The flaked stone artefact assemblages from Likoaeng: a late Holocene sequence in the Lesotho Highlands and its regional context

Abstract

The Likoaeng archaeological site in the eastern highlands of Lesotho preserves a particularly finely resolved sequence left by hunter-gatherers who repeatedly occupied this open-air location during the late Holocene, c. 1700 BC to AD 900. This paper describes the flaked stone tool assemblages used, produced and left at the site during this period and then relates them to other post-Classic Wilton assemblages elsewhere in the wider Maloti-Drakensberg region. The Likoaeng artefact sequence itself shows differences over time in patterns of raw material usage, stone reduction technology, formal tool frequencies and backed microlith production that offer an unusually well resolved insight into the evolution of the post-Classic Wilton in this part of southern Africa. At the specific level of the Likoaeng site itself, explanations for this patterning may be sought through correlations with changing subsistence activities and palaeoenvironmental conditions, but understanding other elements of it demands a geographically much wider frame of analysis.

To cite this article: Mitchell, P. 2009. The flaked stone artefact assemblages from Likoaeng: a late Holocene sequence in the Lesotho Highlands and its regional context. Southern African Humanities 21: 117-155.