Middle stone age rose cottage cave lithic points: Does technological change imply change in hunting techniques?

Abstract

Points are often the most abundant retouched lithics in MSA collections yet very little research has been done on their functions, especially in southern Africa where it has always been assumed that points were spears. This paper reports on the results of a technological analysis of two types of points from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. The study aims at examining the possibility that thick, broad points from various post-Howiesons Poort layers dating between 50 000 and 28 000 years ago were used as spearheads that were thrust at prey, while the narrow, thin points from one of the final MSA layers, Dc, (between 31 000 and 29 000 years old), were used as arrowheads that may have transported poison to prey. The results indicate that the former type of points were more likely to have been used as spearheads while the latter type were more likely to have been arrowheads.