Raw Material Procurement and Hunting Behaviour during the Middle and Later Stone Age at Nasera in Northern Tanzania

Abstract

Many archaeologists use the linear distance to exotic lithic raw materials as a direct indicator of mobility system and trading/exchanger network, a set of assumptions that remains widely employed today. Such generalised strategies for the raw material procurement only measure the movement of specified items and rarely correlate other processes influencing raw material use and transport. This paper examines the interpretive significance of distant transported raw materials at Nasera by incorporating insights from technological organisation and subsistence strategies. Accumulated evidence suggests that non-local raw materials had significant functional and cultural values, despite foray movements having been influenced by other subsistence needs such as drinkable water, plant food and hunted games. Foragers moved on regular intervals in various places within the circuit of foray biomes based on the reliability of ecological resources. Non-local lithic raw materials were easily accessed either through direct procurement at the source during the seasonality movements or indirect procurements via the secondary source such as trade and exchange with neighbouring groups.