Identifying Asteraceae, particularly Tarchonanthus parvicapitulatus, in archaeological charcoal from the Middle Stone Age Sandra J. Lennox * , Marion K. Bamford Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, P. Bag 3, Wits, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa article info Article history: Received 15 June 2016 Received in revised form 15 March 2017 Accepted 31 March 2017 Available online 28 April 2017 Keywords: Anthracology Brachylaena Camphor smoke Hearths abstract Sibudu rockshelter, an archaeological site in KwaZulu-Natal, has evidence of the local vegetation, envi- ronment and wood use during the Middle Stone Age, from well-preserved seeds and charcoal, approximately 77e38 000 years ago. In order to confidently identify some charcoal taxa, closely related species were studied in detail. Modern wood was charred and examined under the light microscope and a combination of anatomical features was used to distinguish the various taxa. Tarchonanthus parvica- pitulatus P.P.J. Herman (syn. in part Tarchonanthus camphoratus L.) is an evergreen, woodland shrub or tree, which is tolerant of hot, dry, salty or icy conditions. Essential oils from the leaves have antimicrobial and insecticidal properties. The camphor smoke is used in traditional African medicine, the aromatic leaves are used in organic camp bedding and the hard, heavy wood is insect resistant. Since the wood anatomy of this shrub is very similar to Brachylaena discolor DC, another woody member of the Aster- aceae, the modern reference charcoal has been studied, to distinguish between these and other species. The confirmed presence of aromatic T. parvicapitulatus in hearths probably implies deliberate burning for insect repellent smoke. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Interest in Asteraceae was stimulated by their putative identi- fication amongst more than 250 species from charcoal specimens from Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), South Africa. Sibudu is valued as an archaeological site, with deposits from approximately 77 to 35 000 years ago (ka) from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) (Wadley et al., 2011). Charcoals from Sibudu, studied by Allott (2005, 2006), include some specimens thought to be from Bra- chylaena and others from unspecified Asteraceae. Members of the Asteraceae are predominantly herbs, with a few woody members occurring in southern Africa and other parts of the world. In all 1535 Asteraceae genera and 25 000 species are cosmopolitan (Boon, 2010). In southern Africa there are 246 genera and 2305 species and amongst these the few woody Asteraceae consist of 14 genera and 34 species (CoatesePalgrave, 2002). Brachylaena sp. was identified from archaeological charcoal in occupational layers of different ages: Grey Sand (GS), Grey Rocky (GR) 2 and GR from >60ka, Ebony (Eb) from ~60ka and Buff (Bu) from ~37ka (Allott, 2006; Wadley and Jacobs, 2006; Jacobs et al., 2008a,b). Some members of the Asteraceae family are reported to have medicinal properties, for example Tarchonanthus camphoratus, camphor bush (Beentje, 1999, 2000; Herman, 2002; Omolo et al., 2004, 2005; Matasyoh et al., 2007; Braithwaite et al., 2008; Abimola, 2010; Nanyonga et al., 2013; Hulleyet al., 2016) and this further prompted interest in securely identifying the Sibudu specimens. Although the camphor bush is relatively easy to identify the more recent collections and analyses have shown that there are important differences. The Tarchonanthus camphoratus L. complex in southern Africa includes five species depending on distribution, leaf shape and margin, synflorescences and flowering times: T. minor, T. camphoratus, T. obovatus, T. littoralis and T. parvicapitulatus (Herman, 2002). T. parvicapitulatus (small-head camphor bush) occurs near Sibudu Cave (Herman, 2002; Boon, 2010). Older collections do not necessarily have the updated identifications nor separated the species, so the older specimens are still referred to here as “T. camphoratus” as it is beyond the scope of this work to check all earlier identifications. T. camphoratus (narrowly defined as one of five species in the T. camphoratus complex) has foliage with a grey-green appearance and the leaves are narrowly oblong to elliptic. The inflorescences * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Sandra.Lennox@wits.ac.za, sandralennoxj@gmail.com (S.J. Lennox), marion.bamford@wits.ac.za (M.K. Bamford). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.074 1040-6182/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Quaternary International 457 (2017) 155e171