Blade and bladelet function and variability in risk management during the last 2000 years in the northern cape

Unretouched lithic pieces are often overlooked with regard to function and subsistence strategies. Macrofracture analysis on two lithic assemblages from the Northern Cape indicates that some unretouched blades and bladelets were used in hafted hunting weapons. We suggest that the blade- and bladelet-dominated Swartkop Industry reflects the design of robust and reliable hunting tools and propose that this could have been the result of risk management, where hunting success was critical to subsistence. Doornfontein lithic assemblages with much lower frequencies of blades and bladelets and high frequencies of irregular flakes could represent subsistence strategies that are less dependent on hunting success. This hypothesis builds on previous interpretations that bladelet-based assemblages indicate composite tools with multiple lithic insets. We introduce the possibility of inset points and spears as an explanation for LSA lithic assemblages dominated by unmodified blades and bladelets.