TRACSYMBOLS (2010 -2015) Tracing the evolution of symbolically mediated

behaviours within variable environments in

Europe and southern Africa

Christopher Henshilwood (PI) 1,2

Francesco d’Errico (co-PI)3,1

1. AHKR Institute, University of Bergen, Norway

2. Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

3. PACEA UMR 5199, University of Bordeaux 1, France

http://www.tracsymbols.eu

TRACSYMBOLS PROJECT

2010-2015

>30 Specialist Researchers

• University of Bergen, Norway

• University of Bordeaux, France

• + 8 UNIVERSITIES

Additional UiB (Geosciences)

South

African post-

docs at UiB

+ 1 in 2013

Joint UiB/ Wits

researchers

UiB

PI & co-PI

+11

Multi-disciplinary

Additional Tracsymbols

Researchers

Anne Delagnes

Joint Bordeaux 1/ Wits University

Simon Armitage

Royal Holloway University

Paola Villa

Univ. Colorado

Benoit Dubreuil

Univ. Montreal

Post-docs

at Bordeaux

Co-PI

Bordeaux

(also UiB adjunct)

+11

Multi-disciplinary

Additional

Univ. Bordeaux 1/Paris

+ 2 new post docs

Dunia Urrego William Banks

Maria Fernanda Sanchez Goni

Masa Kageyama

Anne-Laure Daniau Renata Moreno

Marian Vanhaeren

Masters & PhD Students University of Bergen

University of the Witwatersrand

PhD PhD PhD

PhD PhD

Key Aims

of

TRACSYMBOLS

2010 - 2015

1. To examine how key behavioural innovations

emerged among Homo sapiens and Homo

neanderthalensis in southern Africa and Europe

respectively

2. Explore whether and how environmental variability

influenced this development between 180 – 25 ka

[Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 – 3]

Key Aims

of

TRACSYMBOLS

European Research Neanderthal Material Culture

Sites: Pech-de l’Azé I and IV, La Quina, La Micoque, Les Tares, Caminade,

Canalette, La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Montgaudier, l’Ermitage, Grotte Néron, La

Ferrassie, Beçov, Grotta del Cavallo, Chez Pourrez, Marillac…

ochre, bone tools, engravings

SOUTHERN AFRICAN RESEARCH

The Middle Stone Age in Africa

c. 300, 000 – 30,000 years

Associated with Homo sapiens

With a focus on MIS 6 - 3

180 000 – 25 000 years

Did H. sapiens have

recognizably human

minds when they

left Africa at c. 80 000 – 60 000 yrs ago?

Perhaps long before -

?125 000?

Or only when they got to

Europe at c. 40 000 yrs ?

Excavation at Blombos Cave, South

Africa

Blombos Cave

1992 - 2012

100 000 year old

ochre processing

workshop

Henshilwood,C.S. d’Errico, F., van Niekerk, K.L.

Coquinot, Y., Jacobs, Z., Lauritzen, S-E., Menu, M.,

García-Moreno, R. (2011). A 100,000 Year Old Ochre

Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa.

Science.

-earliest known use of a container

-earliest recorded pigmented

compound (paint)

75 000 years

Abstract engravings

on ochre

Earliest evidence for art

Nassarius kraussianus

shell beads

Among earliest evidence

for symbolism

Henshilwood et al, 2002, Science

Henshilwood et al, 2009, JHE •Henshilwood et al, 2004. Science

•d’Errico et al, 2005. JHE

•Vanhaeren et al. in press JHE

•Heating of raw materials

•First known use of

pressure flaking technique - 55 000 years before Europe

Mourre, V., Villa, P. & Henshilwood, C. 2010.

Early Use of Pressure Flaking on Lithic

Artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa.

Science, 330: 659-662.

75 000 years

Klipdrift sites

30 km

Klipdrift

Shelter

Excavations at

de Hoop Nature

Reserve

2010 -2015

2010

Lombard & Pargeter 2008 JAS

Stone segments

mounted on arrow

Bow & arrow?

Klipdrift Shelter Age pending

c. 65 – 50 ka?

