Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.

Uppsala University

Peter Silln

Lithic Technology in Southern Mozambique

An Analysis of Lithic Debitage from Caimane Cave and four Open Air Sites

Magisters thesis. Supervisor: Kjel Knutsson

Uppsala 2011

ABSTRACT
Silln, P., 2011. Lithic Technology in Southern Mozambique : An Analysis of Lithic Debitage
from Caimane Cave and four Open Air Sites. Uppsala.
A one-year masters thesis in Archaeology, Uppsala University.

This thesis is an attempt to build a stratigraphy of lithic technology in southern Mozambique. The
stratigraphic sequence is based on a database with attributes of flakes from two excavations in the
Caimane Cave rock shelters in Changalane, Maputo Province and the material will be analyzed with
chane opratoire methods. The technological stratigraphy is compared with two excavations and two
surface collections from open air sites in southern Mozambique. The analyzed material comes from
later Early Stone Age to later Late Stone Age/Early Farming Communities.
The goal with this analysis is to obtain a deeper understanding of the technology and
chronology of the numerous open air sites in Mozambique, which so far have received only limited
attentions. As the analyzed material is only a small proportion of the existing material from the
excavations of the Caimane Cave rock shelters, this thesis aims at a preliminary understanding of the
different lithic technologies in order to prepare further work regarding the Stone Age in southern
Mozambique.

Peter Silln
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, 75126
UPPSALA, SWEDEN

Keywords: Lithic technology, Lithic analysis, Chane Opratoire, Caimane Cave,

Mozambique, African Archaeology, Early Stone Age, Middle Stone Age, Late Stone Age.

Cover photo: View to the northwest from the Caimane Cave rock shelters. By Peter Silln.
All photographs are taken by the author if not otherwise stated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I need to thank Sida/SAREC and Rydbergs fond for the financial support for my
field work in Mozambique. Without their aid, this thesis would not have been possible. Just as
important has the support and comments from my supervisor, Kjel Knutsson, been. Writing a
thesis like this has not been easy, but your never-ending patience and understanding made it
all possible. I also want to thank Paul Sinclair for introducing me into the wonderful and
exciting world of African archaeology and for helping me out with your great expertise.
I also had the privilege to work with Professor Julio Mercader, who I randomly met at a
restaurant in Maputo during my first field season in Mozambique. Working with you has been
inspiring and rewarding in too many ways possible to mention. I also have to thank Solange
Macamo and Hilrio Madiquida for helping out with the administrational work needed to
carry out the field work.
I also want to thank Marjaana Kohtamki, Henrik Lekenvall, Tim Bennett, Steven
Simpson and Mussa Raja for filling the long field seasons with laughter and unforgettable
memories even in the most challenging of times. As everyone who has been working in Africa
knows, times is not always easy, and without great friends at your side it would be even
harder to endure. Further, I need to thank the many students from Universidade Eduardo
Mondlane who I had the chance to work with - you are the future of Mozambican
archaeology.
Maybe the most memorable of all from my field work has been all the friendly people I
met in every place I have been working at in Mozambique. Everywhere I have been, I have
met people that are extremely helpful and interested in my work. You alone make it worth to
return to this beautiful country time after time.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FIGURES

Figure 1.1. Map of Mozambique. Public domain.

Figure 2.1 Flake terminology. From Andrefsky 2005: 19 (Figure 2.7).
Figure 3.1. Site locations.
Figure 3.2. Caimane Cave facing north.
Figure 3.3. Eroded rocks in the depression at the surveyed field in Magelene.
Figure 3.4. Changalane River in the Daimane area, facing south.
Figure 4.1. Flakes as they are found on the surface in Daimane.
Figure 4.2. Site plan of Caimane I. By Jonsson 1983 and Knutsson & Darmark 2007.
Figure 4.3. Layers of square 327_107. By: Jonsson 1983 and Knutsson & Darmark 2007.
Figure 4.4. Dated layers of the trench in Caimane I. By Leif Jonsson 1983 and Kjel Knutsson
& Kim Darmark 2007.
Figure 4.5. LSA1 proportions.
Figure 4.6. LSA2 proportions.
Figure 4.7. LSA3 proportions.
Figure 4.8. Caimane proportions.
Figure 4.9. Canhoeiro proportions.
Figure 4.10. Daimane proportions.
Figure 4.11. Magelene proportions.

TABLES

Table 4.1. Amount of investigated flakes.

Table 4.2. Distribution of finds in Square 105_325.
Table 4.3. Context of the dated material.
Table 4.4. Cortex amounts.
Table 4.5. Platform types.
Table 4.6. Platform angles.
Table 4.7 Dorsal types.
Table 4.8 Terminations.

1. BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION
The Stone Age in Africa has the longest archaeological record in the world, with the earliest
known artifacts dated to an age of 2.6 million years (Barham & Mitchell 2008; Semaw 2000).
Sites from all Stone Age periods have been found all over Africa, but as the Stone Age
research have been concentrated to a few regions, there is still a large number of regions that
we know very little about as of today. One of these regions is Mozambique, a country where
the Stone Age research projects have been few and sporadically carried out over time
(Mercader et al. 2009b: 63). Even though the lack of archaeological research in Mozambique,
field surveys have shown that the whole country is rich in finds from the Early Stone Age up
to the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers communities (see Bennett 2011; Lindqvist 1984;
Meneses 1999; Mercader et al. 2009b; Morais 1988; Sinclair 1987).
In the summer of 2010 I had the opportunity to plan and participate in an archaeological
field survey together with a Ph.D. candidate and one more master student, Marjaana
Kohtamki and Henrik Lekenvall from Uppsala University. Our goal was to capture
coordinates of find locations and excavate a few test pits on some of these locations, and in
my case to survey for Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age lithics in the Changalane and
Magelene area in southern Mozambique. I collected flakes from stone tool production from
areas with larger concentrations of flakes, and measured a few selected attributes. These
attributes are the same that earlier have been registered by Professor Kjel Knutsson and
archaeologist Kim Darmark from Uppsala University, who built a database of attributes on the
flakes from two excavated Early Stone Age open surface sites and of the flakes from the
excavations of the Caimane Cave rock shelters by Leif Jonsson in1982-1983.
Further, I had the opportunity to have access to the database previously built by
Knutsson and Darmark, and also the chance to take a closer look at the material from the
excavations from Paula Meneses's fieldwork in the 1990s and the finds from the Caimane
Cave rock shelters that are stored in the basement of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in
Maputo. Since my main interest in archaeology is the Stone Age of southern Africa I took the
chance to write my master paper about this time period. Furthermore, I think it is a great
advantage to write about a material that I have personal experience with.

When browsing through the literature about the archeology in southern Mozambique, I
can see that there is a lack of information about the pre-ceramic archaeology in the area.
Except for a few unpublished reports (e.g. Dias 1947; Jonsson 2007), the more extensive
works regarding the Stone Age of Southern Mozambique were written by Meneses in the
1980s and 1990s (Meneses 1988; Meneses 1996; Meneses 1999). Stone tools and flakes can
be found almost everywhere on the surface of southern Mozambique, showing that this region
have been populated from the Early Stone Age to the present day. Caves and rock shelters are
few in the area (Meneses 1999: 129), but new caves have been found in recent field surveys
(Marjaana Kohtamki 2011: pers. comm.). Nevertheless, the rock shelters of Caimane Cave
include a rich record of flakes from stone tool production (Jonsson 2007). I hope that a chane
opratoire analysis of the material can give us more knowledge about the Stone Age and in
addition to this, making it possible to start building a technological chronology of the many
open air-sites that cover the landscape of southern Mozambique.

PURPOSE AND GOALS

The purpose of this thesis is to see if lithic debitage from different methods of tool production
can be separated from each other technologically and thus possible to divide into different
time periods. In order to accomplish that, I will make a comparison of attributes between the
lithic debitage material from the Caimane Cave rock shelters with the lithics from two open
air sites from my own 2010 field survey and from two of Paula Menesess excavations. The
surface finds from the open air sites were collected by me, Henrik Lekenvall and Marjaana
Kohtamki and later analyzed by me during our field survey in southern Mozambique in
2010. The excavations were carried out by Paula Meneses in the 1990s (Meneses 1999) and
the debitage were analyzed by Knutsson and Darmark in 2007.
To begin with, I need to investigate the possibilities to identify any technological
changes of the debitage in the stratigraphy of the 1.5 meters that has currently been excavated
in the Caimane Cave rock shelters. To do this I will start by looking at a few chosen attributes
of that are recorded in Knutssons and Darmarks database to see if there are any trends in
different layers of the excavated squares. I will further analyze the same attributes from the
collected material from our field survey and Meneses excavations to see if there are any
technological similarities or distinct differences to the material recorded in the stratigraphy of
the Caimane Cave rock shelter. The idea is to test the hypothesis that different open air sites
8

can be dated and eventually defined in terms of functional profile through a systematic
analysis of the flaked assemblages.

LIMITATIONS
Since the Stone Age in Africa is such a long period of time and shows a rich variety, both
locally and regionally, I need to concentrate this analysis to a specific area Daimane. There
is still a debate about the naming of this area, so I will choose the version I was told by one of
the local administrators from the village Changalane. Daimane is the region where the
Caimane Cave rock shelters are located and I am going to look at the material from the larger
rock shelter Caimane Cave I for the building up a lithic model of lithic reduction based on
the technological stratigraphy, using the chane opratoire method. I am going to compare this
model locally with comparing it to one excavation and one collection of surface finds outside
the rock shelters. Furthermore, I will compare the model with the surface finds from a more
remote site north of Daimane and one excavation located further away along the Changalane
river.
Due to the limits of time and space for a masters thesis, I made the choice to analyze
one type of raw material only rhyolite, as it is the most numerous raw material among the
lithic assemblages. Over all, the Middle and Late Stone Age of southern Mozambique have
not been investigated, the periods are only mentioned in other work regarding the Early
Farming Communities and later time periods (Barradas 1968; Morais 1988; Sinclair 1987),
making it difficult to discuss the different lithic production traditions that is represented in the
region. Another limitation is that only about 8% of the total lithic assemblage from Caimane
Cave (14% of the material from the analyzed square) had its attributes fully measured at the
time this thesis is being written. As a result, any results in this thesis should be seen as a
preliminary work that can change when we know more about the Stone Age of southern
Mozambique.

DISPOSITION
This thesis has two parts. The first part includes all the background material, which includes
the introduction, research history, chronology, climatic and environmental information and a
brief overview over the Stone Age in southeastern Africa. The background chapter is followed
9

by a chapter about the archaeological analysis of lithic technology. This chapter has all
information needed to understand the analysis of the original assemblages in the fourth
chapter.
The second part of the thesis is all about the region and material that are being analyzed.
It starts with the third chapter, which is about all sites included in the analysis and is then
followed by chapter four which is the analysis itself. The investigation will finally be
followed by a chapter with the conclusive discussion of the result from the analysis and a
brief summary of the thesis.

