Wilton culture

Wilton is a term archaeologists use to generalize archaeological sites and cultures that share similar stone and non-stone technology. Archaeologists often refer to Wilton as a technocomplex (Archaeological culture), or Industry (archaeology). Technological industries are defined by a common tradition of making artifacts, most commonly stone artifacts but include other materials like ceramic when they are present. Archaeologists use these industries to define a discrete cultural taxonomy. Originally defined from archaeological assemblages recovered from Wilton rock shelter in 1921, archaeologists use Wilton to refer to stone age foraging and pastoral communities in eastern and southern Africa that are associated with small stone tools and an increase in the number of formal stone tools like scrappers and backed segment. Archaeologists initially recognized Wilton foraging communities from the Holocene beginning 8,000 years ago up through the Iron Age until 500 years ago, though recent studies separate Wilton from the final late Stone Age at 4,000 years ago. Despite Wilton as a term meant to generalize the behaviors of human populations, foraging communities that utilized Wilton-like technology and exhibited Wilton-like behaviors can be found in near-coastal, inland, and montane environments. These diverse landscapes contradict the specificity of Wilton culture that archaeologists had hoped to encompass with this term. In fact, archaeological deposits and isotopic data show that Wilton foragers used a wide range of technologies and exhibited diverse behaviors.

Early accounts of Wilton archaeological assemblages posit that similar technology equates to identical cultural identities, suggesting prehistoric communities represented a single culture that ranged from southernmost South Africa to as north as Zambia. Specifically, archaeologists characterize Wilton by a greater variety of Stone tools and smaller, more formal, stone technology, distinguishing it from its predecessor, Oakhurst. Oakhurst technology is defined as a technological industry that contains few formal tools and large stone tools, especially large stone scrappers. Wilton is also distinguished by the rare preservation of biological objects such as bone and wooden technologies. Previous technological industries likely used biological tools like bone and wooden implements, but since biological remains do not survive in the archaeological record, archaeologists are not able to always use these biological tools to define technological industries. It is these changes in stone and non-stone technology that imply changes in cultural behaviors of foragers at these sites and thus, have caused some archaeologists to recognize Wilton technology as a single cultural entity.

Wilton-like assemblages are present through the iron age into historic time periods. The proximity to modern-day African communities cause some archaeologists to directly interpret modern behaviors as a remnant from prehistoric communities that created Wilton technology. Others have argued that the contact between prehistoric and historic communities have since altered traditional behaviors and cannot be directly related to modern-day communities. During the Wilton time frame, skeletal and isotopic data supports evidence for exclusive access to resources, warfare, and burials. These types of behaviors become prominent in South Africa during the middle Holocene, suggesting an increase in behaviors associated with territorial behaviors. Evidence for these behaviors is not common before ~8,000 years ago, and though this may be due to preservation and/or survey bias, archaeologists interpret this as a cultural shift.

Wilton is widely described as a shift from large to small stone technology with an emphasis scrappers and backed tools, though not all sites associated with Wilton contain high numbers of backed tools. This discrepancy offers some evidence that broad categories like Wilton overgeneralize behaviors of people whom, though may have had some cultural activities in common, exhibit diverse tool sets. Many archaeologists acknowledge that Wilton is not a single culture or identity but, instead, solely reflects general trends over small regions in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Transvaal, and most of South Africa from 8,000-4,000.

Background and History

Wilton technology was first described by John Hewitt after he excavated with the collaboration of C. W. Wilmot a cave on the farm Wilton near Alicedale in the eastern Cape of South Africa. Later sites are found along the coastal margins of South Africa and into the interior of South Africa and into the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Wilton site is adjacent to the Karoo region of South Africa and thus, suggests a diverse environment that could have easily supported forager groups living in this area. Three dates came from the Wilton rock shelter that ranged from 8,260-2,270. These dates allowed archaeologists to track changes in stone technology and behavior (SUCH AS?) through the Wilton site. The observed environment and time constraints at this site, among others like Oakhurst and Matjes River, provide archaeologists with insight into a time range in which foragers produced Wilton technology and thus, exhibited similar cultural practices.

