Dr. David R. Braun

Lecturer

My research interests center around the basic question of how the earliest stone artifact behavior relates to the ecology of our earliest ancestors. This has three main foci: 1) The experimental determination of the signature of different behaviors as they are reflected in artifact and bone accumulations. This incorporates actualistic methods to parse out the meaning behind patterns in stone artifacts 2) The provenance of stone material collected by hominins for the production of stone artifacts. This research involves the collection and sampling of numerous rock outcrops and using geochemical methods to link sources to archaeological specimens 3) The excavation of large collections of prehistoric stone tools in various ecological settings.

My departmental page.

Emmanuel Ndiema

Visiting Researcher

During the months of March through May 2008 I spent time at the University Cape Town (UCT) undertaking hands-on-training on the technical aspects of X-ray Florescence and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). My visit to UCT also coincided with the biannual conference by the Society of Southern Africa Archaeologists (ASAPA) where I presented a co-authored paper on the "Holocene Pastoral Adaptations in East Africa; how different or similar was it from that of Southern Africa" This paper received interesting insights that would be able to illuminate my research on the initial dynamics of ancient pastoralism at Koobi Fora, Kenya.

Kyle S. Brown

PhD Student

Raw Material Selection and Economy in the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point, Southern Cape, South Africa

Archaeological research regarding the bio-behavioral modernity of early modern humans in Africa has generally focused on subsistence activities, especially with respect to the faunal record (Binford 1984; Deacon 1989; Klein and Cruz-Uribe 1986; Milo 1998, Marean and Assefa 1999). Middle Stone Age sites in South Africa have produced other evidence of behavioral modernity, such as bone points, engravings, and ochre use (Henshilwood and Sealy 1997; Henshilwood et al 2002; Watts 2002). Studies have more recently sought evidence for behavioral modernity in raw material utilization and the organization of stone tool production in the South African Middle Stone Age (Mackay 2007; Minichillo 2006; Wurz 1998).

The principal lithic collections to be analyzed for this project are those from ongoing excavations at Pinnacle Point, near Mossel Bay, South Africa (Marean et al 2004). Pinnacle Point is a well-dated cave complex which has been demonstrated to contain a long sequence of human occupation covering most of the known chronological range of the Middle Stone Age. The proposed dissertation project will focus on one of the more promising sites at Pinnacle Point termed 'Site 5-6'. Preliminary excavations of the site in October and November of 2006, and June of 2007, have demonstrated that Site 5-6 does indeed contain a rich archaeological record and an ongoing series of excavations are planned at Site 5-6 at least through 2009.

Steven James Walker

PhD Student

MSA Landscape Utilization, Evidence from a Pleistocene Lakebed

My project is a landscape archaeological study of the Benfontein Pan, a Pleistocene lakebed southeast of Kimberley, South Africa. Landscape archaeology offers a unique insight into the selection pressures that shaped modern humans as it provides data about past behaviour that cannot be accessed through other methods or disciplines. Modern Human origin studies are usually framed around 'unique' human atributes. These prime movers are taken to be a diagnostic trait for the appearance of modern thought; their absence indicates ‘pre-modern’ thought. It is difficult to understand such binary traits in an evolutionary perspective. My project hopes to avoid this problem by investigating a behavioural complex that can be evaluated throughout time: land use.

At the Benfontein Pan, Middle Stone Age (MSA) artefact scatters are exposed along the pan's Mid-Pleistocene 20 m lakeshore. This shoreline represents a roughly contemporaneous occupation horizon that can provide a view of MSA landscape utilization. Later Stone Age artefacts are associated with the more recent 10 m shoreline. Two occupations of the same environment at different times enables the comparison of these land use strategies. The aim of the project is to advance our understanding of the origins of modern humans as expressed in distribution and character of Pleistocene artefacts.

William Archer

MSc Student

Raw Material Economy of the Acheulian Technology of the Western Cape, South Africa

My project approaches a set of selected research issues by studying the affect of raw material variation on Acheulian artifact form and distribution. The distribution of resources has been shown to affect material culture in modern hunter-gatherer societies (Binford 1973, 1977, 1979; Shott 1986). My work will map and sample the distribution and variation of raw-material sources in the region around Elandsfontein, Western Cape. This data will provide a vital context for the Acheulian assemblages at the Elandsfontein site. Within this constructed framework I will investigate first, the manner in which raw-material quality drives variation in biface form, and second, how raw-material availability impacts on discard behavior patterns as can be observed in the assemblage of Cutting 10.

A later phase in the project is to analyze the debitage assemblages associated with artifacts within the range of biface forms observable in the overall assemblage at Elandsfontein. Through experimentation I will investigate whether variation in biface form is reflected in associated debitage assemblages and accordingly, whether one can detect such variation by considering Acheulian assemblages that comprise only such debitage but include no characteristic bifaces.

Jenna Lavin

MSc Student

Paleoecology of the KBS member in the Koobi Fora Formation of Northern Kenya: Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Behavior

This project will provide a landscape scale palaeoecological context for a transect consisting of a series of archaeological sites in the KBS Member of the Koobi Fora Formation on the east side of the Turkana basin in Northern Kenya. The eastern shore of Lake Turkana has been an area of palaeoanthropological interest since the late 1960's, and as a result, the National Museums of Kenya have accumulated a significant and well-dated archaeological record for this region. This project proposes to integrate these landscape scale archaeological collections from the KBS member in the Koobi Fora Formation with innovative methods of palaeocological analysis and ecomorphological techniques to develop an understanding of the variation in habitat use by Plio-Pleistocene hominins. To investigate landscape scale variation, this project will implement a systematic fossil collection strategy developed by palaeoecologists working in the Turkana Basin. This project will also utilize a technique known as "ecofunk"; or functional ecomorphology; to determine the palaeoenvironmental context of fossil bovidae from the morphology of post-cranial bones associated with predator avoidance strategies. These data will then be pooled with the already large archaeological sample of the KBS Member in the Koobi Fora Formation to determine if palaeoecological variation is reflected in changes in hominin behavior. The goals of this research are to collect palaeoecological data on geographic scales that are relevant to the landscape scale variation in hominin behavior.