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ref:
2002/2 (3)
Bone
tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) cave, Zambia, and their
evolutionary significance
LS
Barham
Department of Archaeology, University of Bristol, 43
Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU
larry.barham@bristol.ac.uk
AC
Pinto Llona
Laboratorio de Prehistoria, Proaza 33114, Asturias,
Spain
acpinto@las.es
CB
Stringer
Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
c.stringer@nhm.ac.uk
Keywords:
South central Africa, Middle Pleistocene, bone tools,
Broken Hill, Homo heidelbergensis
Abstract
Shaped
bone tools are now recognised as part of the technological
repertoire of some Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers
in southern Africa. Currently accepted dates for the
earliest bone working technology in the region range
from ~70-90 ka. This study re-examines three bone objects
from the site of Broken Hill (Kabwe), Zambia, that were
described in the 1940s as formal bone tools. Broken
Hill is well known for its fossils of Homo heidelbergensis,
a species not previously associated with bone working,
and less well known for its small sample of early Middle
Stone Age lithic artefacts. The claim for bone tools
at Broken Hill takes on added significance in light
of new dates from south-central Africa which place the
development of composite stone tool technology (Mode
3) in the later Middle Pleistocene (~300 ka). If these
bone objects are indeed tools and associated with the
hominid use of the cave, they may be the oldest evidence
of bone tool working in the archaeological record. The
results are reported of scanning electron microscopy
of the surfaces of each putative tool and implications
are drawn for the behavioural evolution of H heidelbergensis.
Paper
References
©
Western Academic & Specialist Press Ltd and Natural
History Museum 2002
ref:
2002/2 (4)
Trouble
in the Japanese Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
Simon
Kaner
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and
Cultures
64 The Close, Norwich, NR1 4DW
s.kaner@uea.ac.uk
Keywords:
East Asia, Japan, Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, scandal
Abstract
The
debate about the occupation of the Japanese archipelago
before 30,000 years ago was apparently resolved with
the discovery and investigation of a series of sites
in north eastern Japan such as Babadan A and latterly
Kamitakamori, which seemed to provide securely dated
contexts for hominid activity dating to before 500,000
years ago. These discoveries were thrown into doubt
when one of the major protagonists in the debate was
discovered planting artefacts. The subsequent scandal,
which has rocked Japanese archaeology to its core, was
widely reported in the media and a full-scale investigation
is still underway. This paper summarises information
from some of the sites claimed to be Lower and Middle
Palaeolithic, and sets them in a broader East Asian
context.
Paper
References
Brief update on the Japanese Early and Middle Palaeolithic
problem
Naoko
Matsumoto
Faculty of Letters, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka,
Okayama 700-8530, Japan
naoko.m@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp
Supplement
©
Western Academic & Specialist Press Ltd 2002
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