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Niang K, Blinkhorn J, Bateman MD, Kiahtipes CA. Longstanding behavioural stability in West Africa extends to the Middle Pleistocene at Bargny, coastal Senegal. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:1141-1151. [PMID: 37142742 PMCID: PMC10333124 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02046-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Middle Stone Age (MSA) technologies first appear in the archaeological records of northern, eastern and southern Africa during the Middle Pleistocene epoch. The absence of MSA sites from West Africa limits evaluation of shared behaviours across the continent during the late Middle Pleistocene and the diversity of subsequent regionalized trajectories. Here we present evidence for the late Middle Pleistocene MSA occupation of the West African littoral at Bargny, Senegal, dating to 150 thousand years ago. Palaeoecological evidence suggests that Bargny was a hydrological refugium during the MSA occupation, supporting estuarine conditions during Middle Pleistocene arid phases. The stone tool technology at Bargny presents characteristics widely shared across Africa in the late Middle Pleistocene but which remain uniquely stable in West Africa to the onset of the Holocene. We explore how the persistent habitability of West African environments, including mangroves, contributes to distinctly West African trajectories of behavioural stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khady Niang
- Département d'Histoire, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal.
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
| | - James Blinkhorn
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
- Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK.
| | - Mark D Bateman
- Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Christopher A Kiahtipes
- Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
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Scerri EML, Will M. The revolution that still isn't: The origins of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens. J Hum Evol 2023; 179:103358. [PMID: 37058868 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
The behavioral origins of Homo sapiens can be traced back to the first material culture produced by our species in Africa, the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Beyond this broad consensus, the origins, patterns, and causes of behavioral complexity in modern humans remain debated. Here, we consider whether recent findings continue to support popular scenarios of: (1) a modern human 'package,' (2) a gradual and 'pan-African' emergence of behavioral complexity, and (3) a direct connection to changes in the human brain. Our geographically structured review shows that decades of scientific research have continuously failed to find a discrete threshold for a complete 'modernity package' and that the concept is theoretically obsolete. Instead of a continent-wide, gradual accumulation of complex material culture, the record exhibits a predominantly asynchronous presence and duration of many innovations across different regions of Africa. The emerging pattern of behavioral complexity from the MSA conforms to an intricate mosaic characterized by spatially discrete, temporally variable, and historically contingent trajectories. This archaeological record bears no direct relation to a simplistic shift in the human brain but rather reflects similar cognitive capacities that are variably manifested. The interaction of multiple causal factors constitutes the most parsimonious explanation driving the variable expression of complex behaviors, with demographic processes such as population structure, size, and connectivity playing a key role. While much emphasis has been given to innovation and variability in the MSA record, long periods of stasis and a lack of cumulative developments argue further against a strictly gradualistic nature in the record. Instead, we are confronted with humanity's deep, variegated roots in Africa, and a dynamic metapopulation that took many millennia to reach the critical mass capable of producing the ratchet effect commonly used to define contemporary human culture. Finally, we note a weakening link between 'modern' human biology and behavior from around 300 ka ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor M L Scerri
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07749, Jena, Germany; Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Msida, MSD 2080, Malta; Department of Prehistory, University of Cologne, 50931, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070, Tübingen, Germany
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3
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Glowacki L. The evolution of peace. Behav Brain Sci 2022; 47:e1. [PMID: 36524358 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22002862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
While some species have affiliative and even cooperative interactions between individuals of different social groups, humans are alone in having durable, positive-sum, interdependent relationships across unrelated social groups. Our capacity to have harmonious relationships that cross group boundaries is an important aspect of our species' success, allowing for the exchange of ideas, materials, and ultimately enabling cumulative cultural evolution. Knowledge about the conditions required for peaceful intergroup relationships is critical for understanding the success of our species and building a more peaceful world. How do humans create harmonious relationships across group boundaries and when did this capacity emerge in the human lineage? Answering these questions involves considering the costs and benefits of intergroup cooperation and aggression, for oneself, one's group, and one's neighbor. Taking a game theoretical perspective provides new insights into the difficulties of removing the threat of war and reveals an ironic logic to peace - the factors that enable peace also facilitate the increased scale and destructiveness of conflict. In what follows, I explore the conditions required for peace, why they are so difficult to achieve, and when we expect peace to have emerged in the human lineage. I argue that intergroup cooperation was an important component of human relationships and a selective force in our species history beginning at least 300 thousand years. But the preconditions for peace only emerged in the past 100 thousand years and likely coexisted with intermittent intergroup violence which would have also been an important and selective force in our species' history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke Glowacki
- Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA ://www.hsb-lab.org/
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4
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Domestic spaces as crucibles of Paleolithic culture: An archaeological perspective. J Hum Evol 2022; 172:103266. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Timbrell L, Grove M, Manica A, Rucina S, Blinkhorn J. A spatiotemporally explicit paleoenvironmental framework for the Middle Stone Age of eastern Africa. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3689. [PMID: 35256702 PMCID: PMC8901736 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07742-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Eastern Africa has played a prominent role in debates about human evolution and dispersal due to the presence of rich archaeological, palaeoanthropological and palaeoenvironmental records. However, substantial disconnects occur between the spatial and temporal resolutions of these data that complicate their integration. Here, we apply high-resolution climatic simulations of two key parameters, mean annual temperature and precipitation, and a biome model, to produce a highly refined characterisation of the environments inhabited during the eastern African Middle Stone Age. Occupations are typically found in sub-humid climates and landscapes dominated by or including tropical xerophytic shrubland. Marked expansions from these core landscapes include movement into hotter, low-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 5 and cooler, high-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 3, with the recurrent inhabitation of ecotones between open and forested habitats. Through our use of high-resolution climate models, we demonstrate a significant independent relationship between past precipitation and patterns of Middle Stone Age stone tool production modes overlooked by previous studies. Engagement with these models not only enables spatiotemporally explicit examination of climatic variability across Middle Stone Age occupations in eastern Africa but enables clearer characterisation of the habitats early human populations were adapted to, and how they changed through time.
