupsin the area were territorial and had littlecontact with other regions. However,Cashdan (1983) has pointed out that ex-treme resource scarcity across broad re-gions, as well as resource abundance, canalso be associated with greater territorial-ity and nucleation of hunter– gatherergroups. The driest parts of the Kalahariare inhabited by highly territorial groupswho do not exchange gifts (Heinz 1972,1979). Upper Pleistocene northern Tanza-nia may have been occupied by !Xo-likegroups, endogamous band clusters occu-pying exclusive territories and separatedby strips of no-man’s land. However, theevidence of territoriality at Lake Eyasi isalso consistent with an environment ofstable resources, which may have in-cluded fish or snails, which were foundarchaeologically at Mumba Rockshelteron the lakeshore (Mehlman 1989:311). Abetter understanding of the regional dis-tribution of resources in East Africangrasslands, as well as more survey-basedarchaeological research, would inform usabout settlement patterns across broad re-gions.

Late Pleistocene Africans are oftenthought to have lived at very low popula-tion densities throughout the last glacialperiod, especially at the LGM when arid-ity became most extreme (Brooks andRobertshaw 1990; Klein 1989). They mayhave formed endogamous territorialgroups similar to the !Xo (Heinz 1979).Relatively nucleate bands and a lack ofexchange networks would be reflected ar-chaeologically in a lack of exchange items

the !Xo pattern. Indeed, the available dataindicate that exchange items were rare.Merrick and Brown (1984a) and Merrick,Brown, and Nash (1994) have studied theexchange of Kenyan obsidians from theOldowan through the Pastoral Neolithic.Only in the Pastoral Neolithic does obsid-ian movement outside a 50-km radius be-come widespread, when it begins to mir-ror the distribution of other exchangeitems, such as pottery (Merrick, Brown,and Connelly 1990).

LSA ostrich eggshell beads were prob-ably exchange items (Mitchell 1996). Os-trich eggshell beads are absent from manyEast African LSA sites, including LukenyaHill, although Mehlman (1989:386) reportsostrich shell pieces in the Lemuta Indus-try and at the Naisiusiu LSA site at Oldu-vai Gorge. In South Africa, where grass-lands also prevailed in the Pleistocene,ostrich eggshell beads and marine shellsare again rare (Mitchell 1996; Wadley1993). Overall, the rarity of exchange itemsin the African Pleistocene LSA contrastswith the Upper Paleolithic of Europe. InEurope, both shell and lithic raw materialtraveled over several hundred kilometers,particularly in northern Europe, where al-liances would have been most adaptive(Gamble 1986:335–337; Otte 1991; Rensinket al. 1991; Soffer 1991).

In the Holocene, ostrich eggshell beadsbecome increasingly common at Naseraand Lukenya Hill (Mehlman 1989:400, 404;personal observation). In South Africa,marine shell, bone beads, and other pos-sible trade gifts also become abundant (H.Deacon 1995; J. Deacon 1984; Mitchell1996; Wadley 1993). Ameliorating envi-ronmental conditions at the close of thePleistocene would encourage the forma-tion of fluid, anucleate groups, more of a!Kung-like than of a !Xo-like pattern.Through exchange networks marked ar-chaeologically by beads and shells, these

Holocene groups shared larger food and greater, LSA humans encountered more

pi

s(ot(ctsls


water resources.

GRASSLANDS AND WOODLANDSIN THE AFRICAN LSA

The archaeological record of East andSouth Africa suggests that in many aridgrasslands, population densities weresmall and groups highly territorial, asamong the !Xo of the present-day Kala-hari. However, the Lukenya Hill sequenceshows that in particular regions land usepatterns changed significantly throughtime. At any rate, throughout the late Up-per Pleistocene dry grassland environ-ments around sites like Lukenya Hill weresome of the continent’s harshest. By con-trast, other parts of the continent offeredmuch more abundant resources. Themoist woodland areas of southeastern Af-rica and the forests of Central Africa showmuch greater continuity in vegetationtypes across the late Pleistocene and Ho-locene. Even at the LGM, vegetation wassimilar to that of today (Elenga et al. 1991,1994; Livingstone 1971; Vincens 1991).While grassland hunter–gatherers oftenpursued a traveler strategy, those of thewoodlands and forests chose a processorstrategy, intensifying their procurementof fish and plant foods.