RESEARCH HISTORY
When reading overviews over African archaeology, such as Lawrance Barham and Peter
Mitchells The first Africans : African archaeology from the earliest toolmakers to most recent
foragers (2008) and Peter Mitchells The archaeology of southern Africa (2002), it stands
clear how little research there has been regarding the Stone Age in Mozambique. The
archaeological research in Mozambique has been struggling with logistic and financial
problems, as well as lack of trained personnel and conflicts in the country (Sinclair et al.
1993). In contrast, the adjacent countries of Tanzania to the north and South Africa in the
south have a rich archaeological record and several large scale excavations and research
projects covering this time period (Barham & Mitchell 2008). Several of the main excavations
of the oldest archaeological period the Oldowan, are located in the southeastern and eastern
parts of Africa, for example Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and Sterkfontein in South Africa
(Schick & Toth 2006: 12-13). The same is true regarding the later Acheulean sites, like
Olduvai Gorge and Kalambo Falls in the north and Cave of Hearth, Vaal River area and
Sterkfontein, to name a few of the numerous known sites located in the southeastern parts of
Africa (Meneses 1999: 14).
The oldest finds from Mozambique are of lithics typical for the Acheulean period.
Although a lack of precise dating, it is likely that the Acheulean period of southern
Mozambique starts around 1.5 to 1.4 million years ago, similar to the dates of many the older
known Acheulean sites in South Africa (Meneses 1999: 1). There are finds typical for the
earlier Oldowan period, but according to Meneses (1999: 81-82) the contexts of the finds are
not sure enough to lead to any trustworthy conclusions. Overall, the Acheulean period is
difficult to date compared to the earlier Oldowan or the later Middle Stone Age, because of
10

the lack of research regarding the paleoenvironmental, stratigraphical and lithic production
sequences of the Acheulean period (Meneses 1999: 22).
Before Mozambique became independent from the colonial power of Portugal in 1975,
the archaeological surveys in Mozambique have been few and rather poorly documented, with
the notable exceptions of Lereno Barradas (1962; 1968) in southern Mozambique. The earlier
research and excavations have often been compared to stratigraphical and archaeological
sequences of the Vaal River area in South Africa (Meneses 1999: 64). In southern
Mozambique, there were 67 documented Stone Age sites, all generally described in terms of
pluvials and sea level transgressions but without any information of the environmental setting
(Morais 1988: 42). A majority of these sites were recorded by Barradas and Bettencourt Dias
(Morais 1988: 41) Most of these finds comes from redeposits, surface finds and from river
terraces affected by long periods of erosion (Morais 1988: 49).
Between 1976 and 1984, however, a large scale archaeological survey program took
place in order to obtain a clearer picture of the archaeological sites in Mozambique. Even
though limited in terms of resources and personnel, the survey program was a successful cooperation between several institutions from different countries. The survey was organized by
Joo M. Morais (at the time, head of the Archaeology section of the Eduardo Mondlane
University), Ricardo Texeira Duarte, Paul Sinclair who become director of the Department of
Archaeology and Anthropology when Morais left for Oxford in 1980 and later Ana Loforte
(Morais 1988: 47-48). Among the many other institutions involved in the survey program was
the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation, the Swedish Board of Antiquities, the
University of Warsaw, the University of Rome and local inhabitants of Mozambique
(Lindqvist 1984; Sinclair et al. 1987: 6; Morais 1988: 47-50). Although the aim of the survey
was to locate new Iron Age sites, seven new Stone Age sites were recorded in southern
Mozambique (Morais 1988:42; 49).
During the years 1982 and 1983, the archaeologist and osteologist Leif Johnson
excavated Caimane Cave I and II, two rock shelters in the Changalane area south of Maputo
(one of the areas this thesis is focusing on), in southern Mozambique. Earlier in the 1940s,
Bettencourt Dias excavated a few trenches in the Changalane area, where he found mainly
lithics of Middle Stone Age type and a few handaxes and cleavers of Early Stone Age type
(Meneses 1999: 289).

11

The two rock shelters excavated by Johnson in the 1980s seem to have been used for
different activities or in different times during the range of Middle Stone Age and Later
Farming Communities. Among the finds are lithic materials (which will be discussed in
Chapter 4) possibly from Middle and Late Stone Age, Early Farming Communities ceramics,
human bones and the oldest dated burial in Mozambique, likely to be from either Late Stone
Age or from the Early Farming Communities. Furthermore, Johnson did sample and date
faunal remains, which can be useful for reconstructing the paleoenvironmental stratigraphies
for at least the last 8000 years in Mozambique. (Johnson 2007)
During the years 1993 to 1997, PhD student Paula Meneses carried out several field
surveys and excavations in southern Mozambique (Meneses 1999: 45). The goal was to obtain
a clearer view over the Acheulean period. In her dissertation (Meneses 1999), she studied the
technology behind the Acheulean hand axes and cleavers that were found during her field
work, in order to investigate their production sequences and how they change over time. With
chane opratoire analyses and experimental simulations she was able to interpret
technological changes in her material; further, she also investigated the relationships of her
material with the surrounding natural environment (Meneses 1999: 665). As the focus of
Menesess dissertation was about the production sequences of handaxes and cleavers, she did
no work concerning the debitage material (Meneses 1999: 363). This thesis will thus look
further into the debitage from her field work.
In 1999, 153 Stone Age sites were known in southern Mozambique (Meneses 1999: 79).
Of all Stone Age sites in Mozambique, about 70% consists entirely of Early Stone Age
material (Meneses 1999: 77). Since then, plenty of new Stone Age sites have been located. In
2007, Professor Kjel Knutsson from Uppsala University and archaeologist Kim Darmark
visited the Caimane Cave rock shelters in Southern Mozambique and continued on one of
Johnsons excavations from 1982-1983. The excavation resulted in a high number of lithic
artifacts, which had its sizes and raw materials analyzed in an undergraduate paper in 2010
(kesson 2010). Knutsson and Darmark also carried out a field survey around the cave where
they in a short time discovered 16 new sites, showing that Mozambique has a rich
archaeological record and a huge potential for future field work and research. (Knutsson pers.
comm.)
In northern Mozambique, a team from University of Calgary and Universidade Eduardo
Mondlane led by Professor Julio Mercader has carried out excavations and field surveys in the
12

Niassa Rift during the years 2003 to 2009 (Mercader pers. comm.). The focus of the project
was on human behavior and the environment during the Middle Stone Age of northern
Mozambique. The project has resulted in a number of papers (Mercader 2009; Mercader et al.
2009a; Mercader et al. 2009b; Mercader et al. 2010a; Mercader et al. 2010b) and a Masters
thesis written by the master student Tim Bennett (2011) from University of Calgary about the
lithic technologies from an open air site in the Niassa rift, showing that typical Middle Stone
Age technologies of a crude character and without any signs of stylistic appearance were
produced far into the Late Stone Age (Bennett 2011). The excavations from northern
Mozambique have shown that quartz is one of the more numerous raw materials in the region,
and that the lithic technologies of northern Mozambique has more in common with the
technologies in central eastern Africa than it has with southern Mozambique (Bennett 2011;
Mercader et al. 2009b). In 2010, the team started to work on a new project in the Urema Rift
in Gorongosa, Sofala, central Mozambique (Mercader pers. comm.) where I had the
opportunity to participate in the fieldwork season in 2011.

CHRONOLOGY AND DATING

Henceforth, dates will be expressed with the following abbreviations:
bp: Short for before present. Used here for uncalibrated radiocarbon dates, where bp
means years before 1950.
B.C/A.D: Used for calibrated radiocarbon dates and material that can be referred to
calendar dates.
kya: Short for thousands of years ago. Used for material less than one million years
old.
mya: Short for millions of years ago. Used for material greater than one million years
old.
The Stone Age of southern Africa is normally divided into three stages. The different
stages have no fixed period in years and are mainly based on different technological trends in
a few specific tools types or stages in human evolution, such as the last Australopithecines
and early Homo in Oldowan heavy- and light-duty tools, Acheulean bifacials, the emergence
and dispersal of Homo sapiens and prepared core techniques for the Middle Stone Age period
13

and microliths and composite tools of the Late Stone Age (Barham & Mitchell 2008; Klein
2009; Meneses 1999).
Early Stone Age (ESA) covers the Oldowan (2.6 to 1.4 mya) and Acheulean (1.6 mya
to 250 -100 kya) industrial complexes.
Middle Stone Age (MSA) 250- to 40 kya.

Later Stone Age (LSA) from 40 kya.

The dates are based by the ones used by Lawrance Barham and Peter Mitchell (Barham &
Mitchell 2008) and Chris Scarre (2005).
Both the Acheulean and MSA in eastern Africa are harder to date than the Oldowan and
LSA, due to the lack of good dating material e.g. fossils older than 0.7 million years, but the
Acheulean and MSA seems often to be separated by a sterile layer in the stratigraphic record
(Meneses 1999: 76). Recent excavations in northern and central Mozambique yielded material
such as speleothems and mammal teeth that have been successfully used for obtaining
absolute dated from the MSA and LSA periods in that area (Mercader et al. 2009b). It has also
been shown that technologies that have been traditionally related to MSA, such as cruder tools
and platform techniques survive in northern Mozambique at least until 28-33 kya (Bennett
2011: 180).

THE STONE AGE OF SOUTHEASTERN AFRICA

Even though this thesis is going to focus on lithic technology, it is important to give a brief
presentation of the Stone Age of southeastern Africa and its people, after all the analyzed
lithics are all remnants of these people and their lives. As the analyzed material comes from
all time periods, ESA to LSA, it is important to make as short overview as possible to not take
up to much space; as a result the periods will be very simplified and generalized. I will not
discuss regional traditions (with the exception of information directly regarding southern
Mozambique) or variations since it is not important for the analyses of the material at this
stage.
Southern and eastern Africa has the oldest evidence of tool making hominins (all species
directly related to Homo sapiens), with the sites from Gona that are from 2.6 mya (Semaw
14

2000). The oldest stone tool industries are called the Oldowan stone industries, named after
Olduvai Gorge in eastern Africa (Schick & Toth 2006: 3). The Oldowan stone industries are
characterized by its heavy- and light-duty tools. This classification was invented by Mary
Leakey (1971), where the heavy duty tools consists of core tools and flakes larger than 5
centimeter in dimension; the light-duty tools are smaller, often retouched flakes such as
scrapers.
Experimental archaeology (Schick & Toth 1994) has revealed that even these early and
relatively simple tools are excellent for cutting through wood, bone and skins from large
mammals such as elephants and rhinos, giving the tool making hominins a great advantage in
relation to other carnivores or scavengers when gathering food. The tools from the earliest
Oldowan sites are made with high accuracy on the striking angles and with raw materials
suitable for tool making, this makes it realistic to assume that hominins have been able to
create tools much longer to be able to develop such a high skill (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 81;
Schick & Toth 2006: 9).
Oldowan sites are often situated along fine- or coarse-grained plains around streams,
deltas and lakes, where the finer grained find locations being less affected by geological
disturbances; in South Africa the Oldowan sites are often located in limestone cave fillings
(Shick & Toth 2006: 9). The major Oldowan sites are located in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco (Schick & Toth 2006). There are finds of stone
tools of Oldowan-type in Mozambique, but the finds comes from uncertain contexts (Meneses
1999: 81).
As simple core tools and flakes are used during the whole Stone Age, it is difficult to
say exactly when the Oldowan stone industries end. Many researchers seems to agree that
around 1.4 mya is a good date, since finds typical to the Acheulean stone industries (named
after the first find location of handaxes in Acheul, France) became much more frequent at that
time (Schick & Toth 2006: 9). The Acheulean stone industry is characterized by handaxes,
cleavers and picks, which are the first types of standardized tool created by hominins, the
earlier tools of the Oldowan stone industries have no direct evidence of stylistic design
(Schick & Toth 1994: 231-232).
Acheulean sites have been found in large parts of Africa, Europe and Asia and there are
a high number of find locations with Acheulean tools in southern Mozambique (Meneses
1999). Tools of Acheulean types have been found much further from lakes and streams than
15

the Oldowan sites, indicating that the Acheulean hominins used a larger area of the landscape
than the hominins did during the Oldowan (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 127).
Little is known about what the handaxes, cleavers and picks were used for, but they
have all a symmetrical shape, and become more well made over time (Scarre 2005: 96). Use
wear analyses on Acheulean shows that they were used as butchering tools (Keeley 1980), but
it is likely that they have been used as multipurpose tools for cutting, chopping and digging
(Barham & Mitchell 2008; Schick & Toth 1994). Especially around 1.0 mya when the
technology of creating stone tools with softer materials like bones or wood spreads around the
world. The tools from the Oldowan and early Acheulean stone industries were all made using
hammerstones. The symmetrical and standardized tool forms shows that the homininins
creating them had a plan of what they created, and most likely could teach each other how to
create the tools. (Schick & Toth 1994)
The Acheulean stone industries end about 250-200 kya, at the start of the MSA (Barham
& Mitchell 2008: 225). MSA is famous for the emergence and spread of Homo sapiens
(Basell 2008; Klein 2009) along with the rapid development of new stone tool technologies
and the so called modern behavior (Henshilwood 2008). Modern behavior means that the
material culture now includes artifacts that have no clear practical use, such as decorations,
jewelry made of shells and the use of ochre (Scarre 2005: 141). However, the term modern
behavior is not without debate - one of the problems with modern behavior is that there are
many MSA and LSA sites that lack any of the evidence of the technologies that have been
related to modern behavior, therefore, material culture cannot by itself be seen as an indicator
or evidence of modern behavior (Bennett 2011; McBrearty & Brooks 2000).
The lithic technologies of the MSA are mainly characterized by prepared core
techniques, such as the Levallois- and disc-cores that could produce thinner flakes for point
production (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 219; Clark 1988: 237). The archeology of southern
Africa is suffering from a lack of finds from the transition from late ESA to early MSA, and
therefore there is not much known about this period in the region (Clark 1988: 236; Phillipson
2005: 96). In many regions, finds from ESA and MSA have been found on the same site, but
the periods have been separated by a sterile layer in the stratigraphy (Meneses 1999: 76;
Phillipson 2005: 97). Further, the later Acheulean stone industries and the technologies typical
for MSA such as the prepared cores and hafted tools are normally overlapping each other
(Scarre 2005: 96).
16

