Settlement
Dynamics of the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age. Edited by
N. J. Conard
Tubingen, Kerns Verlag. 2001; 611 pages;
ISBN 3-935751-00-1.
This volume represents
the fruits of the second meeting of Commission 27 of the International
Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP) at the University
of Tübingen in early 1999. The idea for this commission - certainly
an admirable one - came from Nicholas Conard and Fred Wendorf, who,
as Conard notes in the preface, recognised that '
too much attention
was being paid to sites in caves and rockshelters while more attention
needed to be directed to the systematic study of open-air settings and
the use of the landscape by late pre-modern people.' As Conard rightly
argues, only through settlement studies can existing data on technology,
subsistence, mobility and social organisation be brought into clearer
focus. Settlement dynamics can indeed be seen as the heuristic glue
that links these disparate areas of study, with which it may be possible
to make general statements about pre-modern human Middle Palaeolithic/MSA
adaptations overall.
This is a good start.
Most of the 27 papers address these aims fairly clearly. The geographical
coverage is, however, uneven to say the least. Five chapters cover Africa,
only three cover Asia (two on the Near East - China is the only other
Asian region covered), and the greater majority (19) are (largely Central
and Western) European. In an Old World Middle Palaeolithic/MSA context
therefore more is omitted than included. The editor, however, makes
no claims that this is a comprehensive survey, and the volume's considerable
strength is that a number of regional (sometimes site-specific) surveys
address its remit clearly. Overall, most of the contributions are well-focussed
on the issues at hand, and in this sense Commission 27 is producing
useful knowledge, although should be encouraged to open its intellectual
doors to wider geographical coverage.
Conard discusses advances and problems in this field in a useful
introduction. Advances over the last decade or so include a greater
concentration on open-air sites, particularly in non-karstic regions,
with accumulations of low and high density materials. And the contributions
certainly reflect the data that have come to light in this sense. In
addition to sites excavated some time ago for which information is poor
(e.g. China: Keates) problems that still remain include our inability
to ascertain the number of occupational episodes for many archaeological
horizons or indeed the intensity and duration of occupation, both of
which are crucial to an understanding of regional settlement. Heuristic
systems to link together regional studies are lacking too. Indeed, this
volume would have benefited considerably from a theoretical overview
attempting just that, although presumably Commision 27 is cautiously
working towards this goal.
Some interregional generalisations are apparent. Sites are predictably
located around two pivotal resources in the landscape, water and lithic
raw materials, although Clark notes that sources of haematite may have
determined group activity in the MSA also. Most sites in the Maghreb
are located by springs and wadis (Wengler), and the concentration of
South African MSA sites probably reflects the utilisation of hippos
at springs (Brink and Henderson). In some regions water sources are
few and far between and played an overwhelming role in the organisation
of territorial activity, e.g. in the arid steppe of Central Syria (Le
Tensorer et al.). By contrast, some lithic sources show repeated use
of long periods of time and probably reflect 'traditional' quarries
as suggested for the Crimea by Marks and Chabai. As Vermeersch notes,
the location of water and raw material sources were the defining poles
around which certain points on the landscape received repeated occupation.
Occasionally, brief visits were made to high points offering 360 degree
vantages, such as the Rhineland volcano tops (Conard), and vertical
migration seems to have been an important adaptation to the circumalpine
piedmont zone which was possibly driven by the seasonal hunting of fur-bearers
(Thillet). By contrast, dry valleys were often the occupational focus
in northern France (Tuffreau, Swinnen), and Zilhão notes that
specialised occupation of the Portugese mountain zone by Neanderthals
is unknown.
