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Traditional Glue, Adhesive and Poison Used for Composite Weapons by Ju/ hoan San
in Nyae Nyae, Namibia Implications for the Evolution of Hunting Equipment in
Prehistory
#MMPMID26509730
Wadley L
; Trower G
; Backwell L
; d'Errico F
PLoS One
2015[]; 10
(10
): e0140269
PMID26509730
show ga
Ju/'hoan hunters from Nyae Nyae, near Tsumkwe in Namibia, demonstrate the
manufacture of three fixative pastes made from plant extracts, and poison made
from grubs and plant extracts. Ammocharis coranica and Terminalia sericea produce
simple glue. Ozoroa schinzii latex mixed with carbonized Aristeda adscensionis
grass is a compound adhesive. Composite poison is made from Chrysomelid grub
viscera mixed with salivary extracts of Acacia mellifera inner bark and the tuber
sap of Asparagus exuvialis. In order to document potential variability in the
chaîne opératoire, and to eliminate inherent biases associated with unique
observations, we studied manufacturing processes in three separate Nyae Nyae
villages. Although there are methodological similarities in the Nyae Nyae area,
we observed a few differences in contemporary traditions of poison manufacture.
For example, some hunters make powder from Asparagus exuvialis tuber sap by
boiling, reducing, hardening and grinding it, while others simply use heated sap.
The Ju/'hoan hunting kit provides insights for archaeologists, but we must
exercise caution when looking for continuity between prehistoric and historical
technical systems. Some traditions have been lost to modern hunters, while others
are new. We should also expect variability in the Stone Age because of
geographically restricted resources. Simple glue, compound adhesive, and poison
recipes identified in the Stone Age have no modern equivalents. By about 60,000
years ago at Diepkloof, simple glue was used for hafting tools, but at
similarly-aged Sibudu there are recipes that combine red ochre powder with plant
and/or animal ingredients. At Border Cave, novel poisons and compound adhesives
were used in the Early Later Stone Age. It is possible that the complexity that
we record in the manufacture of fixative pastes and poison used by Ju/'hoan
hunters represents a hafting system both similar to and different from that
observed at the Stone Age sites of Diepkloof, Sibudu, and Border Cave.
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