Exploratory Study to Identify Sites Appropriate for Future Investigations of Spatial Patterning at Open-Air Stone Age Sites, South Africa

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With National Science Foundation support Dr. Susan Kent and her collaborators will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in the Caledon River region of South Africa. During a preliminary survey she located eight open air sites which, based on surface material, are attributable to the Middle and Late Stone Age (MSA and LSA) periods. It is likely that significant areas of each of these sites are preserved intact beneath adjacent sediments but this is uncertain. Dr. Kent will direct small scale excavations at each locale to determine stratigraphy and to assess the richness of archaeological materials and the extent they have been moved by post depositional processes. Faunal, lithic and sedimentological data will be analyzed. If significant amounts of intact deposits exist at both MSA and LSA sites Dr. Kent will submit a follow-up proposal for larger scale excavations.Archaeologists wish to understand the long term changes which led to the appearance of behaviorally modern humans. Both archaeological and biological data indicate that this transition occurred in sub Saharan Africa. By Late Stone Age times, ca. 40,000 years ago, humans exhibited the same range of behavioral capabilities as their modern counterparts. However the Middle Stone Age (from ca. 250,000 to 40,000) is less well understood and was likely the time of significant modification. Through analysis of the distribution of archaeological materials across sites it is possible to reconstruct the spatial component of behavior and gain indirect insight into social organization. The comparison of MSA and LSA spatial patterning Dr. Kent believes will allow one to elucidate directional change.