Pressure-Flaked Points in Lesotho: Dating, Distribution and Diversity

South African Archaeological Society

Pressure-Flaked Points in Lesotho: Dating, Distribution and DiversityAuthor(s): Peter MitchellSource: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 54, No. 170 (Dec., 1999), pp. 90-96Published by: South African Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3889286 .

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90 South African Archaeological Bulletin 54: 90-96, 1999

PRESSURE-FLAKED POINTS IN LESOTHO: DATING, DISTRIBUTION AND DIVERSITY*

PETER MITCHELL Pitt Rivers Museum University of Oxford 64 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6PN United Kingdom

E-mail: peter.mitchell~prm. ox. ac. uk

ABSTRACT

Tanged and barbed arrowheads that are also bifacially pressure-flaked are a well-known feature of post-classic Wilton assemblages in the southern African interior. This paper reviews their occurrence within Lesotho. Recent excavations at Bolahla and Sehonghong Shelter provide further evidence for dating these artefacts. Attention is drawn to the diversity within the pressure-flaked points known from Lesotho, of which only some are tanged and barbed Particular stress is placed upon the presence at several sites of pressure-flaked bladelets and points that are also backed, artefact forms known too from sites in adjacent parts of South Africa.

*Received November 1998, revised August 1999

Introduction

Bifacially pressure-flaked tanged and barbed arrowheads have been known from the southern African interior since the work of PNringuey (191 1) at the beginning of the twentieth century. Van Riet Lowe (1947) recorded additional occurrences and used them as one defining feature of a localised Free State variant of the Wilton Industry. Subsequently, Humphreys (1969, 1991) reported on their distribution and dating, noting their presence in dateable contexts at several sites excavated by Carter (1978) in the neighbouring kingdom of Lesotho. The purpose of the present note is to bring the information on the dating and distribution of these and other forms of pressure-flaked points in Lesotho up to date in the light of research carried out there over the past 20 years. In particular, it is now becoming apparent that considerable diversity exists within what has tended to be presented as a single class of artefacts and that the 'classic' bifacially-worked tanged and barbed arrowheads may have been preceded in use by a variety of pressure-flaked backed microliths (e.g. Bousman 1991).

The Sites

Artefacts that are pressure-flaked over all or most of both their ventral surfaces and have a distinct tang and two barbs are known from eleven sites within Lesotho (Fig. 1). Van Riet Lowe (1947) first reported their presence in the 'Mooiroos Mountains', an otherwise unknown locality. Examination of the map that he provides suggests, however, that this may be a misspelling of the historically important chiefly stronghold of Mount Moorosi in the south

