A Macrolithic Factory Site at Masari, Kavango (South West Africa/Namibia): Affinities and Interpretation

South African Archaeological Society

A Macrolithic Factory Site at Masari, Kavango (South West Africa/Namibia): Affinities andInterpretationAuthor(s): Myra ShackleySource: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 144 (Dec., 1986), pp. 69-80Published by: South African Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3888192 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 08:50

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

South African Archaeological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toThe South African Archaeological Bulletin.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.51 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:50:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=saas

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3888192?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


The South African Archaeological Bulletin 69

A MACROLITHIC FACTORY SITE AT MASARI, KAVANGO (SOUTH WEST AFRICA/NAMIBIA): AFFINITIES AND INTERPRETATION*

MYRA SHACKLEY Department of Archaeology, University of Leicester Leicester LEJ 7RH, England

ABSTRACT

A factory site with massive core axes, picks and large circular scrapers, was located at Masari, near Sambiu on the Okavango River, associated with outcrops of pink silcrete. Working debris, including conjoiningflakes, was dispersed over an area of c. 14 500 sq m and lightly held in a surface of red Kalahari sands. It is suggested, on typological grounds, that the assemblage is a regional variation of the recent Later Stone Age Tshitolian industries of Angola, Zambia and Zaire, dating to less than 5000 BP. Possible functions for these unusual artefacts are discussed in the light of ethnographic evidence.

* Manuscript received January 1986, revised May 1986

Introduction The implements of Masari were noted first by Father

Hartmann of the Roman Catholic Mission at Sambiu, some 10 km nearer Rundu on the Okavango River (Fig. 1). Hartmann's collection numbers some 7 000 finished artefacts which give an impression of remarkable uniformity and look like the results of a modem production line. Ten percent of this collection was measured, described and analysed in the course of a visit made by the writer to Kavango in May 1985 when it proved possible to locate the original factory site, complete with clear knapping events, conjoining flakes, and all the litter of stone tool manufacture. This paper attempts to coordinate Hartmann's collection with the working site from which he extracted the objects. The distribution of the material at the site was mapped and gridded and squares positioned over identifiable single knapping events. All material was collected, sieved and weighed.

The Site The pink Kalahari silcretes, identified by J Ward (pers.

comm.), which are fine grained, easy to work and abundantly available, outcrop in two localities at Masari, but in one place the area has been much disturbed by later quarrying for road metal. Similar disturbance has also taken place at the main Masari site itself (Fig. 2) but at certain localities downslope towards the Okavango the artefacts are clearly still in situ, as evidenced by cores and conjoining flakes. The workshop debris is scattered loosely over an area approximately 14 500 sq m in extent, downslope from the outcrops and on top of semi-consolidated red Kalahari sands (Fig. 3) that form a permanent vegetated linear dune terminating in a steep scarp slope at the Okavango. These sands cap both the silcretes and a complex of alluvial gravels and calcretes which may be seen in exposures west of the working sites (Fig. 4) and also 10 km upstream at Sambiu itself where sections were examined by Netterberg (1974).

Netterberg noted that the sands contained Wilton artefacts, and that they overlay an alluvial gravel with Middle Stone Age material capping indurated calcretes. Calcretes from a lower terrace at this point have since produced Earlier Stone Age material including cleavers (Hartmann, pers. comm.). These observations suggested that the Masari industry might be quite recent in date, although the precise relationship between the Sambiu terraces and Masari itself cannot be determined in the absence of altitudinal data.

Several discrete knapping areas were visible, where conjoining manufacturing debris was observed, and 7 x 1 sq m areas (numbered as flaking events 1-4, 5a, Sb and 6) were gridded, sieved and sampled. All the contents of these squares were retrieved for later analysis. Originally it had been decided to grid and random-sample the entire area, but this was not possible because of the patchy disturbance. Several sections were cut through the red sand to the silcretes within the debris area, but no vertical stratification was observed. The whole area was planned at a scale of 1:20 and relevant exposures were drawn and photographed (Figs 3-4).