Howiesons Poort type artefacts

Anthropogenically Modified & Utilised

Human Tooth

•Deciduous second lower molar (left side)

•Use wear consists of three adjacent near-

coplanar flat facets, and smoothing and

flake scars affecting cuspids.

Klipdrift

Shelter Age pending

c. 65 – 50 ka?

Engraved & pecked

(?) ostrich eggshell

n = >50

Klipdrift Shelter

c. 65 – 59 ka?

Research at other African

archaeological sites

Border Cave, South Africa

Early evidence of San

material culture -PNAS

d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Villa, P., Degano, I., Lucejko,

J.J., Bamford, M.K., et al. (2012). Early evidence of San

material culture represented by organic artifacts from

Border Cave, South Africa. Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, 109(33), 13,214–13,219.

JOINT CLIMATE RESEARCH

University of Bergen

University of Bordeaux 1/Paris

What methods are we

using to study past

environments in southern

Africa for the period

160 000 – 30 000 years?

MD96-2098

South Africa - marine core

c. 200 km offshore

2910 meters below sea level

32-m length

Pollen Analysis in

palaeoenvironmental reconstruction Collection of comparative pollen samples

De Hoop speleothem analyses (Isotopes & U/Th dating)

Prof. Stein-Erik Lauritzen

Dept. of Geosciences,

University of Bergen

Jane Noah

PhD student – Wits University, South Africa

Charcoal from Marine Cores What are the mechanisms behind this fire activity ?

Precession minima

ITCZ shifted northward Precession maxima

ITCZ shifted southward

Biomass burning

Precession

Daniau et al., submitted to PNAS

Micromammal Analysis

Micromammals are

good palaeoecological indicators

Turid Hillestad-Nel, PhD student,

Univ. Bergen

Combining :

•archaeological results

•original multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental data

•state-of-the-art climatic simulations for two continents

•

to which a dedicated biocomputational algorithm is

being applied

CLIMATE MODELLING

Masa Kageyama

William Banks

TRACSYMBOLS FP7 Project Publications that list UIB (AHKR Institute) as an affiliation and

acknowledge the ERC FP7 Tracsymbols funding

13th June 2012

Published 2012

1. d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Villa, P., Degano, I., Lucejko, J., Bamford, M., Higham, T., Colombini, M.-P., Beaumont, P. In press. Organic artifacts from Border

Cave representing the earliest evidence of San material culture. PNAS

2. d’Errico, F. 2012. Le première cultures materielles symboliques. In Balzeau A. Homo sapiens, à la recherche de nos origines. Dossiers d'Archéologie 351:

3. d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Wadley, L. 2012. Identifying regional traditions in Middle Stone Age Bone technology. The case of Sibudu Cave. Journal of

Archaeological Science. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.040

4. d’Errico, F., Renata Garcia Moreno-Mazel, R., Rifkin, R. 2012. Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the

Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Cave I, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science. 39, 4, 942–952.

5. d'Errico, F., Garcia Moreno, R., Rifkin, R.F. 2012. Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the Middle Stone

Age levels of Klasies River Cave 1, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 942-952.

6. Henshilwood, C., & Dubreuil, B. 2012. Response to Shea. Current Anthropology53 (1):1-3.

7. Rifkin, R.F. 2012. Processing ochre in the Middle Stone Age: Testing the inference of prehistoric behaviours from actualistically derived experimental data.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31: 174-195.

8. Salomon, H., Vignaud C., Coquinot, Y., Beck, L., Chris Stringer, C., Strivay, D., d'Errico, F., 2012. Selection and heating of colouring materials in the

Mousterian leves of Es-Skhul (ca. 100 00 years B.P., Mount Carmel, Israel). Archaeometry DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00649.x.

Published 2011

1. Banks, W.E., Aubry, T., d’Errico, F., Zilhão, J., Lira-Noriega, A. 2011. Badegoulian Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling: unravelling links between culture

adaptation and ecology during the Last Glacial Maximum in western Europe. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 30, 3, 359-374.

2. Caron, F., d’Errico, F., Del Moral, P. Santos, F. Zilhão, J., 2011. The Reality of Neandertal Symbolic Behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure,

France, PLoS ONE 6 (6), 2011, 21545 (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021545).