Ambrose suggests that MSA groups in the Kenyan Central Rift Valley
occupied a relatively restricted range of habitats, utilizing higher
residential mobility than in the LSA. Small, highly mobile groups also
seem to characterise the southern German Middle Palaeolithic (Çep
and Waiblinger), and the Nubian Complex of the Nile Valley, which may
represent the first anatomically modern humans in North East Africa
(Van Peer). High mobility is seen as a requirement of settling the contours
of the circum-Alpine region (Thillet) and high, but restricted and predictable
mobility can be seen in the Crimea (Marks and Chabai). Richter demonstrates
how shifting patterns of circulating and radiating settlement correlates
with lithic change in a case study of Sesselfelsgrotte.
The importance of ecotones is stressed generally for the MSA
by Clark, and specifically by Ambrose for the Kenyan MSA, and open sites
in the Maghreb clustering on terraces probably reflect the same in the
context of a settlement system organised on the migration between two
distinct ecosystems - forest to the north and steppe to the south (Wengler).
Hovers points to the highly diversified environments of the southern
Levant, parts of which such as the northern coastal plains could probably
have been occupied year-round, and the complex topography of China was
settled by groups which were nevertheless drawn to water and raw material
sources (Keates). Tuffreau emphasises that northern French settlement
occurred in the context of mixed forest-steppe, and the isolated situation
of the Canalettes rockshelter in a rich ecotonal region of the French
Grandes Causses indicates the use of plateau, valley and cliff resources
is OIS5a/4 which facilitates long seasonal stays (Meignen and Brugal).
Boyle notes that several southeast French sites occur in cliff and plateaux
areas in the context of mixed steppe, tundra and woodland pockets.
Some papers emphasise hunting as an important economic activity
(e.g. Brink and Henderson, Van Peer, Clark, Le Tensorer et al., Tuffreau,
Thillet, Berhard-Guelle and Bressy, Boyle) although Hovers points to
the importance of plant resources in the Levant, the ecotones of which
were probably similar to those of the present day. The seasonal fluctuations
of such therefore probably had a greater determining effect on settlement
than fauna. Peresani notes the importance of fish, birds and beaver
furs at San Bernardino cave in northeast Italy in a region in which
high biodiversity was probably central to the success of Neanderthal
occupation, and Boyle suggests the possible used of dried fish at Bagnoles.
Some papers discuss intra-site spatial patterning, much of which
is predictable. Hovers, for example, notes the redundancy of spatial
patterning in the Middle Palaeolithic of the southern Levant, epitomised
clearly by her case-study of Qafzeh Cave. This repetition is also observed
by Zilhão for the Portugese Middle Palaeolithic. Brink and Henderson
note that South African MSA sites typically reflect short-lived events
organised around a hearth, separating out into disarticulation and consumption
areas. Vaquero et al. note the importance of hearths as foci for activity
at the Abric Romani, although most levels of the sites do not show an
overall spatial organisation of the entire occupied site. By contrast
activities did not seem to be grouped around hearths at sites in the
Maghreb, which presumably reflects the milder conditions in North Africa
(Wengler). Van Peer notes that Nile Valley Nubian Complex sites reflect
the various combinations of different spatial modules resulting from
distinct activity zones. With the exception of knapping 'hotspots' however,
spatial patterning is not visible in the volcano top sites of the Rhine
(Conard), nor in the Middle Palaeolithic of some northern French sites
(Locht), and Otte et al. could not recognise any clear patterning at
the well-understood Belgian site of Sclayn. Depaepe notes that lithic
production occurred in areas away from those in which tools were used
on three sites on the edge of the Paris Basin, the location of which
on hilly slopes was determined by raw material source.
It is impossible to do justice to this publication in the space
available. Many of the papers are useful sources of information on raw
material movement, altitudinal location of sites, topographic and ecological
settings and more. While it doesn't pretend to offer a comprehensive
picture of settlement similarities and variability across a huge swathe
of the Old World, it goes a considerable way into beginning such an
enterprise, and is a most valuable resource for those engaged in the
study of the Middle Palaeolithic and MSA.
P. B. Pettitt
Keble College,
Oxford OX1 3PG.
Review Submitted: November 2002
The views expressed in this review are not
necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews Editor.
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