South African Middle Stone Age technologies in context (MICRO-MSA)

Full title

South African Middle Stone Age technologies in context: understanding stone tool function, hafting, and raw material strategies through detailed microscopic analysis (MICRO-MSA)

Principal investigator

Noora Taipale

Funding

Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS (FC 43275)

Years

2023–2026

Summary

The postdoctoral research project “South African Middle Stone Age technologies in context: understanding stone tool function, hafting, and raw material strategies through detailed microscopic analysis” (MICRO-MSA) funded by the FNRS studies past human behaviour between 65 and 30 000 years ago in South Africa, a key region for understanding human evolution. The aim is to gain new insights into technological change during a period that coincides with major events, including the dispersal of Homo sapiens within and out of Africa, through functional analysis of stone tools.

The work focuses on two important Middle Stone Age sites, Rose Cottage Cave and Klasies River, and is carried out in collaboration with colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. While previous functional investigations have been mainly concerned with hunting weaponry, this study aims to explore the links between Middle Stone Age subsistence and craft activities and stone tool technology more broadly. Particular attention is paid to the use of unretouched artefacts, to stone tool hafting, and to the impact of local and regional geology on stone tool manufacture, maintenance, and use.

The project relies on experimental archaeology to produce reference material tailored to each site context. The functional results will be interpreted in the framework of available data on the environment, subsistence, cultural contacts, site occupation, and taphonomy, benefitting from the ongoing multidisciplinary research in South Africa.