Heritage Cases

General presentation of the site and macro-charcoal remains to be exported: The ongoing PhD project of Elysandre Puech on charcoal analysis is part of the pluri-disciplinary “Bushman project”, which was initiated in 2014 (SAHRA permit obtained in 2014 and renewed in 2018; permit holder: Dr. Guillaume Porraz, CNRS, France; co-director of the project: Dr. Aurore Val, Evolutionary Studies Institute, South Africa). This project aims at reintegrating the Limpopo Province, a somewhat forgotten geographical area, within the current chrono-cultural southern African archaeological framework (Lombard et al., 2012). This research project started in 2014 with the reopening of the site of Bushman Rock Shelter and the reconditioning of collections recovered during previous excavations led by Prof. Eloff (Porraz et al., 2015). The site contains a deep and well-stratified sequence of ca. 7 meters of archaeological deposits associated with Iron Age, Later Stone Age and Middle Stone Age occupations (e.g. Eloff, 1969, Louw, 1969, Vogel, 1969, Plug, 1981). The discovery of perforated beads of marine origin (Dayet et al., 2017) and the results of an unprecedented analysis of ancient sedimentary DNA (Rifkin et al., work in progress) are two of the most noticeable results of this ongoing research. The Bushman Rock Shelter project marks a shift from current research, which tends to focus on coastal and near-coastal sites, located for most of them in the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape Province (e.g. Mitchell, 2002). Therefore, Bushman Rock Shelter offers the opportunity to explore the potential of various palaeoenvironmental proxies in the summer rainfall region using the rich botanical remains retrieved along the sequence. Besides, only few past climate records are available for this region, and this is especially true for the Late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition documented by the Later Stone Age layers at the site. The stratigraphic deposits are predominantly composed of anthropogenic sediments alternating, on the one hand, numerous lenses or diffuse layers of ashy and, on the other hand, charcoal-rich units interpreted as remains of combustion features (i.e., hearths). While numerous charcoal remains were observed during Eloff’s excavation (Eloff, 1969; Louw, 1969), no systematic charcoal sorting occurred and, thus, no detailed charcoal analysis has yet been carried out for the site. The moderated moisture in the sediments has allowed a remarkable degree of preservation for the charcoals, which are found in high frequencies in the Later Stone Age sediments. Combined with the site’s geographical situation, on the edge of the Highveld, charcoals represent a particularly important proxy for investigating relationships between modern human and plants in the past, as well as past vegetation and climate. Research questions: With this first thorough macro-charcoal analysis of the Later Stone Age layers from Bushman Rock Shelter, we aim at answering the following research questions:  Is it possible to document changes in local vegetation at the time of the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition using macro-charcoal remains?  What are the patterns of human exploitation of local wood through time (which species for which uses)?  What are the functions of the different combustion structures identified in the Later Stone Age layers at the site? Instruments and reference collection available at the University of Nice - CEPAM One of the main research axes developed by the CEPAM institute in Nice, under the lead of its director, Dr. Isabelle Théry-Parisot, focuses on human/environment interactions, using specifically charcoals as the main proxy. In this framework, the institute houses a unique comparative collection of experimentally produced charcoals. This collection is used for typological analyses as a key approach to past firewood exploitation and woodland management reconstructions. It is the result of numerous experimental sessions and development of tools adapted to archaeological charcoals. It is aided by a dendrochronological linear table, aiming at documenting dendrometric features of the woody vegetation exploited by prehistoric humans in order to determine which part(s) of the wood are (were) collected (branch, trunk,...), its age and its physical characteristics (diameter, green tree, dead tree,...). This comparative collection represents a powerful tool, which will allow us to gain much more in-depth understanding of the archaeological sample from Bushman Rock Shelter. To sum up The sample concerned for this PhD project, for which we are applying for an export permit, will be studied in France using microscopic tools and a comparative experimental collection for the duration of the PhD (June 2018 to May 2020) and will, of course, be returned to South Africa at the end of it (mid-2020). The project cannot be completed without direct comparisons using microscopes between the archaeological sample and the comparative experimental material available in Nice. The fracturing technique is relatively less destructive since the specimens are not ground down, and the charcoal can be used afterwards for other purposes such as radiometric or isotopic analysis (Dimbleby 1967).