Recent carbon isotope research and its implications for African archaeology

A number of new developments in the carbon isotope field are reviewed, some of these having immediate and others potential application to African archaeology. Mass spectrometric analysis of¹³C/¹²C ratios in human and animal bone collagen makes it possible to reconstruct prehistoric foodwebs and to draw conclusions about dietary adaptations. Alternatively, where dietary behaviour is known, analysis of the bone of certain animal species allows for reconstruction of past environments. Ratio mass spectrometers are widely available in research institutions, and provided that the proper techniques for sample preparation are followed, this method of analysis should be of immediate use to most Africanists. It is already making an impact on African archaeology. The development of accelerator-based or high energy mass spectrometry (HEMS) radiocarbon dating provides the potential for extending the method back to 100,000 years, particularly in the case of bone samples. Practical applications, however, are still a few years off. In the immediate future HEMS dating is likely to be applied to small samples of ages less than 50,000 years. In competition with HEMS is the use of mini-counters for conventional radiocarbon dating of small samples. This procedure is available in a few laboratories with more under development. Dating of small samples has potential applications in many areas, specifically in the direct age measurement of critical specimens as opposed to the dating of associated materials.     

Lithostratigraphy of Border Cave, KwaZulu, South Africa: a Middle Stone Age sequence beginning c. 195,000 b.p.

Border Cave is well-known for its Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequence and associated hominids, as well as for the earliest demonstrable Later Stone Age (LSA) (c. 38,000 b.p.) strata in southern Africa. Detailed lithostratigraphic and sedimentological study permits identification of 8 Pleistocene sedimentary cycles, including 6 major cold phases and 2 intervening weathering horizons. The 2 youngest cold phases are associated with the LSA and have 8 ¹⁴C dates 38,600-13,300 b.p. By gauging sedimentation rates in finer and coarser sediments, duration of sedimentary breaks, and allowing for differential compaction, the excellent radiocarbon framework provided by 28 available ¹⁴C dates can be extrapolated to the 6 cold intervals and 2 palaeosols that are older than 50,000 b.p. These clearly span oxygenisotope stages 4, 5 and 6, placing the base of the MSA deposits at c. 195,000 b.p., Homo sapiens sapiens at c. 90,000–115,000 b.p. and the sophisticated, microlithic “Howieson's Poort” industry at 95,000 b.p. These results require radical reassessment of the age and nature of the MSA complex and of the earliest evolution of anatomically-modern people.     

Terr(it)or(ies) of Peace? The Congolese Mining Frontier and the Fight Against “Conflict Minerals”

This article traces the geography of the “conflict minerals” campaign and its impact on artisanal mining in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region that currently emerges as a pioneer case of traceability and due diligence efforts with regard to the exploitation and trade in tantalum, tungsten and tin. We subsequently analyse the opening and attempted closure of the Congolese resource frontier in the context of recent market reform, and we describe how this process has accompanied a transnational corporate–government nexus bent on monopolising Congo's artisanal 3 T resources. Specifically, we argue how the conflict minerals campaign and its implementation “on the ground” has brought about a harmful, disruptive logic for an artisanal mining sector that is notoriously categorised as unruly, illegal, and informal, but of which upstream stakeholders have in practice been jeopardised by transnational reform. We thus shift the attention from questions on the political economy of “resource wars” towards a deeper understanding of the intersecting spaces of production and regulation that underpin formalisation and traceability of “conflict minerals” in this protracted conflict environment.     

New Research on the Late Prehistoric Coastal Polities of Northern Peru

Previously, the Chimú empire was thought to have dominated the north coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period, virtually to the exclusion of other polities. However, new research on sites from this period has not only changed perspectives on the Chimú, but also shed light on two other important coastal polities: the Lambayeque/Sicán and the Casma, providing insights with the potential to reshape our understanding of the development of urbanism and the Andean state. This article presents a critical summary of recent literature, fieldwork, and discoveries. Analyses of these new data address a wide range of topics that can be loosely grouped into four major areas: complexity in political organization and the geopolitical landscape, variations in the urban environment, the intensification of trade and exchange, and dynamic expressions of religion and ideology. The latest interpretation of the north coast Late Intermediate period is a story of three major, competing polities that were eventually subsumed under one.