| dc.description.abstract | This study focuses on the site of Sterkfontein, located
in the Transvaal Province of South Africa. Sterkfontein
is one of a very limited number of stratified sites that have
yielded Plio-Pleistocene hominid fossil remains and early
stone artifacts. More than 40 years of research there have
led to the recovery, from several stratigraphic levels, of
numerous fossil remains of both Australopithecus and Homo,
a rich Plio-Pleistocene fauna, and almost 3000 stone artifacts.
'This study is concerned primarily with the archaeology
and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the artifact
bearing deposits and their implications for our understanding
of human behavioral and biological evolution.
A discussion is presented of the geological and
stratigraphic situation at Sterkfontein, the mode of accumulation
and spatial distribution of the artifacts, and the
procedure used to sort stone artifacts of Earlier Stone Age
antiquity from natural stone and fro:n artifacts of you,'1ger
age. A detailed description of the Sterkfontein artifacts
is presented using the classification system devised by
M.D. Leakey. The typological characteristics are supplemented
by systematic records of selected qualitative and quantitative
attributes. This same system of description and
analysis was applied to four assemblages from Bed II at Olduvai
Gorge to provide comparative samples with w:!1ichto test
various hypotheses concerning the meaning of stone artifact
and assemblage variability.
The results of the comparative analysis of the Olduvai
and Sterkfontein assemblages, using both univariat8 and
multivariate computer assisted methods, have led me to conclude
that the Sterkfontein assemblage belongs within the Acheulian
Industrial Complex. Furthermore, evidence was produced
that suggested that the Developed Oldowan B industry as
defined by M.D. Leakey differed fro~ the Early Acheulian
because of differential use of raw material in biface manufacture.
I have proposed that the term Developed Oldowan B
be dropped as an industrial taxon in favor of considering
all assemblages dated to the Early or Middle Pleistocene
containing bifaces as being part of a highly variable Acheulian
Industrial Complex.
The results of faunal, isotopic, sedimentological, and
pollen studies were presented that suggested that the climate
at the time of occupation of Sterkfontein by the tool-maker
was warmer and drier than at the present time and that the
vegetation consisted chiefly o~ open grassland. Biostratigraphy
and faunal and hominid correlations with dated sites
indicated that the artifact assemblage is approximately
1.5-+0.3 m.y. BP in age.
Hominid fossil remains recovered from the same stratigraphic
horizon as the stone artifacts have tentatively been
identified as belonging to an early member of the genus Homo
The hominid fossil record and paleoenvironmental data frc~
East and South Africa lead me to believe that Homo and the
robust form of australopithecine diverged from Australopithecus
africanus between 2.2 and 2.0 m.y. BP as adaptive responses
to changing climatic and environmental conditions
towards increased aridity. The emergence of Homo was
characterized by a feeding behavior oriented increasingly
towards meat procurement, which involved structural changes
in both social organization and physiology. The most
important characteristics of these changes are manifested
in the archaeological record at Sterkfontein by evidence of
tool-making, meat-eating, organization around a home base,
and increase in cranial capacity. | en |