The Industry In the laboratory the samples were sieved and the cardinal

dimensions of all objects and working flakes more than 30 mm long were measured. Metrical results are summarized in Table 1. A sample of 7 000 finished pieces from the site was available for study, including items now transferred to the Hartmann collection, but owing to pressure of time it was decided that a random sample of 10% would be measured and subjected to detailed typological analysis. The results are summarized in Table 2 and 3 and Figs 5-8. It is, of course, impossible to say whether Hartmann's collection was selective, but this seems to be unlikely. The industry was all made on the local pink silcrete and was extremely standardized, dominated by plano-convex pieces (more than 99% of core tools) and manufactured by simple hard-hammer flaking. Comparatively little retouch had been undertaken and 99% of the pieces were only unifacially worked, with steep simple retouch producing a characteristic edge profile (Figs Sa and Sb, 6:1 and 7:1). The industry was dominated by large core axes (Table 3) that were generally pointed. The most common forms were sub-triangular (Figs Sa, Sb and 6:1), a pointed form with a characteristic 'backbend' reminiscent of British Acheulian 'Wolvercote' axes and long double-pointed ovates.

True points were rare (4%, Table 3) and cores (less than 2%) were even rarer and generally either massive biconical or irregular, with a small number of true levallois examples (Table 3). With the exception of the thick, often triangular-sectioned picks and cores, all finished pieces were made on thick flakes. No implements had any use wear (nor would any be expected from a factory site). Types graded into each other and the flaking characteristics and working

S. Afr. archaeol. Bull. 41: 69-80. 1986



70 The South African Archaeological Bulletin

r~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~0 S

11F.

ny

L~~~~~~~u u

SW AFRICA/ Riaes.

Windhoek 23-50 S

AFRICA

Fig. 1. Location map of Masani and associated sites.

methods of objects differing in size by 200 mm and varying from core axe to point was frequently identical, conveying the impression that the makers had a small number of mental templates to which they rigidly adhered, merely varying the size of products in relation, perhaps, to their designated function. Most of the large core axes were made on primary flakes, patches of cortex often being still visible. Crescentic scrapers were present, though rare (0,45%), although large subcircular plano-convex scrapers with steep (75-85 degrees) working edges were more common (Table 3, Fig. 7:1).

The points included some fairly classic 'Mousterian'

examples, complete with facetted butts (Fig. 8:3). Few flakes were retouched but when this occurred the retouch was always unifacial and generally on only a restricted portion of the flake, making a small flake scraper (Figs 6:2 and 7:2).

Affinities and Chronology No other site of this type has yet been recorded from

Namibia, although there are several finds of core axes, notably those from Peperkorrel, near Windhoek (MacCalman & Viereck 1967) in an assemblage which also contained lanceolate points. Peperkorrel was considered to be the




A

ndarra Main road

* /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ y~~ ~~~ - /1 0 tS 0E- Y , ,

,- :' r , n ''= .9 .~~~~~- S %

Sampling lo nality I Pink nilcrt

offcoywseadlcto fpn iceeboulders.

yyf SSteep scarp slope

c2 Kraaln Kalahari

~~ Vegetatettio

Ma?in ground

Flood plainoodplai p

30-~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - - -. Ree -beds

20~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - -V - -0 - - - - =. - =. -t -xours - -

o10 0 M Rie Okanango 0f;0,$00 000 000 :5 0X-

A B~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

of factoryowaste iand location ofpink-silcrete boulders

O~~~osoiae 10 Kalahalswihriorendue

Fig. 3. Crosssection throuh aLoosehSandn ongsi2orete 0ine A-B. Siltswithcaorete-nodules

Fig.l3.zCros section through-- area-shown -on- Fig.-2 along line A-B.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- ----- -- -------

southernmost outlier of the 'Lupemban' before Wendt (1972) drew attention to some plano-convex Lupemban-like core axes from another surface quarry site near Keetmanshoop in the south of Namibia. In the former case proximity to the Seeis River and in the latter to the Fish River is unlikely to be coincidental (see below).

