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A Review of Micromorphology and Microarchaeological Methods Applied to African Stone Age Sites

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Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the concepts of micromorphology and microarchaeology, and provides a brief overview of the history of their application to African Stone Age sites. While many analytical techniques were first developed and tested on sites located in the Levant, today African sites are at the forefront of microarchaeological methods development, with particular emphasis on the integration of multiple methods and the analysis of anthropogenic sediment. Two case studies focus on the possible reasons for the abundance of microlaminations in South African cave and rockshelter sites, and recent developments in the study of controlled use of fire.

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the project directors for permission to publish profile photographs from the sites of Sibhudu (Nicholas Conard) and Diepkloof (Guillaume Porraz). The micromorphology samples from Klasies River were collected in collaboration with Sarah Wurz, director of the excavations, and funding for the thin section production was provided by a Baden-Württemberg Stiftung Elitepostdoctoral grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Tübingen, Germany

    Susan M. Mentzer

  2. Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Susan M. Mentzer

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  1. Susan M. Mentzer
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Correspondence to Susan M. Mentzer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Amanuel Beyin

  2. Institute of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    David K. Wright

  3. Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Jayne Wilkins

  4. Department of Anthropology and Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Deborah I. Olszewski

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Mentzer, S.M. (2023). A Review of Micromorphology and Microarchaeological Methods Applied to African Stone Age Sites. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_121

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