Page 110 - Bulletin 15 2011

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technology. This method dates the time since quartz grains were last exposed to the sun by

measuring the stored products of radioactive decay in their crystalline structure. Blombos is
another warning that we should not expect to find ‘the sequence’ in every cave and that

absolute independent dates are needed to fit separate cave sequences together. Of particular
interest at Blombos is the association of these dates and assemblages with undoubtedly

marked ochre, bone tools and small beads made from estuarine shells. These are certainly not
characteristic of European Neanderthal sites and appear there only after 35,000 years ago,

whereas southern Africans at 75,000 years ago were already behaviourally as well as

anatomically modern.

We now have many sites that show these innovative behaviours, and more, prior to 60,000
years ago from Sibudu Cave in the northeast to Pinnacle Point in the south and around to

Diepkloof in the northwest (Texier et al 2010). (Fig. 2.16). The appearance of modern
anatomy and associated behaviours appears to be a phenomenon of the fynbos region. The

general pattern is that Still Bay assemblages are found quite late in the MSA sequence,

arguably dated to about 70,000 to 90,000 years ago, with Howiesons Poort assemblages
unquestionably later, although perhaps with overlap, lasting till 60,000 years ago. Earlier

MSA people seem to have been much less interested in caves as places to live and their

assemblages are far more commonly found in the open. They may also be scattered more
widely across the subcontinent, perhaps a reflection of changing climates and environments,

though this is as yet difficult to prove.

At Diepkloof on the west coast (Texier et al 2010) the Howiesons Poort assemblages, again
well characterised by the backed segments, but also demonstrating a keen interest in fine-

grained rocks and the production of blades to work with, are associated with several hundred

fragments of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell. These are, in some cases, demonstrably
parts of broken eggshell water flasks and are the earliest examples anywhere in the world of

artefacts made specifically for water storage and transport. Furthermore, the broken fragments
of these flasks have been intentionally marked in a way that suggests the use of a coded but

flexible system of meaning used by the makers, much like that employed very much later by
pottery makers in the Iron Age. The marks could indicate individual or group identities.

Alongside these are many pieces of clearly worked ochre and an assemblage of rather poorly