New radiometric ages for the Fauresmith industry from Kathu Pan,southern Africa: Implications for the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition

The Fauresmith lithic industry of South Africa has been described as transitional between the Earlier and Middle Stone Age. However, radiometric ages for this industry are inadequate. Here we present a minimum OSL age of 464 ± 47 kyr and a combined U-series–ESR age of 542₋₁₀₇⁺¹⁴⁰ kyr for an in situ Fauresmith assemblage, and three OSL ages for overlying Middle and Later Stone Age strata, from the site of Kathu Pan 1 (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). These ages are discussed in relation to the available lithostratigraphy, faunal and lithic assemblages from this site. The results indicate that the Kathu Pan 1 Fauresmith assemblage predates transitional industries from other parts of Africa e.g. Sangoan, as well as the end of the Acheulean in southern Africa. The presence of blades, in the dated Fauresmith assemblages from Kathu Pan 1 generally considered a feature of modern human behaviour ( McBrearty and Brooks, 2000, The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior, J. Human Evolution 39, 453–563),-provides evidence supporting the position that blade production in southern Africa predated the Middle Stone Age and the advent of modern Homo sapiens.     

Reviews

Spatial models and locative expressions in Baluchi , Ela Filippone, Baluchistan Monograph Series, IV, Naples: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1996, 427 pp.

Qissah‐yi niyaz , Hushang Rahnema, Philadelphia: Miras‐e Iran, 1998, 175 pp.

Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij , Majid Naficy, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997, 144 pp., $27.50

Mysticism and the Plurality of Meaning: The Case of the Ismailis of Rural Iran , Rafique Keshavjee, London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1998 (Occasional Papers, no. 2), vii + 47 pp.

Sacred Acts, Sacred Time, Sacred Space , John Walbridge, Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.

The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews , vol. 2, ed. Homa and Houman Sarshar, Beverly Hills, Calif.: Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History, 1997.

Padyavand , Judeo‐Iranian and Jewish Studies Series, vol. 2, ed. Amnon Netzer, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1997.

Memoirs of M. E. Amirteymour Kalali: Tribal Leader, Majles Deputy, Cabinet Minister , ed., Habib Ladjevardi, Iranian Oral History Project, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 1997.

Persian Cookings: A Table of Exotic Delights , Nesta Ramazani, New York: Quadrangle Books, 1974, reprint Iranbooks, Inc., 1997, 296 pp.

The Legendary Cuisine of Persia , Margaret Shaida, U.K.: Lieuse Publications, 1992., reprint Penguin Books, 1994, 337 pp.

Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution , Haleh Esfandiari, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997, 234 pp., $15.95, paperback, ISBN: 0–8018–5619–1, $24.50, hardcover, ISBN 0–8018–5618–3.

Die iranische Schia und die islamische Einheit 1979–1996 , Wilfried Buchta, Hamburg, Deutsches Orient‐Institut, 1997, 427 pp.

Maqalati dar jami^cah‐yi shinasi‐yi siyasi‐yi Iran [Articles on the Political Sociology of Iran], Ervand Abrahamian, trans., Soheyla Torrabi‐farsani, Tehran: Shirazeh Publications, 1997, 254 pp. + index.

Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran: The Institutionalization of Factional Politics , Bahman Baktiari, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996, ISBN 0–8130–1461–1, 282 pp. appendix, notes, bibliography, + index.

Street Politics: Poor People's Movement in Iran , Asef Bayat, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 216 pages + plus glossary.

The United States and Iran; In the Shadow of Musaddiq , James F. Goode, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, xiv + 235 pp.

The Soviet Republic of Iran, 1920–1921; Birth of the Trauma , Chosroe Chaqueri, Pittsburgh and London: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, xxvii + 649 pp.

Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran , Edward Shirley, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997, 247 pp.

The Middle East: from the end of Empire to the end of the Cold War , P. J. Vatikiotis, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, $65.00.