NH

N -,~M 7 -. .-. -

uHAM /

[=-XS~~~~~ ,.. , -/

LESOTHO( /

0 20 40 km SOUTH AFRICA

~~~ ~~240 m

Fig. 1. Lesotho archaeological sites producing pressure- flaked points. Site names abbreviated thus: BOL Bola- hia; HAM Ha Mototane; HS Ha Soloja; LM Lehaha- la-Masekou; LQ Leqhetsoana; MO Mount Moorosi; MOS Moshebi's Shelter; SEH Sehonghong; 11 2927- DA11; 33 2928DB33; 51 2928DB51.

of the country. Several further examples came to light at three rock-shelters-Ha Soloja, Moshebi's Shelter and Sehonghong-in the highlands east of the Senqu (Gariep) River during the first systematic archaeological field- project carried out in Lesotho (Carter 1969, 1978; Carter & Vogel 1974). More recent work in this area has produced further bifacial points from excavations at Sehonghong Shelter and from open-air sites nearby (Mitchell 1996a). Excavations and survey work carried out in 1982/83 along the Southern Perimeter Road and later in the Phuthiatsana- ea-Thaba Bosiu (PTB) Basin of Lesotho's central lowlands yielded further examples (Parkington et al. 1987; Mitchell 1994; Mitchell et al. 1994). This paper provides more detailed information on the points from each of these sites. The data are summarised in Table 1, which shows that 29 such artefacts are now known from Lesotho, compared with the 11 reported by Humphreys (1991).

Sehlabathebe Basin

Ha Soloja (2928CC2)

A single specimen was found on the surface of this large rock-shelter (Carter 1969), the Later Stone Age deposits of which were largely destroyed as a result of the construction of a house within it in the 1 930s (Carter 1978).



South African Archaeological Bulletin 54: 90-96, 1999 91

Table 1. Pressure-flaked points from archaeological sites in Lesotho

Site name Site Area No of Date/ Primary reference Designation points context

Bolahla 3028AB1 Southern Lesotho 3 Surface + Parkington e al. 1987; Excavation Mitchell et al. 1994 <910 BP

Ha Mototane 3027BC2 Southern Lesotho I Surface Parkington etal. 1987 Ha Soloja 2928CC2 Sehlabathebe I Surface Carter 1969

Basin Lehaha-la- 2928DD22 Sehonghong area I Surface Carter etal. 1988

Masekou Leqhetsoanal 2927BC5 PTB Basin I Excavation Mitchell etal. 1994 Mount Moorosi 3027BDI Southern Lesotho 1 Surface Van Riet Lowe 1947

(Mooiroos Mountains)

Moshebi's Shelter' 2928CCI Sehlabathebe 8 Excavation Carter 1969 Basin < 2200 BP

Sehonghong 2928DBI Sehonghong area 9 Excavation Carteretal. 1988; Shelter' < 1710 BP Mitchell 1996a

- 2927DAI I PTB Basin I Surface Mitchell 1994 - 2928DB33 Sehonghong area 2 Surface Mitchell, field-notes - 2928DB5 I Sehonghong area I Surface Mitchell, field-notes Note I - Pressure-flaked backed microliths also present. See Table 3.

Moshebi's Shelter (2928CCI) Excavated in 1969, this large rock-shelter overlooking

the confluence of the Leqoa and Tsoelikane Rivers produced an extensive sequence of deposits, the upper 600 mm of which yielded Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblages dating to the recent Holocene (Carter 1969; Carter & Vogel 1974). Eight bifacially worked points were found in excavation of spits 1-4, four of them complete, four broken (Carter 1969: fig. III). Available radiocarbon dates are 260 ? 46 BP (Pta-314) for spit 2 and 2180 ? 43 BP (Pta-319) for spit 4, although the fact that excavation proceeded within 100 mm thick spits that sometimes cross-cut the natural stratigraphy reduces the reliability of any specific association between the artefacts and these dates.

Sehonghong Area, Eastern Lesotho Highlands

Sehonghong Shelter (2928DBI). This well-known site lying on a west-flowing tributary of the Senqu River was excavated by Carter in 1971 (Carter 1978; Carter et al. 1988) and more recently by Mitchell (1996b). The 1971 excavations produced two tanged and barbed bifacial points, both made in opaline (Fig. 2:1-2). The former is only partially pressure-flaked over its ventral surface, the latter more extensively so, though the tips of its point and barbs are broken off. Both were found in spit 3 of Carter's excavation, stratigraphically below a charcoal sample that produced a radiocarbon determination of 1400 ? 150 BP (Pta-885). Three pressure-flaked fragments were also found in 1971 and are likely to be the remains of other bifacial points (Carter et al. 1988). Renewed excavation at Sehonghong in 1992 resulted in the recovery of three further whole or partially complete bifacial points (Fig. 2:3-5), a pressure-flaked backed bladelet and the proximal half of a point pressure-flaked over only one surface (Mitchell 1996a). The latter artefact was found at the base of the GAP layer, immediately adjacent to a charcoal sample dated to 1710?20 BP (Pta-6063). The other examples all come from the overlying DC layer which postdates a further radiocarbon determination of 1240 i 50 BP (Pta-6084). One of these artefacts (Fig. 2:6), pressure- flaked over part, but not all, of both the ventral and dorsal surfaces retains mastic indicating that only about one-third of its length would have been exposed when mounted; its overall shape suggests that it was not tanged and barbed.

