title: Diachronic Change within the Still Bay at Blombos Cave, South Africa.
abstract: Characteristically shaped bifacial points are stone artefacts with which the Middle Stone Age Still Bay techno-complex in Southern Africa is identified. Traditional approaches such as chaîne opératoire and two-dimensional metrics in combination with attribute analyses have been used to analyse variability within Still Bay point assemblages. Here we develop a protocol to extract and analyse high resolution 3-dimensional geometric morphometric information about Still Bay point morphology. We also investigate ways in which the independent variables of time, raw-material and tool size may be driving patterns of shape variation in the Blombos Cave point assemblage. We demonstrate that at a single, stratified Still Bay site points undergo significant modal changes in tool morphology and standardization. Our results caution against (1) treatment of the Still Bay as a static technological entity and (2) drawing demographic inferences stemming from grouping Still Bay point collections within the same cultural label.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Will
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gunz
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religious Studies, University of Bergen, Øysteinsgate 3, N-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: van Niekerk
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religious Studies, University of Bergen, Øysteinsgate 3, N-5007 Bergen, Norway; Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Henshilwood
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Shannon P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: McPherron
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D061006:Bays; D059552:Caves; D003469:Culture; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D049690:History, Ancient; D008903:Minerals; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013019:South Africa; D013997:Time Factors; D054041:Weapons / Q000266:history* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D008903:Minerals