Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:24:14.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Futher Reflections on the Isimila Acheulian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

G.H. Cole  and
M.R. Kleindienst
G.H. Cole
Affiliation:
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA
M.R. Kleindienst
Affiliation:
Field Museum of Natural History, 162 Beechwood Avenue, Willowdale, Ontario, Canada M2L 1K1.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Uranium series dates on bone from the Isimila Prehistoric Site, Tanzania, indicate that this East African Acheulian site may be older than originally estimated. They raise the possibility that the Middle Pleistocene sediments containing Acheulian occurrences span a longer range of time than had been supposed. This could add to the plausibility of a contention by Hansen and Keller that differences between artifacts in the uppermost Acheulian horizon and in lower-lying beds are primarily a reflection of change through time rather than a result of different human activities.

A summary of the artifact content and associations of the several archeological stratigraphic units is given, and, although a sort of “developmental sequence” can be seen, the existence of discrepant occurrences suggests that an interpretation of directional change as a “function of time” does not, in fact, well accommodate the evidence.

Quantitative changes in artifact class proportions in aggregates seem just as likely to be related to local exploitation potentials for early man which were produced during the process of basin in-filling, while observed qualitative differences in the lower-lying horizons may be due to samples biased because of limited exposures which are restricted to a single sedimentary environment.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 346 - 355
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Binford, L.R., (1972a). An Archaeological Perspective. Seminar Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R., (1972b). Model-building-paradigms, and the current state of Paleolithic research. Binford, L.R., An Archaeological Perspective Seminar Press, New York 244–274.Google Scholar
Binford, S.R., (1968). Ethnographic data and understanding the Pleistocene. Lee, R.D., de Vore, I., Man the Hunter Aldine, Chicago 274–275.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., De Sonneville-Bordes, D., (1970). The significance of variability in Paleolithic assemblages. World Archaeology 2, 61–73.Google Scholar
Cahen, D., (1973). Le site archéologique de la Kamoa (région du Shaba, République du Zaïre). De l'âge de la pierre ancien à l'âge du fer. Ph.D. thesis Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, Université Libre de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Cahen, D., Martin, P., (1972). Classification formelle automatique et industries lithiques. Interprétation des hachereaux de la Kamoa. Annales Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Serie in 8°, Sciences Humaines 76.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., (1962). The Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site: An Interim Report. Mortelmans, G., Nenquin, J., Actes du IVe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire. Annales Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Serie in 8°, Sciences Humaines 40, 195–201.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., (1969). Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site. Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., (1973). A comparison of the late Acheulian industries of Africa and the Middle East. Paper presented at IXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. preprint no. 1926.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., Haynes, C.V., (1970). An elephant butchery site at Mwenganda's village Karonga, Malawi, and its relevance for palaeolithic archaeology. World Archaeology 1, 390–411.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., Kleindienst, M.R., (1974). The Stone Age cultural sequence: terminology typology, and raw material. Clark, J.D., Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 71–106.Google Scholar
Cole, G.H., (1961). Culture change in the Middle-Upper Pleistocene transition in Africa. Ph.D. thesis Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
Cole, G.H., (1967). The later Acheulian and Sangoan of southern Uganda. Bishop, W.W., Clark, J.D., Background to Evolution in Africa University of Chicago Press, Chicago 481–526.Google Scholar
Coryndon, S.C., Gentry, A.W., Harris, J.M., Hooijer, D.A., Maglio, V.J., Howell, F.C., (1972). Mammalian remains from the Isimila Prehistoric Site, Tanzania. Nature (London) 237, 292.Google Scholar
Haldemann, E.G., (1962). Geological and geomorphological aspects. Isimila, an Acheulian Occupation Site in the Iringa Highlands, Southern Highlands Province, Tanganyika. F. C. Howell, G. H. Cole and M. R. KleindienstHaldemann, E.G., Mortelmans, G., Nenquin, J., Actes tu IVe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire. Annales Musée Royal de l'Afrique Central, Serie in 8°, Sciences Humaines 40, 45–60.Google Scholar
Hansen, C.L., Keller, C.M., (1971). Environment and activity patterning at Isimila Korongo, Iringa District, Tanzania: A preliminary report. American Anthropologist 73, 1201–1211.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., (1961). Isimila: A Paleolithic site in Africa. Acientific American 205, 118–129.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., Clark, J.D., (1963). Acheulian hunter-gatherers of sub-Saharan Africa. Howell, F.C., Bourlière, F., African Ecology and Human Evolution Aldine, Chicago 458–533.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., Cole, G.H., Kleindienst, M.R., (1962). Isimila, an Acheulian occupation site in the Iringa Highlands Southern Highlands Province, Tanganyika. Mortelmans, G., Nenquin, J., Actes du IVe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire. Annales Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Serie in 8°, Sciences Humaines 40, 43–80.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., Cole, G.H., Kleindienst, M.R., Szabo, B.J., Oakley, K.P., (1972). Uranium-series dating of bone from the Isimila Prehistoric Site, Tanzania. Nature (London) 237, 51–52.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1969). Studies of early culture in East Africa. World Archaeology 1, 1–28.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1971). The diet of early man: Aspects of archaeological evidence from lower and middle Pleistocene sites in Africa. World Archaeology 2, 278–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Isaac, G.L., (1972a). Identification of cultural entities in the Middle Pleistocene. Hugot, H.J., Actes de 6° Session, Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire Dakar Les Imprimeries Réunies de Chambéry, Chambéry 556–562.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1972b). Some experiments in quantitative methods for characterising assemblages of Acheulian artifacts. Hugot, H.J., Actes de 6° Session Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire Dakar Les Impremeries Réunies de Chambéry, Chambéry 547–555.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1973). Early phases of human behavior: Models in Lower Paleolithic archaeology. Clarke, D.L., Models in Archaeology Methuen, London 167–199.Google Scholar
Kleindienst, M.R., (1959). Composition and significance of a late Acheulian assemblage, based on an analysis of East African oscupation sites. Ph.D. thesis Department of Anthropology,University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kleindienst, M.R., (1962). Components of the East African Acheulian assemblage: an analytic approach. Mortelmans, G., Nenquin, J., Actesdu IVe Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire. Annales Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Serie in 8°, Sciences Humaines 40, 81–112.Google Scholar
Kleindienst, M.R., Cole, G.H., (1973). Revision of geological nomenclature at the Isimila Prehistoric Site, Tanzania. The Pan-African Congress on Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, Bulletin of the Commission on Nomenclature and Terminology 6, (In press).Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D., (1973). Cultural patterns in the Olduvai sequence. Paper presented at IXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. preprint no. 2009.Google Scholar
Linton, R., (1936). The Study of Man. Appleton-Century, New York.Google Scholar
Longacre, W.A., (1972). Editor's forward. Bordes, F., A Tale of Two Caves Harper and Row, New York vii–ix.Google Scholar
Turekian, K.K., Bada, J.L., (1972). The dating of fossil bones. Bishop, W.W., Miller, J.A., Calibration of Hominoid Evolution University of Toronto Press, Toronto 171–185.Google Scholar