Finds from South Africa that are from around 50-80 kya and comes from caves around
the cape in South Africa e.g. Blombos Cave have been claimed to be the earliest evidence of
modern behavior (Henshilwood et al. 2001). It is still debated if the people in MSA were
actively hunting or if they were collecting their meat resources mainly by scavenging (Deacon
1989; Scarre 2005: 144). There are indications from Blombos Cave in South Africa and in
shell middens at several sites in South Africa that people may have been eating marine
products as well as fresh- and brackish-water fish at least about 77 kya or possibly as early as
130-115 kya (Henshilwood 2008; Henshilwood et al. 2001; Scarre 2005: 142).
The LSA is characterized by more intense hunting, gathering and fishing as a food
supply, with hunting weapons made of hafted microliths. Caves at Klasies River Mouth in
South Africa, dated to 70-60 kya, are likely to be the oldest known sites with microliths
(Singer & Wymer 1982; Scarre 2005: 355). The transition from MSA to LSA is overall much
easier to identify than the beginning of MSA because of the remarkable differences in the
blade and microlith technologies that are typical for the LSA (Clark 1988: 236). Other
technologies that are typical for the LSA are the backed tools and bladelets, that started to turn
up in the late MSA record in southern Africa (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 280).
In southeastern Africa, the late MSA record were characterized by scrapers and
bificially as well as unifially worked points were replaced by quartz tools created by bipolar
techniques (see Chapter 2 for an explanation of the different lithic technologies). This change
in technologies has been described as a transition between MSA and LSA technologies in
southeastern Africa (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 282). There is not much information about the
LSA in Mozambique, and most of the sites have been classified as part of the Smithfield and
Wilton traditions in southern Africa (Barradas 1968: 8; Sinclair 1987: 59). The Smithfield and
Wilton traditions are dated from about 7-6000 BC and is characterized by microliths, backed
tools, scrapers, worked bones and ornaments (Deacon 1972; Wadley 2000).
Groups of mobile hunter-gatherers using lithic technologies are known in Africa in
recent times and there are groups that at least partially live as hunter-gatherers today (Barham
& Mitchell 2008: 400; Scarre 2005: 355). This means that hunter-gatherers using lithic
technologies coexisted with pastoralists and farmers over a long period of time (Barham &
Mitchell 2008: 400). In contrast to many other regions in southeastern Africa both the
introduction of farming and disappearance of hunter-gatherers in Mozambique seems to have
occurred relatively fast during the first millennium A.D. (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 427;
17

Morais 1988). The Early Farming Communities in Mozambique are known as the Matola
tradition, named after the excavated sites in Matola, south of Maputo (Macamo: 2005: 57).
The earliest Matola sites are dated to the first to fourth centuries A.D. and is therefore one of
the oldest known farming communities in southern Africa (Sinclair 1987: 67).

THE GEOGRAPHY AND LANDSCAPE OF SOUTHERN MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique is located at the eastern coast of southern Africa, surrounded by South Africa to
the southwest, Tanzania in the north and Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland to the
west and Madagascar to the east. It is important to remember that the borders in Africa are a
construct by colonialists (Morais 1988: 11) and has nothing to do with the people inhabiting
the land during the pre-colonial time.
The present surface of southern Mozambique is covered mainly by open woodland and
dry grass savannas (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 33).

18

Figure 1.1. Map of Mozambique.

THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN MOZAMBIQUE

Geologically, the southernmost part of Mozambique is covered with unconsolidated sediments
formed during the Pleistocene and Holocene (Meneses 1999; 133). The present surface of
southern Mozambique was shaped by the reduction of sea levels during the Pliocene and
continued to build up in the Pleistocene and Holocene. The Pliocene and Pleistocene
sediments consists mainly of reddish sandstone and yellowish or orange/brown reddish clayey
sand (Meneses 1999: 148-151). The Holocene is characterized by steep river terraces and soils
consisting of sand, clayey sand, sandstone and limestone (Meneses 1999: 152).
The oldest uncovered geological formations are part of the Karoo Supergroup, which
were formed around 300 and 180 mya (Meneses 1999: 136). The most frequent types of rock
in southern Mozambique are rhyolite and basalts. Since the rhyolite, which in the area is of a
reddish-brown color, is richly siliceous, it is very resistant to erosion and weathering
(Meneses 1999: 129). As a consequence, there are only few caves or rock shelters in the area
e.g. the Caimane rock shelters discussed in this thesis (Meneses 1999: 129).

THE PALEOENVIRONMENT OF SOUTHERN MOZAMBIQUE

The reconstruction of the paleoclimate of southeastern Africa has formerly been based on
pluvial and interpluvials. A pluvial is related to the European Ice Ages, and the interpluvials
are related to the European interglacial periods. The pluvial and interpluvial cycles can be
recognized as periods of dryer or moister climate. The use of this model in Africa has seen
severe critics and there have been new attempts to compare the climate changes of southern
Africa regionally. However, most of the new research is covering only the last 20 kya. Most of
the climatic studies of older periods are focused on South Africa. (Meneses 1999: 157-158)
During the Pleistocene the climate in Africa was unstable and there have been periods of
colder or drier weather, which resulted in changes of the environment. Therefore, the
19

hominins that lived during the Pleistocene had to adapt to new food sources and ways to live
many times (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 44). One of the more extensively documented
paleoenvironmental records from southeastern Africa comes from Border Cave in KwaZulu in
South Africa, close to the border to Swaziland and southern Mozambique (Butzer et al. 1978;
Deacon & Lancaster 1988: 80-84).
The analysis of Border Caves stratigraphy shows that there have been many changes
between cold and warm intervals during the MSA and LSA (Butzer et al. 1978). Gravity cores
from the Mozambique Channel wear evidence of a warming in the southern Indian Ocean of
c. 5 C starting about 10 kya (Deacon & Lancaster 1988: 93). The sedimental, pollen and
micromammalian evidence from the Transvaal show that the Last Glacial Maximum were
generally cool with intervals of warmer and moister and periods of colder and drier weather
(Deacon & Lancaster 1988: 93-94). The Holocene pollen sequence from the same region
show that the Early Holocene starts with a warm and dry period with a grassland environment
that changes into a moister climate and bushier environment in the mid- and Late Holocene
(Deacon & Lancaster 1988: 94).
One way to see climatic changes over Pleistocene and Holocene is by looking at the
Marine Isotope Stages (MIS). The MIS are based on stable isotopes, often of oxygen, which
can be studied to see how the temperature changes in relation to the expansion and retraction
of the polar ice sheets. The MIS samples are extracted from deep-sea cores, which often
include pollen and leaf wax that can be used to see how the vegetation changes in relation to
temperature. By studying pollen and fossils from deposits in river valleys and caves, it is
possible to create a sequence of regional terrestrial and climatic changes. (Barham & Mitchell
2008: 45-47).
Anneli Ekbloms Ph.D. dissertation Changing Landscapes : An environmental history of
Chibuene, Southern Mozambique (2004) includes a detailed environmental analyses over the
terrestrial record of the Chibuene area in southeastern Mozambique. The analysis is based on
samples taken from cores of lake sediments and covers about the last 1600 years (Ekblom
2004). In northern Mozambique, the project ran by archeologists from University of Calgary
and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane recovered starch samples and pytholiths from MSA
lithics found during their excavations (Mercader 2009; Mercader et al. 2009a; Mercader et al.
2010a; Mercader et al. 2010b). The different types of starch that could be successfully
extracted and analyzed from the MSA lithics are typical to the starch that could be found in
20

nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and wooden trunks, where starch from different types of sorghum
appear to be the most common (Mercader et al. 2008: 295-297). The extracted phytoliths
from northern Mozambique matches the phytoliths of grasses and leafs that are typical for the
Miombo woodland species (Mercader et al. 2009a; Mercader et al. 2010b).
From Leif Jonssons excavations in the early 1980s, it was possible to create a record of
zoological changes in the Changalane area in the southwestern parts of Mozambique. The
record includes shellfish, bones and fossils from the LSA and Early Iron Age (Jonsson 2007).
Other than that, the paleoenvironmental sequences are, just as the archaeological, often
compared with the Vaal River Valley in South Africa (Meneses 1999: 64). The bones Jonsson
(2007) found during his excavation have been analyzed and come from a high number of
different mammals, fishes and lizards, and could be dated from recent times to an age of about
8000 bp. Any detailed information about the osteological record is not available at the time
this thesis is being written. Therefore this environment data can only be used on the dated
layers of the Caimane Cave rock shelters. As a result, the older layers can only be dated
through technological and typological comparisons in the lithic assemblages. This will be
attempted in this thesis.

21

2. LITHIC TECHNOLOGY

The greatest advantage when working with lithic artifacts is that they, unlike many other
materials, are very persistent to weathering and often well preserved. It is not rare to find
lithic artifacts in a condition close to how they were when it's producers once left them
(Barham & Mitchell 2008: 59). Thanks to this, lithics are relatively easy to analyze to see how
they were made and used, although the Early and Middle Stone Age artifacts are more
difficult to analyze in terms of use wear analysis due that even stones weather over time
(Barham & Mitchell 2008: 81; Schick & Toth 1994: 176).
The oldest known modified stones are 2.6 million years old and found in Gona in
Ethiopia (Semaw 2000; Semaw 2006). This means that the knowledge to modify stones into
useful tools have survived several stages of human evolution and that the changes in lithic
technology is an important source when coming to understand the evolution of human
biology, behavior and cognition (Barham & Mitchell 2008: 110; Meneses 1999: 348).
By studying the lithics from a site, it is for example possible to interpret what kind of
activities that has occurred on the site (Meneses 1999:349), but also what general tradition the
material is related to. This chapter is an overview of different methods in lithic analyses and
technology, which will be used in the analysis of the material in this thesis.