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Schmid VC, Douze K, Tribolo C, Martinez ML, Rasse M, Lespez L, Lebrun B, Hérisson D, Ndiaye M, Huysecom E. Middle Stone Age Bifacial Technology and Pressure Flaking at the MIS 3 Site of Toumboura III, Eastern Senegal. THE AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW 2022; 39:1-33. [PMID: 35535307 PMCID: PMC9046311 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-021-09463-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Over the past decade, the increasing wealth of new archaeological data on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Senegal and Mali has broadened our understanding of West Africa's contributions to cultural developments. Within the West African sequence, the phase of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3, ca. 59-24 ka) yielded so far the best known and extensive archaeological information. The site of Toumboura III encompasses an occupation dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to between 40 ± 3 ka and 30 ± 3 ka. It provides the largest, well-dated, and stratified lithic assemblage in West Africa for the MSA and sheds light on an unprecedented cultural expression for this period, adding to the notable diversity of the late MSA in this region. We conducted a technological analysis of the lithic components following the chaîne opératoire approach. The lithic assemblage features a prevalence of bifacial technology and the exploitation of flakes as blanks for tool production. The craftspeople manufactured distinct types of bifacial tools, including small bifacial points shaped by pressure technique. The new data from Toumboura III demonstrate behavioral patterns that are entirely new in the region. By revealing behavioral innovations and technological particularities, these results on the techno-cultural dynamics during the MIS 3 phase of the MSA enhance our understanding of the complex Pleistocene population history in this part of Africa. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10437-021-09463-5.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viola C. Schmid
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa (APA), Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
| | - Katja Douze
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa (APA), Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
| | - Chantal Tribolo
- Research Institute on Archaeological Materials-Center of Research on Physics Applied to Archaeology (IRAMAT-CRP2A), CNRS-UMR 5060, University Bordeaux-Montaigne, Esplanade des Antilles, 33607 Pessac Cedex, France
| | | | - Michel Rasse
- Laboratory Archéorient, CNRS-UMR 5133, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, University Lumière Lyon 2, 7 Rue Raulin, 69007 Lyon, France
| | - Laurent Lespez
- Laboratory of Physical Geography (LGP), CNRS-UMR 8591, Department of Geography, University Paris-Est Creteil, 1 place Aristide Briand, 92195 Meudon, France
| | - Brice Lebrun
- Research Institute on Archaeological Materials-Center of Research on Physics Applied to Archaeology (IRAMAT-CRP2A), CNRS-UMR 5060, University Bordeaux-Montaigne, Esplanade des Antilles, 33607 Pessac Cedex, France
| | - David Hérisson
- Anthropologie des Techniques, des Espaces et des Territoires au Pliocène et au Pléistocène (ArScAn-AnTET), CNRS-UMR 7041, MSH Mondes, Paris Nanterre University, 21 Allée de l’Université, 93023 Nanterre Cedex, France
| | - Matar Ndiaye
- Laboratory of Prehistory and Protohistory, Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, University of Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, 33 Route de la Corniche Ouest, Dakar, Senegal
| | - Eric Huysecom
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa (APA), Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
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Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia's Afar Rift. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2116329118. [PMID: 34873047 PMCID: PMC8685921 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116329118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the evolution, dispersals, behaviors, and ecologies of early African Homo sapiens requires accurate geochronological placement of fossils and artifacts. We introduce open-air occurrences of such remains in sediments of the Middle Awash study area in Ethiopia. We describe the stratigraphic and depositional contexts of our discoveries and demonstrate the effectiveness of recently developed uranium-series dating of ostrich eggshell at validating and bridging across more traditional radioisotopic methods (14C and 40Ar/39Ar). Homo sapiens fossils and associated Middle Stone Age artifacts are placed at >158 and ∼96 ka. Later Stone Age occurrences are dated to ∼21 to 24 ka and ∼31 to 32 ka, firmly dating the upper portion of one of the longest records of human evolution. The Halibee member of the Upper Dawaitoli Formation of Ethiopia’s Middle Awash study area features a wealth of Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) paleoanthropological resources in a succession of Pleistocene sediments. We introduce these artifacts and fossils, and determine their chronostratigraphic placement via a combination of established radioisotopic methods and a recently developed dating method applied to ostrich eggshell (OES). We apply the recently developed 230Th/U burial dating of OES to bridge the temporal gap between radiocarbon (14C) and 40Ar/39Ar ages for the MSA and provide 14C ages to constrain the younger LSA archaeology and fauna to ∼24 to 21.4 ka. Paired 14C and 230Th/U burial ages of OES agree at ∼31 ka for an older LSA locality, validating the newer method, and in turn supporting its application to stratigraphically underlying MSA occurrences previously constrained only by a maximum 40Ar/39Ar age. Associated fauna, flora, and Homo sapiens fossils are thereby now fixed between 106 ± 20 ka and 96.4 ± 1.6 ka (all errors 2σ). Additional 40Ar/39 results on an underlying tuff refine its age to 158.1 ± 11.0 ka, providing a more precise minimum age for MSA lithic artifacts, fauna, and H. sapiens fossils recovered ∼9 m below it. These results demonstrate how chronological control can be obtained in tectonically active and stratigraphically complex settings to precisely calibrate crucial evidence of technological, environmental, and evolutionary changes during the African Middle and Late Pleistocene.
