Talk:Ngalue

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cloebugg.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 01:36, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

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Initial excavation and dating of Ngalue Cave: A Middle Stone Age site along the Niassa Rift, Mozambique, Journal of Human Evolution 57 (2009) 63–74 Julio Mercader, Yemane Asmerom, Tim Bennett, Mussa Raja, Anne Skinner http://www.academia.edu/download/41219535/Initial_excavation_and_dating_of_Ngalue_20160113-32487-1lwybpc.pdf20160115-19908-ggzlxe.pdf

Mercader, Julio, et al. "Phytoliths from Middle Stone Age habitats in the Mozambican Rift (105–29 ka)." Journal of human evolution 64.5 (2013): 328-336.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steven_Simpson3/publication/236059971_Phytoliths_from_Middle_Stone_Age_habitats_in_the_Mozambican_Rift_105-29_ka/links/02e7e51dca3d7bccff000000.pdf

Mercader, Julio. "Mozambican grass seed consumption during the Middle Stone Age." Science 326.5960 (2009): 1680-1683. http://www.naturaleater.com/Science-articles/Grass-seed-consumption-stone-age.pdf

Henry, Amanda G., Alison S. Brooks, and Dolores R. Piperno. "Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans." Journal of human evolution 69 (2014): 44-54. https://anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/sites/anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/files/downloads/Henry_Brooks%202014.pdf

Nuno Bicho et al.Middle and Late Stone Age of the Niassa region, northern Mozambique. Preliminary results Quaternary International, 6 June 2016, Vol.404:87–99, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.059. http://na02.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/action/uresolver.do?operation=resolveService&package_service_id=2738131470002125&institutionId=2125&customerId=2120 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cloebugg (talk • contribs) 17:03, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Ngalue cave is an archaeological site in northern Mozambique near the Lake Niassa. It was excavated primarily by Juilio Mercader in 2007 (Mercader et al, 2009) and it is a middle stone age site, with occupation dates ranging from 105-42 ka (via carbon dating and uranium dating and electron spin resonance dating) . The location made the amount of water in the cave minimal so the preservation of the location was very good. In the middle beds there were discoveries of animal bones and teeth mostly from mammals and there were stone tools (Mercader et al, 2009). The tools found in the cave were made primarily of quartz and consisted of awls, scrapers, microliths and drills. Along with these tools there were grinding stones with ochre pigment on them (Mercader et al, 2009) After discussing the stone tools found at the site I plan on starting to talk about the grass seed residue found on the tools. There was starches found on multiple tools, in total about 80% of the lithics tested had starches on them (Mercader, 2009). Then, perhaps in a separate section i will discuss how these discoveries were used to reconstruct the environment and the diet of middle stone age people in the Niassa Valley (Mercader et al, 2012, Khalsa 2013, Mercader, Bennett, Raja, 2008)

General outline Idea -> Location/ characteristics of the site- picture of location -> Tools -> Grass -> Importance Cloebugg (talk) 17:25, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

@Cloebugg: Looks good so far! You've found the most important refs - if you need to expand the article further, you could definitely mention archaeology in the Niassa Rift more broadly. You'll definitely want to talk about what the Ngalue findings mean in terms of our understanding of the Middle Stone Age as a whole. Be sure to add wikilinks, too! Nice work - keep going! Ninafundisha (talk) 19:27, 27 October 2016 (UTC)