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Quartz crystal materiality in Terminal Pleistocene Lesotho

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2019

Justin Pargeter  and
Jamie Hampson
Justin Pargeter*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 201 Dowman Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Centre for Anthropological Research & Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa
Jamie Hampson
Affiliation:
University of Exeter, Department of Humanities, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

The motivations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers for selecting particular lithic raw materials are often explained in rigidly functional or symbolic terms. By examining the exploitation of crystal quartz at two Terminal Pleistocene rockshelter sites (Ntloana Tšoana and Sehonghong) in Lesotho, southern Africa, the authors reveal that lithic reduction required a form of engagement unique to that material's specific properties. The preferential use of quartz crystals—irrespective of the availability of a wider range of raw materials—demonstrates agency and variability in the technological decisions.

Keywords

LesothoTerminal Pleistocenequartz crystalethnohistorymateriality
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 367 , February 2019 , pp. 11 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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