Iran and the Gulf: A Search for Stability , Jamal S. al‐Suwaidi, ed., Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 1996, xi + 425 pp., 12 figures, 8 tables, maps.

The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion , ed. Gary Sick and Lawrence G. Potter, ,New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, 356 pp.

The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Boom and Petro‐States , Terry Lynn Karl, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, 342 pp., $55.00, $22.00, paper.     

Reassessing Fiscal Policy: Perspectives from Developing Countries

Over the last twenty‐five years an anti‐Keynesian orthodox approach has envisaged a prominent role for reductions in fiscal deficits in developing countries. Expansionary fiscal policies have been said to result in excessive expansion of aggregate demand leading to current account deficits and inflation, as well as displacing private investment, thereby inhibiting output stabilization and employment recovery. Moreover, chronic fiscal deficits are supposed to be associated with high and explosive debt/GDP ratios. The purpose of this article is to assess the theoretical adequacy of the orthodox approach in the context of developing countries. The author clarifies some common misunderstandings and finds that none of the conventional arguments against fiscal activism is wholly convincing. At the heart of the debate lies the question of assumptions, economic structure and causation mechanisms. The orthodox stories regarding the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy very often do not go beyond the simple monetarist assumptions or seek to verify the implications against the existing experiences and empirical data from developing countries.     

Absolute dating of hominids and palaeolithic artifacts of the cave of La Chaise-de-Vouthon (Charente), France

Two adjacent chambers of the cave of La Chaise, Grotte de Bourgeois-Delaunay (B-D) and Grotte Suard, have been studied. Both were partly filled with detrital sediments containing lower and middle Palaeolithic artifacts and skeletal remains of pre-Neanderthalian hominids. Layers of stalagmitic calcite occur interstratified in the sediments of both chambers. Dates obtained by ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ratios have provided a time scale for hominid and cultural evolution as represented in this cave.In B-D the lower travertine rests on a breccia containing cranial remains of juvenile Neanderthals. The base of the travertine dates to 151 ± 15 Ky (Ky = 1000 years BP); the top of the travertine yields a date of 112±5 Ky. The travertine contains pollen of an interglacial flora. Overlying detrital sediments 1·2 m in thickness contain artifacts transitional from Acheulian to Mousterian industries. They are capped by a travertine (Layer 7) whose base is dated at 100±6 Ky, and which is capped by stalagmites ranging in age down to 58±7 Ky. Overlying the travertine is sediment containing first Mousterian, and then Aurignacian artifacts.Near the base of the sediments filling Grotte Suard is a stalagmite layer dated to 249±30 Ky. It contains interglacial pollen and presumably dates to the beginning of the isotope stage 7 interglacial. Neanderthaloid hominid teeth and cranial fragments are found scattered through the overlying sediments, up to a capping stalagmitic layer whose base is dated at 101±7 Ky. The best described hominids from Suard are from a section that was probably overlying the capping stalagmite. The capping stalagmite is temporally correlated with layer 7 of B-D.     

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction at Canyon del Muerto,Arizona, based on principal-component analysis

A multivariate statistical technique, principal-component analysis, is used to interpret pollen assemblages from archaeological context in terms of paleoenvironmental information. The pollen samples originate from an archaeological site in northeastern Arizona (Canyon del Muerto) covering the period between AD 700 and AD 1300. Through the use of principal-component analysis the percentage constraint in the pollen counts is removed and the data set effectively reduced to groups of co-varying taxa. Once these groups are ecologically defined as to the environment they represent, their changes of dominance through time can be analysed. This study has shown a correlation between a population expansion in Canyon del Muerto (AD 1050–1150) and the dominance of upland forest types suggesting slightly cooler and/or wetter conditions. The pollen data compare well with the tree-ring indices for this region. Local disturbance is reflected in the record during the period of greatest population. A shift to a shrubland vegetation during the peak construction phase indicates the clearing of cottonwood, fir, spruce and pine (all found within the site) by local inhabitants. Thus, the palynological evidence suggests both cultural and climatic factors are involved in the explanation of pollen deposition.