Outside Namibia, interesting parallels for Masari may be found in the lengthy and varied Middle Stone Age-Later Stone Age Lupemban-Tshitolian sequence of forested equatorial south-central Africa, including Lunda, north-east Angola, whose surface industries were comprehensively studied by Clark (1963). Most are made on gres polymorphe although silcretes from the Kalahari system were preferred to




Loose red Kalahari sand Nodular calcrete

m1 Loose red Kalahari Flood plain silt sand and rubble [jFodpansl CTT a cr7 teSilt with calcrete E j C a loc r e t e KI n o d u I e s

EF731 Indurated calcrete Pink silcrete

SECTIONS IN BULLDOZER SCRAPES. MASARI

1) SE NW Patches of desert

4m- varnish at interface

3-

2 -

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10m

4) N S

4m-

3

2

1 /

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10m

5) SE NW

4m-

3 edge of scarp

2 -

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10m

Fig. 4. Geological sections exposed in bulldozer scrapes 1, 4 and 5 (located on Fig. 2).

all other rocks where available. The sequence starts around 30 000 years ago and is subdivided into various phases and regional variations, but core axes and core scrapers remain very important. These latter, large thick flakes with edge trimming at angles of 64 to 87 degrees can be paralleled at Masari (Fig. 7:1), with the same flat face opposed to a steep working edge. It is possible to visualize these large scrapers (Table 3) as prototypes of core axes or even as stages in their manufacture, since there are such similarities in flaking techniques.

Clark (1963) considers that the shapely finely-trimmed circular forms, so typical of Masari (Fig. 6:1), may have functioned as push-planes. The small tool component of the Angolan industries includes flakes with identical large plain striking platforms with prominent bulbs (e.g. Figs 6:3 and 7:4), although the Masari flakes tend to be triangular and chunky (e.g. Fig. 6:3), side rather than end struck. At Masari nearly 30% of the cores (which are, admittedly, rare) are

Table 1. Material from flaking 'events' 1-6, Masari. Figures for events 1-4 and 6 are artefacts/m2 expressed as a percentage of total artefacts from that square, Event 5 extended over 2 squares, squares 5a and 5b.

Flaking 1 2 3 4 5a Sb 6 event

Artefact type ll ll l

Core 3,2 8,2 - 7,1 7,1 12 9,8

Core - 8,2 - 7,1 3,6 - - frag.___

Pick - - - - 3,6 - |

Ficron - 2 - -- - -

Crescent - 2 - - 3,6 - -

side scraper

Retouched 1,7 - - 7,1 3,6 - 1,6 rect. flake.

Retouched - - 1,3 7,1 - - 1,6 triangular flake.

Retouched - 4,1 - - - - -

levallois flake.

Unretouched 95 75,5 98,7 71,4 78,6 86,9 86,9

Table 2. Dimensions of unretouched flakes from flaking events at Masari. Total number = 314.

Flaking 1 2 3 4 5a Sb 6 events

Flake Dimensions (cm)__

N 57 37 76 10 22 22 53

= Mean 4,83 4,85 5,7 10,58 5,1 5,62 5,36 z L SD 1,37 1,6 2,29 5,89 2,64 1,7 1,45

F Mean 3,02 3,44 3,65 5,49 4,0 3,35 3,64

= SD 1,24 1,2 1,9 2,62 2,47 1,36 1,11

Lz Mean 1,22 1,37 1,64 2,64 1,61 1,69 0,77

: SD 0,67 0,84 1,29 1,5 1,33 1,15 0,60

levallois in type (Table 3, Figs 8:1 and 8:4). This paucity of cores also occurs in the Angolan sites and seems to result from the definition of the core chopper form; tools which were initially cores and then used for chopping. This would mean that the few extant examples of true cores exist, since they are, with the exception of the levallois cores, merely an intermediate stage in the production of a chopper.

The general lack of finished tools at Masari, also common on the Angolan sites, has been noticed by the writer at quarry sites in the Namib (Shackley 1984) and by Breuil (1944) for Angolan material. The assemblage from Masari seems in many ways to be more closely related to the later Tshitolian end of the Angolan cultural spectrum, than




Table 3. Composition of 10% sample of Masari artefacts from Hartmann's collection.