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Bahain JJ, Mercier N, Valladas H, Falguères C, Masaoudi H, Joron JL, Froget L, Moigne AM, Combier J, Moncel MH. Reappraisal of the chronology of Orgnac 3 Lower-to Lower to Middle Paleolithic site (Ardèche, France), a regional key sequence for the Middle Pleistocene of southern France. J Hum Evol 2021; 162:103092. [PMID: 34839228 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2021] [Revised: 10/01/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have suggested that the Lower-to-Middle Paleolithic transition was associated with the earliest Neanderthals, but recent research has established that the oldest Neanderthal fossils and the first signs of their technologies and behavior appear from MIS 11 or possibly earlier. To understand these changes, re-evaluation of the evidence is necessary to determine if this transition corresponds to a progressive evolution rather than abrupt change. Orgnac 3 is a key and appropriate site to study this research context. Located in southern France, it yields a long stratigraphic sequence testifying the evolution of technical and subsistence behaviors of pre-Neanderthal human groups during a Middle Pleistocene interglacial-glacial cycle. In this article, a new chronological framework is provided for the sequence based on results of dating methods applied to various types of geological materials. Speleothems and volcanic minerals, dated in previous studies by U-series and 40Ar/39Ar, respectively, show periods of calcitic crystallization and regional volcanic activity. Other materials, such as heated flints and herbivore teeth, are directly related to evidence of anthropogenic activities and are analyzed in the present work by trapped-charge dating methods such as thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance combined with uranium series (ESR/U-series). The new thermoluminescence and ESR/U-series dates confirm the attribution of the Orgnac 3 stratigraphic sequence to the MIS 10-MIS 8 period and are discussed in relation to paleoenvironmental data derived from bioarchaeological studies. The paleoanthropological levels, including the emergence of Levallois technology, are dated to ca. 275 ka (early MIS 8) and appear coeval to a wet and temperate period recorded locally, the Amargiers interstadial, defined in the regional palynological records. The implications of this reassessed chronology for the archaeological assemblages are discussed in the wider context of behavioral innovations from MIS 11 onward and their establishment in subsequent periods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Jacques Bahain
- UMR 7194 HNHP MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France.
| | - Norbert Mercier
- UMR 5060 IRAMAT CNRS-Université de Bordeaux, Centre de Recherche en Physique Appliquée à l'Archéologie, Maison de l'archéologie, 33607 Pessac cedex, France
| | - Hélène Valladas
- UMR 8212 LSCE/IPSL CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Bât. 12, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
| | - Christophe Falguères
- UMR 7194 HNHP MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Hassan Masaoudi
- UMR 7194 HNHP MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Jean-Louis Joron
- Groupe des Sciences de la Terre, Laboratoire Pierre Süe, CEN, Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Laurence Froget
- UMR 8212 LSCE/IPSL CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Bât. 12, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
| | - Anne-Marie Moigne
- UMR 7194 HNHP MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
| | | | - Marie-Hélène Moncel
- UMR 7194 HNHP MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
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Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101108118. [PMID: 34301807 PMCID: PMC8346817 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101108118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.
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Mercader J, Clarke S, Itambu M, Mohamed A, Mwitondi M, Siljedal G, Soto M, Bushozi P. Phytolith Palaeoenvironments at Mumba Rock Shelter. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.699609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The rock shelter site of Mumba in northern Tanzania plays a pivotal role in the overall study of the late Pleistocene archaeology of East Africa with an emphasis on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition. We used phytolith analysis to reconstruct general plant habitat physiognomy around the site from the onset of the late Pleistocene to recent times, tallying 4246 individual phytoliths from 19 archaeological samples. Statistical analysis explored phytolith richness, diversity, dominance, and evenness, along with principal components to compare phytolith distributions over the site’s sequence with known plant habitats today. Generally, the phytolith record of Mumba signifies paleoenvironments with analogs in the Somalia – Masai bushland and grassland, as well as Zambezian woodlands.
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Lupien RL, Russell JM, Subramanian A, Kinyanjui R, Beverly EJ, Uno KT, de Menocal P, Dommain R, Potts R. Eastern African environmental variation and its role in the evolution and cultural change of Homo over the last 1 million years. J Hum Evol 2021; 157:103028. [PMID: 34216947 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Characterizing eastern African environmental variability on orbital timescales is crucial to evaluating the hominin evolutionary response to past climate changes. However, there is a dearth of high-resolution, well-dated records of ecosystem dynamics from eastern Africa that cover long time intervals. In the last 1 Myr, there were significant anatomical and cultural developments in Homo, including the origin of Homo sapiens. There were also major changes in global climatic boundary conditions that may have affected eastern African environments, yet potential linkages remain poorly understood. We developed carbon isotopic records from plant waxes (δ13Cwax) and bulk organic matter (δ13COM) from a well-dated sediment core spanning the last ∼1 Myr extracted from the Koora Basin, located south of the Olorgesailie Basin, in the southern Kenya rift. Our record characterizes the climatic and environmental context for evolutionary events and technological advances recorded in the adjacent Olorgesailie Basin, such as the transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age tools by 320 ka. A significant shift toward more C4-dominated ecosystems and arid conditions occurred near the end of the mid-Pleistocene Transition, which indicates a link between equatorial eastern African and high-latitude northern hemisphere climate. Environmental variability increases throughout the mid- to late-Pleistocene, superimposed by precession-paced packets of variability modulated by eccentricity. An interval of particularly high-amplitude climate and environmental variability occurred from ∼275 ka to ∼180 ka, synchronous with evidence for the first H. sapiens fossils in eastern Africa. These results support the 'variability selection hypothesis' that increased environmental variability selected for adaptable traits, behaviors, and technology in our hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L Lupien
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Avinash Subramanian
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Peter de Menocal
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - René Dommain
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA; Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