3. d’Errico, F. & Henshilwood, C. 2011. A discontinuous scenario for the origins of symbolic material culture. In: (eds. Henshilwood, C and d’Errico, F), Homo

symbolicus: The dawn of language, imagination and spirituality. Amsterdam: Benjamins pp. 49-74.

4. d’Errico, F. Borgia, V., Ronchitelli, M.-G. 2011. Uluzzian bone technology and its implications for the origin of behavioural modernity, Quaternary

International, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.039

5. d’Errico, F., Rigaud, S. 2011. Crache perforée dans le Gravettien du Sire (Mirefleurs, Puy-de-Dôme) : Etude archéozoologique, technologique et

fonctionnelle. Paléo 22, 301-310.

6. Henshilwood, C. & d’Errico, F. (editors). 2011. Homo symbolicus: The dawn of language, imagination and spirituality. Amsterdam, Benjamins.

7. Henshilwood, C. & d’Errico, F. 2011. Ochre as a media for symbolic expression during the southern Africa Middle Stone Age: examining the evidence from

the Western Cape, South Africa. In: (eds. Henshilwood, C and d’Errico, F), Homo symbolicus: The dawn of language, imagination and spirituality.

Amsterdam: Benjamins pp.75-96.

8. Henshilwood, C. S. & Dubreuil, B. 2011. The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, 77 - 59 ka: Perspective-taking and the evolution of the modern human mind

during the African Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology. 52 (3): 361-400.

9. Henshilwood,C.S. d’Errico, F., van Niekerk, K.L. Coquinot, Y., Jacobs, Z., Lauritzen, S-E., Menu, M., García-Moreno, R. 2011. A 100,000 Year Old Ochre

Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science 334, 219-221

10. Rifkin, R.F. 2011. Assessing the efficacy of red ochre as a prehistoric hide-tanning ingredient. Journal of African Archaeology 9 (2): 131-158.

11. Thompson, J. & Henshilwood, C. S. 2011. Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age larger mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern

Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 60:746-767.

12. Wurz, S. 2011. The Cave of Hearths: Makapan Middle Pleistocene ResearchProject: Field research by Anthony Sinclair and Patrick Quinney, 1996-2001,

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 46:3, 382-384

Published 2010

1. Mourre, V., Villa, P. & Henshilwood, C. 2010. Early Use of Pressure Flaking on Lithic Artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 330: 659-662.

In Press or In Prep 1. Backwell, L. d’Errico. In press. F. Palaeolithic bone tools. In Smith, C. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer.

2. Backwell, L. Parkinson, A. Eric Roberts, E., d’Errico, F., Huchet, J-B. In press. Criteria for identifying bone modification by termites in the fossil record. Paleo, Paleo Paleo.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.03.032

3. Badenhorst, S., van Niekerk, K.L. Henshilwood, C.S. (in prep.). Seasonality and human occupation at Blombos Cave in the Middle Stone Age: Evidence from rock hyrax (Procavia

capensis) remains. Journal of Archaeological Science.

4. Banks, W. E., d'Errico, F. Zilhão,J. in prep. Human-climate interaction in the Early Upper Palaeolithic: testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto-Aurignacian

and the Early Aurignacian. Journal of Human Evolution

5. Banks, W.E., Antunes, N., Rigaud, S., d'Errico, F. In prep. Ecological constraints on the first prehistoric farmers in Europe. PNAS

6. Banks, W.E., Aubry, T., d'Errico, F., Zilhao, J., in press. Paleoenvironnements et adaptations humaines au dernier maximum glaciaire ; le cas du Badégulien. Actes du Congrès

Préhistorique de France.

7. Bourdier, C., d’Errico, F. In prep. Mobiliary Art and Figurines. Definition, characteristics, techniques, supports and themes. In Smith, C. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology,

Springer.

8. Caruana M.V., d’Errico F., Backwell L. in press. Early Hominin Social Learning Strategies Involved in the Use and Production of Bone and Stone Tools. In C. Boesch, J. Call, et C.