Today, LSA sites like Matupi and Is-hango are located in mosaics and transi-tion zones between East African wood-lands and Central African rainforests(White 1983). Later Stone Age fauna fromthese sites include many, if not mostly,forest species, showing that late Pleisto-cene vegetation was still relatively closed(Peters 1990; van Neer 1989). By contrast,the dry grassland areas of East Africashow greater numbers of dry-adaptedspecies during the late Pleistocene (Mar-ean 1992a; Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez1991).

In the wetter areas of Africa, where con-tinuity with present vegetation was

abundant and less seasonal resourcesthan in the arid grasslands of East Africa.Today, more stable foods of woodland andforest environments include abundantstarchy and fatty fruits and seeds, insectsand mushrooms, underground plantparts, nutlike oil seeds, large and smallherbivores, and fish (Hall 1992; Hladik1990; Malaisse and Parent 1985; Pagezy1990:37; Wickens 1982; Zinyama et al.1990). These resources were importanthedges against food shortage (Peters 1987:348). LSA people in woodland and forestAfrica intensified their procurement ofthese foods, especially fish and under-ground plant foods.

Inselbergs, seasonally flooded grass-lands, and lakeshores and river shoreswere important foci for LSA settlement.LSA hunter–gatherers of the late Pleisto-cene and early Holocene intensively pro-cured plant foods on the inselbergs of theMatopos Hills. The area has year-roundsurface water in marshy ponds, a highdensity of fruit and marula trees, as wellas numerous small animal resources in itskopjes, including snakes, insects, turtles,frogs, hyrax, baboon, and small herbi-vores (Walker 1995:21). Seasonally floodedgrasslands or dambos are also rich in tu-bers and fauna. Clark (1980) proposed aseasonal mobility model for the MSA atKalambo, including dry season congrega-tion in the dambos and wet season dis-

ersal, which might also have character-zed LSA hunter–gatherer mobility.

Fishing may have been a key dry seasontrategy, as among the Ntomba of ZairePagezy 1990). Botswana and Namibia,ne of the few areas where the late Pleis-ocene was in fact wetter than todayShaw and Thomas 1996), have many ar-haeological sites attesting to the impor-ance of fishing. White Paintings Rock-helter, Botswana, located near a largeake in LSA times, demonstrates a longequence of continuous fish exploitation

beginning in the late MSA and continuing

pctrM1Nc1cbTAc3PviaoWo

sites to the greater importance of under-g

ar(esgcinTsHbeih1rlhwai

LlGLmaGeaaaqotuadcdbe


into LSA levels (Robbins et al. 1994). Cat-fish and cichlids were caught with boneharpoons (Robbins et al. 1994). The LSAhabitation of Drotsky’s Cave, Botswana,was most intense during the terminalPleistocene, when the area was becomingdrier and the Cave may have been one ofa few good water sources; tools from thistime period include unretouched blade-lets, bladelet cores, and bipolar cores(Robbins et al. 1996). Associated fauna in-dicate a varied diet of small mammals,birds, frogs, and tortoises. Use ofDrotsky’s Cave during the wet Pleisto-cene, when more water sources were scat-tered and widely available, was muchmore sporadic (Robbins et al. 1996). Pro-curement of fish and shellfish is also doc-umented at Ishango in Zaire (Brooks andSmith 1987).