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Laird MF, Sawchuk EA, Kwekason A, Mabulla AZP, Ndiema E, Tryon CA, Lewis JE, Ranhorn KL. Human burials at the Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2021; 175:187-200. [PMID: 33615431 PMCID: PMC8248353 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in eastern Africa are associated with complex evolutionary and demographic processes that contributed to the population variability observed in the region today. However, there are relatively few human skeletal remains from this time period. Here we describe six individuals from the Kisese II rockshelter in Tanzania that were excavated in 1956, present a radiocarbon date for one of the individuals, and compare craniodental morphological diversity among eastern African populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study used standard biometric analyses to assess the age, sex, and stature of the Kisese II individuals. Eastern African craniodental morphological variation was assessed using measures of dental size and a subset of Howells' cranial measurements for the Kisese II individuals as well as early Holocene, early pastoralist, Pastoral Neolithic, and modern African individuals. RESULTS Our results suggest a minimum of six individuals from the Kisese II collections with two adults and four juveniles. While the dating for most of the burials is uncertain, one individual is directly radiocarbon dated to ~7.1 ka indicating that at least one burial is early Holocene in age. Craniodental metric comparisons indicate that the Kisese II individuals extend the amount of human morphological diversity among Holocene eastern Africans. CONCLUSIONS Our findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that Late Pleistocene and early Holocene eastern Africans exhibited relatively high amounts of morphological diversity. However, the Kisese II individuals suggest morphological similarity at localized sites potentially supporting increased regionalization during the early Holocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Myra F. Laird
- Department of Integrative Anatomical SciencesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Elizabeth A. Sawchuk
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of AlbertaEdmontonAlbertaCanada
- Department of AnthropologyStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | | | - Audax Z. P. Mabulla
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage StudiesUniversity of Dar es SalaamDar es SalaamTanzania
| | - Emmanuel Ndiema
- Department of Earth SciencesNational Museums of KenyaNairobiKenya
| | - Christian A. Tryon
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of Connecticut354 Mansfield Road, StorrsCTUSA
- Human Origins ProgramNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian InstitutionWashingtonDCUSA
| | - Jason E. Lewis
- Department of AnthropologyStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
- Turkana Basin InstituteStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Kathryn L. Ranhorn
- Institute of Human OriginsSchool of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State UniversityTempe, ArizonaUSA
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Douze K, Lespez L, Rasse M, Tribolo C, Garnier A, Lebrun B, Mercier N, Ndiaye M, Chevrier B, Huysecom E. A West African Middle Stone Age site dated to the beginning of MIS 5: Archaeology, chronology, and paleoenvironment of the Ravin Blanc I (eastern Senegal). J Hum Evol 2021; 154:102952. [PMID: 33751962 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Revised: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
The Ravin Blanc I archaeological occurrence, dated to MIS 5, provides unprecedented data on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of West Africa since well-contextualized archaeological sites pre-dating MIS 4/3 are extremely rare for this region. The combined approach on geomorphology, phytolith analysis, and OSL date estimations offers a solid framework for the MSA industry comprised in the Ravin Blanc I sedimentary sequence. The paleoenvironmental reconstruction further emphasizes on the local effects of the global increase in moisture characterizing the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene as well as the later shift to more arid conditions. The lithic industry, comprised in the lower part of the sequence and dated to MIS 5e, shows core reduction sequences among which Levallois methods are minor, as well as an original tool-kit composition, among which pieces with single wide abrupt notches, side-scrapers made by inverse retouch, and a few large crudely shaped bifacial tools. The Ravin Blanc I assemblage has neither a chronologically equivalent site to serve comparisons nor a clear techno-typological correspondent in West Africa. However, the industry represents an early MSA technology that could either retain influences from the southern West African 'Sangoan' or show reminiscences of the preceding local Acheulean. A larger-scale assessment of behavioral dynamics at work at the transition period between the Middle to Upper Pleistocene is discussed in view of integrating this new site to the global perception of this important period in the MSA evolutionary trajectories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Douze
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa, Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland.
| | - Laurent Lespez
- Laboratory of Physical Geography (LGP), CNRS-UMR 8591, Department of Geography, University Paris-Est Creteil, 1 Place Aristide Briand, 920195 Meudon, France
| | - Michel Rasse
- Laboratory Archéorient, CNRS-UMR 5133, Maison de L'Orient et de La Méditerranée, University of Lyon II, 7 Rue Raulin, 69007 Lyon, France
| | - Chantal Tribolo
- Research Institute on Archaeological Materials-Centre of Research on Physics Applied to Archaeology (IRAMAT-CRP2A), CNRS-UMR 5060, University Bordeaux-Montaigne, Esplanade des Antilles, F-33607 Pessac Cedex, France
| | - Aline Garnier
- Laboratory of Physical Geography (LGP), CNRS-UMR 8591, Department of Geography, University Paris-Est Creteil, 1 Place Aristide Briand, 920195 Meudon, France
| | - Brice Lebrun
- Research Institute on Archaeological Materials-Centre of Research on Physics Applied to Archaeology (IRAMAT-CRP2A), CNRS-UMR 5060, University Bordeaux-Montaigne, Esplanade des Antilles, F-33607 Pessac Cedex, France
| | - Norbert Mercier
- Research Institute on Archaeological Materials-Centre of Research on Physics Applied to Archaeology (IRAMAT-CRP2A), CNRS-UMR 5060, University Bordeaux-Montaigne, Esplanade des Antilles, F-33607 Pessac Cedex, France
| | - Matar Ndiaye
- Laboratory of Prehistory and Protohistory, Institut Fondamental D'Afrique Noire, University of Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, 33 Route de La Corniche Ouest, Dakar, Senegal
| | - Benoît Chevrier
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa, Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
| | - Eric Huysecom
- Laboratory of Archaeology and Population in Africa, Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
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14
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Shipton C, Blinkhorn J, Archer W, Kourampas N, Roberts P, Prendergast ME, Curtis R, Herries AIR, Ndiema E, Boivin N, Petraglia MD. The Middle to Later Stone Age transition at Panga ya Saidi, in the tropical coastal forest of eastern Africa. J Hum Evol 2021; 153:102954. [PMID: 33714916 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The Middle to Later Stone Age transition is a critical period of human behavioral change that has been variously argued to pertain to the emergence of modern cognition, substantial population growth, and major dispersals of Homo sapiens within and beyond Africa. However, there is little consensus about when the transition occurred, the geographic patterning of its emergence, or even how it is manifested in the stone tool technology that is used to define it. Here, we examine a long sequence of lithic technological change at the cave site of Panga ya Saidi, Kenya, that spans the Middle and Later Stone Age and includes human occupations in each of the last five Marine Isotope Stages. In addition to the stone artifact technology, Panga ya Saidi preserves osseous and shell artifacts, enabling broader considerations of the covariation between different spheres of material culture. Several environmental proxies contextualize the artifactual record of human behavior at Panga ya Saidi. We compare technological change between the Middle and Later Stone Age with on-site paleoenvironmental manifestations of wider climatic fluctuations in the Late Pleistocene. The principal distinguishing feature of Middle from Later Stone Age technology at Panga ya Saidi is the preference for fine-grained stone, coupled with the creation of small flakes (miniaturization). Our review of the Middle to Later Stone Age transition elsewhere in eastern Africa and across the continent suggests that this broader distinction between the two periods is in fact widespread. We suggest that the Later Stone Age represents new short use-life and multicomponent ways of using stone tools, in which edge sharpness was prioritized over durability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ceri Shipton
- Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, University College London, London, WC1H 0PY, UK; Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2000, Australia.
