The Stone Age Archaeology of Southern Africa

Abstract

General works on the Stone Age archaeology of southern Africa (not including those dealing with Africa as a whole) have been published at irregular intervals so that while seven were published between 1900 and 1930 only J. Desmond Clark's The Prehistory of Southern Africa (1959) and the book reviewed here have appeared since then, although data on the southern part of the continent have been included in general works on Africa by Leakey, Clark and Alimen. In comparison with the rest of subSaharan Africa, a great deal of archaeological research has been undertaken in southern Africa since the Second World War and this growing corpus of information has needed synthesis at regular intervals to integrate new data and revise terminology. Such syntheses are by their nature difficult to assemble because of the wide understanding and detailed specialist knowledge required, but I would consider that they should be judged as successful or not on the extent to which they reflect the current state of development of the subject and whether they can be used as a reliable source of data and viewpoints. These points are discussed in relation to Sampson's The Stone Age Archaeology of Southern Africa below. The book is divided into eleven chapters of varying length. The Introduction (pp. 1-15) sets out the aims and methods employed in the classification of sites and in nomenclature, together with maps summarizing the relief, river systems, vegetation, rainfall, temperature and political boundaries of southern Africa. Thereafter, the Stone Age record is dealt with in chronological order from the australopithecine sites (pp. 16-101) to the most recent 'Strandloper' middens along the South African coast (pp. 403-438). A final chapter is entitled Doubts and Speculations (pp. 439-450) and discusses some of the more controversial interpretations aired in the earlier chapters. The Bibliography is extensive but is largely concerned with items published before 1970, and there is a fairly detailed index. As the page references indicate, the emphasis is on the details of the Stone Age rather than on a general overview and theoretical concepts. The chapter on the Earliest Hominid Sites is by far the longest. The subsections deal with a review of research, dolomite cave formation, details of the individual sites, dating and correlation, descriptions of the more important hominid finds and the interpretations that have been offered, a discussion of the osteodontokeratic theory and the evidence for stone artefact manufacture, as well as a review of the associated faunal remains. The eight following chapters deal in turn with the Acheulian and related industries, the Pietersburg Complex, the Bambata Complex, the Howiesonspoort and related sites, the Oakhurst, Wilton and Smithfield Complexes and the 'Strandloper' sites. Each of these chapters follows a similar pattern, discussing first the historical background to the terminology and then dealing with the typology of the complex or industry, the distribution of the industries, a description of each of the industries recognized and then general discussions on the dating, associated human and faunal remains and any climatic or environmental data that are available. A short discussion summarizes the interpretation and problems. These chapters are all well illustrated with maps, diagrams, artefact drawings and tables redrawn from ther sources. Sampson sets out his aims as, firstly, to provide a service to archaeological scholars by collating information from sources that may not be readily available to students in countries outside southern Africa and, secondly, to attempt to revise the terminological framework of the Stone Age record in southern Africa, based on results acquired by himself and others up to 1971. Although published in 1974, it was written largely prior to 1970 and therefore does not include some significant recent advances in a research field that is rapidly expanding and changing. In his Preface he comments that: