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IRSL estimation for Nubian Complex Middle Stone Age settlement from Bayuda Desert in Sudan
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16 (2017) 391–396
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep
OSL/IRSL estimation for Nubian Complex Middle Stone Age settlement from Bayuda Desert in Sudan
MARK
Mirosław Masojća,⁎, Jarosław Kusiakb,1, Karol Standzikowskib, Henryk Panerc, Michał Kucd, Mirosław Parafiniuke, Marcin Szmitc a
Laboratory for Non-European Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Wroclaw, Poland TL/OSL Laboratory, Faculty Of Earth Sciences And Spatial Management Maria Curie-Skłodowska, University in Lublin, Poland c Gdańsk Archaeological Museum, Poland d Freelance, Poland e Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland b
A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Sudan Bayuda Desert Pleistocene Nubian Complex MSA Hand-axe OSL/IRSL dating
1. Introduction This contribution presents the thermoluminescence, OSL/IRSL age determinations for the Middle Stone Age settlement from the Bayuda Desert in Sudan, NE Africa. There are few well dated Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites from the Nile Valley and its neighbouring deserts (Wendorf, 1992; Wendorf et al., 1993; Mercier et al., 1999; Van Peer et al., 2003, 2010). Most North African MSA collections come from the surface and have no stratigraphic context (Wendorf, 1968; Rose, 2004; Svoboda, 2004; Olszewski et al., 2010). So far only two sites from the area of present Sudan have been dated, one representing early MSA from Sai island (Van Peer et al., 2003) and the second being the latest evidence of Levallois traditions in the Terminal Palaeolithic from the Affad area (Osypiński and Osypińska, 2015). Although this vast area played a crucial role in the history of early migrations from Africa as well as in origins of modern Homo (Sahle et al., 2014; Richter et al., 2017), human remains from MSA are extremely rare (Kuykendall and Heyerdahl-King, 2014, Table 10.3; Grine, 2016), with a single discovery from Sudan – a Singa human skull dated to 133 ka (McDermott et al., 1996). The recently discovered site BP177 (known locally as the Goat Mountain), in the Bayuda Desert in northern Sudan is a stratified
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1
locality belonging to the Nubian Complex of the MSA. The Nubian Complex represents a specific variant of NE African MSA. It stretches out along the Nile river and surrounding deserts from Egypt and Libya from the North to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa to the South. The eastern border of the Nubian MSA appears to be the Sinai and southeastern Arabia (Rose et al., 2011, Fig. 1). The Nubian Complex is distinctive type of Levallois reduction strategy intended for production of Nubian points from triangular Nubian cores of type 1 and type 2 (Marks, 1968; Van Peer, 1991, 1992). Although the evidence is still not sufficient, the early phase of Nubian Complex appears to feature leaf-shaped foliates and Nubian end-scrapers while in the later phase the Nubian cores of type 1 for the production of Nubian points are more frequent than cores of type 2 (Van Peer, 2016). The site BP177 is located within a depression – a niche in the middle of the mountain's flat top (Masojć, 2010). The depression is of natural origin, being the consequence of how the cone of an extinct volcano formed. In its centre is an oval stone structure, which apparently in the Pleistocene was used as a natural shelter. Inside, about 15 thousand stone artefacts were excavated in an area of just 6 m2. Within the depression Middle Stone Age materials were recorded under a sheet of very fine sterile deposits. OSL dating of the aeolian deposits filling the
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Masojć). Deceased.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.10.026 Received 28 December 2016; Received in revised form 4 October 2017; Accepted 20 October 2017 2352-409X/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16 (2017) 391–396
M. Masojć et al.
Fig. 1. On the left above: Map of Sudan. Bayuda Desert and site's location framed (drawing Małgorzata Wieczorek); On the right above: site BP177 w NS part of the Bayuda Desert; On the left below: aerial photograph of the culmination with a niche in the middle of it where site BP177 is situated (drawing & photo by Marcin Szmit); On the right below: Simplified geological map of the researched area. 1- Eroded plugs and dykes; 2 - Nubian Sandstone Formation; 3 - Rahaba series; 4 - Superficial deposits (modern dune sand, gravel); 5 - Plutonic facies of igneous complexes; 6 - Hypabbisic, subvolcanic and volcanic facies of igneous complexes. (Acc. to Meinhold, 1979; drawing Michał Kuc).
sandstone formation, with dozens of volcanic cones visible in the landscape. It is located ca. 50 km east of the Nile valley. The mountain is a small, spatially isolated volcanic cone (dike) ca. 200 m in diameter (Fig. 1, right). The top of the culmination provided stone material, Neolithic pottery and single products displaying features of predetermined techniques from the Middle Stone Age (MSA). It is thus a typical phenomenon observed on dozens of other peaks culminations (djebels) in the Bayuda Desert. The Middle Stone Age artefacts were also found at the foot of the mountain. The site's specific character is substantiated by the fact that originally in the middle of the mountain's flat mound there was a depression, a basin of the size of ca. 15 × 8 m (Fig. 2). The depression's fill consisted of weathered rock rubble located within very fine-grained sandy and dusty matrix sediments of aeolian origin. There are no clearly distinguishable layers within the deposit, which is about 60 cm thickness (Fig. 3). Within the depression a horizon with Nubian MSA material (MSA horizon I), with a considerable number of artefacts, was recorded under a layer of 15–20 cm of very fine, sandy-dusty sterile deposits. It appears to be the main horizon, reaching a depth of ca. 40 cm. Below it, almost no knapped stone material was found until the depth of ca. 50 cm, where the other horizon appears, much poorer than the one above (MSA horizon II). It is also less clearly defined than the horizon I. Almost all the stone artefacts were produced with the use of Levalloisian technique. The most evident is the presence of Nubian technology accompanied by discoidal cores and classic Levallois cores. The predominating type of cores is Nubian Type 2 (Van Peer, 1991, 2016; Fig. 3). There is no evidence of bladelet technologies. Hand-axes are present among Levallois products in the horizon II, in the period dated between OSL-2 and OSL-3 dates, so younger than 62 ka. The hand-axe products fit the assemblage's raw material structure - they are made from two types of raw material most frequently used in the site: petrified wood (Fig. 4) and volcanic rocks (Table 1).