CHANE OPRATOIRE
Chane opratoire is a concept named and developed by the French archaeologist Andr
Leroi-Gourhan (1964; 1965). The concept is based on a collection of different analytical
methods that can be used to understand the techniques, construction sequence and gestures
used to create an artifact. There have been several attempts to come up with an English name
(Eriksen 2000a: 76; Meneses 1999: 366), but in this thesis I will use the original name, for the
simple reason of avoiding unnecessary complications. Furthermore, I will only discuss chane
opratoire of lithic technology, even though it can be used for other technologies like pottery
as well.
The objective of chane opratoire is to, with the help of experimental archaeology,
understand the choices and actions made by the tool maker throughout the whole process of
22

making stone tools (Meneses 1999: 366). When talking about decisions and knowledge about
the tool maker, archaeologists use the terms knowledge and know-how, which can be
explained as two different types of memories used in lithic tool making (Apel 2001: 27).
Knowledge is a declarative and reflective memory and know-how is an unconscious,
embodied and unreflective type of memory based on practical experience (Apel 2001: 27).
This means that knowledge is the theoretical framework of the production process, gained
from trial and error, observing or getting some kinds of instructions from another tool maker.
Know-how can only be gained by practical training and experience, and is therefore
impossible to teach to other tool makers (Apel 2001: 27; Eriksen 2000b; Harlacker 2006).
In terms of material culture, a technology based mainly on knowledge such as simple
bipolar and platform techniques, spreads easily over wide areas, especially if the technology is
not based on a certain raw material. A know-how-heavy technology tends to be concentrated
to areas with easy access of certain raw materials of good quality. It is also often necessary
that the tool makers have time to stay and practice on a specific location. An apprentice tool
maker can learn reduction techniques and striking angles by communicating with other tool
makers, while more advanced bifacial technologies for example, need a great proportion of
know-how gained through practice. (Apel 2001: 29)
Stones react in different ways when reduced, depending on raw materials, the
hammerstones, striking angles etc e.g. the techniques and methods used. The ways different
raw materials and striking angles affect the stones are sometimes possible to recreate with the
help of simulations though experimental archaeology. When understanding how different
lithic artifacts was created, it will be possible to construct a scheme of the whole reduction
sequence from selection of the raw material for the core to the final tool, as well as put the
flakes from the production of the tools into this sequence. When examining the source
material, the actions needed to create it and the knowledge needed to perform these actions,
the archaeologists obtain a picture of the required technological knowledge required to create
the specific tool or flake. This can thus be used to evaluate the degree of knowledge and
know-how. (Apel 2001; Eriksen 2000b)
One of the most widely used methods to recreate the knapping process is called
refitting. The objective of refitting is to put the debitage material into different phases to
understand how far into the process the lithics originates from. This method is useful both to
understand the artifacts and the activities performed on the sites they are found on. It is even
23

possible to estimate the number of tools created at a specific site and moreover, to see if there
is any stratigraphical differences in the lithic material. (Schick & Toth 2006: 30)
The process of making lithic artifacts can be placed in five different basic phases, based
on how far into the process the artifacts seems to descend from.
Phase 0: Collecting the raw materials
This phase is about collecting the raw materials that will be used for making the tools.
Traces from this phase are flakes from testing the quality of the raw material. These flakes are
often seen as coarse cortex (the natural surface of the modified stone) flakes.
Phase 1: Preparation
When a useful rock has been found, it is time to create a platform. Even this phase
leaves flakes with a high amount of cortex, as well as platform flakes - coarse flakes that
occur from the preparation of the platform.
Phase 2: Primary reduction
When the rock has been prepared, it is possible to produce blanks in the shape of cores
and flakes for the expected tools. The debitage material from the primary reduction phase can
come in shapes of flakes with a small amount of cortex and scars from earlier flakes, as well
as platform flakes and discarded cores.
Phase 3: Secondary reduction
In this phase, the blanks from the primary phase is modified and retouched into tools.
Phase 3 has debitage in form of smaller flakes and broken or incomplete blanks.
Phase 4: Used tools
Phase 4 lithics is finished tools and tools that have been reworked from earlier tools.
The debitage material is flakes from the recycled tools.
Phase 5: Discarded tools
This phase is for tools that for some reason have been discarded. The reasons can be
that the tool is broken, not needed anymore or part of a ceremonial deposit.
(Eriksen 2000b: 81)
24

It is important to keep in mind that a tool may have been used for more than one thing,
and thus can have been used as a core, re-sharpened or further modified into new tools instead
of being discarded (Eriksen 2000b: 82-83).
It is essential to classify as much of the material as possible when making a reduction
scheme over a lithic assemblage. Therefore, the following five questions are useful for
obtaining the basic data needed for a chane opratoire-analyze:
Identify the raw material: Is it possible to distinguish the different raw materials
among the lithics?
Identify the reduction strategies: Is it possible to see which reduction methods and
techniques used when looking at the different attributes of the finds?
Dynamical technological classification: Is it possible to see which reduction phases the
finds belong too?
Typological and functional classification of the tools: Is it possible to see what the
tools have been used for?
Typological classification of the debitage: Is it possible to see which activities that
created the debitage for example if the debitage comes from primary, secondary or
resharpening reduction?
(Eriksen 2000b: 84)

REDUCTION TECHNIQUES
There is a number of different reduction techniques, and to get a clear view over them they
have been divided into different techniques depending on what kinds of hammers used and
how the force is applied to the nodule when making a tool.

Direct percussion techniques

Direct percussion means that the tool maker is modifying the stone directly with some kind of
hammer. The different methods are using a hammerstone, bipolar method, anvil technique or
throwing.
25

Hard hammer percussion

Hard hammer percussion means that the tool maker is using a hammerstone, bipolar method
or possibly even throwing the stones at each other, when making stone tools. These
techniques can be tracked to the earliest stone tools of the Oldowan period. (Eriksen 2004a:
43; Schick & Toth 1994: 119)

Bipolar technique
Bipolar technique is common during the entire Stone Age. Bipolar technique is performed by
knapping a core held against a hard surface with a hammerstone. By doing this the core
fractures both from above and underneath. This technique is commonly used for smaller cores
which can be to difficult create platforms on, or on cores that have been used too much to
make it possible to continue with another technique. Bipolar technique is preferably used on
raw materials that fracture easily, and the most of the flakes are useless. The useful flakes are
often small with thin, sharp edges. (Eriksen 2004a: 43; Schick & Toth 1994: 120)

Anvil technique
The anvil technique is performed by holding the core with both hands and strikes it against
another hard surface, like a large rock. This technique is good when the wanted core is too
large to handle with one hand, but it is also more risky because the risk that sharp flakes hit
the tool maker is much higher than with other techniques. (Schick & Toth 1994: 120; 154155).

Soft hammer percussion

This technique starts to appear in the late ESA, but is used at a larger degree during the MSA.
Soft hammer refers to using softer materials, like wood, bone or antler when making stone
tools. The advantages when using softer materials as a hammer is that the tool maker is
getting better control over the flaking. This technique is used as a marker for the transition
between early and late Acheulean, when the bifacial lithics become more well made. Soft

26

hammer percussion demands more preparations of the platform. (Eriksen 2004a; Meneses
1999: 378)

Indirect percussion
Indirect percussion imply that the tool maker is using a punch of either a stone (indirect hard
percussion) or wood, bone or another softer material (indirect soft percussion). The punch is
absorbing the force of percussion and gives the tool maker a better control over where he
intends to flake the core. Lithics worked with indirect techniques starts to occur in the lithic
assemblages of the early LSA. (Eriksen 2000a: 45)

Pressure flaking
Pressure flaking means that the tool maker has been using a sharp punch, often made of bone
or teeth, and pressure it at specific points on the core. This technique is more accurate than the
direct and indirect percussion techniques since it makes it possible for the tool maker to focus
on exact locations of the core. The technique is difficult to master and it requires raw
materials of a very good quality and also that the nodule that is being reduced have been
heavily prepared if the tool maker wants to receive a good result. (Eriksen 2000a: 46-47)

BIFACIAL TECHNOLOGY
A biface is a lithic that has been modified from two sides that ends up in a single edge.
Bifaces come in a big variety of shapes and size, all from bifacial flakes cores that could have
been used as choppers or axes to hafted arrow- and spearheads (Andrefsky 2005: 22-23). The
production sequence of bifaces have been divided into several stages, similar to the five
phases commonly used in chane opratoire-analyses, where the first stages is similar to the
Oldowan core-choppers and the Acheulean hand axes, and the later stages is compared to the
arrow- and spear heads of the late Pleistocene and Holocene (Callahan 1979).
Errett Callahan (1979) carried out a large project to understand the actions and decisions
made by the tool maker when creating a biface. With the help of experimental archaeology he
made, together with a group of students, reproductions of Fluted Points-bifaces. The Fluted

27

Point tradition is divided into three phases, where the phase Callahan is investigating is a
Clovis-like tradition in Virginia, dated to ca 11 000-12 000 B.P (Callahan 1979: 1).
Callahan noted several useful attributes, such as edge-angles, flake scar variability,
types of hammerstones used, preparation and location of platforms, work time and number of
flakes that needed to be removed for every step (Callahan 1979). Further, he compared every
stage to different artifact types, such as Acheulean hand axes. In addition to this he evaluated
the quality of the bifaces to see if they were good enough for further thinning or needed to be
discarded. This makes Callahans work useful to obtain a basic understanding of the bifacial
tool making procedure and the sites where the tools have been made based on the
identification of debitage. (Callahan 1979)
Similar to Callahans stage analyses, there have been experiments showing that the
platform changes further into the production (Andrefsky 2005: 90). These experiments show
that the platform seems to have a higher degree of preparation the deeper into the production
sequence it belong too. Also the type of the platform changes, with a higher frequency of
facets on platforms of the debitage material from later stages than the ones from earlier stages.
The width, thickness and angle of platforms of the debitage from bifacial production also
seem to change in correlation of the stages of production, where the platforms size and angle
is decreasing in later stages of reduction.

RAW MATERIALS
It is important to use rocks that are suitable for the reduction technique used for creating the
desired tools, and it seems that already the Oldowan tool makers were good at choosing rocks
of good quality and to read the rocks too see what reduction techniques is more suitable for its
current condition (Schick & Toth 1994: 122-123). For archaeologists, raw materials used by
prehistorical stone tool makers are a problematic issue due to the lack of standards and the
almost infinite variations of compositions within the rocks. Even within the same rock type
there are differences in texture, color and grain size and there is no given way how to deal
with this as an archaeologist without the aid of laboratory analysis. (Andrefsky 2005: 41-43)
Even though there is finds of different types of raw materials in the collections
investigated in this paper, such as quartz, jasper, opal and basalt I choose to focus on
rhyolite flakes only, as it is the most numerous raw material and occur during the whole
28

excavated sequence of the rock shelter. The rhyolite lithics differs in grain size and color, but I
choose to treat them as a single group. It can, however, be interesting to investigate if there is
any difference in the use of different types of rhyolite as a future project.
Rhyolite is an igneous rock, which means that it is composited by different minerals that
has melted together as magma deep under the surface of the earth magma or as lava from
volcanic activity on the surface of the earth (Andrefsky 2005: 47). Rhyolite is part of the
granite family, which means that it has the same chemical composition as granite, but due to a
slower cooling process it has a more homogeneous texture where the different minerals is
difficult to observe without a microscope (Andrefsky 2005: 48). In this analysis, I have not
made any attempt to divide the rhyolite by grain size and colors, even though the stigmata of
the different types of rhyolite have been recorded in the database by Knutsson and Darmark.
It is possible that different types of rhyolite could have been used for different purposes, but
as the number of registered flakes is still low and limited to partial excavations and collections
from five different sites, I decided to skip dividing different types of rhyolite and treat all the
rhyolite flakes as part of the same raw material.

MODES OF TECHNOLOGY
Graham Clark (1977) invented a classification of lithic technologies, this classification is not
based on identification of cultures or traditions; instead, it is based on the technologies
themselves. Previously, lithic technologies have been seen as evolutionary development from
the simple Oldowan stone industries to more sophisticated technologies. The problem with the
evolutionary perspective for lithic technologies is that the introduction of new technologies
varies over the world and that different technologies overlap each other in different ways
(Clark 1977: 24).
Clark proposes to divide the technologies in different modes rather than traditions or
chronological time periods e. g. Oldowan, ESA and so on:
Mode 5: microlithic components of composite artifacts.
Mode 4: punch-struck blades with steep retouch.
Mode 3: flake tools from prepared cores.

