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Work on large samples of southern African archaeological lithics, probably used to tip hunting weapons amongst other things, and ethno-historical bone and iron weapon tips of known use exposed limitations in the tip cross-sectional area (TCSA) method's robustness for hypothesising about variation in ancient weapon-delivery systems. Here, we list some of the limitations and discuss a few recently published improvements in tip cross-sectional area ranges and data presentation. Our main contribution is the meaningful enlargement of datasets obtained from hafted weapon tips and/or weapon tips of known use mostly from sub-Saharan Africa. We briefly discuss why this region is relevant for studying trends in the evolution and development of hunting weapons. Our new data are used to strengthen and constrain the different TCSA ranges used as proxies for poisoned arrow tips, un-poisoned arrow tips, javelin tips, stabbing-spear tips, and to suggest a working TCSA range for thrusting-spear tips. We demonstrate that the calibrated TCSA ranges have robust statistical integrity as proxies for the different weapon-delivery systems they represent. Apart from the dart-tip category, the TCSA method has now been improved to accommodate more nuanced and accurate interpretations, while further strengthening hypothesis building about ancient weapon systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this contribution, we provide a species and edible part list for the foodplant population of the Wonderboom landscape at the eastern end of the Magaliesberg range in Gauteng, South Africa, as a current proxy to hypothesise about past foraging behaviours. The greater Magaliesberg region is an ancient, relatively stable ecotone between the Grassland and Savanna Biomes, with its roots in the plateau uplift at ~ 4 Ma. We present the foraging landscape (foraging-scape) in a three-tier model at intervals of ~ 12.5 km, ~ 35 km, and ~ 70 km to assess proportional increases in foodplant species and edible parts when the foraging range is increased. We demonstrate that foraging within a ~ 12.5 km radius from the site provides an exceptionally rich foodplant landscape today. Thus, if the foodplant fitness potential during the Middle Pleistocene was roughly similar, it is reasonable to hypothesise that the Wonderboom foragers may have had little reason—apart from perhaps famine or drought—to go beyond a daily range for collecting plant foods. The Wonderboom ~ 12.5 km radius surface area is broadly similar to the footprint of the Cradle of Humankind ~ 40–70 km to its southwest. Directly comparing their foodplant species inventories shows that currently, 185 more foodplants grow around Wonderboom than in the Cradle. Our results suggest that the ecotone locality of Wonderboom, between the Grassland Biome to the south and the Savanna Biome to the north, may have had adaptive advantages in terms of its foodplant foraging potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present the recently discovered desert kites of South Africa in terms of landscape-based data derived from LiDAR scanning that enable us to compare the morphometric and topographic characteristics of the individual kite funnels. We report on a least-cost-path analysis, and use both older and younger ethno-historical and ethno-archaeological observations to help understand possible animal and human interaction with the Keimoes kite landscape. Our results highlight the hunters’ understanding of animal behaviours and migration patterns, and the minimum requirements for funnel construction. We show that all the sites were constructed within 2 km of seasonal water pans, and that elevation relative to the surrounding landscape was key to the placement of the kites. We further found that the Keimoes kite landscape was probably one of complex inter-connectedness, with dynamic human land-use patterns interlaced with concepts of inheritable custodianship across generations. The Keimoes kite funnels are most similar to those of the Negev Desert in the Levant, and demonstrate (against long-held opinion) that southern African hunter-gatherers in arid regions intentionally modified their landscape to optimise the harvesting of ungulates such as migrating gazelle—in this case the local, desert-adapted Springbok. Our landscape approach provides a nuanced understanding of these features within the southern African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site in South Africa is renowned for its karstic cave systems, which have yielded extensive fossil and stone tool assemblages dating to the Plio-Pleistocene period. The archaeological record from these caves has provided significant evidence for the evolution of lithic technology in southern Africa. Open-air sites have also been documented in this region, although they rarely receive scientific attention due to their lack of spatial and stratigraphic contexts. However, archaeological research has demonstrated that lithic production strategies were organized through landscape-scale constraints including the availability of raw materials and the energetic costs of their transport. As such, the study of open-air Stone Age sites in the Cradle of Humankind can potentially offer insight into the relationships between raw material procurement and reduction processes in this region. Here, we present a case study from the open-air locality of Elandsdrift Farm, which preserves a palimpsest of Earlier and Middle Stone Age lithic materials. While the chronological and spatial contexts of this locality present significant interpretative challenges, the Elandsdrift Farm lithic materials are not without scientific value. A landscape archaeological approach is employed to explore the influence of raw material transport on tool-making. Trends in core reduction intensity and flaking efficiency suggest that landform ruggedness and distances traveled to procure raw materials significantly influenced lithic production strategies throughout the Early to Middle Pleistocene. Despite the contextual challenges presented by open-air localities, landscape archaeological methods can inform the economic aspects of lithic scatters in this region, which cannot be easily inferred from archaeological assemblages in cave contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]