depression dates the settlement back to the time bracket of 62–17 ka. Two MSA settlement horizons were recorded within the niche, both representing the late phase of the Nubian Complex. The older horizon (horizon II), associated with the Nubian Middle Stone Age Complex, is accompanied by hand-axes. Due to its stratified nature, absolute dating, and the occurrence of hand-axes together with Nubian Levallois products, Goat Mountain appears to be an important MSA locality in the north-eastern Africa. The lithic inventory from both horizons of the site is very rich. Over 60 thousand artefacts all together were excavated within an area of 25 m2 (Masojć, 2017). The site is the evidence of multiseasonal settlement of the modern Homo of the Levalloisian tradition still using hand-axe tools after 60 ka in the interior, far from the Nile corridor. 2. General description of the site and surroundings The Bayuda Desert (Fig. 1, left), situated north of Khartoum, occupies an area of about 40,000 km2 within a great bend of the Nile, reaching as far as Wadi El-Melik in the South. The investigated area lies on the border zone between two tectonic units: The Sahara Metacraton and The Nubian Shield divided from each other by Keraf Zone (Abdelsalam et al., 2002). The predominating elements of the desert's geological structure were formed by volcanism, especially in its northern part built from Mesozoic basalt rocks as well as from granites, gneisses and amphibolites (Rahaba Series). The southern part of the Bayuda is made from Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone Formation (Meinhold, 1979). On the surface occur outcrops of strongly weathered mainly granites, gneisses (Precambrian Basement Complex) and tertiary basaltoids (Whiteman, 1971). Superficial deposits are fine grained deposits like sands, silty sands and silts. The relief is flat with small dunes and volcanic hills (dykes and necks). There are several wadis with episodic flows filled with aeolian sands, silty sands, and silts. Most Palaeolithic sites in the Bayuda Desert are situated either on the tops of hills of volcanic origin or at their base. Most are eroded, devoid of original arrangements, which results in the co-occurrence of older stone artefacts together with the artefacts from subsequent periods (Masojć and Paner, 2014). Unlike other sites, the Palaeolithic material in BP177 has been preserved in the original stratigraphic arrangement in a relatively small, enclosed space. Goat Mountain is situated in the south-western part of the desert, within the Nubian
3. Site chronology Luminescence dating of the deposits from site BP177 was carried out twice: with the use of the TL method in 2011 (no dates were obtained) and with the use of the OSL/IRSL method in 2013 (Table 2, Fig. 3). Preparation of the material for the measurement of the 392
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Fig. 2. The site BP177 during excavations. The ellipsis marks the natural rock structure in the central part of the niche on the top of the culmination. (photo by Mirosław Masojć).
4. Discussion and conclusions
equivalent dose in both analyses was carried out in the same way. The polymineral fraction of 45–56 μm was separated by sieves, and was subsequently treated in a 10% solution of HCl to remove carbonates and in 30% H2O2 to get rid of the residues of organic matter. After each stage the grains were rinsed several times with distilled water. Annual dose in the measurements carried out with both methods was determined with the use of stationary gamma spectrometers Mazar-01 and Mazar-95 produced by Polon-Izot Milanówek (Poland). For each sample 40 measurements were made with a counting time of 2000s. An allowance was made for cosmic radiation (Prescott and Hutton, 1988) and humidity of the deposit. Concentrations of radioactive isotopes were converted into the values of absorbed doses alpha, beta and gamma radiation on the basis of published data (Adamiec and Aitken, 1998). Analyses were conducted in the TL/OSL Laboratory at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management at the Maria CurieSkłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. The IRSL measurements were carried out with the use of an automatic Riso TL/OSL DA-20 reader with the set of optical filters Schott BG-39 and Corning 7–59 (320–480). The measurement sequence was conducted following the pIRIR290 measurement procedure (Tchiel et al., 2011) (Table 3). The acquired results determined the chronology of human settlement in the site BP 177 as between ca. 68/56–18/16 ka. The frequency of occurrence of the artefacts (exceeding 60 thousand) in the excavated area of 25 m2 testifies to the multi-stage use of the volcanic culmination by the MSA communities.