29

 Mode 2: bifacially flaked handaxes.

Mode 1: chopper-tools and flakes.
(from Table 5. Lithic technology during the Old Stone Age in Europe, Clark 1977: 23)
Using the Modes of technology can make it easier to explain the lithic technology on a
site with lithic material from several different technologies.

DEBITAGE

Figure 2.1 Flake terminology. From Andrefsky 2005: 19 (Figure 2.7).

The debitage material includes everything that has not been modified to use as a tool or core
(Andrefsky 2005: 82). Tools are all flakes that have been used or retouched in some way and
cores are the chunks of rocks that have been used for creating flakes (Andrefsky 2005). From
now on, the cores and tools that the flakes have been detached from will be referred to as
nodules. In this thesis I am going to analyze the technological information on lithic flakes
without any visible modifications.

30

An initial way to classify debitage is, as was discussed previously, by dividing them into
the typology of primary, secondary or tertiary flakes, depending on the amount of cortex they
have. The problem with this typology is that a flake with a high amount of cortex can have
been removed in later reduction phases as well. The cortical amount on different phases varies
depending on the used technologies and raw materials (Sullivan & Rozen 1985: 756). In their
paper, Alan P. Sullivan and Kenneth C. Rozen (1985) introduced an interpretation-free
method to analyze debitage material, where a complete flake is required to have traces from
the percussion e.g. ripple marks or a force of percussion, a complete striking platform and a
feathered or hinged termination. Even if the analytical methods of Sullivan & Rozen are
seldom followed in the present day research, it started a debate about debitage analysis that
came to increase the understanding of the variability of debitage material (Andrefsky 2001:
2).
A flake has two sides a ventral side and a dorsal side. The ventral side is the part of
the flake that was previously inwards to the nodule before it was removed, and therefore has
no cortex or scars from previous flaking; it is on this side the bulb of percussion from the
flaking is located. The dorsal side is from the surface of the nodule, and can have any
combinations of amounts of cortex and scars from previous flaking. A flake from a later stage
in the production tends to have more scars on the dorsal side than flakes from earlier stages
(Apel 2001: 155). Furthermore, flakes have two ends the top, the part with the platform, is
called the proximal end, and the bottom part where the flake terminates is called the distal
end. A complete flake needs to have both a proximal and a distal end. If not it is a flake
fragment. (Andrefsky 2005: 82-84)
It is almost impossible to tell the difference between flakes produced by direct and
indirect hard percussion techniques, since they both tend to have a large bulb of percussion
(Eriksen 2000a: 45). The bulb of percussion is a hump on the ventral side of the flake, close to
the proximal end. How the bulb of percussion is shaped is debated among lithic researchers
some researchers believe that the shape depends on which type of hammerstone used, some
believe it depends on the striking angle, and some believe that it is a combination of both
theories (Andrefsky 2005: 20). Experimental archaeology has also shown that it is difficult to
tell the difference between flakes created by either direct hard hammer or direct soft hammer
techniques (Meneses 1999).

31

The platform is the area where the nodule has been struck to create the flake, and as a
consequence, a small piece of the platform is still visible on the proximal end of a flake. The
platform can vary in character depending on how the platform was prepared and the
technologies used by the tool maker. Flake obtained from a unilinear core is always reduced
from the same direction and thus have a flat surface as a platform. If the flake platform has
several flat areas it is possible that it comes from a prepared multidirectional or bifacial
nodule (Andrefsky 2005: 16).
The platform is often prepared in some way to help the tool maker to receive the desired
result, for example by grinding or rubbing where the tool maker desired to strike it
(Andrefsky 2005: 95). As mentioned above, the platform can be divided in a number of
different types, depending on the different technologies the tool maker used, and the types that
this paper will deal with are described in Chapter 4. A platform is often having a higher
degree of preparation the further into the reduction sequence the flake have been removed.
Further, flake platforms from bifacial tool production seem to have more facets the further
into the production they were removed from the nodule. (Andrefsky 2005: 90)
Using platform angles as an indicator of reduction methods is still problematic, as every
platform is unique and often has a rounded or multifaceted surface. In addition, both the
platform and the ventral side are often curved, as a result it can be difficult to locate the exact
point of where the platform ends and the ventral side begins. Lithic analysts have been
dealing with these problems in several ways, taking it different points when measuring
platform angles (Andrefsky 2005: 92). The inconsistency of methods for measuring the
platform angles in combinations with the high variation of different platform types that can
come from one reduction technique makes this method very time consuming. All the
platforms angles from the flakes in this analysis have been measured with the same method,
as mentioned in Chapter 4.
The distal ends can have a number of different terminations, depending on how the
force from the percussion is expanding through the nodule. A smooth and even termination is
called feathered termination, if it is rounded it is a hinged termination, if it expands into the
nodule it is a plunged termination and sharp, abrupt termination is called stepped termination
(Andrefsky 2005: 87). Callahans experiments with bifacial stone knapping shows that
hinged, plunged and stepped terminations often are results of unsuccessful reduction of flakes
and may ruin the nodule for future flaking (Callahan 1979).
32

There are several useful attributes to look at for separating flakes from bifacial
reduction from flakes created with other reduction techniques. A bifacial flake tend to have
curved profiles, less pronounced bulbs of percussion, feathered terminations, relatively
smaller thickness, and weight. Often, the platform of a bifacial flake has a dorsal angle of
approximately 45 degrees, the angle from platform cores tend to be larger. Furthermore, the
platform is often having a higher degree of preparation and thinner platform compared to
platform core flakes. (Apel 2001: 154)

33

3. PRESENTATION OF THE SITES

Figure 3.1. Site locations.

CAIMANE CAVE
Since Bettencourt Dias discovered the Caimane Cave rock shelter in the early 1940s, both the
rock shelters and the surrounding area have been subject of several excavations. The
excavations by Dias in the 1940s and Meneses in the 1990s resulted in a high number of MSA
and ESA lithic artifacts. Further, Dias found pottery, ostrich egg shell beads and animal bones.
Due to lack of information and documentation about Dias excavations and finds, they will not
be investigated in the analysis, but Meneses excavations will be further explained in this
chapter and the investigated flakes will be presented in Chapter 4. (Jonsson 2007; Meneses
1999; Morais 1988: 49)
The Caimane Cave rock shelters themselves are located on the coordinates 26 19 S
and 32 08 E and have been excavated two times: first by Leif Jonsson in 1982 and 1983 and
later by Kjel Knutsson and Kim Darmark in 2007 (Jonsson 2007; Knutsson pers. comm.).
According to Dias, Caimane I, the larger rock shelter has been cleared and was heavily
34

disturbed by recent activities, in contrast to Caimane II, which is a smaller and undisturbed
rock shelter. Jonsson excavated both rock shelters during his fieldwork in Mozambique and
recovered finds from a long series of occupations. (Jonsson 2007)

Figure 3.2. Caimane Cave facing north.

Caimane I
Caimane I is circa 30 meter wide and 8 meter deep, with a rocky floor sloping down towards
Changalane River. Jonsson excavated a total of four 1 by 1 meter test pits and one 0.5 by 5
meter trench. The top layer is a mix of Early Iron Age (EIA) and LSA artifacts, but due to the
recent disturbance in the cave it is not possible to say if the lithic artifacts have any relation
with the EIA finds or if they are from different occupations. Among the EIA finds, there were
440 pieces of pottery but no ironwork or slag. Almost all pieces of pottery are of EIA type and
20 pieces could be related to the Matola tradition. (Jonsson 2007)
35

Bones and shells from land snails could be found in all excavated layers, but became
less frequent in the older layers. Furthermore, in the EIA/LSA and LSA layers, human bones
from at least three individuals were found. The zoological finds are bones from large
mammals such as antelopes, warthogs, bush pigs, zebras and hyenas as well as other
carnivores. Also bones from birds and fish were found. Except that the faunal remains are less
frequent in the MSA layers, the same types of bones were found in all layers. (Jonsson 2007)
The EIA/LSA layer ends with a layer of closely packed, complete land snail shells,
followed by a layer of crushed shells and no finds of pottery were made beneath these layers.
The layer of complete shell can be interpreted as a period where the rock shelter where
unoccupied and the layer of crushed shells is a possible walking floor from a period of
occupation. Radiocarbon samples were taken from every deposit. (Jonsson 2007)
Beneath the layers of landsnail shells, Jonsson found layers of LSA and possibly MSA
lithics. In the LSA layer there were a grave with the skeleton of a man who died around the
age of 25. There is no grave goods related to this grave and it is possible that it can have been
dug into the LSA layers during the EIA. The lithic artifacts consist mainly of flakes and the
only tools found are small scrapers. Where smaller flakes of agate and fine volcanic rocks
dominates the LSA layers, the majority of the earlier LSA or possible MSA lithics consists of
larger flakes made out of rhyolite. (Jonsson 2007)

Caimane II
Caimane II is circa 10 meter wide and 3 meter deep and located around 20 meters from
Caimane I. In Caimane II, Jonsson carried out one 1 by 1 meter excavations and finds are of
different character than the ones in Caimane I, which indicates that the two rock shelters have
been occupied in different periods of time or for different activities. (Jonsson 2007)
The first layer contended Late Iron Age (LIA) finds, followed by layers of ash and
burned bones with LSA lithics, mainly small flakes. In contrast to Caimane I, no pottery or
other artifacts which could be related to EIA were found. The osteological record consisted
mainly of small mammals, lizards and fish. No material from Caimane II will be used in this
analyze. (Jonsson 2007)

36

The 2007 excavation

The excavation carried out by Knutsson and Darmark in 2007 is not yet fully reported. They
continued on the trench in Caimane I that Jonsson excavated in 1982 and 1983, excavating
two new spits by 0.5 by 0.5 meters as a continuation of Jonssons 0.5 by 5.0 meter trench until
they, at a depth of circa two meters reached a layer of heavy roof spall from the cave. The
thick layer of roof spall made it impossible to excavate any deeper with the resources
available at that time. The two spits were excavated at the depths of 1.60 to 1.70 meters and
1.90 to 2.00 meters. According to Knutsson, there is no reason to believe that the finds would
stop at that level and therefore, it would be interesting to remove the roof spall and continue
to excavate even further. (Knutsson pers. comm.)

Rock shelters and caves in Mozambique

In northern Mozambique, recent field surveys performed by a team from University of
Calgary, Canada and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane have uncovered several new cave
deposits with datable materials in form of speleothems, bones, tooth enamel and charcoal
(Mercader et al. 2009: 64). The team excavated a cave called Ngalue Cave (Mercader et al.
2009), located in Niassa Rift in northern Mozambique and recovered a large number of
lithics, pottery and organic material that they successfully dated with absolute methods such
as Uranium-series (for speleothems) and Electron Spin Resonance (for mammal teeth). The
results from the excavation in 2007 showed that the cave has been sporadically occupied over
a long time period, and a majority of the finds are from MSA, with a time range from 105 to
42 kya (Mercader et al. 2009: 71). The lithic assemblage from the MSA layers consisted
mostly of quartz tools made with Mode 4 and 5 technologies and show similarities with the
MSA technologies found in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Mercader et al. 2009:
68).
The difference in raw material and the fact that there are a higher proportion of tools
compared to the lithic material found in the Caimane Cave rock shelters show that there is a
big variation of how the caves or rock shelters in Mozambique have been used in prehistorical
times. As a result, more surveys and excavations need to be carried out to fill the large gaps in
what is known about how the caves and rock shelters were used. And as the borders of the
countries in the present day Africa did not exist during the Stone Age, it would be wise to
compare the analyzed material from the Caimane Cave rock shelters with the material from
37

caves and rock shelters in South Africa and Swaziland. Since they are the caves and rock
shelter closest located to Caimane Cave, a comparison with them would be useful to obtain a
clearer picture of the cultural traditions in the material culture of the Stone Age in southern
Mozambique.
Since the cave in Niassa is located close to the border to Tanzania in the far north and
the Caimane Cave rock shelters are close to the borders to South Africa and Swaziland in the
south of Mozambique, there is a huge gap, covering almost entire Mozambique. Furthermore,
as the Niassa cave and the Caimane Cave rock shelter are having a significantly different
lithic technology, at least regarding the use of raw materials the area between these regions
need to be further investigated to give a deeper knowledge of the variation of MSA and LSA
archaeology in this part of southeastern Africa.