4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 0 30mm

t9 A0_41t_\ E/

Fig. 2. Pressure-flaked points from the Sehonghong area, of the Lesotho Highlands. All opaline. 1-6 Sehonghong Shelter; 7-8 2928DB33; 9 2928DB51; 10 Lehaha-la- Masekou.

2928DB33

This is a small painted overhang on the western bank of the Senqu River close to its confluence with the Sehong- hong River. Test-excavation of its talus slope in August 1998 confirmed the presence of a post-classic Wilton assemblage already evident from a surface collection made in August 1995. This surface collection included two bifacially pressure-flaked points, one of which is clearly tanged (Fig. 2:7-8).

2928DB51

This site designates the provenance of a complete bifacial tanged and barbed point found during field survey of the Sehonghong area in July 1993. The artefact (Fig. 2:9) lay alone on a footpath at an elevation of 2000 m asl on the plateau above the Senqu River.

Lehaha-la-Masekou (2928DD22) This is a painted boulder on the east bank of the Senqu

River south of Sehonghong (Smits 1973). A complete example of a bifacial tanged and barbed point (Fig. 2:10) was found on the surface immediately in front of it in 1985 (Carter et al. 1988:78), while recording the paintings as part of the ARAL (Analysis of the Rock Art of Lesotho) Project (Smits 1983).

Southern Lesotho

Bolahla (3038ABI) Excavations took place within this small rock-shelter

and on its talus in summer 1982/83 as part of rescue work in advance of the construction of the Southern Perimeter Road (SPR) between Quthing and Qacha's Nek (Parkington et at. 1987; Mitchell et al. 1994). Three bifacial points were found, one from the shallow excavated deposits within the shelter, and two from the surface of the slope in front, much




of which was scraped over. Only one of the specimens from this surface scrape is tanged and barbed (Fig. 3:1-2). A charcoal sample from excavation of the talus slope produced a radiocarbon determination of 910 ? 80 BP (Pta- 5549), while a charcoal sample from excavations within the shelter produced a near-modem date of 90 ? 45 BP (Pta- 5413).

Ha Mototane (3027BC2)

A surface scatter in front of a tiny rock-shelter 2 km east of the excavated site of Masitise Shelter in south-western Lesotho, this site was also recorded as part of the SPR Pro- ject (Parkington et al. 1987). A single tanged and barbed bifacial point was found within a small post-classic Wilton assemblage.

Mooiroos Mountains (sic), Mount Moorosi (3027BDI)

This is a surface find reported by van Riet Lowe (1947: 93) and originally collected "near Mooiroos Mountains in Basutoland" by S. Kirk. The place-name is unknown and seems likely to be an error for Mount Moorosi on the south bank of the Senqu River between Quthing and Bolahla. The point itself is damaged at the extremities of its tip, tang and barbs, but is completely bifacially pressure-flaked and made in opaline. It was sent to van Riet Lowe along with three small convex scrapers and four waste flakes, but further details of the original context of these finds are unknown.

Phuthiatsana-ea-Thaba Bosiu Basin, Central Lesotho Lowlands

Leqhetsoana (2927BCS)

Leqhetsoana is a large shelter in the valley of the Koro- Koro River, a tributary of the Phuthiatsana River, and lies east of Maseru in the central lowlands of Lesotho. A single unifacially pressure-flaked flake, perhaps the abandoned roughout for manufacture of a point, was recovered from a test excavation here in 1990 (Fig. 3:3), as well as seven pressure-flaked backed microliths-one blade, three bladelets and three points-discussed below. Unfortunately, the small amount of surviving deposit at the site has been disturbed by nineteenth century Sotho occupation and no charcoal was recovered from which a radiocarbon date might have been obtained (Mitchell et al. 1994).

2927DA1I

This is a small overhang formed by a large painted boulder on the northern slopes of the Qhomane Plateau east of Maseru, the artefact assemblage from this site is small, but clearly post-classic Wilton in affiliation (Mitchell 1994). It includes the mid-section of a bifacial point, but not enough of this is preserved to determine whether the artefact was originally tanged and barbed.

Discussion

Distribution As Carter (1969) commented in discussing the bifacial

points from Moshebi's Shelter, finds from Lesotho do not alter the overall area of distribution from which pressure- flaked points, including tanged and barbed arrowheads, are known, but they do help to correct earlier impressions that they concentrate overwhelmingly in the eastern Free State.

1~~~~~~~~

30mm~~

Fig. 3. Pressure-flaked points from southern and western Lesotho. All in opaline. 1-2 Bolahla; 3 Leqhetsoana.

Indeed, the number now known from the Lesotho High- lands (26 altogether from the Sehlabathebe Basin, the Sehonghong area, and southern Lesotho, excluding Ha Mo- totane) is roughly the same as that cited by Humphreys (1991) for the eastern Free State (23 from Districts of Dewetsdorp, Harrismith, Ladybrand, Smithfield, Thaba Nchu and Wepener), though this total needs raising in the light of fieldwork by Klatzow (1994) and Wadley (1997). Many more examples are known from the upper Seacow Valley in the north-eastern Karoo (Sampson 1985). The only extension to the overall distribution noted by Hum- phreys (1991) is given by Mazel's (1994) report of two specimens from second millennium AD contexts in the Thukela Basin of KwaZulu-Natal. Though comparative data are not available for all findspots in South Africa, in Lesotho 18 come from excavations, 8 from surface contexts at rock-shelter sites and 3 from exclusively open air locations.

Dating

Since some of the pressure-flaked points now known from Lesotho do derive from excavated contexts, they can offer important additional information as to the date at which manufacture of these artefacts may have begun. Unfortunately, the fact that both Moshebi's Shelter and Belleview (Carter 1978), just across the border into South Africa, were excavated in spits rather than natural strati- graphic layers renders less than certain the association between the points recovered there and specific radiocarbon determinations (Humphreys 1991). Nevertheless, both they and dates of 2240 ? 60 BP (Pta-7117) from Rose Cottage Cave (Wadley 1997) and 1570 ? 40 BP (Pta-3412; Hum- phreys & Thackeray 1983) from Dikbosch 1, Northern Cape Province, place the manufacture of bifacial tanged and barbed arrowheads within the last 2200 years. The dates cited above for Bolahla and Sehonghong are consis- tent with this. However, we are still far from establishing a more precise chronology for these and other pressure-flaked artefacts, despite Clark's (1959) suggestion that the bifacial arrowheads are stone skeuomorphs of metal originals, which would imply contact with Early Iron Age agricultural communities. The Rose Cottage example is sufficiently early to argue against this explanation of their innovation, but remains to be confirmed. Elsewhere, as in the Karoo in the late first millennium AD (Bousman 1991), transmission of bifacial arrowhead technology was probably through in- digenous hunter-gatherer networks, rather than the result of direct copying.




Diversity In discussing the bifacial pressure-flaked points from

Moshebi's Shelter, Carter (1969) explicitly stated that several types could be identified among them. Since then, comparatively little reference has been made in the litera- ture to this issue of diversity within the overall class of pressure-flaked points, even though it would seem an obvi- ous point of departure for any investigation of what their appearance and distribution might signify. Table 2 demon- strates this variability and is based on personal examination of the finds from the Sehonghong area, Bolahla and the Phuthiatsana-ea-Thaba Bosiu Basin, and published and unpublished comments by Carter (1969, nd) and van Riet Lowe (1947). At least four variants can be recognised: bifacial tanged points with either one or the more common two barbs; points that are pressure-flaked over only one surface; and bifacially worked points that are neither barbed nor tanged. The latter are known from Moshebi's Shelter, Sehonghong and Bolahla, and are themselves variable. Carter (1969: fig. III 2) shows the Moshebi's examples to be clearly pointed with a convex trimmed base. The Sehonghong example, as noted above, is incompletely bifacially worked, with convex, rather than straight, lateral edges (Fig. 2:6), whereas that from Bolahla is distinctly larger than the tanged and barbed point from the same site, but less pointed and with a straight base (Fig. 3: 1).

Chronological controls are still too few to exclude the possibility that there may be a temporal dimension to the variability evident in Table 2, but functional distinctions are equally hard to support. The need for detailed comparative study of these artefacts using microwear analysis, residue analysis and impact damage is strong, and to these, one can add the possibility of experimental work to help determine the range of activities in which they may have been employed. The tanged and barbed points do, on visual grounds, seem strong candidates for arrowheads, their tra- ditional interpretation. Whether this is true for all pressure- flaked points is another matter. Use as knife-blades or, con- ceivably, spear tips cannot be excluded, at least for some of the larger specimens, if we consider the smaller Kimberley points of Australia (where the bow and arrow was not known) as an analogy. That the delicacy and thinness of many pressure-flaked points need not have impeded their use as weapon armatures is suggested by comparisons with similarly thin and finely worked late Neolithic Beaker arrowheads in Europe (Edmonds 1995). The fact that some have been found as isolated open-air finds (e.g. 2928DB5 1 near Sehonghong) could support arguments that they were used (and then lost) in hunting, although 'smoking arrowheads' in animal, or human, remains are extremely rare in southern Africa (but see Morris & Parkington 1982). One possibility that should be considered in future analysis or experimental work is whether these points were employed to tip arrows used with the light bow familiar from Kalahari ethnography, rather than the more powerful, impact-killing triple-curved bow that is illustrated in rock paintings from the Western Cape (Manhire et al. 1986) and perhaps at some sites (Ha Nqosa; Sehonghong) in Lesotho (Mitchell, unpublished field notes).

