North of Kuruman Project
I created and lead the North of Kuruman Project, which is a multi-site archaeological effort to establish a regional record of hunter-gatherer adaptation to changing paleoenvironments in the Kalahari Basin. Excavations are currently being carried out at two rockshelter sites on Gamohana Hill where the project discovered Middle and Later Stone Age deposits. Collaborators include Benjamin Schoville (co-Principal Investigator), Kyle Brown, Robyn Pickering, from University of Cape Town, Andy Herries from La Trobe University, Australia, and Benjamin Collins from the University of Manitoba, Canada. The North of Kuruman Project has received funding from the Australian Research Council (DE190100160), South Africa's DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, the University of Cape Town, and the National Geographic Waitt Foundation.
Lithic Technology
As a lithic analysist, I investigate stone tool assemblage variability across South Africa through time. My perspective avoids using the technocomplex concept to categorize assemblages. Rather, I aim to identify the relationship between individual stone tool assemblage characteristics and paleoenvironment, raw material availability, site function, social learning strategies, and socio-cultural factors using quantitative methods. Over the last ten years, I have been building a robust database of Stone Age assemblage characteristics from multiple sites including Pinnacle Point, Vleesbaai, Grassridge, Knysna, and Kathu Pan.
Selected publications:
2017 Wilkins, Jayne, Kyle S. Brown, Simen Oestmo, Telmo Pereira, Kathryn L. Ranhorn, Benjamin J. Schoville, and Curtis W. Marean. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa. Plos One. 12 (3):e0174051.
2012 Wilkins, Jayne, and Michael Chazan. Blade Production ~500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: Support for a Multiple Origins Hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene Blade Technologies. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 1883-1900.
Selected publications:
2017 Wilkins, Jayne, Kyle S. Brown, Simen Oestmo, Telmo Pereira, Kathryn L. Ranhorn, Benjamin J. Schoville, and Curtis W. Marean. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa. Plos One. 12 (3):e0174051.
2012 Wilkins, Jayne, and Michael Chazan. Blade Production ~500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: Support for a Multiple Origins Hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene Blade Technologies. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 1883-1900.
Prehistoric Weapons
My research on prehistoric weaponry involves developing methods for testing whether stone tools have been used as armature tips and conducting functional tests for different weapon configurations. With collaborator Ben Schoville, I am helping develop new quantitative methods for determining stone tool function. Using ArcGIS, we map the distribution of macro-fractures along the edges of utilized tools. Our work includes a substantial experimental component, for which we use a calibrated crossbow nick-named 'Lil-Sioux' after the brand of commercial bow. To test weapon performance, we make and use ballistic gelatin targets.
Selected publications:
2017 Schoville, Benjamin J., Jayne Wilkins, Terrence Ritzman, Simen Oestmo, and Kyle S. Brown. The Performance of Heat-treated Silcrete Backed Pieces in Actualistic and Controlled Complex Projectile Experiments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14: 302-317.
2012 Wilkins, Jayne, Benjamin J. Schoville, Kyle S. Brown, and Michael Chazan. Evidence for Early Hafted Hunting Technology. Science 338, 942-946.
2014 Wilkins, Jayne, Benjamin J. Schoville, Kyle S. Brown. An Experimental Investigation of the Functional Hypothesis and Evolutionary Advantage of Stone-Tipped Spears. Plos One 9 (8) e104514.
Selected publications:
2017 Schoville, Benjamin J., Jayne Wilkins, Terrence Ritzman, Simen Oestmo, and Kyle S. Brown. The Performance of Heat-treated Silcrete Backed Pieces in Actualistic and Controlled Complex Projectile Experiments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14: 302-317.
2012 Wilkins, Jayne, Benjamin J. Schoville, Kyle S. Brown, and Michael Chazan. Evidence for Early Hafted Hunting Technology. Science 338, 942-946.
2014 Wilkins, Jayne, Benjamin J. Schoville, Kyle S. Brown. An Experimental Investigation of the Functional Hypothesis and Evolutionary Advantage of Stone-Tipped Spears. Plos One 9 (8) e104514.
Pinnacle Point-Vleesbaai Complex
For six years I helped with excavations at Pinnacle Point with the SACP4 project headed by Curtis Marean at Arizona State University. The Pinnacle Point-Vleesbaai site complex on the south coast of South Africa offers an uncommon opportunity to examine early human adaptation at the landscape-scale. The Pinnacle Point rockshelter sites preserve a high-resolution record of human adaptation to Pleistocene paleoenvironmental change. The open-air sites at Vleesbaai provide a rarely preserved record of foraging behaviors beyond the rockshelters. With this project, I analyzed the long record of lithic technological change at PP5-6 and PP13B, and co-led new excavations at Vleesbaai with Simen Oestmo (Arizona State University), where we discovered cryptotephra shards from the Toba super-volcanic eruption.
Selected publications:
2018 Eugene Smith, Zenobia Jacobs, Racheal Johnsen, Minghua Ren, Erich C. Fisher, Simen Oestmo, Jayne Wilkins, Jacob A. Harris, Panagiotis Karkanas, Shelby Fitch, Amber Ciravolo, Deborah Keenan, Naomi Cleghorn, Christine S. Lane, Thalassa Matthews and Curtis W. Marean. Humans thrived in South Africa through the Toba super-volcanic eruption ~74,000 years ago. Nature 555:511
2017 Wilkins, Jayne, Kyle S. Brown, Simen Oestmo, Telmo Pereira, Kathryn L. Ranhorn, Benjamin J. Schoville, and Curtis W. Marean. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa. Plos One. 12 (3):e0174051.
2014 Oestmo, Simen, Benjamin J. Schoville, Jayne Wilkins, and Curtis W. Marean. A Middle Stone Age (MSA) Paleosol Landscape near the Pinnacle Point caves, Vleesbaai, South Africa. Quaternary International 350, 147-168.
Selected publications:
2018 Eugene Smith, Zenobia Jacobs, Racheal Johnsen, Minghua Ren, Erich C. Fisher, Simen Oestmo, Jayne Wilkins, Jacob A. Harris, Panagiotis Karkanas, Shelby Fitch, Amber Ciravolo, Deborah Keenan, Naomi Cleghorn, Christine S. Lane, Thalassa Matthews and Curtis W. Marean. Humans thrived in South Africa through the Toba super-volcanic eruption ~74,000 years ago. Nature 555:511
2017 Wilkins, Jayne, Kyle S. Brown, Simen Oestmo, Telmo Pereira, Kathryn L. Ranhorn, Benjamin J. Schoville, and Curtis W. Marean. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa. Plos One. 12 (3):e0174051.
2014 Oestmo, Simen, Benjamin J. Schoville, Jayne Wilkins, and Curtis W. Marean. A Middle Stone Age (MSA) Paleosol Landscape near the Pinnacle Point caves, Vleesbaai, South Africa. Quaternary International 350, 147-168.