BP177 was a place of intensive human activity of the Nubian Complex MSA communities in the period of ca. 60–20 ka. It was repeatedly used during the 40 thousand years, which resulted in the concentration of a huge number of artefacts in a small and restricted area within the depression – a natural shelter at the top of a small volcanic culmination, where two horizons were recorded. The upper one - horizon I dated < 24 ka - contains an assemblage of a Nubian Complex without evidence of bladelet techniques and microliths. The lower one, horizon II dated > 60 ka, included an assemblage of the Nubian Complex with sparse bifacial products. The site is one of the youngest, dated Nubian MSA sites in NE Africa (Van Peer, 2016). Taking under consideration that most of the very numerous Nubian Complex sites from Bayuda Desert are also of such a young chronology, it would show that within the band of the Nile there was a space where Nubian Levallois MSA societies commonly existed almost up to the end of MIS 2. Although by the end of MIS 2 some epigones of Levallois tradition still existed in the Nile valley (Osypiński and Osypińska, 2015), already around 60 ka arose the Taramsan phenomenon indicating the technological transition into a blade production system (Van Peer et al., 2010). To-date no such innovations are known from Bayuda Desert. An interesting aspect of the site is the presence of hand-axes. They constitute a constant component of the stone assemblage from site Fig. 3. On the left (A): Schematic profile of the site with the location of OSL/IRSL samples. The dotted line in the profile's ceiling: the site's surface with individual Neolithic and MSA artefacts. Level a and g devoid of artefacts. Levels c (MSA horizon I) and f (MSA horizon II) with the greatest density of artefacts. Levels b, d, e – levels with sparse artefacts; On the right (B): profile of the site (meter D6 within natural rock structure) with sampling for OSL/IRSL dating; Below (C): Cross section of the niche along length of 15 m. Grey stones indicating natural rock structure. Red belt – location of OSL/ISRS dating. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) (drawing & photo by Mirosław Masojć)
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Fig. 4. Site BP177, Bayuda Desert. Selected artefacts from the MSA horizon II dated > 60 ka. 1- Hand-axe (petrified wood); 2, 3 - bifacial foliates (volcanic rock); 4–7 Nubian cores of type 2 (petrified wood). (photo by Maciej Jórdeczka)
Table 1 Simplified structure of the lithic inventory from BP 177. General picture of the assemblage
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Flakes
Blades
Chips
Chunks
Cores
Tools
Sum
18,637 987 19,624
531 17 548
31,521 1235 32,756
4960 191 5151
933 68 1001
971 97 1068
57,553 2595 60,148
32,7%
0,9%
54,5%
8,6%
1,6%
1,7%
95,5% 4,5% 100%
Simplified core's categories
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Initial
One/two direction
Classic Levallois
Nubian
Discoidal
Other/fragment
Sum
69 3 72
31 1 32
166 19 185
115 11 126
69 7 76
483 27 510
933 68 1001
7,2%
3,2%
18,5%
12,6%
7,6%
50,9
93,2% 6,8% 100%
Simplified tool's categories
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Levallois flakes
Levallois points
Foliates
Scrapers
Hand-axes
Other/fragments
Sum
227 23 250
163 21 184
102 5 107
98 3 101
2 9 11
379 36 415
38,8%
971 97 1068
% 0,8
Total N 60,148
23,5%
17,2%
10,0%
9,5%
1,0%
90,9% 9,1% 100%
Rock raw material structure: PW - petrified wood, V - volcanic rocks, Q - quartz, QS - quarzitic sandstone, F - flint Both Horizons
PW N 22,316
% 37,1
V N 11,533
% 19,2
Q N 13,304
% 22,2
394
QS N 4183
% 6,9
F N 8330
% 13,8
Other N 482
% 100
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Table 2 Results of the OSL/IRSL dating of site BP177, Bayuda Desert, Sudan. Description of samples
TL-1 TL-2 TL-3
D 6/1 D 6/2 D 6/3
Laboratory no. of sample Lub-
Annual dose DR (Gy/ka)
Equivalent dose ED (Gy)
OSL/IRSL age (years ka)
5150 5151 5152
2,05 ± 0,11 1,74 ± 0,14 1,08 ± 0,09
35,9 ± 1,3 42,7 ± 2,6 67,6 ± 3,5
17,5 ± 1,1 24,5 ± 2,4 62,6 ± 6,1
deposition of the Abdur Reef Limestone: context for an important archaeological site from the last interglacial on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 203, 179–206. Clark, J.D., et al., 2003. Stratigraphic, chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 423, 747–752. Grine, F.E., 2016. The late quaternary Hominins of Africa: the skeletal evidence from MIS 6-2. In: Jones, S.C., Stewart, B.A. (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2. Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series Springer, pp. 323–381. Kuykendall, K.L., Heyerdahl-King, I.S., 2014. Modern human origins in Africa: a review of the fossil, archaeological, and genetic perspectives on early Homo sapiens. In: Cummings, V., Jordan, P., Zvelebil, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Oxford, pp. 214–251. Marks, A.E., 1968. The Mousterian industries of Nubia. In: Wendorf, F. (Ed.), Prehistory of Nubia. Vol. I Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas. Masojć, M., 2010. First Note on the Discovery of a Stratified Palaeolithic Site from the Bayuda Desert (N Sudan) within MAG Concession. Der Antike Sudan. Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin e. V., Heft 21. pp. 63–70 (Berlin). Masojć, M., 2017. Lithic materials from a Late Nubian complex middle stone age site in the Bayuda Desert: goat mountain. In: Lohwasser, A., Karberg, T., Auenmüller, J. (Eds.), Bayuda Studies. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the Bayuda Desert in Sudan, Meroitica, (forthcoming). Masojć, M., Paner, H., 2014. The Bayuda Project (BP). The Palaeolithic and Neolithic Age in the Light of Current Research (2009–2011). Gdańsk Archaeological Museum African Reports. Vol. 11. pp. 89–100. McBrearty, S., 2003. Patterns of technological change at the origin of Homo sapiens. Before Farming 3, 1–6. McDermott, F., Stringer, F., Grün, R., Williams, C.T., Din, V.K., Hawkesworth, C.J., 1996. New Late- Pleistocene uranium-thorium and ESR dates for the Singa hominid (Sudan). J. Hum. Evol. 31, 507–516. Meinhold, K.