CANHOEIRO
The Canhoeiro site is situated on the coordinates 261852 S and 321197 S, by the upper
terraces of Changalane River (Meneses 1999: 246). The site is located on a natural port of the
eastern African inland. Menesess team excavated the site in 1995-1996 (Meneses 1999: 290).
The site consist of an alluvial level with loose pebbles and coarse sand, one level with dark
brown sandy clay, one level with coarse dark brown sandy clay and the lowest level consist of
dark reddish sandy clay (Meneses 1999: 298).
The excavation was carried out as a 2 by 2 meter square, with a 2 meter extension. The
grid was located on an area with handaxes and cleavers on the surface (Meseses 1999: 298).
The artifact bearing level was 0.5 to 0.7 meters below the surface. The excavation resulted in
232 artifacts, mainly flakes of rhyolite or quartzite with a length below 10 centimeters.
(Meneses 1999: 301). I am using attributes registered on 36 flakes from this excavation for
my analyses.

CAIMANE
Menesess excavation at Caimane is located at 261884 S and 320862 E (Meneses 1999:
246). The geological sequence starts with a 50 to 60 centimeter thick level of dark reddish
brown medium grained sandy clay. The next level is a 40 to 50 centimeter thick level of dark
38

reddish brown clay and the last level consist of coarse grained sandy clay and ends at the
bedrock. (Meneses 1999: 307).
Similar to the Canhoeiro excavation, a 2 by 2 meter grid was set up over a surface with
large artifacts. The top layer yielded two handaxes, a cleaver and a small number of flakes at
the top, but was mostly sterile down to the middle layer where a high number of tools and
flakes were found. The final layer yielded no artifacts. In total, 216 lithic artifacts were found,
mostly flakes of rhyolite, quartzite, basalt and quartz with a length less than 10 centimeters. I
will use 57 of the flakes in the analyses. (Meneses1999: 309)

2010 FIELD SURVEY

During the field survey in 2010, we found two sites with a large number of lithics on the
surface; these are Magelene north of Changalane and Daimane, the area surrounding the
Caimane Cave rock shelters.
The survey took place during the months June to August, which is the Mozambique
winter. To carry out a field survey during this period has one problematic issue the
vegetation. The surface of Southern Mozambique was covered in high savannah grass; as a
result we had to select areas with a visible surface.

39

Magelene

Figure 3.3. Eroded rocks in the depression at the surveyed field in Magelene.

The lithics collected during the survey in Magelene were concentrated around a depression in
the field at the coordinates 261493 S and 321533 E, which could be a dried out stream.
In total, 52 flakes where collected, and 42 of these are made of rhyolite. Among the other
finds is a prepared core in reddish brown rhyolite.
The surface was covered by thick grass, but there were pockets of visible ground that
yielded lithic artifacts. The field is currently used for farming activities such as growing crops
or herding cattle. The field is surrounded by mountains and the ground consisted of red and
yellowish red coarse sand and rhyolite rocks and cobbles of jasper and quartz. The lithic
artifacts consisted of all these materials, with rhyolite flakes as the most numerous finds. No
pottery was found in the surveyed area.

40

Daimane

Figure 3.4. Changalane River in the Daimane area, facing south.

The surveyed area is located around the coordinates 261890 S and 320880 E and is
bordered between the mountains to the south where the rock shelters are located and
Changalane River to the north. A total of 77 flakes where collected, whereas the number of
rhyolite flakes is 72. The other raw materials were opal, jasper and basalt. Except the flakes,
there were a high number of both unilinear and centripetal cores and also retouched pieces.
The surface outside the Caimane Cave rock shelters consist of reddish brown and
midbrown sand and are covered with lithic artifacts. As a result of the huge number of
artifacts, collecting and analyzing everything would be an extremely time-consuming task.
We collected the lithics from randomly selected squares by 2 by 2 meters to get a material that
could represent the whole area. Not even here we could find any pottery in the surveyed areas,
even though there is still pottery on the surface around the Caimane Cave rock shelters.
41

4. THE ANALYSIS

There are many reasons for why I focus on flakes for this analysis. The main reason is that all
the work regarding the archaeology of southern Mozambique has been about lithic tools or the
farming communities. As anyone who walks the fields in southern Mozambique can see, there
are flakes more or less everywhere, especially on the exposed roads and river terraces in the
area. The problem is that we do not know much about these flakes because no one has been
doing any systematic analysis of them before.

Figure 4.1. Flakes as they are found on the surface in Daimane.

I hope that this analysis can result in a preliminary model to understand the context and
chronology of different lithic technologies in the surface collections. The reason that I choose
42

to exclude fragments is because of the risk that the fragment may have lost crucial
information, like platform attributes, cortex amount or terminations that are needed in the
comparisons made in this analyses.

PRESENTATION OF THE INVESTIGATED COLLECTIONS

The collections that will be treated in this analyses comes from Leif Jonssons excavation of
Caimane I in 1982-1983, Paula Menesess excavations of Caimane and Canhoeiro in the
1990s, Kjel Knutssons and Kim Darmarks excavation of Caimane I in 2007 and the surface
finds from Daimane and Magelene from the 2010 field survey by me, Marjaana Kohtamki
and Henrik Lekenvall. The material from Caimane I is all taken from Square 105_325 from
Jonssons excavation and spit1 and spit4 from the excavation by Knutsson and Darmark.
All attributes from Caimane I, Caimane and Canhoeiro were measured by Knutsson and
Darmark in 2007. These attributes and methods for comparisons are used as a base for the
attributes of the finds from the 2010 field survey. It is important to know that the
measurements from Caimane I is not yet complete Knutsson and Darmark had find bags
randomly selected from different layers analyzed. As a result, this analysis will be limited to
these analyzed flakes. Further, the collections from Menesess excavations are not complete
and only include the finds in the storage rooms in Universidade Eduardo Mondlane.
The finds from the 2010 field survey were all collected from the surface. Due to the
large number of flakes, we collected flakes that could represent the possible variations of
materials, sizes and production stages.

Table 4.1. Amount of investigated flakes.

Site
Caimane I (Square105_325+SPit1 &
Spit4)
Caimane (Meneses)
Canhoeiro (Meneses)
Daimane (2010 Survey)
Magelene (2010 Survey)

Number of flakes (% of the total

number of lithic artifacts)
162 (14%)
56 (26%)
36 (16%)
72 (94%)
42 (80%)

43

ATTRIBUTES
In lithic analyses the variety of attributes as well as the different ways to measure them may
seem endless. Therefore, it is important to have a clear purpose of the goal of the analysis
before starting, to make it possible to limit the analysis to relevant attributes and measurement
techniques.
Since there is no standard method for measuring attributes (Andrefsky 2005: 86), it is
also important to specify how and why every attribute was measured for this analysis. To be
able to make comparisons between different assemblages, it is important to use the same
attributes and measurement techniques on the every assemblage. The attributes in this
analyses is based on the ones used by Knutsson and Darmark during their fieldwork in 2007,
and will be used the same way on every lithic piece included in this analysis.
The attributes that this analysis will be focusing on have been discussed and defined in
Chapter 2. These attributes are cortex amount, dorsal types, dimensions and terminations. I
will also look at platform types, sizes and angles. All these attributes are useful for
determining the production stages. Furthermore, the similarities and differences in these
attributes can tell about how skilled the tool makers were and how they decided to create the
tools in other words the traditions in the material culture of lithic production.

Cortex amount
Cortex is the natural surface of a nodule or flake, and is being measured by estimating the
amount of the dorsal side that is not covered by scars from previous flakes. If the site has a
high presentation of cortex material it is likely to be a primary reduction site, if not it is likely
that the site has been used for later reduction stages. The amount can be anything between 0
to 100%.
0%: There is no cortex left on the dorsal side.
1-49%: Less than half of the dorsal side is covered by cortex.
50-99%: More than half of the dorsal side is covered by cortex.
100%: The dorsal side is completely covered by cortex.

44

Dorsal types
The dorsal types are based on the characteristics of the flake scars. Four types have been
identified: Cortex, Single scar, Parallel scars, Meeting scars and Flat meeting scars.
Cortex: The dorsal side is covered by cortex.
Single scar: The flake has one single scar, covering either the whole dorsal side or a
part of it, where the rest is cortex.
Parallel scars: The scars come from flakes removed at the same direction, typical for
unilinear cores.
Meeting scars: The scars are from flakes removed from different sides, typical for
bifacial and multidirectional flaking.

Length
The maximal length taken in millimeters, from the highest point of the proximal end to the
lowest point of the distal end.

Width
The maximum width at the widest point of the flake, taken in millimeters.

Thickness
The maximum thickness in millimeters, taken from the thickest part between the dorsal and
ventral side.

Platform Angle
The angle of the point where the flake was detached from the nodule.

45

Platform Type
The different platforms types that could be distinguished in the assemblages are: cortex, flat,
crushed, facetted, split and bowl-shaped.
Cortex: The platform consists entirely of cortex, typical for platform flakes and flakes
from testing the quality of the raw materials.
Flat: There is a single, flat platform.
Crushed: The remains of the platform were crushed during the removal and are, as a
result, not possible to distinguish.
Facetted: There are several flat parts on the platforms.
Split: The platform is divided into two flatter parts.
Bowl-shaped: The platform has a bowl-shaped look.

Termination
Generally, there are four different types of terminations: feathered, hinged, stepped and
plunged.
Feathered: Smooth and gradual termination.
Hinged: Rounded termination.
Stepped: An abrupt, almost 90 termination.
Plunged: The flake expands towards the distal end on the ventral side.

Other attributes
A few common attributes have been left out in this analyze. Weight, for example, is an often
used attribute that I could not include because none of the assemblages had its weight taken.
The reason for this is that there was no scale available when the databases were built.

46

CAIMANE I: STRATIGRAPHICAL SEQUENCE

Caimane Trenches

Figure 4.2. Site plan of Caimane I. By Jonsson 1983 and Knutsson & Darmark 2007.

47

Figure 4.3. Layers of square 327_108. Facing west. By: Leif Jonsson 1983 and Kjel Knutsson
& Kim Darmark 2007.

Fig. 4.3. includes a section drawing of square 327_108 and show the different contexts of
EIA, LSA and MSA pottery and lithics. This sequence will be used as a comparison for the
different contexts in square 105_325, spit 1 and spit 2.

CAIMANE I: FINDS BY LAYER

This table is showing the number of lithic artifacts and pottery found, layer by layer from
Square 105_325, and will represent the stratigraphy of the site.

Table 4.2. Distribution of finds in Square 105_325.

This table includes the distribution of almost all pieces of lithics and pottery. The lithics
include all raw materials, flakes, fragments, cores and retouched flakes from square 105_325.
48

As seen on the table, pottery has been found as deep 0.5 meters, but below 0.1 meters the
numbers are few. The disturbance of the top layers mentioned by Jonsson (2007) may be an
explanation to why there is such a high number of pieces of Early Farming Community
pottery on the top layer and only a few between 0.1 and 0.5 meters, as disturbance from
example later human activity, animal activity or weather may have altered the stratigraphy of
the finds and moved shards of pottery deeper below the surface.
The higher number of lithics from the layers between 0.6 and 0.9 meters would be
interesting to investigate by excavating a new square too see if it shows the same pattern. If it
does, these layers may belong to a period of more frequent occupations of the rock shelters, if
it would not show the same pattern it may only be an exception if Square 105_325.