| | - James Blinkhorn
- Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK; Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany
| | - Will Archer
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Pl. 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa; Department of Archaeology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa
| | - Nikolaos Kourampas
- Centre for Open Learning, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany
| | - Mary E Prendergast
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Saint Louis University, Avenida del Valle 34, Madrid, Spain; Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Richard Curtis
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, 3086, Australia
| | - Andy I R Herries
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, 3086, Australia; Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Gauteng, South Africa
| | - Emmanuel Ndiema
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museum of Kenya, Museum Hill Road, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Nicole Boivin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany; Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 600 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, D.C., USA; School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia; Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, 620 2500, University Drive NW, Calgary, Canada
| | - Michael D Petraglia
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany; Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 600 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, D.C., USA; School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
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15
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Thompson JC, Wright DK, Ivory SJ. The emergence and intensification of early hunter-gatherer niche construction. Evol Anthropol 2020; 30:17-27. [PMID: 33341104 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Revised: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Hunter-gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well-represented in archeological studies of niche construction. However, as the role of humans in shaping environments over long time scales becomes increasingly apparent, it is critical to develop archeological proxies and testable hypotheses about early hunter-gatherer impacts. Modern foragers engage in niche constructive behaviors aimed at maintaining or increasing the productivity of their environments, and these may have had significant ecological consequences over later human evolution. In some cases, they may also represent behaviors unique to modern Homo sapiens. Archeological and paleoenvironmental data show that African hunter-gatherers were niche constructors in diverse environments, which have legacies in how ecosystems function today. These can be conceptualized as behaviorally mediated trophic cascades, and tested using archeological and paleoenvironmental proxies. Thus, large-scale niche construction behavior is possible to identify at deeper time scales, and may be key to understanding the emergence of modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica C Thompson
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - David K Wright
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
| | - Sarah J Ivory
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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16
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Shimelmitz R, Groman-Yaroslavski I, Weinstein-Evron M, Rosenberg D. A Middle Pleistocene abrading tool from Tabun Cave, Israel: A search for the roots of abrading technology in human evolution. J Hum Evol 2020; 150:102909. [PMID: 33276308 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2020] [Revised: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
During the reanalysis of the finds from Jelinek's and Ronen's excavations at Tabun Cave, Israel, we encountered a cobble bearing traces of mechanical alterations similar to those recorded on grinding tools. However, the artifact derives from the early layers of the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex of the late Lower Paleolithic (ca. 350 ka), a time with no evidence for grinding or abrasion. Accordingly, we sought to determine whether the traces on the artifact can be attributed to purposeful human action. We conducted a detailed use-wear analysis of the cobble and implemented an experimental program, gaining positive results for the hypothesis of purposeful human practice. We argue that the significance and novelty of early abrading technology is that it marks a new mode of raw material manipulation-one that is categorically different from other modes of tool use observed among earlier hominins or other primates and animals. Throughout the Early Pleistocene, use of stone tools was associated with vertical motions (battering, pounding, striking) or with the application of a thin or narrow working edge, leveled at cutting or scraping. Conversely, abrading consists in applying a wide working surface in a continuous sequence of horizontal motions, geared to modify or reduce the surfaces of a targeted material. The emergence of this technology joins additional behavioral changes recently identified and attributed to the Middle Pleistocene, illustrating the growing and diversifying capabilities of early hominins to harness technology to shape their environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ron Shimelmitz
- Laboratory of Prehistoric Research, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel.