A technological or subsistence role for pressure-flaked points may not, however, be the whole story. Arrows are favoured as exchange items among modern Kalahari San (Wiessner 1977) and they also carry important connotations for gender identity (Biesele 1993). Men are scarified with them on killing their first big game animal (Lee 1979) and

Table 2. Variability in pressure-flaked points from sites in Lesotho (excluding backed bladelets and backed points)

Sehlabathebe Sehonghong Southern PTB Total Basin Area Lesotho Basin

Bifacially worked: Tanged and bilaterally 3 5 3 - 11

barbed Tanged and unilaterally 1 - - -

barbed Indeterminate barbed 2 - - - 2 Neither tanged nor 2 1 I - 4

barbed Indeterminate 1 6 1 1 9

Unifacially worked: Indeterminate - 1 - 1 2

Total 9 13 5 2 29

women are generally excluded from touching or using them, though they may own them (Marshall 1976). The possibility that the distribution of bifacial tanged and barbed points equates to that of a socio-linguistic sub- division among hunter-gatherers occupying the southern African interior was raised by Humphreys (1984), who suggested that they might have been used as exchange items within such an alliance network. Elsewhere, I have picked up on this argument and noted that the exclusion of bifacial tanged and barbed arrowheads from the Barkly East! Maclear area of the Eastern Cape Province, and their extreme scarcity in KwaZulu-Natal's Thukela Basin, fits patterning in lithic raw material use and the distributions of marine shell ornaments, ostrich eggshell beads and pieces (Mitchell 1996c). Together, these data may indicate that the principal zone of interaction for people living in the Lesotho Highlands over the last 2 000 years has been to the west, rather than to the south or east. However, the distribution of rock paintings of mormyrid fish suggests that people in Lesotho and the eastern Free State were also linked (at other times and/or in other social contexts) to groups living in KwaZulu-Natal as far north as the Pongola River (Ouzman 1995).

The diversity among pressure-flaked points evident in Table 2 is made more complex by recent work suggesting that pressure-flaking was used to trim the butts of backed bladelets throughout the later Holocene sequence at Blyde- fontein in the north-eastern Karoo (Bousman 1991). This preceded the innovation of backed bladelets that were completely pressure-flaked over both ventral and dorsal surfaces. Though rare at both Blydefontein and nearby Meerkat Shelter, these pressure-flaked backed microliths predate pressure-flaked points there by several hundred to more than a thousand years, though at the latter site the two may have overlapped (Table 3). Pressure-flaked backed bladelets are also known from Moshebi's Shelter (Carter 1969), and in the Karoo at Glen Elliot (Sampson 1967), Riversmead (Sampson & Sampson 1967) and several sites in the upper Seacow Valley, where they seem to occur only after the local appearance of herders c.AD 700 (Close & Sampson 1998a, 1998b). They have also been found more recently at Leqhetsoana (where pressure-flaked backed points also occur; Mitchell eI aI. 1994) Sehongiong (Mitchell 1 996a), the nearby open-air site of Likoaeeng (Mitchell & Charles 1996) and Roosfontein, eastern Free State (Klatzow 1994). They thus show a quite similar distribution to the better-known bifacial tanged and barbed arrowheads, though with a more easterly focus (Fig. 4). At Roosfontein they occur, in small numbers, through the




Table 3. Pressure-flaked backed microliths in the southern African interior (all backed bladelets unless otherwise stated)

Site name Date BP Laboratory Primary reference number

Blydefontein 3135 ? 33 (SMU-1849) Bousman 1991

Glen Elliott' >235 ? 30 (GX-1295) Sampson 1967

Leqhetsoana2 Mitchell 1991; Mitchell et al. 1994

Likoaeeng 1850 ? 15 - (Pta-7097) Mitchell & Charles 1996; 2060 ? 45 (Pta-7098) J. Vogel, pers. comm.

Meerkat Shelter 1102 ? 62 - (SMU-1898) Bousman 1991 <2352 ? 122 (SMU-1931)

Moshebi's <2180 ? 43 (Pta-3 19) Carter 1969 Shelter

Riversmead' <2285 ? 115 (GX-0665) Sampson & Sampson 1967

Roosfontein <1920 ? 60 (Pta-5932) Klatzow 1994

Seacow Valley c.<1250 - Close & Sampson 1998a, 1998b

Sehonghong <1240 ?50 (Pta-6084) Mitchell 1996a

Notes: 1 Pressure-flaked backed points, not bladelets

2 Pressure-flaked backed points and pressure-flaked backed bladelets

wRF

8LQ

SOUTH AFRICA < LESOTHO

Fs ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ o X~~~~~~~~~ X , 4MOS

.GL

B N 0 50km

