247 Southern African Humanities 30: 247–86 December 2017 KwaZulu-Natal Museum ISSN 2305-2791 (online); 1681-5564 (print) Middle Stone Age wood use 58 000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal: charcoal analysis from two Sibudu occupation layers Sandra Lennox, Marion Bamford and Lyn Wadley Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa; sandralennoxj@gmail.com, sandra.lennox@wits.ac.za ABSTRACT Archaeological charcoal specimens from two Sibudu stratigraphic layers were identifed and the spatial patterns resulting from the distributions of the 141 woody taxa (53 families, 91 genera and 114 species) were analysed for behavioural information about wood selection and use in the Middle Stone Age of KwaZulu-Natal. The layers, Brown under Yellow Ash 2(i) (BYA2i) and Spotty Camel (SPCA), contain post-Howiesons Poort assemblages that are approximately 58 ka old, though BYA2(i) is older than SPCA. The wood bundles in each hearth consist of species recognised today as good fuel and tinder, plus a selection of plants that today are used medicinally. Woods potentially suitable for making fre-sticks for starting fres are also present. Charcoal from Spirostachys africana, tambotie, occurs in one hearth in each layer. This wood is avoided today in cooking fres as it is poisonous. It may have been selected deliberately and burnt for insecticidal smoke or other medicinal purposes. Tarchonanthus parvicapitulatus, small-head camphor bush, charcoal occurs in SPCA and the camphor-like aromatic plant also has medicinal and insecticidal uses. Wood use is different amongst the hearths and between the two occupations. Several vegetation communities were exploited, demonstrating a succession of vegetation and wood use. The vegetation mosaic at 58 ka differed from the coastal forest and savanna near Sibudu and conditions were colder and drier than today. KEY WORDS: Anthracology, Middle Stone Age, Sibudu Cave, fuel wood, insecticide. Sibudu Cave, occupied by people during the Middle Stone Age between 77 000 and 38 000 (77–38 ka) years ago, is in the summer rainfall region about 15 km inland of the South African east coast (Fig. 1). The site includes lithic industries such as Still Bay, Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort that are distinguished by typology and technology. The post-Howiesons Poort occupations in Sibudu occupy a depth of almost a metre (Fig. 2). The weighted mean of the post-Howiesons Poort ages is 58.5 ± 1.4 ka (Jacobs, Roberts et al. 2008; Jacobs, Wintle et al. 2008), based on a suite of six ages calculated from sediment samples subjected to single grain Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). The oldest and youngest ages are statistically consistent with each other and, consequently, all six post-Howiesons Poort ages are regarded as statistically consistent. Thus, all the post-Howiesons Poort occupations may have taken place within a short one-hundred-, or a long one-thousand-year time frame, but the precision on these particular OSL ages does not allow more exact rendering (R.G. Roberts pers. comm. to LW, 2011). Nonetheless, the post-Howiesons Poort at Sibudu represents extremely fne resolution occupations over a relatively short period. This provides an opportunity for recognising small changes through time, not only in the cultural sequence, but also environmentally. Centimetre-scale lenses in the post-Howiesons Poort layers can be readily recognised in micromorphological blocks under the microscope (e.g. Goldberg et al. 2009), but they are not easily seen in the feld. The fine resolution in chronology offered by Sibudu’s post-Howiesons Poort occupations encourages detailed studies of some of the separate layers. These enable