Sanz. (Eds.) Understanding Tool Use: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Cognition and Ecology of Tool Using Behaviors. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

9. d’Errico F., Vanhaeren, M., Le galets percés de Praileaitz I. In Penalber, X. Mujca, J. Eds. La Cueva de Praileaitz. Munibe Numéro Spéciale

10. Barton, N., d’Errico, F. In press. North African origins of symbolically mediated behaviour and the Aterian. In Elia, S. (ed.) Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity. New York:

Elsevier.

11. d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., García-Moreno, R., van Niekerk, K., Coquinot, Y., Menu, M., Jacobs, Z. Lauritzen, S. (in press). Il y a 100 000 ans, un atelier pour la préparation et

le stockage de mélanges pigmentés. In Paillet, P., Robert E. Paris : Documents d'Archéologie Française

12. Thompson, J., Faith, T. & Henshilwood, C.S. (in press). Seasonal exploitation of neonate blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus) during the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave,

South Africa: implications for modern human origins. Journal of Human Evolution.

13. d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M. (in press). Upper Palaeolithic mortuary practices: reflection of ethnic affiliation, social complexity and cultural turn over. In Renfrew, C., Morley, I. eds.

Death shall have no dominion. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. (precirculating manuscript published in the conference book, revised version due in September 2012)

14. d'Errico, F., Banks, W. E. In prep. Identifying mechanisms behind Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age cultural trajectories. In Hovers, E. and Khun S. Alternative Pathways to

Complexity: Evolutionary Trajectories in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, Current Anthropology special issue.

15. Dubreuil, B. & Henshilwood, C. S. in press. Archeology, symbolism, and the evolution of language. In: (eds. Lefebvre, C.) ‘On the Origin of Language’, Cognitive Science Institute,

l’Université du Québec à Montréal.

16. Henshilwood, C. S. (in press). The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort: ‘Palaeolithic’ techno-traditions in southern Africa. Journal of World Prehistory.

17. Henshilwood, C.S. & Lombard, M. (in press). Becoming human: Archaeology of the sub-Saharan Middle Stone Age. In: Bahn, P. & Renfrew, C. (eds.) Cambridge Encyclopaedia

of Archaeology, Cambridge University Press.

18. Jacobs, Z., Hayes, E.H., Roberts, R.G. Galbraith, R.F., Henshilwood, C.S. (in press). An improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, South Africa: further

tests of single-grain dating procedures and a re-evaluation of the timing of the Still Bay industry across southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science.

19. Julien, M., Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F. In prep. L’industrie osseuse châtelperronienne de la Grotte du Renne, (Arcy-sur-Cure). In Julien M. (ed.) Le Châtelperronien de la Grotte du

Renne (Arcy-Sur-Cure). Supplément à Paléo

20. Lombard, M., Wadley, L., Deacon, J., Wurz, S., Parsons, I., Mohapi, M., Swart, J. & Mitchell, P. In press South African and Lesotho Stone Age sequence updated. South African

Archaeological Bulletin.

21. Reynard, J.P., Badenhorst, S., Henshilwood, C.S. (in prep). Inferring Animal Size from the Cortical Thickness of Unidentified Long Bone Fragments from the c. 85 – 72 ka Layers

at Blombos Cave in the Southern Cape, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science.

22. Rigaud, S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M. In press. Les coquillages marins de Praileaitz I. In Penalber, X. Mujca, J. Eds. La Cueva de Praileaitz. Munibe Numéro Spéciale

23. Vanhaeren, M. d’Errico, F., in press. Les dents percées de Praileaitz I In Penalber, X. Mujca, J. Eds. La Cueva de Praileaitz. Munibe Numéro Spéciale

24. Villa P, Soriano, S., Tsanova, T., Degano, I., Higham, T., d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Luceiko, J., Colombini, M.-P.,Beaumont, P. Submitted. New directions in the evolution of

technology: the beginning of the Later Stone Age in South Africa, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA

25. Wurz, S in press. The transition to modern behaviour. Nature Education, Biological Anthropology: Human Evolution/ Paleoanthropology Room. Editor: Holly M Dunsworth.

26. Wurz, S. in press. The significance of MIS 5 shell midddens on the cape coast - a lithic perspective from Klasies River and Ysterfontein 1. Quaternary International.

27. Wurz, S. & Van Peer, P. In press. North East Africa and Upper Pleistocene dispersals Out of Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin.

