Percorrer por autor "Pargeter, Justin"
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- Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in AfricaPublication . Cerezo-Román, Jessica I.; Sawchuk, Elizabeth; Schilt, Flora Cecilia; Bertacchi, Alex; Buckley, Gina; Chibisa, Edwin; Fahey, B. Patrick; Falchenberg, Sofia Gunilla Hedman; Kaliba, Potiphar; Kennett, Douglas J.; Mercader, Julio; Pargeter, Justin; Stock, Jay; Szymanski, Ryan; Thompson, Jessica C.Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures. We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers. A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to similar to 9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation. Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles. High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments.
- Late pleistocene and holocene fauna from waterfall bluff rRck shelter, mpondoland, South AfricaPublication . Oster, Sandee; Reynard, Jerome P.; Cawthra, Hayley C.; Esteban, Irene; Pargeter, Justin; Fisher, Erich ChristopherArchaeological deposits from Waterfall Bluff Rock Shelter (Eastern Cape) span from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (similar to 39-29 ka) to the mid-Holocene (similar to 8 ka), showing persistent human occupations. The site's consistent proximity to the shoreline and stable coastline over millennia makes it key for exploring human settlement patterns. This study reports on preliminary results of identifiable fauna from Marine Isotope Stage 3 to the Early Holocene layers at Waterfall Bluff. The identified species may suggest a mosaic environment, although caution is warranted given the small sample size. Furthermore, leopard seal remains were recovered in layers dating to the Last Glacial Maximum. This is the first direct evidence of a leopard seal recovered from Pleistocene and Holocene archaeo-faunal assemblages along the South African coast. Significance: Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) sites are rare in southern Africa. Waterfall Bluff in the Eastern Cape shows that human occupation persisted there from Marine Isotope Stage 3 to the mid-Holocene. A leopard seal tooth was identified in the LGM layers, making it the first evidence of this species recovered off South Africa's coast.
- What can lithics tell us about hominin technology's ‘primordial soup’? an origin of stone knapping via the emulation of mother naturePublication . Eren, Metin I.; Lycett, Stephen J.; Bebber, Michelle R.; Key, Alastair; Buchanan, Briggs; Finestone, Emma; Benson, Joseph; Gürbüz, Rebecca Biermann; Cebeiro, Adela; Garba, Roman; Grunow, Anne; Lovejoy, C. Owen; MacDonald, Danielle; Maletic, Erica; Miller, G. Logan; Ortiz, Joseph D.; Paige, Jonathan; Pargeter, Justin; Proffitt, Tomos; Raghanti, Mary Ann; Riley, Teal; Rose, Jeffrey Ian; Singer, David M.; Walker, Robert S.The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes—knapping—is thought to represent a significant stage in hominin technological evolution because it facilitated the exploitation of novel resources, including meat obtained from medium-to-large-sized vertebrates. The invention of knapping may have occurred via an additive (i.e., cumulative) process that combined several innovative stages. Here, we propose that one of these stages was the hominin use of ‘naturaliths,’ which we define as naturally produced sharp stone fragments that could be used as cutting tools. Based on a review of the literature and our own research, we first suggest that the ‘typical’ view, namely that sharp-edged stones are seldom produced by nonprimate processes, is likely incorrect. Instead, naturaliths can be, and are being, endlessly produced in a wide range of settings and thus may occur on the landscape in far greater numbers than archaeologists currently understand or acknowledge. We then explore the potential role this ‘naturalith prevalence’ may have played in the origin of hominin stone knapping. Our hypothesis suggests that the origin of knapping was not a ‘Eureka!’ moment whereby hominins first made a sharp flake by intention or by accident and then sought something to cut, but instead was an emulative process by hominins aiming to reproduce the sharp tools furnished by mother nature and already in demand. We conclude with a discussion of several corollaries our proposal prompts, and several avenues of future research that can support or question our proposal.