Lupemban at Kabwe?

[Daryl Habel]

For those of us who participated in the conversations re the early Middle Stone Age, I'll just say that I managed to snag the pdf:

Bone  tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) cave, Zambia, and their evolutionary significance. LS Barham, AC Pinto Liona & CB Stringer. Before Farming 2002/2 (3).

and this is a very interesting and, for some I am sure informative paper describing the circumstances of discovery of the artifact assembage at Kabwe.  Citing the late J. Desmond Clark often, Barham et al. suggest that the Kabwe assemblage is early MSA with some sort of possible resemblance to Lupemban (as at Twin River, Kalambo, etc.).

Best to all,
Dar

[lagarvelho]

Dar:

If you could upload this PDF to one of the forums you're on, that would be nice.  Or if you are willing to send it out as an attachment, that would be nice too.
Anne G

[Daryl Habel]

Hi Anne,

As you know, I am temporarily removed from my personal computer in Indiana.  So, unfortunately, much as I would like to, I cannot comply with your request, as I snagged the pdf from the Jackson (Wyoming) library computer (therefore no files for me) and made a printout.

However, there should be no problem reaching the article in "Before Farming" at the URL:

http://www.waspjournals.com

This should take you to an index for issue 2, 2002 (if I've typed in the URL correctly)

Issue 1 is also available (and has a review of a book containing an article co-authored by Jacques) - check the proper  icon (for issue 2), then look for the "abstracts" icon.  This will take you to the abstract for the Barham et al. article.  At the bottom of the abstract, there are icons for the pdf of the article, and a second icon for a pdf containing the references for the article.  They are available free, although the issue's editorial says issue 2 will be the last free issue.

Although, the article's main focus is to verify J.D. Clark's original interpretation (1947?) of the bone "tools",  Barham et al. have introduced the article with a wonderful history lesson of the discovery of Broken Hill cave and the original artifact finds which, although now mostly lost, began turning up around 1907 or so, some 15 years before the hominid cranium was discovered (1921).

The Kabwe assemblage is a bit problematic, but this is the best description of what  artifacts were found (although mostly now lost) that I've yet to read (although that's not necessarily saying very much).

Dar

[rich]

Hi Dar
Good to hear from you.
yes an interesting article , since it proves  that the pieces have been shaped and not worn to that appearence. And to be found in assoc with (& I use the word assoc in a grammatical & not strictly archaeological sense) Heidelbergensis unleashes all sorts of possibilities re symbolic behaviour & all that  means. But it does remain to be seen if the fossil was chronologically late, or the bone tools were early , for am I correct in saying they have no absolute date for the sita and are only dating it on a comparative basis of tool assemblages with Twin Rivers & Kalambo Falls.
Regards Rich.

[Greg]

Over recent years it has become apparent that there existed in central and southern Africa and East Africa a population of hominids with

a) lots of modern traits;

b) notable robusticity

c) no derived trait that would obviate evolution into a modern human;

d) limited similarities to but no particular close affinity to Neanderthal

e) distinct morphology from the so called African Neanderthals

f) an exceptionally large brain and

e) dates ranging from just under 400,000 to ca 200,000.  

Given that fully modern looking individuals now date to just at the end of and after that time, it really is starting to look like fully physically modern humans may have arisen from this earlier modern-but-robust population within Africa.

It is worth noting that this transition, then, would have occurred in an interesting relationship to other things going on.  I suggest the following:



1)  The modern but robust individuals transit (predate and post date) the ESA-MSA transition, so they can be considered the group responsible for or related to this transition.  However, consider it a different way:  This makes sense because the ESA MSA transition is not a clear cut boundary everywhere.  If we take the Fauersmith, the Vic. West, and the early MSA/Lupemban together as an entity, then the dates for that early prep-platform type technology goes along well with this population.


2)  The population in question is clearly early enough that it could easily be ancestral to Neanderthals, and possibly connect to, prior to, or overlap with (i.e. population wise the same as) the anteneanderthals.

3)  The whole transition from this early modern-but-robust and mostly or exclusively African form to a physically fully modern human occurred after the establishment of initial indications of “symbolizing” and thus this feature of humanity can easily be hypothesized as causal in or at least heavily implicated with subsequent evolutionary change.


4) The transition from early modern but robust to gracile forms happened BEFORE the appearance of “classic” Neanderthals.  I.e., modern humans predate Neanderthals.  

Cheers,

Greg

[Daryl Habel]

Hi Dar
Good to hear from you.
yes an interesting article , since it proves  that the pieces have been shaped and not worn to that appearence. And to be found in assoc with (& I use the word assoc in a grammatical & not strictly archaeological sense) Heidelbergensis unleashes all sorts of possibilities re symbolic behaviour & all that  means. But it does remain to be seen if the fossil was chronologically late, or the bone tools were early , for am I correct in saying they have no absolute date for the sita and are only dating it on a comparative basis of tool assemblages with Twin Rivers & Kalambo Falls.
Regards Rich.

Well, I'm certainly not qualified to say the three bone objects described in Barham et al. 2002 are "proven" to be genuine artifacts, but the authors seem to be convinced that  they are, even while admitting that this will be a controversial issue inasmuch as prior to this announcement, "no substantiated evidence exists for the making of formal bone tools before 120 ka"  It would be interesting to gain the opinion  of a taphonomist on whether or not the grooves on the objects, as revealed by SEM, could possibly have some natural (as opposed to human) origin.

About the age of the Kabwe assemblage, (and again I'm very poorly qualified to answer), there is the one mentioned AAR (aspartic acid racemization) date of 110 ka from a hominid fragment, but the authors give reasons why this dating method should be disregarded.

Clark's investigations (as reported in Barham et al., since I have not read the original literature) convinced him that the entire Kabwe artifact assemblage was Middle Stone Age (MSA), and there  *are* certain "hints" that I can read that suggest it is "early" MSA (before 120 ka).   The information given in this recent paper, including the reconstructed section of the cave deposits (Fig. 1), and the authors' comments in the paragraph containing, "in the lower passage of the cave where lead levels are highest" (page 3 of the pdf), leads me to believe the date of the assemblage, including the famous "Rhodesian Man" skull,  lies within  the estimated range of c. 300-140 ka, and there's a good possibility that not all of the assemblage was deposited anywhere near the *same* time (i.e., a palimpsest), but I wouldn't want to put much of a stake on anything I say if you are a gambling man.

In truth, I'm ready to believe in "bone points" at 200-300 ka but, as usual, I'd like to see more than one example.

Also, I'd like here to acknowledge Greg's very good assessment of the current state of knowledge, as well as his suggested relationship "to other things going on" in the early MSA, which was posted today.  But,  I'll have to think more on what he has posted before offering any possible comment.

As I noted earlier this year on palanth-l, it  (the MSA in general) is going through an interesting period of taxonomical/chronological readjustment.

Cheers,
Dar