CAIMANE I: DATED LAYERS

Table 4.3. Context of the dated material.

Analyze number
St 8892
St 8889
St 8890
St 8879
St 8880
St 8893

Context
Caimane 2 (bone)
Caimane 3 (bone)
Caimane 4 (bone)
Caimane 5 (landsnail shell)
Caimane 7 (landsnail shell)
Caimane 8 (bone)

Age BP
795+-270 BP
3745+-355 BP
5035+-260 BP
3045+-110 BP
8010+-115 BP
5950+-315 BP

The radiocarbon samples are taken by Leif Jonsson and analyzed by The Laboratory of
Isotope Geology, Stockholm, Sweden 1983.
St 8892, 8889, 8890 and 8879 comes from square 108_331. St 8880 and 8893 comes from
square 107_327.

49

Caimane-C14 by layer

C2
C3
C4
C5
C7
C8

795+- 270 BP
3745 +- 355 PB
5035+- 260 BP
8045 +- 110 BP
8010+- 115 BP
5950+- 315 BP

Figure 4.4. Dated layers of the trench in Caimane I. By Leif Jonsson 1983 and Kjel Knutsson
& Kim Darmark 2007.

The dates originate from square 107_327 and 108_331 and have been put into comparable
contexts in square 105_325. This means that the first meter in square 105_325 have been
dated to an age of ca 8045 BP. Below this level there is a layer of large roof spall, which has
been interpreted as a border between the LSA and MSA material (Jonsson 2007). Square
105_325 have not yet been excavated to the rockbed since a new layer of roof spall made it
impossible to continue the excavation in 2007 (Knutsson pers. comm.). The dated layers in
combination with a low amount of meeting scars (see Tab 4.7) show that it is likely that the
earlier interpreted MSA material also is from LSA, and will therefore in this analysis be
treated as an earlier LSA layer.
By comparing the number of finds with the stratigraphy there is three periods with
remarkably higher concentrations of finds, these are 0.0.-0.2, 0.6-1.0 and 1.4-.1.5 meters
below the surface. Between the layers with a richer find material are two periods with a much
50

lower number of finds, these layers correlates well with the layer of whole landsnail shells at
circa 0.2-0.4 meters and the layer of roof spall and the secondary level of complete landsnail
shells that starts at about 1.0 meters below the surface.
Based on the dates and the stratigraphy I am going to divide the material from square
105_325 into three different groups:

LSA1: CI 0-30. This is the disturbed layer with a mix of LSA lithics and Early
Farming Community pottery. Dated to 795-3745 BP.

LSA2: CI 60-100. Undisturbed layer with LSA lithics dated to 5035-8045 BP.

LSA3: CI 100-200. Undated layer with LSA lithics.

All three groups are divided by a layer of whole landsnail shells. This in combination with a
remarkably lower number of lithics can be interpreted as periods of less frequent occupations
of the Caimane Cave rock shelters and therefore works as a natural border between the more
heavily occupied periods.

CORTEX

Table 4.4. Cortex amounts.

All excavated and analyzed layers of Caimane I as well as the material from Caimane,
Daimane and Magelene are all dominated by flakes with no or less than 50% cortex, showing
that it is likely that the majority of tool making in all of these sites belong to later phases of
the production sequence. As both the sites in the Daimane area, as well as the site in Magelene
have such a high representation of flakes with no or less than 50% cortex, it is likely that the
primary reduction of rhyolite tools took place somewhere else.
The exception from this general pattern is the Canhoeiro site, where almost 75% of the
flakes have more than 50% cortex and almost 40% had a dorsal side fully covered with
51

cortex. A preliminary hypothesis is that variation between the ESA sites is due to different
production stages were carried out on the different sites.

SIZE

Length, width and thickness proportions

Caimane 1
Figure 4.5. LSA1 proportions.

Figure 4.6. LSA2 proportions.

52

Figure 4.7. LSA3 Proportions.

As seen in Table 4.7, a vast majority of the flakes from LSA3 have a larger width than length
compared to LSA1 (Table 4.5) and LSA2 (Table 4.6), where the number of longer or wider
flakes are relatively even. It is also possible to see that the flakes are becoming thicker in
comparison to the Length and Width in LSA3 than they are in LSA1 and LSA2. The numbers
of flakes that are much longer than their width are also higher in LSA3 than it is in LSA1 and
LSA2.

Caimane and Canhoeiro

Figure 4.8. Caimane proportions.

Figure 4.9. Canhoeiro proportions.

Both Caimane (Figure 4.8.) and Canhoeiro (Figure 4.9) have relatively thicker flakes
compared to LSA1 and LSA2. The amount of longer flakes is also higher in both Caimane
and Canhoeiro compares to any of the other sites.

Daimane and Magelene

Figure 4.10. Daimane proportions.

Figure 4.11. Magelene proportions.

The flakes from Daimane (Figure 4.10.) are thicker in comparison to their Length and Width
than they are in square 105_325, and the Length/Width proportions show more similarity with
LSA1 and LSA2 than with LSA3.
Magelene (Figure 4.11.) has the thickest flakes in comparison with Length/Width. Further, the
flakes from Magelene show a more coherent Length/Width proportion than the flakes from
any of the other sites.

53

PLATFORM ATTRIBUTES

Type

Table 4.5. Platform types.

The open air sites Daimane and Magelene have an extremely low amount of cortex platforms,
while the open air sites Caimane and Canhoeiro has a much higher amount of cortex
platforms. Especially Canhoeiro, which is a natural consequence of the high amount of cortex
flakes from the site. Flat platforms are dominating the assemblage from LSA1, LSA2,
Daimane and Magelene. The undated LSA3 layer has a lower frequency of flat platforms

Angle

Table 4.6. Platform angles.

Magelene has the highest frequency of steep platform angles, with 81% of the flakes having
an angle between 80-89 degrees. Caimane and Canhoeiro have a higher amount of flakes with
a platform angle below 60 degrees than the other sites, which is common for the bifacial
Mode 2 technologies and direct techniques (Eriksen 2000a). LSA1, LSA2 and LSA3 all have
a vast majority of flakes with a platform angle above 60 degrees, which may be a result from
indirect techniques used during the LSA (Eriksen 2000a).
As mentioned Chapter 2, experimental archaeology has shown that different striking
angles are optimal for different reduction techniques. As a rule, flakes from direct percussion
54

techniques tend to have a lower platform angle than flakes from indirect percussion or
pressure flaking (Eriksen 2000a). But due to the difficulties and inconsistency regarding how
angles are measured (Andrefsky 2005: 92) it is important to point out that platform angles by
themselves is not a secure way of determining reduction techniques. What is clear, however,
is that the flakes from ESA have more variation overall in the platform angles, while the
flakes from Magelene show more consistency, which fits well together with prepared platform
technologies.

DORSAL TYPES

Table 4.7. Dorsal types.

Tab. 4.7 includes all dorsal types from flakes that are not fully covered by cortex. The low
number of flakes with single scars on the dorsal side in Caimane I is yet another indication of
Caimane I to be a site where no primary reduction has occurred, the same goes for the rest of
the secondary productions sites: Caimane, Daimane and Magelene. Both Caimane and
Canhoeiro have a relatively high amount of meeting scars and flat meeting scars. Both sites
are known for late ESA bifacial tool production (Meneses 1999: 301; Meneses 1999: 309),
and as bifacial technologies reduce the nodules from several directions, the flakes have scars
from different directions. The same goes for Magelene, but with the steeper platform angles
(see Table 4.6) are more typical for Mode 3 than Mode 2 technologies.
LSA2 and LSA3 have the highest frequency of Parallel scars. The low amount of
meeting scars from LSA3 show that it is not likely that the LSA3 flakes comes from the
multidirectional cores typical for the Mode 3 technologies that characterize the MSA lithic
technologies (Eriksen 2000b: 86-90). Instead, the high frequency of parallel scars in LSA3
indicates that the flakes come from unilinear core reductions that are more typical for Mode 4
and LSA technologies.

55

TERMINATIONS

Table 4.8. Terminations.

There are no plunged terminations among the analyzed flakes, which is interesting. In Errett
Callahans (1979) experimental replications of biface production, plunged terminations occur
in all stages of production. If the lack of plunged terminations depends on the raw material it
could be tested by comparing with the terminations from flakes of other raw materials in the
same layers. If no raw material includes flakes with plunged terminations the lack of plunged
terminations is likely to be a result from the reduction techniques and the technological
knowledge to prevent plunged terminations has existed in the region over the whole MSA and
LSA periods. If the lack of plunged terminations does not depend on the raw material, the
technological knowledge to prevent them can have existed already in the late ESA period as
neither the recorded flakes from Caimane and Canhoeiro have plunged terminations.
The amount of feathered terminations is relatively low on the top 30 centimeter in
Caimane I, Daimane and Magelene. As experimental replications have shows (Cotterell et al.
1985; Callahan 1979), feathered terminations are often a result of successful reduction. This
means that a higher amount of feathered termination can be explained as a higher degree of
know-how among the tool makers that occupied the rock shelters. Interesting is that the
surface finds from Daimane and Magelene yet again show more similarities with the LSA1
layer of Caimane I and the excavated flakes from Caimane and Canhoeiro are more similar to
the LSA2 and LSA3.
The higher amount of feathered terminations in the cave could also be explained with
that the tool makers could spend more time on tool production when they were occupying the
Caimane Cave rock shelters than they could when they were on the open fields. Canhoeiro is
the only open air site that is having a high amount of feathered terminations. Every flake from
Canhoeiro, which is the only primary reduction-site, has a feathered termination. The reason
why can have many explanations: one explanation could be that the tool makers were
extremely careful when they were testing the raw materials. Since the secondary and finishing
reduction phases seem to have occurred a bit away from Canhoeiro, it would have been
56

important to only bring nodules of good quality. If this is the case, it could explain the
carefully produced flakes on just this site.
With Canhoeiro as the only exception, all open air sites have a significant amount of
stepped terminations, about 30-45% of the measured flakes. The two surface sites, Daimane
and Magelene have 40-45% while the excavated site Caimane have around 30% stepped
terminations. One simple explanation could be that some of the flakes from the surface sites
have flakes that have been broken after being exposed on the surface over a longer duration of
time. What argues against that explanation is the number of medial or distal fragments found
were few during the field survey, therefore it is more likely that the stepped terminations
come from the production and not from later fragmentation of the flakes.

SUMMARIZED RESULTS
The excavated sequence of Caimane I indicate that there have been at least three periods of
concentrated occupations in the rock shelter. Tab. 4.2. and Fig. 4.3. show that there is first a
layer of LSA lithics mixed with Early Farming Communities pottery. That layer is followed
by a layer of complete land snail shells followed by a new concentration with LSA lithics
which ends with a layer of large roof spall and whole landsnail shells. Below that layer is a
yet undated concentration of LSA lithics starts and seems to continue to a thick layer of heavy
roof spall where the excavation ends. Furthermore, the medium platforms angles seems to be
more gentle the older the flakes are.
The flakes from Caimane I have a much higher frequency of feathered terminations
compared to the open air sites (see Tab. 4.8). This indicates that the tool makers that occupied
the Caimane Cave rock shelter were more skillful or could spend more time on their tool
productions. The low number of tools found in Caimane I (Jonsson 2007) indicates that the
tools were used somewhere else and that further reductions of the finished tools are likely to
have occurred outside the rock shelter, it is also a possibility that unmodified flakes were used
as tools. No use wear analyses have been made to see how flakes and tools from the region
were used. The low number of cortex flakes (Tab. 4.3.) in Caimane I show that there is a
representation of Phase 3 and 4 flakes, therefore it is likely that any primary reductions in the
lithic tool making process have occurred somewhere else. Of all sites included in the analysis,
Canhoeiro is the only one with any evidence of primary reduction. The flakes from the other
open air sites are, in similarity with Caimane I, mainly from Phase 3 and 4 reduction stages.
57

Caimane I
My conclusion is that Caimane I has been used for different activities than the open air sites,
especially in the LSA3 layer. With only a few exceptions, the flakes from the LSA3 layer
show a larger technological variation than the LSA1 and LSA2 layers. If this is a result from
more temporal occupations by the later LSA hunter-gatherers or a richer variability in the
technologies used for creating stone tools is hard to evaluate. Further, the flakes from the
LSA3 layer show many similarities when it comes to platform angles, size and thickness with
the flakes from the open air sites from Menesess ESA excavations. The flakes from Caimane
I differs from the rest more on the dorsal scars and platform types, with a higher frequency of
parallel dorsal scars and flat platforms.

