The Scraper Planes from Leopard Cave, Erongo Mountains, Namibia

Leopard Cave, Erongo Mountains, Namibia, delivered an important quantity of macrotools, mainly in local basalt, through a Later Stone Age sequence spanning mainly the Later Holocene. These tools, usually labelled 'crude' or 'archaic', raise questions on the specialised technical activities which occurred at the site. Through a technological methodology combining chaine operatoire (operational chains) and techno-functional approaches, we argue that these tools represent a consistent specialised technological category despite a high productional diversity. We describe a large panel of chaines operatoires used to produce one specific tool type which displays all the volumetric patterns of a plane and implies a specific human gesture and force application. Indeed, we argue that the apparent lithic technological variability reflects an important affordance in the production of a unique tool type which suggests the existence of specialised technical behaviours at Leopard Cave.

Automated summary

This study examines a large number of macrotools found in the Leopard Cave in the Erongo Mountains, Namibia, during the Later Stone Age. Through a combination of operational chains and techno-functional approaches, the researchers argue that despite the varied production methods, these tools belong to a consistent specialized technological category. The study suggests that the apparent lithic technological variability reflects specialized technical behaviors at the Leopard Cave site.