-D., 1979. The Precambrian Basement Complex of the Bayuda Desert, Northern Sudan. Revue de Géologie Dynamique et de Géographie Physique 21, Fasc. 5. pp. 395–401 (Paris). Mercier, N., Valladas, H., Froget, L., Joron, J.L., Vermeersch, P.M., Van Peer, P., Moeyersons, J., 1999. Thermoluminescence dating of a middle palaeolithic occupation at Sodmein cave, Red Sea mountains (Egypt). J. Archaeol. Sci. 26, 1339–1345. Olszewski, D.I., Dibble, H.I., McPherron, S.P., Schurmans, U.A., Chiotti, L., Smith, J.R., 2010. Nubian Complex strategies in the Egyptian high desert. J. Human Evol. 59, 188–201. Osypiński, P., Osypińska, M., 2015. Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest Levallois industries in the Nile Valley. Quat. Int. 408, 90–105. Prescott, J.R., Hutton, J.T., 1988. Cosmic ray and gamma ray dosimetry for TL and ESR. Nucl. Tracks 14, 223–227. Richter, D., Grün, R., Joannes-Boyau, R., Steele, T.E., Amani, F., Rué, M., Fernandes, P., Raynal, J.-P., Geraads, D., Ben-Ncer, A., Hublin, J.-J., McPherron, S.P., 2017. The age of the homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) and the origins of the Middle Stone Age. Nature 546, 293–296. Rose, J., 2004. New evidence for the expansion of an upper Pleistocene population out of East Africa, from the site of station one, Northern Sudan. Camb. Archaeol. J. 14 (2), 205–216. Rose, J.I., Usik, V.I., Marks, A.E., Hilbert, Y.H., Galletti, Ch.S., Parton, A., Geiling, J.M., Černy, V., Morley, M.V., Roberts, R.G., 2011. The Nubian complex of Dhofar, Oman: an African middle stone age industry in Southern Arabia. PLoS One 6, 1–22. Sahle, Y., Morgan, L.E., Braun, D.L., Atnafu, B., Hutchings, W.K., 2014. Chronological and behavioral contexts of the earliest middle stone age in the Gademotta formation, main Ethiopian rift. Quat. Int. 331, 6–19. Svoboda, J., 2004. The middle stone age of southern Bahariya oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. l'Anthropologie 42, 227–241. Tchiel, Ch., Buylaert, J.P., Murray, A.S., Terhorst, B., Tsukamoto, S., Frechen, M., Sprafke, T., 2011. Investigation the chronostratigraphy of prominent palaeosols in Lower Austria using post-IR IRSL dating. Quaternary Sci. J. 60 (1), 137–152. Tryon, C.A., Faith, J.T., 2013. Variability in the middle stone age of eastern Africa. Curr. Anthropol. 54 (S8), 234–254. Van Peer, P., 1991. Interassemblage variability and Levallois styles: the case of the northern African Middle Palaeolithic. J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 10, 107–151. Van Peer, P., 1992. The Levallois Reduction Strategy, Monographs in World Archaeology 13. Prehistory Press, Madison. Van Peer, P., 2016. Technological systems, population dynamics, and historical process in the MSA of Northern Africa. In: Jones, S.C., Stewart, B.A. (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2 Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series Springer, pp. 147–159. Van Peer, P., Fullagar, R., Stokes, S., Bailey, R.M., Moeyersons, J., Steenhoudt, F., Geerts, A., Vanderbeken, T., De Dapper, M., Geus, F., 2003. The early to middle stone age
Table 3 Description of pIRIR290 dating procedure. pIRIR290 Step
Treatment
Observed
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Give dose, Di Preheat, 320 °C for 60 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s Give test dose, DT Preheat, 320 °C for 60 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s Return to 1
– – LX LX – – Tx Tx – –
at 50 °C at 290 °C
at 50 °C at 290 °C at 325 °C
BP177, which – apart from them – consists almost solely of Levallois products. The presence of hand-axes in the Nubian Complex assemblages in the Bayuda Desert may possibly result from the raw material available and the need to produce tools from volcanic rocks and petrified wood – both posing great difficulties in processing. In the vast areas of the interior, far from the Nile valley, the tradition of producing hand-axe tools may have lasted in the MSA assemblages until the late stage of functioning of MSA communities. There is no clear endpoint to the production of the Acheulean tool types in Africa (McBrearty, 2003). Apparently, they lasted well into the MSA, when profoundly different reduction strategies - bifacial and Levalloisian - long coexisted (Van Peer et al., 2003). It seems that the hand-axe appears wherever it is functionally relevant, regardless of phylogeny. The Middle Stone Age is highly variable with only rare cases of geographic and temporal patterning (Tryon and Faith, 2013). The youngest Acheulian sites are known from the Herto Member of the Bouri Formation of Ethiopia I, dated to ca. 154–160 ka (Clark et al., 2003) and from Abdur in Eritrea, where they are dated to ca. 125 ka (Bruggeman et al., 2004). Acheulian elements may have been independently invented again and again. For instance the tool kit found at Jebel Faya (United Arab Emirates) has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa (Armitage et al., 2011). The youngest OSL date for assemblage C from Jebel Faya containing hand-axes together with Levallois products dates it back to the period of ca. 90 ka (95 +/− 13 ka). Numerous hand-axes in Africa scattered on the surface usually referred to Acheulian tradition may be in many cases associated with considerably younger settlement episodes. Site BP 177, one of the youngest dated sites of the Nubian Complex (Rose et al., 2011, Table 1) shows that hand-axes were produced and used during the MSA after 60 ka. References Abdelsalam, M.G., Liégois, J.-P., Stern, R.J., 2002. The Saharan Metacraton. J. Afr. Earth Sci. 34, 119–134. Adamiec, G., Aitken, M.J., 1998. Dose rate conversion factors update. Ancient TL 16 (2), 37–50. Armitage, S.J., Jasim, S.A., Marks, A.E., Parker, A.G., Usik, V.I., Uerpmann, H.-P., 2011. The southern route “out of Africa”: evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia. Science 331, 453–456. Bruggeman, J., et al., 2004. Stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and model for the
