https://journals.uj.ac.za/staging/index.php/safa <p><strong><em>Southern African Field Archaeology</em></strong> (a.k.a. FIELD) in its revived format is a non-profit, open-access journal currently funded by the <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/Palaeo-Research-Institute">Palaeo-Research Institute</a>, University of Johannesburg, and the <a href="http://www.wennergren.org/">Wenner-Gren Foundation</a>. The journal aims to communicate basic data, findings, syntheses and opinions about all aspects and periods of southern and/or sub-Saharan African archaeology, the palaeo-sciences, and heritage collections and management, to professional archaeologists, heritage practitioners, students, governing authorities and the public. It therefore serves everybody concerned with field and laboratory research, methods development, experimentation, data analysis and the interpretation of the archaeological and palaeo-science records, as well as with collections and heritage management pertaining to the sub-continent.</p> <p> </p> <p>We accommodate a broad range of original contributions in the form of:</p> <ul> <li>Peer-reviewed research reports.</li> <li>Concise peer-reviewed comparative studies, syntheses or overviews.</li> <li>Peer-reviewed critiques or discussion pieces around previously published papers in FIELD or elsewhere that are relevant to the themes of the journal.</li> <li>Non-peer-reviewed short notes.</li> <li>Non-peer-reviewed editorials and opinion pieces.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Contributions published in the journal are licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Authors therefore retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication. Contributions by Africa-based authors are free of charge. Non-Africa-based authors (also those with honorary affiliations at African institutions) will be charged a competitive fee of ~R20 000.00 (~$1370.00 or ~€1150.00) for their open-access publications.</p> University of Johannesburg en-US Southern African Field Archaeology 1019-5785 https://journals.uj.ac.za/staging/index.php/safa/article/view/287 <p>Much has been written about Middle Stone Age hunting in southern Africa, yet there is no comprehensive overview for the development and use of stone-tipped hunting weapons. With this contribution, I use the tip cross-sectional area (TCSA) method to hypothesise about variation in weapon-assisted hunting strategies for the last 300,000 years or more. I assess and build onto previous hypotheses generated from similar approaches, introducing a larger sample from across the region. By also bolstering the standard TCSA ranges for javelin tips and stabbing/thrusting spear tips with more experimental and ethno-historical material, the method’s interpretative robusticity is increased. The results indicate a general trend through time towards smaller weapon tips <br>until reaching arrow-tip range during the MIS 4 glacial. Whereas light-weight javelins, similar to those used by African hunters today may have been in play since almost 200,000 years ago, it remains uncertain whether spearthrower-and-dart technology was used in southern Africa. Finally, I align the TCSA outcomes with climatic and demographic reconstructions and explain how human cognition interacts with technological adaptations such as the use of hunting weapons – demonstrating how the interplay between environment, demography, technology and cognition is integral to the development and understanding of Middle Stone Age weapon-assisted hunting strategies.</p> Marlize Lombard Copyright (c) 2021 Southern African Field Archaeology 2021-04-01 2021-04-01 1 01 1 40