Trampling vs. Retouch in a Lithic Assemblage: A Case Study from a Middle Stone Age site, Steenbokfontein 9KR (Limpopo, South Africa)

At the site of Steenbokfontein 9KR, virtually 80% of the lithic blanks presented retouch-an extreme proportion for Middle Stone Age assemblages. The high percentage of putative retouch led us to investigate whether post-depositional processes played a role in the preservation of the lithic assemblage. We designed and performed an experiment that reproduced all the archaeological conditions inferred from the site formation analyses to determine if the archaeological assemblage was trampled or retouched. We defined several qualitative attributes and studied both trampled and retouched experimental samples, and compared them to the archaeological material. We subsequently performed different statistical analyses and a correspondence analysis with all the macro qualitative attributes that we defined. We were then able to discern which attributes were the most eloquent variables and assess the usefulness of a multivariate analysis in discriminating between trampling and retouch.