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Wendorf, Schild, 1992. The Middle Paleolithic of North Africa: a status report. In: Klees, F., Kuper, R. (Eds.), New Light on the Northeast African Past. Heinrich Barth Institut, Köln, pp. 39–78. Wendorf, Schild, Close, et al., 1993. Egypt During the Last Interglacial: The Middle Paleolithic of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East. Plenum Press, New York and London. Whiteman, A.J., 1971. The Geology of the Sudan Republic. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 290.
transition and the emergence of modern human behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. J. Hum. Evol. 45, 187–193. Van Peer, P., Vermeersch, P.M., Paulissen, E., 2010. Chert quarrying, lithic technology and a modern human burial at the Palaeolithic site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt (Egyptian Prehistory Monographs No. 5). Leuven University Press, Leuven. Wendorf, F., 1968. Prehistory of Nubia. Vol. I Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep
OSL/IRSL estimation for Nubian Complex Middle Stone Age settlement from Bayuda Desert in Sudan
MARK
Mirosław Masojća,⁎, Jarosław Kusiakb,1, Karol Standzikowskib, Henryk Panerc, Michał Kucd, Mirosław Parafiniuke, Marcin Szmitc a
Laboratory for Non-European Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Wroclaw, Poland TL/OSL Laboratory, Faculty Of Earth Sciences And Spatial Management Maria Curie-Skłodowska, University in Lublin, Poland c Gdańsk Archaeological Museum, Poland d Freelance, Poland e Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland b
A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Sudan Bayuda Desert Pleistocene Nubian Complex MSA Hand-axe OSL/IRSL dating
1. Introduction This contribution presents the thermoluminescence, OSL/IRSL age determinations for the Middle Stone Age settlement from the Bayuda Desert in Sudan, NE Africa. There are few well dated Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites from the Nile Valley and its neighbouring deserts (Wendorf, 1992; Wendorf et al., 1993; Mercier et al., 1999; Van Peer et al., 2003, 2010). Most North African MSA collections come from the surface and have no stratigraphic context (Wendorf, 1968; Rose, 2004; Svoboda, 2004; Olszewski et al., 2010). So far only two sites from the area of present Sudan have been dated, one representing early MSA from Sai island (Van Peer et al., 2003) and the second being the latest evidence of Levallois traditions in the Terminal Palaeolithic from the Affad area (Osypiński and Osypińska, 2015). Although this vast area played a crucial role in the history of early migrations from Africa as well as in origins of modern Homo (Sahle et al., 2014; Richter et al., 2017), human remains from MSA are extremely rare (Kuykendall and Heyerdahl-King, 2014, Table 10.3; Grine, 2016), with a single discovery from Sudan – a Singa human skull dated to 133 ka (McDermott et al., 1996). The recently discovered site BP177 (known locally as the Goat Mountain), in the Bayuda Desert in northern Sudan is a stratified
⁎
1
locality belonging to the Nubian Complex of the MSA. The Nubian Complex represents a specific variant of NE African MSA. It stretches out along the Nile river and surrounding deserts from Egypt and Libya from the North to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa to the South. The eastern border of the Nubian MSA appears to be the Sinai and southeastern Arabia (Rose et al., 2011, Fig. 1). The Nubian Complex is distinctive type of Levallois reduction strategy intended for production of Nubian points from triangular Nubian cores of type 1 and type 2 (Marks, 1968; Van Peer, 1991, 1992). Although the evidence is still not sufficient, the early phase of Nubian Complex appears to feature leaf-shaped foliates and Nubian end-scrapers while in the later phase the Nubian cores of type 1 for the production of Nubian points are more frequent than cores of type 2 (Van Peer, 2016). The site BP177 is located within a depression – a niche in the middle of the mountain's flat top (Masojć, 2010). The depression is of natural origin, being the consequence of how the cone of an extinct volcano formed. In its centre is an oval stone structure, which apparently in the Pleistocene was used as a natural shelter. Inside, about 15 thousand stone artefacts were excavated in an area of just 6 m2. Within the depression Middle Stone Age materials were recorded under a sheet of very fine sterile deposits. OSL dating of the aeolian deposits filling the
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Masojć). Deceased.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.10.026 Received 28 December 2016; Received in revised form 4 October 2017; Accepted 20 October 2017 2352-409X/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16 (2017) 391–396
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Fig. 1. On the left above: Map of Sudan. Bayuda Desert and site's location framed (drawing Małgorzata Wieczorek); On the right above: site BP177 w NS part of the Bayuda Desert; On the left below: aerial photograph of the culmination with a niche in the middle of it where site BP177 is situated (drawing & photo by Marcin Szmit); On the right below: Simplified geological map of the researched area. 1- Eroded plugs and dykes; 2 - Nubian Sandstone Formation; 3 - Rahaba series; 4 - Superficial deposits (modern dune sand, gravel); 5 - Plutonic facies of igneous complexes; 6 - Hypabbisic, subvolcanic and volcanic facies of igneous complexes. (Acc. to Meinhold, 1979; drawing Michał Kuc).