| | - Iris Groman-Yaroslavski
- The Use-Wear Analysis Laboratory, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
| | - Mina Weinstein-Evron
- Laboratory of Prehistoric Research, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
| | - Danny Rosenberg
- Laboratory for Ground Stone Tools Research, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khousy Ave. Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498898, Israel
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17
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Kuman K, Lotter MG, Leader GM. The Fauresmith of South Africa: A new assemblage from Canteen Kopje and significance of the technology in human and cultural evolution. J Hum Evol 2020; 148:102884. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2019] [Revised: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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18
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Hallinan E, Shaw M. Nubian Levallois reduction strategies in the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0241068. [PMID: 33091059 PMCID: PMC7580950 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The Middle Stone Age record in southern Africa is recognising increasing diversity in lithic technologies as research expands beyond the coastal-montane zone. New research in the arid Tankwa Karoo region of the South African interior has revealed a rich surface artefact record including a novel method of point production, recognised as Nubian Levallois technology in Late Pleistocene North Africa, Arabia and the Levant. We analyse 121 Nubian cores and associated points from the surface site Tweefontein against the strict criteria which are used to define Nubian technology elsewhere. The co-occurrence of typically post-Howiesons Poort unifacial points suggests an MIS 3 age. We propose that the occurrence of this distinctive technology at numerous localities in the Tankwa Karoo region reflects an environment-specific adaptation in line with technological regionalisation seen more widely in MIS 3. The arid setting of these assemblages in the Tankwa Karoo compares with the desert context of Nubian technology globally, consistent with convergent evolution in our case. The South African evidence contributes an alternative perspective on Nubian technology removed from the ‘dispersal’ or ‘diffusion’ scenarios of the debate surrounding its origin and spread within and out of Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Hallinan
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Human Behaviour, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
- Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Matthew Shaw
- School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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19
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Potts R, Dommain R, Moerman JW, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Riedl S, Beverly EJ, Brown ET, Deocampo D, Kinyanjui R, Lupien R, Owen RB, Rabideaux N, Russell JM, Stockhecke M, deMenocal P, Faith JT, Garcin Y, Noren A, Scott JJ, Western D, Bright J, Clark JB, Cohen AS, Keller CB, King J, Levin NE, Brady Shannon K, Muiruri V, Renaut RW, Rucina SM, Uno K. Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eabc8975. [PMID: 33087353 PMCID: PMC7577727 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc8975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Although climate change is considered to have been a large-scale driver of African human evolution, landscape-scale shifts in ecological resources that may have shaped novel hominin adaptations are rarely investigated. We use well-dated, high-resolution, drill-core datasets to understand ecological dynamics associated with a major adaptive transition in the archeological record ~24 km from the coring site. Outcrops preserve evidence of the replacement of Acheulean by Middle Stone Age (MSA) technological, cognitive, and social innovations between 500 and 300 thousand years (ka) ago, contemporaneous with large-scale taxonomic and adaptive turnover in mammal herbivores. Beginning ~400 ka ago, tectonic, hydrological, and ecological changes combined to disrupt a relatively stable resource base, prompting fluctuations of increasing magnitude in freshwater availability, grassland communities, and woody plant cover. Interaction of these factors offers a resource-oriented hypothesis for the evolutionary success of MSA adaptations, which likely contributed to the ecological flexibility typical of Homo sapiens foragers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - René Dommain
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Jessica W Moerman
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Simon Riedl
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Erik T Brown
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
| | - Daniel Deocampo
- Department of Geosciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Rachel Lupien
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Nathan Rabideaux
- Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University Newark, Newark, NJ 07109, USA
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| | - Mona Stockhecke
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
- Department of Surface Waters-Research and Management, EAWAG, Überlandstr. 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Peter deMenocal
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Yannick Garcin
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Coll France, CEREGE, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Anders Noren
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Jennifer J Scott
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta T3E 6K6, Canada
| | - David Western
- African Conservation Centre, P.O. Box 15289, Nairobi 00509, Kenya
| | - Jordon Bright
- School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Andrew S Cohen
- Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - C Brehnin Keller
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - John King
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Kristina Brady Shannon
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Veronica Muiruri
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Stephen M Rucina
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Kevin Uno
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
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20
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Will M, Conard NJ. Regional patterns of diachronic technological change in the Howiesons Poort of southern Africa. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0239195. [PMID: 32941544 PMCID: PMC7498030 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Howiesons Poort (HP) of southern Africa plays an important role in models on the early behavioral evolution of Homo sapiens. The HP is often portrayed as a coherent MSA industry characterized by early complex material culture. Recent work has emphasized parallel technological change through time across southern Africa potentially driven by ecological adaptations or demographic change. Here we examine patterns of diachronic variation within the HP and evaluate potential causal factors behind these changes. We test previous temporal assessments of the technocomplex at the local and regional level based on high-resolution quantitative data on HP lithic assemblages from Sibudu (KwaZulu-Natal) and comparisons with other southern African sites. At Sibudu, consistent unidirectional change in lithic technology characterizes the HP sequence. The results show a gradual reduction in typical HP markers such as the proportion of blades, backed pieces, and HP cores, as well as declining size of blades and backed artifacts. Quantitative comparisons with seven HP sites in South Africa suggest that lithic technology varies between regions over time instead of following similar changes. Concerning hypotheses of causal drivers, directional changes in lithic technology at Sibudu covary with shifting hunting patterns towards larger-sized bovids and a gradual opening of the vegetation. In contrast, variation in lithic technology shows little association with site use, mobility patterns or demographic expansions. Unlike at Sibudu, diachronic changes at other HP sites such as Diepkloof, Klasies River and Klipdrift appear to be associated with aspects of mobility, technological organization and site use. The regional diachronic patterns in the HP partly follow paleoclimatic zones, which could imply different ecological adaptations and distinct connection networks over time. Divergent and at times decoupled changes in lithic traits across sites precludes monocausal explanations for the entire HP, supporting more complex models for the observed technological trajectories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Nicholas J. Conard
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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21
