Fauresmith Industry

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The Fauresmith industry (also Fauresmith culture or complex, Fauresmithian / ien, for terminology see appendix ) refers to a subgroup of the late phase of the Acheuléen technology complex with typical tool characteristics, especially of the Middle Stone Age in the southern part of South Africa , which is roughly the outgoing European Old Paleolithic and early Middle Paleolithic . The hallmarks are relatively small hand axes . It belongs to the same section as the Sangoan and, like this, embodies the transition from the Early Stone Age . It is named after the town of Fauresmith in the Free State province . The fund area extends north of the central Orange to the former Transvaal province in the north (name up to 1994, today the four northeastern provinces of South Africa). (For technical terminology with the distinctions complex, industry and inventory as well as the tool categories (modes) m1 to m5, see prehistoric terminology and systematics .)

Periodization and Carrier

Periodization: As with the Sangoan and Lupemban, the dating of the Fauresmith had to be moved back considerably. The Fauresmith industry following the Stellenbosch industry in South Africa does not date, as previously assumed, to the early part of the Upper Pleistocene between around 100,000 and 75,000 BP , but in its beginnings around the same time as the Sangoan at around 420,000 BP and, like this, becomes the late Associated with the Acheuleans. Together, both form the so-called " South African Older Stone Age ", a period that roughly corresponds to the transition from the European Old to the Middle Paleolithic . The Fauresmith industry, also known as the late or end- Acheulées, is therefore considered to be the final phase of the Acheuléen and continues its forms, albeit significantly reduced. Fauresmith industry and Sangoan used to be grouped together as First Intermediate , the sub-Saharan find complexes that can be roughly paralleled with the end of the Old Paleolithic and the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, while the subsequent Middle Stone Age roughly corresponds to the circum-Mediterranean Upper Paleolithic .
According to new findings, however, it is no longer completely certain that the Fauresmith industry is a separate, i.e. independent industry, as its artifacts were almost always found in areas where primarily slate ( Hornfels ) for tool production has been used. But the details are uncertain.

Carrier: Because of the different habitats , it is believed that two different population groups could have been involved. The Fauresmith industry is associated with the Saldanha man, who is assigned to Homo rhodesiensis , an archaic Homo sapiens , or Homo erectus (both are controversial).
At this cultural level in South Africa, the porters also sought out caves such as the Cave of Hearths as a storage site to a significant extent , in which the three lowest cultural levels belong to the Fauresmith industry. They are 10 m thick and do not differ from one another in terms of their equipment, a sign of a longer cultural continuity. The fact that those of the Early Stone Age were not found anywhere below the Fauresmith stage attests to this fact.

Distribution, dating and tool inventory

Distribution: The Fauresmith industry such as the approximately simultaneous Sangoan apparently reflect different living and environmental conditions. The Sangoan is mainly found in forest regions of the Congo Basin extending to the more overgrown areas of southern Africa such as the Zambezi Valley , parts of Zimbabwe and possibly regions in the Transvaal (today's provinces of North West , Limpopo , Mpumalanga and Gauteng ) and the province Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal ). The Fauresmith industry, on the other hand, concentrated on savannah areas, especially the South African central plateau, especially in the west of the Orange Free State (now the Free State ). The tool inventories are correspondingly different.
The Fauresmith industry includes the local industries of Mossel Bay , Pietersburg , Howiesons's Poort and the Bambata Cave, as well as the Stillbay industry in Kenya and Uganda , the only site outside of South Africa.

Dating: A relative chronology of the Fauresmith industry and Sangoan was found in some South African caves. Middle Stone Age layers with relatively coarse equipment and a few choppers lay beneath the layers with well-made blade tip equipment (Bambata cave). In the Transvaal caves, Middle Stone Age layers were superimposed on those of the Fauresmith industry (Cave of Hearth with six layers of the Pietersburg complex ).
The Wonderwerk Cave and Kathu Pan are particularly important for the early dating of 420,000 BP. At the open-air discovery site of Rooidam near Kimberley , a freshwater limestone layer directly above the Fauresmith discovery site was dated to 174,000 ± 20,000 BP using the uranium-thorium method , so that initially a lithostratigraphic approximate, but not directly correlated with the finds Upper limit was adopted as the terminus post quem of about 200,000 BP, which, however, had to be moved back to 200,000 years according to more recent dating.

Tool inventory: Small, very well-crafted hand axes with round ends and concave sides as well as cleavers are typical . However, hand axes alone cannot be used for the subdivision into Acheuléen and Fauresmith, since the Fauresmith occurs simultaneously with other inventories of the non-Acheuléen type, some of which are closely adjacent or even on the same territory. Its main feature is rather the use of slate , so that in connection with the Fauresmith industry one can no longer speak of a pure hand ax industry, but rather of a local special form of late acheulée. In addition, there are no stratigraphic transitional forms between the Acheuleans and the Middle Stone Age. The same goes for the Sangoan.
The Fauresmith contains more numerous in a more developed Levallois - tee Technology Equipment manufactured with Middle Stone Age features, particularly triangular projectile tips , which can be processed one or two sides and were probably used as a lance and spear points. As in Sangoan, the tees were developed further into blades that are at least twice as long as they are wide. Like those of the Sangoan, the hand axes are almond and heart-shaped, oval or lance-shaped (lanceolate). In addition, there are scraper-like triangular, oval or parallel-sided shapes, which were not infrequently produced using the Levallois technique with prepared cores. For the first time, preference was given to processing slate, which occurs in the Cape, the Orange Free State and Natal and is easy to work with. Brakfontein 321 and Riverview VI in particular are relevant sites for this type, as is the Cave of Hearths.

Literature and Sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Phillipson, p. 74.
  2. ^ Britannica, Vol. 4, p. 702, Vol. 26, p. 57.
  3. ↑ Brockhaus, Vol. 7, p. 142; Müller-Karpe, p. 108.
  4. ↑ Phillipson, p. 74.
  5. ^ Britannica, Vol. 4, p. 702.
  6. ↑ Müller-Karpe, p. 108 f.
  7. ↑ Clark, Vol. 1, p. 211.
  8. ^ Britannica, Vol. 4, p. 702.
  9. ↑ Müller-Karpe, p. 109.
  10. ↑ Clark, Vol. 1, pp. 49, 56.
  11. ↑ Phillipson, p. 74.
  12. ↑ Clark, Vol. 1, p. 246; Phillipson, p. 74.
  13. ↑ Clark, Vol. 1, pp. 211 f.
  14. ↑ Britannica, Vol. 4, p. 702, Vol. 11, p. 386, Vol. 26, p. 57; Müller-Karpe, p. 108.
  15. ^ Van Riet Lowe, 61-164.
  16. ↑ Phillipson, p. 104.