sandstone formation, with dozens of volcanic cones visible in the landscape. It is located ca. 50 km east of the Nile valley. The mountain is a small, spatially isolated volcanic cone (dike) ca. 200 m in diameter (Fig. 1, right). The top of the culmination provided stone material, Neolithic pottery and single products displaying features of predetermined techniques from the Middle Stone Age (MSA). It is thus a typical phenomenon observed on dozens of other peaks culminations (djebels) in the Bayuda Desert. The Middle Stone Age artefacts were also found at the foot of the mountain. The site's specific character is substantiated by the fact that originally in the middle of the mountain's flat mound there was a depression, a basin of the size of ca. 15 × 8 m (Fig. 2). The depression's fill consisted of weathered rock rubble located within very fine-grained sandy and dusty matrix sediments of aeolian origin. There are no clearly distinguishable layers within the deposit, which is about 60 cm thickness (Fig. 3). Within the depression a horizon with Nubian MSA material (MSA horizon I), with a considerable number of artefacts, was recorded under a layer of 15–20 cm of very fine, sandy-dusty sterile deposits. It appears to be the main horizon, reaching a depth of ca. 40 cm. Below it, almost no knapped stone material was found until the depth of ca. 50 cm, where the other horizon appears, much poorer than the one above (MSA horizon II). It is also less clearly defined than the horizon I. Almost all the stone artefacts were produced with the use of Levalloisian technique. The most evident is the presence of Nubian technology accompanied by discoidal cores and classic Levallois cores. The predominating type of cores is Nubian Type 2 (Van Peer, 1991, 2016; Fig. 3). There is no evidence of bladelet technologies. Hand-axes are present among Levallois products in the horizon II, in the period dated between OSL-2 and OSL-3 dates, so younger than 62 ka. The hand-axe products fit the assemblage's raw material structure - they are made from two types of raw material most frequently used in the site: petrified wood (Fig. 4) and volcanic rocks (Table 1).
depression dates the settlement back to the time bracket of 62–17 ka. Two MSA settlement horizons were recorded within the niche, both representing the late phase of the Nubian Complex. The older horizon (horizon II), associated with the Nubian Middle Stone Age Complex, is accompanied by hand-axes. Due to its stratified nature, absolute dating, and the occurrence of hand-axes together with Nubian Levallois products, Goat Mountain appears to be an important MSA locality in the north-eastern Africa. The lithic inventory from both horizons of the site is very rich. Over 60 thousand artefacts all together were excavated within an area of 25 m2 (Masojć, 2017). The site is the evidence of multiseasonal settlement of the modern Homo of the Levalloisian tradition still using hand-axe tools after 60 ka in the interior, far from the Nile corridor. 2. General description of the site and surroundings The Bayuda Desert (Fig. 1, left), situated north of Khartoum, occupies an area of about 40,000 km2 within a great bend of the Nile, reaching as far as Wadi El-Melik in the South. The investigated area lies on the border zone between two tectonic units: The Sahara Metacraton and The Nubian Shield divided from each other by Keraf Zone (Abdelsalam et al., 2002). The predominating elements of the desert's geological structure were formed by volcanism, especially in its northern part built from Mesozoic basalt rocks as well as from granites, gneisses and amphibolites (Rahaba Series). The southern part of the Bayuda is made from Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone Formation (Meinhold, 1979). On the surface occur outcrops of strongly weathered mainly granites, gneisses (Precambrian Basement Complex) and tertiary basaltoids (Whiteman, 1971). Superficial deposits are fine grained deposits like sands, silty sands and silts. The relief is flat with small dunes and volcanic hills (dykes and necks). There are several wadis with episodic flows filled with aeolian sands, silty sands, and silts. Most Palaeolithic sites in the Bayuda Desert are situated either on the tops of hills of volcanic origin or at their base. Most are eroded, devoid of original arrangements, which results in the co-occurrence of older stone artefacts together with the artefacts from subsequent periods (Masojć and Paner, 2014). Unlike other sites, the Palaeolithic material in BP177 has been preserved in the original stratigraphic arrangement in a relatively small, enclosed space. Goat Mountain is situated in the south-western part of the desert, within the Nubian
3. Site chronology Luminescence dating of the deposits from site BP177 was carried out twice: with the use of the TL method in 2011 (no dates were obtained) and with the use of the OSL/IRSL method in 2013 (Table 2, Fig. 3). Preparation of the material for the measurement of the 392
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Fig. 2. The site BP177 during excavations. The ellipsis marks the natural rock structure in the central part of the niche on the top of the culmination. (photo by Mirosław Masojć).