At the Wilton site, Hewitt first noted that this site contained remnants from two distinct cultures, distinguishable by the size of the stone tools. The stone preceding Wilton technology appeared much larger at the Wilton site. Based on the large size of the stone tools, Hewitt supposed that this material pertained to a predecessor of Wilton technology, known today as Oakhurst. The significant component to Wilton sites are decreases in tool size compared with its predecessor and increased amount of stone scraper. Furthermore, the stone material at the Wilton rock shelter is predominantly Chalcedony. This assemblage was dominated with stone scrapers and few backed tools. Scrapers were likely used for processing animal hides. Backed tools were created by blunting one margin of the stone tool at a near-90 degree angle. These backed tools were likely hafted to projectiles and served as barbs. Archaeologists have used the the assemblage at the Wilton rock shelter to define other Wilton-like assemblages throughout South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In 1929, Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe initially used Wilton as a term to describe Microlith archaeological assemblages that contained small stone scrapers, and backed tools. During this early period of excavating, Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe broke up Wilton technology into two variations defined by the interior and coastal geography of South Africa. The technological industry they associate with interior sites was termed Smithfield, leaving Wilton to define coastal foragers. Forager communities were using Smithfield technology was thought to be contemporaneous with Wilton, but contained much larger stone technologies. During the mid-1900s, archaeologists began recovering more Wilton-like objects from other locations in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The stone technology in each of these regions reflects similar characteristics of Wilton technology but each contained slight variations in the technology, likely reflecting local shifts to the environment. For instance, the site of Gwisho had predominantly more backed tools than scrapers, contradicting what was originally found at the Wilton rock shelter. Backed tools soon became a significant component of Wilton assemblages. Building on the increased frequency of Wilton sites, Deacon used radiocarbon dates and backed tool frequencies to show that Smithfield could not be contemporaneous with Wilton and thus, must be a preceding technological industry, now termed Oakhurst.

Today, Wilton technology covers much of the same geographical scale as the preceding industry, Oakhurst. Wilton was originally associated with the archaeological assemblage from Wilton farm, which included a high number of scrapers, though archaeological assemblages elsewhere showed additional evidence for backed technology. So, today, Wilton technology is associated with an increase in formal tools likes scrapers and backed pieces as well as a significant reduction in size. Wilton technology represents an increase in homogeneity across much of South Africa, including some sites in Zambia and Zimbabwe. This pattern of standard, Wilton, tool kits breaks down after 4,000 years, entering into the final late stone age. Evidence for the introduction of ceramics, pastoralism, and iron-working post-dating 4,000 years ago has created a mosaic of final late stone age technological industries in Southern Africa. This mosaic of industries makes it difficult to generalize cultural technology under a single framework like Wilton and so, the term Wilton is now limited from 8,000-4,000 years.

Locations

Occupation sites include that at Kalambo Falls and the valley of Twyfelfontein. Additionally, a partially preserved camp dating to 2300 BC was found in Gwisho, near the Kafue River.

Characteristics

Its tools are broadly analogous to the European mesolithic Microliths, which are a common artifact type. Later examples of the culture however indicate usage of iron. There are sites in southern Africa which exhibit evidence of rock art by the Wilton people.

Gwisho

Tools developed in Gwisho were more sophisticated than those of its predecessors. The Wilton people in Gwisho developed a bone industry, which produced items such as awls, ornaments and composite arrows. They also constructed and utilized wooden tools to uproot edible roots, which was a staple in their diet. Most of their food supply came from harvesting edible matter.

It is speculated by anthropologists that all the people of Gwisho belonged to a single 'kinship group', a group of which all members are related to one another by ancestry or various alternative ways.