ROSE COTTAGE CAVE MSA LITHIC POINTS: DOES TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGF IMPI.V CHANGE IN HUNTING

摘要

Points are often the most abundant class of retouched lithics in MSA collections yet there is very little research on their functions, especially in southern Africa where it has always been assumed that points were spearheads. Two types of points from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa, are technologically analysed here. The study examines the possibility that thick, broad points from various post-Howiesons Poort layers dating between 50 000 and 29 000 years ago were used as spearheads that were thrust at prey, or hand-delivered, while the narrow, thin points from one of the final MSA layers, Dc (between 31 000 and 29 000 years old), were used as arrowheads.