4. Discussion and conclusions
equivalent dose in both analyses was carried out in the same way. The polymineral fraction of 45–56 μm was separated by sieves, and was subsequently treated in a 10% solution of HCl to remove carbonates and in 30% H2O2 to get rid of the residues of organic matter. After each stage the grains were rinsed several times with distilled water. Annual dose in the measurements carried out with both methods was determined with the use of stationary gamma spectrometers Mazar-01 and Mazar-95 produced by Polon-Izot Milanówek (Poland). For each sample 40 measurements were made with a counting time of 2000s. An allowance was made for cosmic radiation (Prescott and Hutton, 1988) and humidity of the deposit. Concentrations of radioactive isotopes were converted into the values of absorbed doses alpha, beta and gamma radiation on the basis of published data (Adamiec and Aitken, 1998). Analyses were conducted in the TL/OSL Laboratory at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management at the Maria CurieSkłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. The IRSL measurements were carried out with the use of an automatic Riso TL/OSL DA-20 reader with the set of optical filters Schott BG-39 and Corning 7–59 (320–480). The measurement sequence was conducted following the pIRIR290 measurement procedure (Tchiel et al., 2011) (Table 3). The acquired results determined the chronology of human settlement in the site BP 177 as between ca. 68/56–18/16 ka. The frequency of occurrence of the artefacts (exceeding 60 thousand) in the excavated area of 25 m2 testifies to the multi-stage use of the volcanic culmination by the MSA communities.
BP177 was a place of intensive human activity of the Nubian Complex MSA communities in the period of ca. 60–20 ka. It was repeatedly used during the 40 thousand years, which resulted in the concentration of a huge number of artefacts in a small and restricted area within the depression – a natural shelter at the top of a small volcanic culmination, where two horizons were recorded. The upper one - horizon I dated < 24 ka - contains an assemblage of a Nubian Complex without evidence of bladelet techniques and microliths. The lower one, horizon II dated > 60 ka, included an assemblage of the Nubian Complex with sparse bifacial products. The site is one of the youngest, dated Nubian MSA sites in NE Africa (Van Peer, 2016). Taking under consideration that most of the very numerous Nubian Complex sites from Bayuda Desert are also of such a young chronology, it would show that within the band of the Nile there was a space where Nubian Levallois MSA societies commonly existed almost up to the end of MIS 2. Although by the end of MIS 2 some epigones of Levallois tradition still existed in the Nile valley (Osypiński and Osypińska, 2015), already around 60 ka arose the Taramsan phenomenon indicating the technological transition into a blade production system (Van Peer et al., 2010). To-date no such innovations are known from Bayuda Desert. An interesting aspect of the site is the presence of hand-axes. They constitute a constant component of the stone assemblage from site Fig. 3. On the left (A): Schematic profile of the site with the location of OSL/IRSL samples. The dotted line in the profile's ceiling: the site's surface with individual Neolithic and MSA artefacts. Level a and g devoid of artefacts. Levels c (MSA horizon I) and f (MSA horizon II) with the greatest density of artefacts. Levels b, d, e – levels with sparse artefacts; On the right (B): profile of the site (meter D6 within natural rock structure) with sampling for OSL/IRSL dating; Below (C): Cross section of the niche along length of 15 m. Grey stones indicating natural rock structure. Red belt – location of OSL/ISRS dating. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) (drawing & photo by Mirosław Masojć)
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Fig. 4. Site BP177, Bayuda Desert. Selected artefacts from the MSA horizon II dated > 60 ka. 1- Hand-axe (petrified wood); 2, 3 - bifacial foliates (volcanic rock); 4–7 Nubian cores of type 2 (petrified wood). (photo by Maciej Jórdeczka)
Table 1 Simplified structure of the lithic inventory from BP 177. General picture of the assemblage
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Flakes
Blades
Chips
Chunks
Cores
Tools
Sum
18,637 987 19,624
531 17 548
31,521 1235 32,756
4960 191 5151
933 68 1001
971 97 1068
57,553 2595 60,148
32,7%
0,9%
54,5%
8,6%
1,6%
1,7%
95,5% 4,5% 100%
Simplified core's categories
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Initial
One/two direction
Classic Levallois
Nubian
Discoidal
Other/fragment
Sum
69 3 72
31 1 32
166 19 185
115 11 126
69 7 76
483 27 510
933 68 1001
7,2%
3,2%
18,5%
12,6%
7,6%
50,9
93,2% 6,8% 100%
Simplified tool's categories
Horizon I Horizon II Sum
Levallois flakes
Levallois points
Foliates
Scrapers
Hand-axes
Other/fragments
Sum
227 23 250
163 21 184
102 5 107
98 3 101
2 9 11
379 36 415
38,8%
971 97 1068
% 0,8
Total N 60,148
23,5%
17,2%
10,0%
9,5%
1,0%
90,9% 9,1% 100%
Rock raw material structure: PW - petrified wood, V - volcanic rocks, Q - quartz, QS - quarzitic sandstone, F - flint Both Horizons
PW N 22,316
% 37,1
V N 11,533
% 19,2
Q N 13,304
% 22,2
394
QS N 4183
% 6,9
F N 8330
% 13,8
Other N 482
% 100
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Table 2 Results of the OSL/IRSL dating of site BP177, Bayuda Desert, Sudan. Description of samples
TL-1 TL-2 TL-3
D 6/1 D 6/2 D 6/3
Laboratory no. of sample Lub-