Plant foods also became increasinglyimportant in the southeastern and centralAfrican LSA. Van Zinderen Bakker (1969:67) found the pollen of Parinari sp. in sam-

les from Kalambo Falls. Remains of S.affra have been found at several sites inhe Matopos (Deacon 1984:246). Marulaemains make up 95% of plant remains at

atopos archaeological sites (Walker995:229). Numerous dimpled anvils atachikufan sites may have been nut-

racking stones (Kortlandt 1986; Miller969:441). Bored stones are legion in ar-haeological sites in Zambia and Zimba-we and are also known from northernanzania, Uganda, and Central and Southfrica (Clark 1974; Cooke 1984:24; J. Dea-

on 1984:290–291; Mehlman 1989:73, 321,59; Miller 1969:484, 119; Musonda 1984;hillipson 1982:424; Robbins et al. 1977;an Noten 1977). Bored stones are usuallynterpreted as digging stick weights andre indirect evidence for the use of tubersr roots, although they have other uses.alker (1990:211) relates the appearance

f bored stones in late Pleistocene LSA

round foods during “climatic stress.”The larger number of Pleistocene LSA

rchaeological sites in southeastern Af-ica, as compared with arid East Africacompare Figs. 1 and 15), suggests thatnvironments offering stable, less sea-onal resources, such as oil seeds, under-round plant parts, and fish, whose pro-urement was capable of beingntensified, may have supported largerumbers of LGM hunter– gatherers.hose who remained in grasslands, atites like GvJm16 and GvJm22 at Lukenyaill, appear to have increased their mo-ility in order to insure access to the high-st-ranking animal and plant foods. Fish-ng and fowling technology and improvedunting weaponry and strategies (Marean997) were part of a new technologicalepertoire that made it possible for grass-and groups to be more mobile and rely onigh-quality resources. Meanwhile, theoodland groups used fishing technology

nd bored stones to broaden the diet tonclude plants and fish.

In arid East African grasslands, pre-GM foragers were less mobile and fol-

owed a processor diet strategy at sites likevJm46. They were followed around theGM by traveler hunter–gatherers whooved across larger ranges of territory

nd occupied sites, like GvJm16 andvJm22, more briefly. LGM hunter–gath-

rers in wetter parts of Africa maintainedprocessor strategy, concentrating on fish

nd plant foods. Although changes in dietre not evidenced at all African se-uences, they have parallels in other partsf the Old World. Cachel (1997) argueshat European Upper Paleolithic peoplesed similar technological innovations todd fish and more vegetable foods to theiet. These expansions would have in-reased dietary quality, lessened humanependence on fat sources, decreased mo-ility, lessened selection pressure for skel-tal robusticity, and increased population


size. To Cachel, the appearance of art, rit-ual, and ceremony and the increasing re-gional diversity in stone tool traditionsthat is characteristic of the Upper Paleo-lithic reflect this population increase. Likethe Upper Paleolithic, the LSA shows the

FIG. 15. Pleistocene LSA archa

first widespread use of art, personaladornment, and bone tools. However,these changes appear much more gradu-ally in Africa and only in some regions(Klein 1992). Most likely, climatic factorsin Africa, including aridity, drought, and

ogical sites of southern Africa.
eol

disease, were more effective at keeping

A

1992 Hunters and herders of southern Africa: A com-


overall population densities low relativeto those in Europe (Reader 1997:254).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank the government of Kenya for granting per-mission to conduct this research. I also thank themembers of my dissertation committee, including R.Barry Lewis (Chair), Jack Harris, Olga Soffer, andThomas J. Riley, for their comments on the disserta-tion on which this paper is based. Dr. Charles M.Nelson gave invaluable assistance during the disser-tation research. Dr. Harry V. Merrick provided sam-ples of obsidian for use in artifact sourcing. CurtisMarean made helpful comments on an earlier draftof this paper. This research was supported by a Na-tional Science Foundation Dissertation ResearchGrant SBR 93-20534, by a Fulbright Award to Kenya,and by dissertation writing fellowships from theGraduate College and Anthropology Department atthe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

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