Fig. 4. Archaeological sites of the southern African interior with pressure-flaked backed microliths. Site names abbreviated thus: BL Blydefontein; GL Glen Elliot; LIK Likoaeeng; LQ Leqhetsoana; MS Meerkat Shelter; MOS Moshebi's Shelter; RF Roosfontein; RM Rivers- mead; SEH Sehonghong.

recent Holocene deposits, but at Likoaeeng seem to be tightly bracketed between 2060 BP and 1850 BP (J. Vogel, pers. comm.). Figure 5 illustrates some of these pressure- flaked backed microliths from Lesotho.

Found so far (because of their smaller size and often broken condition?) only in excavated contexts, the function(s) of these pressure-flaked backed bladelets remain unknown. At Likoaeeng a specialist use in processing the large quantities of fish that constitute almost all the fauna from the layers in which they are found is possible (R. Charles, pers. comm.) but microwear analysis of other kinds of backed microliths (Binneman 1982; Wadley & Binneman 1995) suggests a range of functions is more likely. Alternatively, Close and Sampson (1998a, 1998b) note that pressure-flaking was sometimes used in the Sea- cow Valley to thin backed bladelets, highlighting the importance of reconstructing chaines operatoires in under- standing how stone artefacts were made and used. Without prejudice to any technological, extraction or processing roles, the limited spatial distribution of pressure-flaked backed bladelets may also imply that they too acted as a stylistic marker for some kind of social group or alliance

4 5 6

7

8

1 21 3 73 30 mm

Fig. 5. Pressure-flaked backed microliths from recent excavations in Lesotho. 1 Sehonghong Shelter; 2-5 Likoa- eeng; 6-8 Leqhetsoana.

network (cf. Humphreys 1984), though when hafted little of the elaborate pressure-flaking is likely to have been visible. A partly symbolic explanation for this use of pressure- flaking would be supported by the presumably high level of skill demanded by its application to these backed microliths and by the overall rarity of bifacial working in the southern African LSA. Contrasting North American Palaeoindian and European Mesolithic stone-working technologies, Tor- rence (1989) argues that microlithisation is itself an alter- native to bifacial pressure-flaking in economising raw material use. This should, perhaps, (contra Hayden 1989) make us consider less utilitarian explanations for its use within the microlithic stoneworking traditions of the later Holocene of southern Africa.

Conclusion

Both Humphreys (1991) and Mazel (1994) have commented that, while something is known as to the dating and distribution of bifacial tanged and barbed arrowheads, we still have virtually no idea as to their function or use. Why and how they were innovated within the overall LSA stone- working tradition is also a mystery. The unknowns sur- rounding these artefacts intensify when, as this paper has sought to do, we take on board the variety of pressure- flaked artefacts that were made in the southern African interior during the recent Holocene and the fact that one ele- ment of this variety (pressure-flaked backed bladelets) has a distribution that in many ways parallels that of the better known tanged and barbed arrowheads, though arguably earlier in date. Add to this Bousman's (1991) observation that pressure-flaking was used to trim backed bladelet butts

at Blydefontein from c.4000 BP and the fulrther class of tanged arrowheads (not discussed here) reported from the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg (Maggs & Ward 1980), the southern Cape coast (Inskeep 1987) and the Seacow Valley (Close & Sampson 1998b), and it is evident that the situ- ation is much more complex than appeared a decade ago. A




sustained programme of research, involving detailed comparative examination of all the known artefacts, microwear and residue analysis where applicable and experimental stone-working, is needed if we are to convert these state- ments about spatiotemporal patterning into data that can be used in arguments about the social contexts (exchange, gender, contacts with Iron Age farmers) in which pressure- flaked artefacts were used by LSA people.

Acknowledgements

My own fieldwork in Lesotho, which yielded several of the artefacts discussed here, has been carried out with the permission and assistance of the Protection and Preserva- tion Commission of the Kingdom of Lesotho and has been funded by the following bodies: the British Academy, Ox- ford University, the University of Cape Town, the Swan Fund, the Society of Antiquaries, the Prehistoric Society, the Sir Henry Strakosch Memorial Trust, the University of Wales, Lampeter, the Oppenheimer Fund, the Harry Oppenheimer Institute, the Boise Fund, St Hugh's College, Oxford and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. I should also like to thank the referees and Dr A. Thackeray for helping to improve the paper.

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Pressure-Flaked Points in Lesotho: Dating, Distribution and Diversity

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