Artefacts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (N =661)

Dimensions

N 455 10 27 3 57 28 69 5 7

% total 68,8 1,5 4 0,4 8,5 4,2 10,3 0,7 1 assemblage

Max. (cm) 32,5 17,9 13,5 27,2 29,5 23,2 16 13,4 10,2

VMin. 4,0 10,4 1,1 16,7 5,8 6,6 3,7 9,9 4,6

LL Mean 11,9 9,8 10,2 21,1 15,5 13,9 7,5 9,3 4,5

SD 5,1 6,8 3 5,4 6,4 4 4,7 5 1,9

Max. 27 7,4 8,9 11,2 11,2 12 15 12,6 4,8

a Min. 2,5 4,9 4,9 2,1 8,1 5 3,1 8,7 2,4

:, Mean 7,26 6,2 7,6 11,1 11,2 8,4 8,6 10,3 4,5

SD 2,9 1,8 1,4 3 3,9 2,1 3,7 1,6 2,1

Max. 12,5 6 2,5 4,1 14,9 7,2 7 6,6 3,1

Min. 0,8 2,6 1 3,8 1,5 2,1 0,8 2,6 1,6

Mean 3,09 2,8 1,8 3,9 4,6 4,5 3,4 4,2 1,7

H-SD 1,7 1,4 0.8 0,1 2,9 1,5 1,6 1,4 0,6

to the Lupemban. The Tshitolian seems to have developed from the Lupemban on the fringes of the equatorial forest but to have been present as numerous regional variations, one of which we are doubtless seeing at Masari. In the Kwango and Kansai areas of southern Zaire, for example, assemblages from open plateau country contain large percentages of heavy duty tools including the characteristic core axes whereas sites in the river valleys contain high proportions of backed microliths. This has caused Phillipson (1978) to speculate about seasonal activity variations within a single population. The Tshitolian is especially interesting since it survived very late, large core axes near Point Noire in Congo-Brazzaville are associated with pottery and small bifacial points (Droux & Kelley 1939), and the Tshitolian continues into the early years AD. In the Congo fresh material, like that from Masari, is found in similar localities. The nearest is Katentania in Zaire, a massive quarry site in an exactly similar locality some 300 m long near worked boulders of gres polymorphe. The industry, dominated by the large circular plano-convex scrapers with some levallois cores, scarce bifaces and a few flakes, often side struck and with prominent bulbs and striking platforms, was described by De Faveaux (1955) who coined the evocative term 'paardehof' for the large round scrapers. The material was all extremely fresh and associated with large heaps of working debris, but no absolute date was available.

Phillipson (1978) describes several similar sites in the upper Zambezi valley in Zambia, notably the large open-air site of Cholwezi Rapids, where quarry workshop debris covered an area of more than 10 000 sq m. Here again no reliable dates were obtained but two potsherds from the uppermost level suggested to Phillipson that a quite recent date was most probable, within the last 3 000 years, or 5 000 years for the main macrolithic artefact-bearing stratum. The large irregular choppers and chunks of this oldest layer

(Cholwezi 4) which has the highest percentage of big flakes, core-choppers and less retouched pieces, most closely resembles the material from Masari. The unifacial choppers, triangular flakes and points also correspond to those of Cholwezi 4, and Phillipson (1978) sees these sites as potential variations within the general Tshitolian-Upper Tshitolian complex. In north-east Angola dates of 2750 ? 100 BP (UCLA-171) and 4880 ? 120 BP (UCLA-167) have been obtained for this complex at Calunda 3 and Mufo respectively (Ferguson & Libby 1963). The base of the Cholwezi-Chavuma sequence seems likely to date to between 1500 and 500 BC, terminating around AD 800 for the upper levels (Phillipson 1968). An outlier of these sites is seen at Kandanda on the Zambezi, only 20 km upstream from Katima Mulilo in Namibia. This also consisted of a large collection related to recent quarrying in redeposited riverside Kalahari sands overlying partly silicified sandstones. The objects are again very fresh, the largest assemblage coming from layer 4 with chopper-cores and bifacial core tools, flake tools and large cores (up to 239 mm long), including many radial examples. Triangular points and pointed flakes were present but more than 70% of the assemblage was cores and heavy-duty tools. The shapes, however, are slightly different and lack the extraordinary regularity of those from Masari. Dates for Kandanda 4 from charcoal are 3320 ? 110 (GX-1581), 3360 ? 95 (SR-202), 3845 ? 115 (GX-1580) and 3690 ? 85 (SR-203) (Phillipson 1978), covering a span of 150 years when taken at one standard deviation, which accords well with the Cholwezi-Chavuna sites and indicates that the late Tshitolian contained numerous regional variations.

