Still Bay Point-production strategies at Hollow Rock Shelter and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter and Knowledge-transfer systems in Southern Africa at about 80-70 thousand years ago

CITATION: Hogberg, A. & Lombard, M. 2016. Still Bay Point-production strategies at Hollow Rock Shelter and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter and Knowledge-transfer systems in Southern Africa at about 80-70 thousand years ago. PLoS ONE, 11(12):e0168012, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0168012.The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosoneIt has been suggested that technological variations associated with Still Bay assemblages of southern Africa have not been addressed adequately. Here we present a study developed to explore regional and temporal variations in Still Bay point-production strategies. We applied our approach in a regional context to compare the Still Bay point assemblages from Hollow Rock Shelter (Western Cape) and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter (KwaZulu-Natal). Our interpretation of the point-production strategies implies inter-regional point-production conventions, but also highlights variability and intra-regional knapping strategies used for the production of Still Bay points. These strategies probably reflect flexibility in the organisation of knowledge-transfer systems at work during the later stages of the Middle Stone Age between about 80 ka and 70 ka in South Africa.http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168012Publisher's versio