28. Wurz, S. submitted. East and Southern Africa - Middle Stone Age. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Smith, C & Smith, J. (eds).

29. Zilhão, J., d’Errico, F., Julien, M., David, F. In press. Chronology of the site of Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France: implications for radiocarbon dating. Before Farming.

Summary of ERC - UiB Publications

2010 - 2012

• Peer reviewed Journals Science (2), PNAS (3) , PLoS One (1), Other journals (20), In

press or prep (30)

• Edited Books (2)

• Chapters in books & monographs Published (4), in press (14)

• Presentations at Conferences (> 40)

TRACSYMBOLS -Media Impact

• Review articles – Science (4), Nature (3)

• Press Releases - by ERC (4) and CNRS (3)

• Podcasts (2)

• Documentaries (6)

• Television/Newspaper/Magazine articles (> 2000)

• Google hits – Blombos & Klipdrift (53,500), Tracsymbols (3500)

• Website http://tracsymbols.eu (15 000 hits over 12 months)

• TRACSYMBOLS project selected as one of the 30 most striking of

ERC-funded projects in 2011

Does Science Pay?

Example: Value of Blombos Science paper

in 2011

• Circulation: Unique Visitors 696 million

(794 news items in 74 countries)

• Advertising value: in South Africa alone for

UiB / Wits =NOK 3.5m

• Source: Newsclip Media Monitoring Services (SA), & Meltwater News International

ERC Renewal in 2015: Is it possible?

‘Blue Sky’ Research

HORIZON 2020

Prof. Donald Dingwell – ERC Secretary general

Klipdrift Shelter, southern Cape, South Africa

February 2012

Renewal is possible with UiB support

and with continuity of research team

1. Promote research on global issues (blue sky research)

2. Attract a core of top rated scientists to UiB (salary,

benefits, funding, support, infrastructure)

3. Establish long term funded research units at UiB that

can pass on skills to younger researchers at Masters &

PhD level

4. Establish multi-disciplinary collaborations with

researchers across the world

5. Masters & PhD students should be tasked with

developing significant portions of the new methods

and science in global research projects

6. Invest in analytical equipment that enables the output

of high quality data (e.g. Tracsymbols -Total Station,

EDXRF, FT-IR, Colorimeter)

Promoting Quality Research at UiB

Wits can make a policy decision: “We hire the best, regardless of

national origin.” Wits could hire graduates of MIT, Oxford, Indian

Institute of Technology, Technicon Beijing - take your pick - and

create world-class faculties at Wits.

Would there be South Africans on the faculty? Why not? There are

South Africans at MIT and Oxford! Money matters, of course. There

has to be the funding to pay people competitive salaries.

Korea had the same GDP as Ghana 50 years ago. Today,

Korea has laws preventing extra lessons past 10pm because

the students work so hard. Education was made the number

one priority. And now Korea has Samsung.

Wits in a Competitive Global Community

By Clive Smith

10 October 2012

Contributions to Research Report 2013 from Arne Holte (Deputy Director of the National Public Health Institute)

NRC has limited funds – they prefer to focus on what they know is safe

Dette er pysefinansiering. (This is sissy financing).

Norwegian research funding MUST take more risks, pursue bolder IDEALS and RISK

winning and losing.

If the EU can do it, we must also be able to manage it

The secrets of my prizewinning research

Nobel Prize Winner, Nature, October, 2012

Serge Haroche, co-winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, warns against the growing trend

towards short-termism in science funding

”Scarcity of resources due to the economic crisis, combined with the requirement to find scientific

solutions to practical problems of health, energy and the environment, tend to favour short-term,

goal-oriented projects over long-term basic research.”

Funding programmes open to curiosity-driven research (managed, for instance, by the French

national research agency (ANR) and the ERC do exist. Grants are, however, limited to three

or five years, far too short a time for an ambitious long-term project

Instead of investing those bold and

may help to create something new, they prefer to focus on what we know almost certainly that

we can know that tiny little bit safer. Good applicants are willing to make some analyzes also

advance so that they can almost guarantee to RCN that they will get results. This is

sissy financing. We spend money on what we already know almost. Norwegian

research funding to take more risks, invest bolder and risk winning and losing