Technology, Climate, and Culture: Production Sequences and Social Implications of Bone Tools in African Prehistory

During a period of intense climatic variability across Africa between 15,000-5,500 years ago, the continent experienced periods of fluctuating lake levels. Thousands of bone harpoons have been recovered from these paleolake archaeological sites. Such tools showcase a durable and specialized technology that hunter-gatherers from this time intricately manufactured to hunt the animals that called these shorelines their home. These include hippos, fish, turtles, and crocodiles. The National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi hold many of these artifacts in their collections today. For this project, I will analyze these artifacts to investigate questions surrounding climate change, cultural adaptation, and technological innovation in Africa’s past. Further, this project is integral to understanding the intersections of technological adaptations on environmental variability, which is directly pertinent to the climatic fragility that we exist within today.

Biography: Lauren Malone is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology, specializing in archaeology. Before pursuing her graduate education at WashU, she lived in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, receiving her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Here, she implemented Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) on a bone button industry at Brimstone Hill Fortress to expand our understanding of enslaved African labor exploitation, craft production, and sea turtle ecology in colonial St. Kitts. 

Her current research continues to use zooarchaeological and biomolecular frameworks, with an approach to explore the intersections of faunal-sourced craft and tool production, social networks, and climatic adaptability in East Africa’s past. Lauren is a Graduate Student Affiliate with WashU’s Program in Public Scholarship, where she integrates a public-facing approach to knowledge sharing. She is also a lab member for the Laboratory for the Analysis of Early Food-Webs, where she applies stable isotope analysis to reconstruct ancient mobility and diet.