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Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)

Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Barham, Lawrence
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/230156
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author Barham, Lawrence
author_facet Barham, Lawrence
author_sort Barham, Lawrence
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description Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The stratigraphic sequence of the site is admittedly complex, but it deserves a more careful analysis than that offered by Herries. This detailed response by the most recent excavator of the site addresses Herries critique by placing the site in its historical context and then dealing with the central issue of the association of dated speleothem with the surviving archaeological deposits. Herries is shown to have mistakenly combined the dates from two separate cave passages and to have misunderstood the published sections, plans, and taphonomic assessment of each excavation area. His reinterpretation of the site as being significantly younger than published is based on a conflation of unrelated data.
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spelling pubmed-33579592012-05-31 Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011) Barham, Lawrence Int J Evol Biol Letter to the Editor Herries provides a timely review of the archaeological and dating evidence of the transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa, however, in relation to the site of Twin Rivers, Zambia he makes several fundamental errors of interpretation that demand correction. The stratigraphic sequence of the site is admittedly complex, but it deserves a more careful analysis than that offered by Herries. This detailed response by the most recent excavator of the site addresses Herries critique by placing the site in its historical context and then dealing with the central issue of the association of dated speleothem with the surviving archaeological deposits. Herries is shown to have mistakenly combined the dates from two separate cave passages and to have misunderstood the published sections, plans, and taphonomic assessment of each excavation area. His reinterpretation of the site as being significantly younger than published is based on a conflation of unrelated data. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012 2012-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3357959/ /pubmed/22655215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/230156 Text en Copyright © 2012 Lawrence Barham. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Letter to the Editor
Barham, Lawrence
Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title_full Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title_fullStr Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title_full_unstemmed Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title_short Clarifying Some Fundamental Errors in Herries' “A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith” (2011)
title_sort clarifying some fundamental errors in herries' “a chronological perspective on the acheulian and its transition to the middle stone age in southern africa: the question of the fauresmith” (2011)
topic Letter to the Editor
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/230156
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