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Hussain ST, Will M. Materiality, Agency and Evolution of Lithic Technology: an Integrated Perspective for Palaeolithic Archaeology. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY 2020; 28:617-670. [PMID: 34720569 PMCID: PMC8550397 DOI: 10.1007/s10816-020-09483-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Considerations of materiality and object-oriented approaches have greatly influenced the development of archaeological theory in recent years. Yet, Palaeolithic archaeology has been slow in incorporating this emerging body of scholarship and exploring its bearing on the human deep past. This paper probes into the potential of materiality theory to clarify the material dynamics of the Plio-Pleistocene and seeks to re-articulate the debate on the evolution of our species with materiality discourses in archaeology and the humanities more broadly. We argue that the signature temporalities and geospatial scales of observation provided by the Palaeolithic record offer unique opportunities to examine the active role of material things, objects, artefacts and technologies in the emergence, stabilisation and transformation of hominin lifeworlds and the accretion of long-term trajectories of material culture change. We map three axes of human-thing relations-ecological, technical and evolutionary-and deploy a range of case studies from the literature to show that a critical re-assessment of material agency not only discloses novel insights and questions, but can also refine what we already know about the human deep past. Our exploration underscores the benefits of de-centring human behaviour and intentionality and demonstrates that materiality lends itself as a productive nexus of exchange and mutual inspiration for diverging schools and research interests in Palaeolithic archaeology. An integrated object-oriented perspective calls attention to the human condition as a product of millennial-scale human-thing co-adaptation, in the course of which hominins, artefacts and technologies continuously influenced and co-created each other.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shumon T. Hussain
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Aarhus, Denmark
- CRC 806 ‘Our Way to Europe’, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Centre for Environmental Humanities (CEH), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- BIOCHANGE – for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
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22
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Pearson OM, Hill EC, Peppe DJ, Van Plantinga A, Blegen N, Faith JT, Tryon CA. A Late Pleistocene human humerus from Rusinga Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2020; 146:102855. [PMID: 32781348 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2019] [Revised: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
In 2010, a hominin right humerus fragment (KNM-RU 58330) was surface collected in a small gully at Nyamita North in the Late Pleistocene Wasiriya Beds of Rusinga Island, Kenya. A combination of stratigraphic and geochronological evidence suggests the specimen is likely between ∼49 and 36 ka in age. The associated fauna is diverse and dominated by semiarid grassland taxa. The small sample of associated Middle Stone Age artifacts includes Levallois flakes, cores, and retouched points. The 139 mm humeral fragment preserves the shaft from distal to the lesser tubercle to 14 mm below the distal end of the weakly projecting deltoid tuberosity. Key morphological features include a narrow and weakly marked pectoralis major insertion and a distinctive medial bend in the diaphysis at the deltoid insertion. This bend is unusual among recent human humeri but occurs in a few Late Pleistocene humeri. The dimensions of the distal end of the fragment predict a length of 317.9 ± 16.4 mm based on recent samples of African ancestry. A novel method of predicting humeral length from the distance between the middle of the pectoralis major and the bottom of the deltoid insertion predicts a length of 317.3 mm ± 17.6 mm. Cross-sectional geometry at the midshaft shows a relatively high percentage of cortical bone and a moderate degree of flattening of the shaft. The Nyamita humerus is anatomically modern in its morphology and adds to the small sample of hominins from the Late Pleistocene associated with Middle Stone Age artifacts known from East Africa. It may sample a population closely related to the people of the out-of-Africa migration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Osbjorn M Pearson
- Department of Anthropology, MSC01-1040, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
| | - Ethan C Hill
- Department of Anthropology, MSC01-1040, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
| | - Daniel J Peppe
- Terrestrial Paleoclimatology Research Group, Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76706, USA
| | - Alex Van Plantinga
- Terrestrial Paleoclimatology Research Group, Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76706, USA
| | - Nick Blegen
- Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah, Rio Tinto Center, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA; Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Christian A Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA
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Wilkins J. Learner-driven innovation in the stone tool technology of early Homo sapiens. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e40. [PMID: 37588390 PMCID: PMC10427492 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.40] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Current perspectives of stone tool technology tend to emphasize homogeneity in tool forms and core reduction strategies across time and space. This homogeneity is understood to represent shared cultural traditions that are passed down through the generations. This represents a top-down perspective on how and why stone tools are manufactured that largely restricts technological agency to experts, adults and teachers. However, just as bottom-up processes driven by children and youth influence technological innovation today, they are likely to have played a role in the past. This paper considers evidence from the archaeological record of early Homo sapiens' lithic technology in Africa that may attest to our long history of bottom-up social learning processes and learner-driven innovation. This evidence includes the role of emulative social learning in generating assemblages with diverse reduction strategies, a high degree of technological fragmentation across southern Africa during some time periods, and technological convergence through the Pleistocene. Counter to some perspectives on the uniqueness of our species, our ability to learn independently, to 'break the rules' and to play, as opposed to conforming to top-down influences, may also account for our technological success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayne Wilkins
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD4111, Australia; and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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Muscle recruitment and stone tool use ergonomics across three million years of Palaeolithic technological transitions. J Hum Evol 2020; 144:102796. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2019] [Revised: 03/28/2020] [Accepted: 03/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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The emergence of the Levallois technology in the Levant: A view from the Early Middle Paleolithic site of Misliya Cave, Israel. J Hum Evol 2020; 144:102785. [PMID: 32428731 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Revised: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) lithic assemblage of Misliya Cave, dated to 240-150 ka, is associated with one of the earliest occurrences of Homo sapiens outside Africa. Our research provides a detailed technological study of the lithic assemblage of stratigraphic unit 5-6c of the site, using the chaîne opératoire approach, to characterize the technological behavior of the early H. sapiens. Our results indicate that both Levallois and laminar volumetric concepts were used. The Levallois reduction strategy involved preparing subtriangular cores with steep distal edges that allowed producing a series of triangular/subtriangular Levallois blanks using a unidirectional convergent method. Laminar débitage constitutes a semirotating/rotating method. The results of our study and comparisons with other Levantine sites indicate that the EMP represents a distinct entity within the Levantine Middle Pleistocene record that can be distinguished by the earliest occurrence of a full-fledged Levallois technology in the region, laminar technology, and a distinct tool kit dominated by elongated retouched points. The level of core management involved in producing convergent Levallois products and in preparing laminar cores points to a major conceptual change from the preceding Acheulian and Acheulo-Yabrudian. This suggests a break in knapping strategies between the Lower and the Middle Paleolithic. The finding of a H. sapiens maxilla at Misliya Cave in association with the EMP industry supports the hypothesis that the introduction of the Levallois technology in the Near East was associated with an early dispersal of H. sapiens from Africa. A comparison between the Levantine EMP and other regional records indicates that different Levallois methods were routinely used by hominins from the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age.