Caimane
Caimane is an ESA site with Mode 2 technologies. In contrast to Canhoeiro, which also is an
ESA site, Caimane has a remarkably lower amount of cortex flakes and is therefore likely that
the site has been used for later productions of bifacial tools. A majority of the flakes have a
platform angle below 60 degrees and about 47% of the flakes have meeting scars on the
dorsal side. This indicates that the flaking have been carried out with direct and bifacial
techniques, which is common for the Mode 2 technology that are typical for the Acheulean
handaxe traditions. The higher amount of meeting scars can be a result of that the flakes are
from later production phases than the ones from Canhoeiro.

Canhoeiro
Of the flakes from Canhoeiro, 39% of the dorsal side is fully covered with cortex and 33%
have more than half of the dorsal side covered with cortex. This can only be seen as strong
evidence of Canhoeiro being a primary reduction site. Further, as the majority of the flakes
have a platform angle below 60 degrees and 33% of the flakes have meeting scars, the flakes
is likely to come from direct and bifacial Mode 2 technologies typical for the Acheulean hand
axe traditions.

58

Since Canhoeiro is the only site with strong evidence of primary reduction, it is a strong
indication that the ESA populations along the Changalane River did choose different locations
for early and later phases of lithic tool production. The same seems to occur to the MSA and
LSA populations from Magelene and the Caimane Cave rock shelters as well, as every other
analyzed site have a low amount of flakes with more than 50% cortex.

Daimane
My interpretation of Daimane is that it is a mixed site because all the flakes are from surface
collections from heavily eroded river basins, and the area around the river has been used from
the ESA up to recent times. This is going to make it difficult to find any coherent
technological trends in the lithic material from the site. As 81% of the flakes have no cortex
and only 14% are fully covered by cortex, it is likely that the site never or seldom has been
used as for primary reduction.
99% of the flakes have a platform angle above 60 degrees and 44% of the flakes have
meeting scars on the dorsal side, it is possible that the flakes come from Mode 3 technologies
and therefore might be older than the analyzed flakes from Caimane I. But there is a
possibility that the flakes come from both Mode 2 and 3 technologies. Further, the possibility
that some flakes are from Mode 4 cannot be ruled out. Further excavations of Caimane I may
make it possible to understand the flakes from Daimane more if the excavations would reach a
MSA layer in the rock shelter.

Magelene
The flakes from Magelene are remarkably different from the other sites. The difference lays in
the steeper platform angles, with 81% of the flakes having a platform angle between 80-89
degrees. Further the flakes from Magelene have the lowest amount of feathered termination
(21%) and the highest amount of stepped terminations (45%) which indicates that there have
been a relatively high amount of mistakes in the flaking process on the site.
The site has a high amount of flakes with meeting scars (57%) and a low amount of flat
platforms (32%) and therefore it is likely that the flakes comes from Mode 2 or 3 technologies
and that the site overall show more similarities with Caimane than with square 105_325.
59

Based on the amount of Mode 2 and 3 technologies and the find of a prepared platform core,
the overall impression of the site is that the lithics are from MSA or early LSA but the
material need to be compared to a dated MSA record before any convincing conclusions can
be made.
If the technological difference is because of the different environmental setting is
difficult to say based on the limited material that have been analyzed. When the other sites are
all located along Changalane River, Magelene is located on an open field between two
mountain-ranges abound 10 km north of the river. There is no visible evidence of any large
river in the past, but there are depressions on the ground that could be dried out streams.

60

5. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

When comparing the different layers from square 105_325 and the excavations of Caimane
and Canhoeiro, it appears that there are a few technological attributes that changes over time.
The most prominent change is the platform angles (Table 4.6.), which are becoming more
gentle by every layer. LSA1 has no flakes with a platform angle lower than 60 degrees, while
both LSA2 and LSA3 have flakes with a platform angle under 60 degrees. Among the ESA
flakes from Caimane and Canhoeiro the number of flakes with a platform angle less than 60
degrees are much higher than the one from square 105_325.
Another attribute that show a visible change over time is the size proportions between
the length, width and thickness of the flakes (Figure 4.5.-4.11.). Square 105_325 shows that
the flakes are thicker in comparison with their Length and Width in the older layers. The
LSA3 layer has a majority of flakes that are wider than their lengths while LSA1 and LSA2
seems to have a more even variation of longer or wider flakes. In Magelene, the majority of
the flakes were about as long as they were wide and also relatively thick compared to the
flakes from square 105_325. Also the flakes from Caimane and Canhoeiro were
proportionally thicker than the flakes from square 105_325 but in contrast with Magelene, the
flakes had a higher variety of shapes.
The dorsal scars (Table 4.7.) differ between the different sites as well. In square
105_325 the number of flakes with meeting scars is much lower compared to the flakes with
parallel scars, showing that most of the flakes from square 105_325 come from unilinear
cores. In Caimane and Magelene the amount of flakes with meeting scars is much higher,
indicating that the flakes are more likely to come from multidirectional or bifacial cores.
When looking at platform types (Table 4.5.) it appears that the amount of bowl-shaped
crushed or facetted platforms are getting higher in the older material. This is even highly
visible in the individual layers in square 105_325, where the amount of flat platforms is
becoming notably lower by every layer. The number of flakes with a flat platform is low in
Caimane, Daimane and Magelene, which is an indicator that the flakes from both Daimane
and Magelene are older than the flakes from square 105_325.
As Canhoeiro is a primary reduction sites, most of the flakes from that site have cortex
platforms. The terminations (Table 4.8.) from square 105_325 are mainly feathered, with a
61

few flakes with hinged terminations. The only layer with stepped terminations is LSA3.
Caimane and Canhoeiro have a high amount of feathered terminations as well. Both Daimane
and Magelene stand out from the other sites with a low number of feathered terminations and
a large number of stepped terminations.
By looking at these results, it seems like there is a technological change noticeable in
the attributes of the flake. The pattern is that the flakes have a lower platform angle, are
thicker in comparison with the length and width and more often having a dorsal side with
meeting scars the older they are. Also, as seen in Table 4.5, the younger LSA assemblages
have a much higher amount of flakes with flat platforms. Sadly the model is not complete as it
does not include any dated MSA site, which would be useful for the two undated sites
(Daimane and Magelene) in the analysis, which both includes a high number of Mode 3 flakes
that do not fit with the analyzed material from LSA and ESA. Further, the material from
Daimane appears to be a mix of debitage that have been built up over a long time range, and
is therefore showing a rich variety of different technologies. Still, many of the flakes from
Daimane fits well with the flakes from the Caimane Cave rock shelter, but there are a large
number of flakes with meeting scars which can be from older MSA or ESA technologies.
If the flakes found on the surface around Changalane River are a mix from a longer
period of time, it is unlikely that a collection made to represent the whole site will be possible
to compare with the model based of this analysis. It might therefore be worth considering
selecting certain types of flakes to see if they have any similarity with one of the layers from
the Cimane Cave rock shelters or the ESA flakes from Caimane and Canhoeiro. Based in the
difference from square 105_325 and the high amount of meeting dorsal scars (see Table 4.7.)
an early interpretation would be that most of the flakes from Daimane are older than the
flakes from the rock shelter, which would imply that the LSA populations concentrated their
stone tool productions inside the rock shelter.
The flakes from Magelene appear to be more coherent but are not comparable with any
of the flakes from the Caimane Cave rock shelters or Menesess excavations. As the flakes
from Magelene appears to be from prepared and multidirectional cores it is alluring to say that
they are MSA flakes (Eriksen 2000b: 86-90), but as seen from northern Mozambique (Bennett
2011), MSA technologies are continued to be used far into the LSA. This shows that it would
be extremely useful to find a dateable MSA site in southern Mozambique to make it possible
to compare the technology from Magelene with a dated MSA site.
62

The analysis shows that there is a need of analysis with the other raw materials as well
as new surveys and excavations in southern Mozambique to obtain a more secure knowledge
about changes in lithic technologies in the region. The area around Canhoeiro needs to be
excavated to see if there are any more sites with evidence of early production stages. So far,
Canhoeiro is the only known Phase 1 site in southern Mozambique, showing the need of
surveying for early reduction sites for MSA and LSA sites and also to find more ESA sites
with evidence of early reduction. Furthermore, the Caimane Cave rock shelters need to be
further excavated to see if there is possible to find any evidence of MSA and ESA activities
stratigraphically secured in the rock shelter, and hopefully be able to date the layers that are
older than 8045 BP.
Further, as the analysis have been made on the only lithic debitage that have gotten its
attributes measured when this thesis is being written, comparisons based on this analysis may
not be fully reliable. There are several approaches to build up a more representative model of
technological changes: the most ideal would be to measure the attributes of every flake from
square 105_325, but doing this would also be extremely time-consuming. A more accessible
way would be to do a new random selection of flakes from square 105_325 to see of it shows
the same pattern as the flakes that already have been analyzed. It would also be useful to
analyze flakes from another excavated square and see if they show the same technological
pattern as well. Also worth to point out is that the analysis is based on one type of raw
material only, namely rhyolite. Making a similar analysis of the other raw materials, for
example quartz and jasper is needed to fully understand the lithic technologies in the region.
Even if there is yet much to do, the analysis has shown that it is possible to see
technological changes over time, but it still has to be tested with new field work and more
analyzed flakes in the future.

63

SUMMARY

This thesis was written as an attempt to see how lithic technological changes over time in
southern Mozambique to be used as a base to understand undatable lithic sites in the region.
To do this, I used a database over attributes of flakes collected from the excavations of the
Caimane Cave rock shelters in 1982-1983 and 2007 (Jonsson 2007) and Paula Menesess
excavations of Caimane and Canhoeiro in the 1990s (Meneses 1999). I also added two
undated sited from my own field work in southern Mozambique to the database to see if the
technologies were comparable with the dated sites. The analysis is limited to rhyolite flakes
without any evidence of further modifications.
The result is that there is a visible change in several technological attributes in the flakes
from LSA and ESA, while there is no material dated to MSA available at the time this thesis is
being written. What could be noticed is that the flakes from LSA mainly have platform angles
of 60 degrees or more, parallel dorsal scars and that the ESA flakes more often have a
platform angle below 60 degrees, wears meeting dorsal scars and are relatively thicker in
comparison with its Length and Width compared to the LSA flakes. The undated sites from
my field work show much difference from the LSA and ESA sites, and would therefore need
to be compared to the flakes from a dated MSA site from the area.
As the analysis is based on a small material, it should be seen as a preliminary attempt
to build a model of technological dating of flakes. More work is needed in form of finding
new dateable sites with lithics and to analyze more of the flakes from the Caimane Cave rock
shelters. As of the time this thesis is written, the only primary reduction site discovered in
southern Mozambique is an ESA site, every other Stone Age site is of later productions stages,
for this reason it is crucial to find sites from different production stages from MSA and LSA
as well. Furthermore, the Caimane Cave rock shelters would need to be further excavated to
see if there is any MSA and ESA activity closer to the rock shelters that could be useful to
understand the undated surface finds along Changalane River.
This thesis has shown that we still know very little about the Stone Age in southern
Mozambique but that the area has a great potential for further fieldwork, which will be needed
to obtain a greater knowledge about the Stone Age populations in the region.

64

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