Archer Will, Presnyakova Darya, Aldeias Vera, Colarossi Debra, Hutten Louisa, Lauer Tobias, Porraz Guillaume, Rossouw Lloyd, Shaw Matthew
Max Planck Partner Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa; Department of Geology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, UMR 7269, Laboratoire Méditerranéen de Préhistoire Europe Afrique (LAMPEA), Aix-en Provence, France.
J Hum Evol. 2023 Nov;184:103435. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103435. Epub 2023 Sep 27.
Patterns of so-called modern human behavior are increasingly well documented in an abundance of Middle Stone Age archaeological sites across southern Africa. Contextualized archives directly preceding the southern African Middle Stone Age, however, remain scarce. Current understanding of the terminal Acheulean in southern Africa derives from a small number of localities that are predominantly in the central and northern interior. Many of these localities are surface and deflated contexts, others were excavated prior to the availability of modern field documentation techniques, and yet other relevant assemblages contain low numbers of characteristic artifacts relative to volume of excavated deposit. The site of Montagu Cave, situated in the diverse ecosystem of the Cape Floral Region, South Africa, contains the rare combination of archaeologically rich, laminated and deeply stratified Acheulean layers followed by a younger Middle Stone Age occupation. Yet little is known about the site owing largely to a lack of contextual information associated with the early excavations. Here we present renewed excavation of Levels 21-22 at Montagu Cave, located in the basal Acheulean sequence, including new data on site formation and ecological context, geochronology, and technological variability. We document intensive occupation of the cave by Acheulean tool-producing hominins, likely at the onset of interglacial conditions in MIS 7. New excavations at Montagu Cave suggest that, while Middle Stone Age technologies were practiced by 300 ka in several other regions of Africa, the classic Acheulean persisted later in the Fynbos Biome of the southwestern Cape. We discuss the implications of this regionalized persistence for the biogeography of African later Middle Pleistocene hominin populations, for the ecological drivers of their technological systems, and for the pattern and pace of behavioral change just prior to the proliferation of the southern African later Middle Stone Age.
在南部非洲的大量中石器时代考古遗址中，所谓现代人类行为模式的记录越来越丰富。然而，紧接南部非洲中石器时代之前的背景档案仍然稀少。目前对南部非洲晚期阿舍利文化的了解来自少数几个地点，这些地点主要位于中部和北部内陆。其中许多地点是地表和已风蚀的环境，其他一些地点是在现代田野记录技术出现之前挖掘的，还有一些相关的组合相对于挖掘出的沉积物体积而言，特征性文物数量较少。位于南非开普植物区系多样化生态系统中的蒙塔古洞穴遗址，包含了罕见的考古丰富、有层理且深度分层的阿舍利文化层组合，随后是较年轻的中石器时代居住层。然而，由于早期挖掘缺乏背景信息，人们对该遗址了解甚少。在此，我们展示了对位于阿舍利文化层底部序列的蒙塔古洞穴第21 - 22层的重新挖掘，包括关于遗址形成和生态背景、地质年代学以及技术变异性的新数据。我们记录了阿舍利文化工具制造类人猿对该洞穴的密集居住，可能是在海洋同位素阶段7的间冰期开始时。蒙塔古洞穴的新挖掘表明，虽然在非洲其他几个地区中石器时代技术在30万年前就已出现，但经典的阿舍利文化在西南开普的芬博斯生物群落中持续的时间更长。我们讨论了这种区域化持续现象对非洲晚更新世晚期人类种群生物地理学、其技术系统的生态驱动因素以及南部非洲晚中石器时代扩散之前行为变化的模式和速度的影响。
