Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Recent research has revealed that during the Stone Age, early humans in southern Africa traveled long to obtain colorful stones, which served as raw materials for tool production and pigments.
Early human ingenuity and resourcefulness in utilizing available resources to advance technology date back a long time.
View of the Mgwayiza valley; (b) detail of red jasper outcrop with white quartz veins; (c) knapped materials. Source
The team of researchers led by Dr. Gregor D. Bader from the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, studied worked stone tools from archaeological sites dating back up to 40,000 years, as well as natural rock deposits located in the present-day Kingdom of Eswatini, near the borders of South Africa and Mozambique (formerly Swaziland).
Their findings revealed that ancient hunter-gatherers traveled distances ranging from 30 to 100 kilometers to acquire specific rock materials known for their vivid colors, including red jasper, green chalcedony, and black chert.
To reconstruct the movements and migrations of early humans, it helps to examine entire landscapes. So, the team included several sites with tools and potential sources of raw materials into its study.
Natural outcrop of red jasper in the Mgwayiza Valley, Eswatini .Image credit: Credit: Mbongeni Dlamini
In their study, the researchers examined stone artifacts from the four sites of Hlalakahle, Siphiso, Sibebe and Nkambeni.
According to Gregor Bader, Eswatini offers favorable conditions for this endeavor, as evidenced by the collections housed at the National Museum in Lobamba. The museum serves as a repository for artifacts from various archaeological sites.
In collaboration with Dr. Brandi MacDonald from the research reactor in Missouri, USA, Bader’s team used neutron activation analysis to determine the origin of the stones. In this process, the stone samples are irradiated with neutrons, resulting in an interaction between the atomic nuclei in the sample and the neutrons.
In this process, the resulting products and the radiation released reveal the quantitative composition of the stone sample, including the elements it contains and their isotopes, which are atoms of the same element with different masses. The specific pattern – in research, this is also referred to as a geochemical fingerprint – is characteristic of stone materials of various types and their respective places of origin.
(a) View of the Mgwayiza valley; (b, c) Green chalcedony outcrop. Source
Bader says that, despite the method being destructive, it necessitates only minimal sample quantities while yielding exceptional results. By comparing the analytical patterns of the utilized stone with those of rocks found in the region, it becomes possible to determine the origin of the raw stone accurately.
Artifacts crafted from green chalcedony and red jasper discovered at the sites had identical geochemical characteristics to those found in rock deposits located within the Mgwayjza Valley, located 20 to 100 kilometers away.
“We have calculated whether stones could have been transported via the Komati and Mbuluzi rivers, but only as far as Hlalakahle. The other sites—Siphiso, Sibebe, and Nkambeni—are much farther. Even assuming hunter-gatherers took the shortest routes, there are still significant distances between deposits and usage sites. An exchange with other early human groups is also possible,” says Bader.
The stones were transported over long distances.
“Colorful and shiny materials seemed attractive to early humans; they often used them for their tools. We can only speculate as to whether the colors had a symbolic meaning.”
According to Bader, an intriguing discovery is the shift in color preferences over time.
During the Middle Stone Age in Africa, approximately 40,000 to 28,000 years ago, black and white chert and green chalcedony were commonly used materials. However, in the later Stone Age, around 30,000 to 2,000 years ago, red jasper became particularly favored.
Both types of stones were found close together within the same valley and river deposits. colors occurred close together in the same valley and in the same river deposits.
This indicates a deliberate selection of different materials at different times throughout history,” says Bader.
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer