The middle stone age at Klasies River, South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The Late Pleistocene, Middle Stone Age artefact sequence at the Klasies River mainsite, was studied to establish what information this held for inferences on theemergence of symbolic thought and communication. The approach adopted was tocomplement traditional typological analysis by a technological study of artefactproduction within the framework of the chafne opératoire. The results show thattechnology was aimed at producing preformed blanks. In the choice of materials, thetechnique and method of blank production and the retouch of blanks, arbitrary orstylistic choices were made. Changes in stylistic conventions can be documentedthrough the sequence. Changing conventions in artefact production show that the livesof the people who made the artefacts were structured in a symbolic web. These resultstogether with evidence from evolutionary biology, show that by at least 115 000 yearsago, people were able to think and speak symbolically. This African archaeologicalevidence for the emergence of symbolism, a defining attribute of modem peoples, ismuch older than previously considered.KEYWORDS: Klasies River, Middle Stone Age, technology, symboliccommunication, human evolution.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University