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Excavation in the previously little-explored western portion of Olduvai Gorge indicates that hominid land use of the eastern paleobasin extended at least episodically to the west. Finds included a dentally complete Homo maxilla (OH 65) with lower face, Oldowan stone artifacts, and butchery-marked bones dated to be between 1.84 and 1.79 million years old. The hominid shows strong affinities to the KNM ER 1470 cranium from Kenya (Homo rudolfensis), a morphotype previously unrecognized at Olduvai. ER 1470 and OH 65 can be accommodated in the H. habilis holotype, casting doubt on H. rudolfensis as a biologically valid taxon.

Although bovids have been studied for decades, debate still exists about their diets. To address this problem, we examined bovid dietary ecology through analysis of stable carbon isotopes. We analyzed tooth enamel, bone collagen, and hair from 312 individual bovids, representing 27 species from southern Africa. Although dietary information from the literature is usually supported by this technique, our results and the literature are sometimes highly divergent. For instance, our results indicate that Taurotragus oryx and Raphicerus campestris eat less grass than is widely believed. Furthermore, contrary to most theoretical expectations, our data indicate no relationship between body size and percentage of monocots consumed by southern African Bovidae. Although many researchers have abandoned the idea that bovid soft-tissue anatomy is strongly indicative of diet, we demonstrate a strong relationship between the percentage of grass in a bovid's diet and several hard-tissue craniodental indices.

Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize – probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as coincident with the Mississippian fluorescence.

The location of a burial of three juvenile skeletons, discovered in 1980 and dated to about 2600 BP, was confirmed through guidance from the discoverers. The site was near the mouth of the Modder River, Malmesbury District, Western Cape, South Africa. Skeletal ages at death are approximately 1-1.5, 6-7 and 12-13 years, based on dental and skeletal development. All three crania show indications of trauma that occurred while the bone was fresh and before the skeletons were positioned for burial. The size and shape of the perforations and indentations are consistent with use of the same type of object to inflict all injuries. This object had an approximately circular diameter of no more than 15 mm and was tapered to a point at one end, like a digging stick. This instance is discussed in the context of other, previously reported, cases of probable violent death in the prehistoric Western Cape.

The Iron Age archaeology of the northern Lowveld of South Africa is notable for the abundance of mining, metal working, and salt production sites recorded in the region. We report the results of scientific studies of the metallurgical remains recovered from 1965 to 1978 by Nikolaas J. van der Merwe, David Killick, and colleagues in various campaigns of survey and excavation in the Phalaborwa region, a major center of precolonial metallurgy. Both iron and copper ores occur in a carbonatite complex at Phalaborwa and were smelted in low-shaft furnaces of two different designs. Two radiocarbon dates of ca. 1000 b.p. are available for the mines themselves, which have now been completely destroyed. All other radiocarbon dates for the archaeological sequence at Phalaborwa fall in two groups, the first from the 10th to 13th centuries A.D., the second from the 17th through the 20th centuries A.D. Both iron and copper were smelted in both periods; tin-bronze and brass appeared towards the end of the earlier period.

Although bovids have been studied for decades, debate still exists about their diets. To address this problem, we examined bovid dietary ecology through analysis of stable carbon isotopes. We analyzed tooth enamel, bone collagen, and hair from 312 individual bovids, representing 27 species from southern Africa. Although dietary information from the literature is usually supported by this technique, our results and the literature are sometimes highly divergent. For instance, our results indicate that Taurotragus oryx and Raphicerus campestris eat less grass than is widely believed. Furthermore, contrary to most theoretical expectations, our data indicate no relationship between body size and percentage of monocots consumed by southern African Bovidae. Although many researchers have abandoned the idea that bovid soft-tissue anatomy is strongly indicative of diet, we demonstrate a strong relationship between the percentage of grass in a bovid's diet and several hard-tissue craniodental indices.

The making of steel was the crucial technological invention that made Fe-based alloys preferable to Cu-based alloys for everyday use. The solution to the problem of producing steel followed several distinctly different paths in the ancient Old World. The earliest solution, developed in the eastern Mediterranean, produced steel from low-carbon blooms through carburization and complex forging. In China, high-temp. smelting produced cast iron of high C content and steel through decarburization. Africans, building on both these solutions, developed a third pathway which yielded high-C steel as a smelting product. Various ethnographic and archaeological evidence is explored to trace this history of steelmaking. 32 ref.--G.G.M.

OBJECTIVE: The rate of glucose disposal was determined in 10 black and 10 white obese nondiabetic urban women from South Africa to assess insulin resistance. DESIGN AND METHODS: Euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp and body composition analysis. RESULTS: Age, body mass index (BMI), anthropometric measurements and body composition were similar in both groups of women. A five-level computed tomography (CT) scan showed a similar mean subcutaneous fat mass in both groups of women (black obese women 555±9.0 vs white obese women 532±6.0 cm2 ), but less visceral fat in black obese women (90±3.0 vs 121±3.1 cm2 ; P<0.05). Black obese women had higher fasting free fatty acid (997±69 vs 678±93 μmol/l; P<0.05) and lactate concentrations (1462±94 vs 1038±39 μmol/l; P<0.05), but lower fasting insulin levels (87±12 vs 155±9 pmol/l; P<0.001). Black obese women also had a more favorable HDL: total cholesterol ratio (30.5% vs 23.0%; P<0.04). The mean glucose disposal rate (M) and disposal expressed as glucose sensitivity index (M/I) were reduced in the black obese women vs white obese women (M: 7.1±0.8 vs 13.7±1.0 mmol/kg·min-1 ×100; P<0.01, and M/I: 0.12±0.01 vs 0.24±0.02 mmol/kg·min-1 /pmol/l×1000; P<0.01). Only black obese women showed a significant decrease in C-peptide levels during the clamp (2.9±0.22 vs 1.2±0.12 nmol/l; P<0.001). During the euglycemic period, the black obese women had higher lactate levels at all time points, but only the white obese women had increased lactate levels (918±66 to 1300±53 μmol/l; P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Black obese women demonstrate a higher degree of insulin resistance, despite less visceral fat and a higher HDL: total-cholesterol ratio. In addition, endogenous β-cell secretory function in black obese women appears to be more sensitive to the suppressive effect of exogenous insulin administration. The significant increase in lactate levels in white obese women confirms that they are more insulin sensitive. International Journal of Obesity (2000) 24, 1340-1346