The dates overlap with microlithic Wilton assemblages found in the south of Namibia but this is hardly surprising. Indeed, in the central Namib desert a macrolithic factory site at #hing-#hais is dated to 8470 ? 90 BP (Pta-3136) (Shackley 1984) overlapping the range of the microlithic 'Wilton' of nearby Mirabib rock shelter which dates from 8410 ? 80 to 1550 ? 50 BP (Pta-1368, Pta-1535) and post-dating another macrolithic industry with a substantial heavy tool component at the Oryx kill site at 12 800 ? 140 BP (Pta-2596) (Shackley 1985). This has considerable implications for Masari because it suggests that the Kalahari sands noticed at Sambiu by Netterberg (1974) may possibly antedate the macrolithic Masari assemblage if it is assignable to a late stage of the Tshitolian. However, since these Wilton-like artefacts have never been described and the naming is possibly based solely on the present of microliths, it is worth remembering both that the late Tshitolian- Lupemban sometimes has a microlithic component which could have been confused with a Wilton industry, and that stratigraphically it is by no means certain that the red sands with Wilton at Sambiu are the same redistribution of the red sands at Masari. The presence of a heavy-duty industry at an apparently late date at Masari is therefore not anomalous but forms part of a well documented but varied Tshitolian complex in central southern Africa.

Ethnography and Utilization The Lupemban-Tshitolian industries were seen by Clark

(1963) as an adaptation to specialized environmental circum- stances, ultimately derived from late Acheulian prototypes




LIL S

0 5

Figs 5a and 5b. Large triangular core axes, Masari, made on thick flakes.




A . .

3

o 5 I I I I I

X xJ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~cm

Fig. Sb




7/ \ \ l .. . -

Fig.~~~~~~~~~~ 6.1?raglrcr.x md nfae :cuk Biangular nretouche flake; 3 scraper n bnfae




2fi

X X ,(;00S .~~~~~~~~

3~ ~ \

Fig. 7. 1: Irregular discoid core; 2: thick discoid flake with patchy retouch; 3: triangular 'point', plain thick butt; 4: irregular sub-ovate core; 4: small irregular flake with patchy retouch.




I~~ /

/~c ~

rt~~~~ _ L

Fig.8. 1 Plno-cnvexdisoid coreaxe mad on hi 2

flae;2: mal ireula fakewih apach f et$ch 3

chunky flake core; 4: unretouched triangular flake, side~~~~~~~~~~~

stuck. ll artfacts ade onpink slcret4




and performing a dual economic role, with heavy duty tools for chopping, scraping and de-barking and the refined core axes for the working of wood. Very similar tools from the Canary Islands (Zeuner 1961) were used for woodworking, unhafted since the weight of the object provided the necessary force. Clark saw the Angolan Lupemban as designed to maximize utilization of the resources of thickly forested savanna woodland mosaic with plentiful water. However, although the interpretation of core axes as woodworking tools is possible, despite their large size, an alternative hypothesis concerning equally specific needs, namely the killing and butchery of large mammals, especially elephant and hippopotamus, would make equal or better environmental sense. In this context the Middle Stone Age Lupemban elephant butchery site at Mwanganda (Malawi) is important, since the only heavy duty tools found were large core scrapers, plano-convex and with steep retouch from a flat ventral face, indisputably associated with butchery activity (Clark & Haynes 1970).

The riverine localities where the late Tshitolian variants, including Masari, are found are in environments which would formerly have been very rich in potential game. Bourliere (1963) notes that very high concentrations of large mammals are to be found in the lakes and parks of savanna woodland near extensive river and lake systems. In the Albert National Park of the western rift valley, for example, elephant and hippo constitute nearly 70% of the biomass. Such localities also constitute most attractive places for settlement, where the vegetative resources of the forest can be combined with meat from the more open savanna and with fish from the rivers. Neither the basin-edge sites of Angola nor the Kavango currently have tsetse fly, although both have endemic malaria and bilharzia which might discourage settlement, but such disease patterns are difficult to project back into the past.