Annual dose DR (Gy/ka)
Equivalent dose ED (Gy)
OSL/IRSL age (years ka)
5150 5151 5152
2,05 ± 0,11 1,74 ± 0,14 1,08 ± 0,09
35,9 ± 1,3 42,7 ± 2,6 67,6 ± 3,5
17,5 ± 1,1 24,5 ± 2,4 62,6 ± 6,1
deposition of the Abdur Reef Limestone: context for an important archaeological site from the last interglacial on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 203, 179–206. Clark, J.D., et al., 2003. Stratigraphic, chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 423, 747–752. Grine, F.E., 2016. The late quaternary Hominins of Africa: the skeletal evidence from MIS 6-2. In: Jones, S.C., Stewart, B.A. (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2. Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series Springer, pp. 323–381. Kuykendall, K.L., Heyerdahl-King, I.S., 2014. Modern human origins in Africa: a review of the fossil, archaeological, and genetic perspectives on early Homo sapiens. In: Cummings, V., Jordan, P., Zvelebil, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Oxford, pp. 214–251. Marks, A.E., 1968. The Mousterian industries of Nubia. In: Wendorf, F. (Ed.), Prehistory of Nubia. Vol. I Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas. Masojć, M., 2010. First Note on the Discovery of a Stratified Palaeolithic Site from the Bayuda Desert (N Sudan) within MAG Concession. Der Antike Sudan. Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin e. V., Heft 21. pp. 63–70 (Berlin). Masojć, M., 2017. Lithic materials from a Late Nubian complex middle stone age site in the Bayuda Desert: goat mountain. In: Lohwasser, A., Karberg, T., Auenmüller, J. (Eds.), Bayuda Studies. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the Bayuda Desert in Sudan, Meroitica, (forthcoming). Masojć, M., Paner, H., 2014. The Bayuda Project (BP). The Palaeolithic and Neolithic Age in the Light of Current Research (2009–2011). Gdańsk Archaeological Museum African Reports. Vol. 11. pp. 89–100. McBrearty, S., 2003. 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Table 3 Description of pIRIR290 dating procedure. pIRIR290 Step
Treatment
Observed
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Give dose, Di Preheat, 320 °C for 60 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s Give test dose, DT Preheat, 320 °C for 60 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s IRSL measurement, 200 s Return to 1
– – LX LX – – Tx Tx – –
at 50 °C at 290 °C
at 50 °C at 290 °C at 325 °C
BP177, which – apart from them – consists almost solely of Levallois products. The presence of hand-axes in the Nubian Complex assemblages in the Bayuda Desert may possibly result from the raw material available and the need to produce tools from volcanic rocks and petrified wood – both posing great difficulties in processing. In the vast areas of the interior, far from the Nile valley, the tradition of producing hand-axe tools may have lasted in the MSA assemblages until the late stage of functioning of MSA communities. There is no clear endpoint to the production of the Acheulean tool types in Africa (McBrearty, 2003). Apparently, they lasted well into the MSA, when profoundly different reduction strategies - bifacial and Levalloisian - long coexisted (Van Peer et al., 2003). It seems that the hand-axe appears wherever it is functionally relevant, regardless of phylogeny. The Middle Stone Age is highly variable with only rare cases of geographic and temporal patterning (Tryon and Faith, 2013). The youngest Acheulian sites are known from the Herto Member of the Bouri Formation of Ethiopia I, dated to ca. 154–160 ka (Clark et al., 2003) and from Abdur in Eritrea, where they are dated to ca. 125 ka (Bruggeman et al., 2004). Acheulian elements may have been independently invented again and again. For instance the tool kit found at Jebel Faya (United Arab Emirates) has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa (Armitage et al., 2011). The youngest OSL date for assemblage C from Jebel Faya containing hand-axes together with Levallois products dates it back to the period of ca. 90 ka (95 +/− 13 ka). Numerous hand-axes in Africa scattered on the surface usually referred to Acheulian tradition may be in many cases associated with considerably younger settlement episodes. Site BP 177, one of the youngest dated sites of the Nubian Complex (Rose et al., 2011, Table 1) shows that hand-axes were produced and used during the MSA after 60 ka. References Abdelsalam, M.G., Liégois, J.-P., Stern, R.J., 2002. The Saharan Metacraton. J. Afr. Earth Sci. 34, 119–134. Adamiec, G., Aitken, M.J., 1998. Dose rate conversion factors update. Ancient TL 16 (2), 37–50. Armitage, S.J., Jasim, S.A., Marks, A.E., Parker, A.G., Usik, V.I., Uerpmann, H.-P., 2011. The southern route “out of Africa”: evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia. Science 331, 453–456. Bruggeman, J., et al., 2004. Stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and model for the
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transition and the emergence of modern human behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. J. Hum. Evol. 45, 187–193. Van Peer, P., Vermeersch, P.M., Paulissen, E., 2010. Chert quarrying, lithic technology and a modern human burial at the Palaeolithic site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt (Egyptian Prehistory Monographs No. 5). Leuven University Press, Leuven. Wendorf, F., 1968. Prehistory of Nubia. Vol. I Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.
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