100th century BCE
Zimbabwe watershed and adjoining main river valleys
The Tshangulan Industry is a late Zimbabwean expression of Middle Stone Age technology, formerly called the Umgusan Industry or Rhodesian Magosian. It preserves prepared-core traditions while showing reduced artifact dimensions, small retouched triangular points, blades from non-Levallois cores, lunates, backed blades, burins, circular scrapers, thin discs, and occasionally bored stones. Radiocarbon-dated samples place its reported range between about 25,000 and 13,000 BP, although the excerpt cautions that this chronology affects its classification as Middle Stone Age.
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The Story
The Tshangulan Industry follows the Bambata sequence in Zimbabwe and is presented as an evolved form that continues the Middle Stone Age technological tradition. It was formerly known as the Umgusan Industry and was once described as Rhodesian Magosian. Its archaeological significance lies in the persistence of prepared-core technology alongside a general reduction in artifact size.
The assemblages contain diminutive triangular points with evolved retouch, as well as increasing numbers of blades struck from non-Levallois cores. Some blades were retouched into lunates and small backed blades. Burins and circular scrapers are also present, together with flat, thin discs that may have served as adze blades; bored stones occur at some sites.
The industry is widespread across the watershed and into the principal river valleys north and south. Radiocarbon samples indicate a reported range of approximately 25,000 to 13,000 BP. If reliable, these dates make Tshangulan one of the latest expressions of Middle Stone Age technology in southern Africa, contemporary with the earliest Later Stone Age industries in the Cape winter-rainfall region.
100th century BCE
Zimbabwe watershed and adjoining main river valleys
The Tshangulan Industry is a late Zimbabwean expression of Middle Stone Age technology, formerly called the Umgusan Industry or Rhodesian Magosian. It preserves prepared-core traditions while showing reduced artifact dimensions, small retouched triangular points, blades from non-Levallois cores, lunates, backed blades, burins, circular scrapers, thin discs, and occasionally bored stones. Radiocarbon-dated samples place its reported range between about 25,000 and 13,000 BP, although the excerpt cautions that this chronology affects its classification as Middle Stone Age.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Tshangulan Industry follows the Bambata sequence in Zimbabwe and is presented as an evolved form that continues the Middle Stone Age technological tradition. It was formerly known as the Umgusan Industry and was once described as Rhodesian Magosian. Its archaeological significance lies in the persistence of prepared-core technology alongside a general reduction in artifact size.
The assemblages contain diminutive triangular points with evolved retouch, as well as increasing numbers of blades struck from non-Levallois cores. Some blades were retouched into lunates and small backed blades. Burins and circular scrapers are also present, together with flat, thin discs that may have served as adze blades; bored stones occur at some sites.
The industry is widespread across the watershed and into the principal river valleys north and south. Radiocarbon samples indicate a reported range of approximately 25,000 to 13,000 BP. If reliable, these dates make Tshangulan one of the latest expressions of Middle Stone Age technology in southern Africa, contemporary with the earliest Later Stone Age industries in the Cape winter-rainfall region.
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