Since the Masari site and other late Tshitolian assemblages seem to overlap not only with the pre-Wilton and Wilton industries of the south of Namibia as well as early Iron Age sites, it is clearly worth examining ethnographic records from the recent past in case they contain any clues to artefact use. Stone tool using and making continues virtually into the present day in many areas of south-central Africa. The Herero of Namibia used stone knives until 1792 (Mossop 1935) and stone was in regular use by the OvaTjimba of the Baines Mountains until very recently (MacCalman & Grobbelaar 1965). Old informants in Angola, discussing the flaking techniques still used there today in the manufacture of gunflints, were emphatic that their methods had not been learnt from Europeans but that "they remembered hearing their grandparents state how they cut and used implements of chipped stone" (Clark 1963). The technical parallels between modern Angolan gunflint factory waste and Lupemban assemblages are really quite striking.

Theal (1910) noted that a tradition of the Bantu speaking people of the Transvaal was that when their ancestors arrived at the Limpopo eight generations before they had encountered 'savages' using only stone tools including very large spearheads. The reference to such large pointed tools recalls the Masari core axes and points. Stow (1905) describes the elephant spears "of gigantic dimensions" belonging to the Bamangwato and Bashuna tribes between the Limpopo and

Zambezi, and in a work dealing with the Mbukushi people who live in the Okavango today, Van Tonder (1966) produced a more detailed picture. The Mbukushu originated in central Africa, arriving at the Okavango about AD 1700 via the Zambezi and Kuando rivers. They hunted large game, meat from hippo and elephant being butchered, flayed and cut up on the site of the killing which was generally no great distance from villages, all of which were located less than 50 m from the river.

Bosch (1964) in a work on the Shambiu people who live in the Masari area today, noted very similar hunting methods. Their material equipment is dominated by the axe (kamo), used for all purposes (cleaning, chopping, butchery, carpentry and hunting) and shapes tend to be very standardized. Are these kamo the technological descendants of the core axe and Lupemban points which were designed to cope with the resources of the same environment in a pre-metal era? Andersson (1856) describes his visit to Lake Ngami via the Okavango. He, too, notes the emphasis on hippo hunting in the area since hippo is a highly esteemed meat, especially the tongue and fat. The hide was also useful for shields, helmets and jackets and the canine and incisor teeth, weighing 4 kg each, were better than ivory. Hippos have favourite haunts and very thick tough hide which might require special butchery and killing techniques. A log of wood was often used with heavy weights and points attached, concealed across the path used by hippos in their return to the water from nocturnal forays. A pear-shaped broad flat blade was favoured, very similar to the Masari pear-shaped core axes. A similarly shaped point is seen in a drawing by Wilkinson (1847) of an extra heavyweight blade from Egypt, also used for hippo hunting. An alternative method used the downfall trap with another very large stone point attached to a weighted log of wood. A line was attached to the downfall that, when tripped by a trundling hippo (which shamble, not fully lifting their feet) snapped the line so that the large point of the downfall descended. This method was also used for elephant. It is indeed curious that in the recent past large pointed tools, very similar to those present at Masari, were employed for the killing of hippo and elephant in the same areas and environmental conditions that were occupied by their Middle Stone Age predecessors. If the function of the latter was the same then Clark's (1963) woodworking hypothesis would have to be modified, but this would require a programme of microwear analysis carried out on objects from actual living or kill sites, rather than unused material from quarries. In a recent discussion of this issue, Clark (pers. comm.) said that he found this alternative function quite reasonable.

Conclusion Analysis of the material from the factory site at Masari

shows that it is dominated by core axes with lesser quantities of picks, cores and large plano-convex steep-edged scrapers. The small tool component is unimpressive, there is evidence for the use of the levallois technique and most of the waste flakes are thick and triangular in shape. The assemblage is exceptionally standardized, being made exclusively on thick plano-convex flakes, sometimes side struck, using simple hard hammer core reduction to produce unifacial tools, often very large in size, with little retouch. The assemblage is very




similar to the Tshitolian from south-central Africa (Phillipson 1978; Clark 1963) which would indicate that it is less than 5 000 years old.

Masari can be paralleled at other localities, including riverside factory sites, in Zambia, Zaire and Angola. Similar core axes have been found at Peperkorrel and Keetmanshoop in Namibia, also associated with river courses. Clark (1963) suggested that the large core axes which dominate Masari and related assemblages were primarily woodworking tools, but an alternative hypothesis of use in hippo and elephant hunting is proposed.

Acknowledgements I am most grateful to the following individuals and

institutions for their assistance during the field work for this paper: Dr Maria Fisch (Rundu), Miss A. Otto, Mr L. Jacobson and Miss S. Price (State Museum, Windhoek), Father Hartmann, Sister Leopoldine and Father van Roosmaien (Sambiu Roman Catholic Mission, Kavango), Messers J. Nel and J. Joachim (Information Service, Namibia). The project was carried out during the course of study leave from the University of Leicester, based on the State Museum, Windhoek, with the kind cooperation of the Director, Mr C. G. Coetzee. Financial assistance was provided by the British Academy, Mr John Beckett (Computing Service, University of Leicester) helped with SPSS software and the figures are the work of Loma Smith.

References ANDERSSON, C. J. 1856. Lake Ngami, or explorations

during four years of wanderings in wilds of South West Africa London: Hurst and Blackett.

BOSCH, J. L. 1964. Shambiu van die Okavango. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis: University of Stellenbosch.

BOURLIERE, F. 1963. Quelques particularites ecologiques des populations de grands mammiferes africains et leur consequences possible sur revolution de l'homme. In Howell, F. C. & Bourliere, F. eds African ecology and human evolution. Chicago: Aldine.

BREUIL, H. 1944. Le paleolithique au Congo Belge d'apres les recherches du Docteur Cabu. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 30: 143-167.

CLARK, J. D. 1963. Prehistoric cultures of northeast Angola and their significance in tropical Africa. Museu do Dundo Publicaoes Culturais 62:1-212.

CLARK, J. D. & HAYNES, C. V. 1970. An elephant butchery site at Mwanganda's village, Karonga, Malawi. World Archaeol. 1:390-411.

DE FAVEAUX, A. 1955. Gisements et industries prehistoriques des hauts plateaux des Biano (Katentania). In Balout, L. ed. Proceedings of the 2nd Pan-African Congress on Prehistory. Paris: Arts et Metiers Graphiques.

DROUX, G. & KELLEY, H. 1939. Recherches prehistoriques dans la region de Boko-Songo et 'a Point Noire. J. Soc. Afric. 9:71-84.

FERGUSSON, G. J. & LIBBY, W. F. 1963. UCLA radiocarbon dates 2. Radiocarbon 5:1-23.

MAC CALMAN, A. R. & VIERECK, A. 1967. Peperkorrel, a factory site of Lupemban affinities from central South West Africa. S. Afr. archaeol. Bull. 2:41-50.

MAC CALMAN, A. R. & GROBBELAAR, B. J. 1965. Preliminary report of two stone-working OvaTjimba groups in the northern Kaokoveld of South West Africa. Cimbebasia 13:1-39.

MOSSOP, E. E. 1935. The journals of Jacobus Coetze Jansz (1760) and Willem van Reenen (1791). Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.

NETTERBERG, F. 1974. Calcretes and silcretes, Sambio, Okavangoland, South West Africa. S. Afr. archaeol. Bull. 29:83-89.

PHILLIPSON, L. 1978. The Stone Age archaeology of the Upper Zambezi Valley. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa Memoir 7.

SHACKLEY, M. L. 1984. ?hing-?hais: an early Holocene stoneworking site in central Namibia. Mado qua 13:271-279.

SHACKLEY, M. L. 1985. Palaeolithic archaeology of the central Namib desert. Cimbebasia Memoir 6.

STOW, G. W. 1905. The native races of South Africa. London: Swan Sonnenschein.

THEAL, G. M. 1910. The yellow and dark-skinned people of Africa south of the Zambesi. London: Swan Sonnenschein.

VAN TONDER, L. L. 1966. The Hambukushu of Okavangoland. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis: University of Stellenbosch.

WENDT, W. E. 1972. Notes on some unusual artefacts from South West Africa. Cimbebasia Ser. B. 2:179-185.

WILKINSON, Sir G. 1847. Manners and customs of the Ancient Egyptians. London: Blackwell.

ZEUNER, F. E. 1961. Prehistoric hand adzes from Gran Canaria. Man 61:20-22.



Documents

A Macrolithic Factory Site at Masari, Kavango (South West Africa/Namibia): Affinities and Interpretation