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Meignen L, Bar-Yosef O. Acheulo-Yabrudian and Early Middle Paleolithic at Hayonim Cave (Western Galilee, Israel): Continuity or break? J Hum Evol 2020; 139:102733. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Revised: 11/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Belfer-Cohen A, Hovers E. Prehistoric Perspectives on "Others" and "Strangers". Front Psychol 2020; 10:3063. [PMID: 32038416 PMCID: PMC6985552 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Accepted: 12/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Social "connectivity" through time is currently considered as one of the major drivers of cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Within this framework, the interactions within and between groups are impacted by individuals' distinction of social relationships. In this paper, we focus on changes in a major aspect of social perceptions, "other" and "stranger." As inferred from the archaeological record, this perception among human groups gained importance during the course of the Pleistocene. These changes would have occurred due to the plasticity of cognitive mechanisms, in response to the demands on behavior along the trajectory of human social evolution. The concepts of "other" and "stranger" have received little attention in the archaeological discourse, yet they are fundamental in the perception of social standing. The property of being an "other" is defined by one's perception and is inherent to one's view of the world around oneself; when shared by a group it becomes a social cognitive construct. Allocating an individual the status of a "stranger" is a socially-defined state that is potentially transient. We hypothesize that, while possibly entrenched in deep evolutionary origins, the latter is a relatively late addition to socio-cognitive categorization, associated with increased sedentism, larger groups and reduced territorial extent as part of the process of Neolithization. We posit that "others" and "strangers" can be approached from contextual archaeological data, with inferences as regards the evolution of cognitive social categories. Our analysis focused on raw material studies, observations on style, and evidence for craft specialization. We find that contrary to the null hypothesis the archaeological record implies earlier emergence of complex socio-cognitive categorization. The cognitive, cultural and social processes involved in the maintenance and distinction between "others" and "strangers" can be defined as "self-domestication" that is still an on-going process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Belfer-Cohen
- The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Erella Hovers
- The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
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Technology and Function of Middle Stone Age Points. Insights from a Combined Approach at Bushman Rock Shelter, South Africa. VERTEBRATE PALEOBIOLOGY AND PALEOANTHROPOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
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29
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Tryon CA. The Middle/Later Stone Age transition and cultural dynamics of late Pleistocene East Africa. Evol Anthropol 2019; 28:267-282. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2018] [Revised: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 09/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration. Sci Rep 2019; 9:4728. [PMID: 30894612 PMCID: PMC6426877 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41176-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 02/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Africa was the birth-place of Homo sapiens and has the earliest evidence for symbolic behaviour and complex technologies. The best-attested early flowering of these distinctive features was in a glacial refuge zone on the southern coast 100–70 ka, with fewer indications in eastern Africa until after 70 ka. Yet it was eastern Africa, not the south, that witnessed the first major demographic expansion, ~70–60 ka, which led to the peopling of the rest of the world. One possible explanation is that important cultural traits were transmitted from south to east at this time. Here we identify a mitochondrial signal of such a dispersal soon after ~70 ka – the only time in the last 200,000 years that humid climate conditions encompassed southern and tropical Africa. This dispersal immediately preceded the out-of-Africa expansions, potentially providing the trigger for these expansions by transmitting significant cultural elements from the southern African refuge.
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Will M, Tryon C, Shaw M, Scerri EML, Ranhorn K, Pargeter J, McNeil J, Mackay A, Leplongeon A, Groucutt HS, Douze K, Brooks AS. Comparative analysis of Middle Stone Age artifacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica). Evol Anthropol 2019; 28:57-59. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2018] [Accepted: 01/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary EcologyUniversity of Tübingen Tübingen Germany
| | - Christian Tryon
- Department of AnthropologyPeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts
| | - Matthew Shaw
- Centre for Archaeological ScienceUniversity of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales, Australia
| | - Eleanor M. L. Scerri
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Jena Germany
- School of ArchaeologyUniversity of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom
| | - Kathryn Ranhorn
- Department of AnthropologyPeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts
| | - Justin Pargeter
- Department of AnthropologyEmory University Atlanta Georgia
- Centre for Anthropological Research & Department of Anthropology and Development StudiesUniversity of Johannesburg Johannesburg South Africa
| | - Jessica McNeil
- Department of AnthropologyPeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts
| | - Alex Mackay
- Centre for Archaeological ScienceUniversity of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales, Australia
| | - Alice Leplongeon
- Institute of Advanced Studies and Department of Cultural HeritageUniversity of Bologna Bologna Italy
- UMR CNRS 7194, Département Homme et EnvironnementMuséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Alliance Sorbonne Université Paris France
| | - Huw S. Groucutt
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Jena Germany
- School of ArchaeologyUniversity of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Jena Germany
| | - Katja Douze
- Department of Genetics and Evolution, Anthropology Unit, Archaeology and Population in AfricaUniversity of Geneva Geneva Switzerland
| | - Alison S. Brooks
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of AnthropologyGeorge Washington University Washington District of Columbia
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian Institution Washington District of Columbia
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32
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Smith GM, Ruebens K, Gaudzinski-Windheuser S, Steele TE. Subsistence strategies throughout the African Middle Pleistocene: Faunal evidence for behavioral change and continuity across the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition. J Hum Evol 2019; 127:1-20. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2018] [Revised: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 11/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Malinsky-Buller A, Hovers E. One size does not fit all: Group size and the late middle Pleistocene prehistoric archive. J Hum Evol 2019; 127:118-132. [PMID: 30777353 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2018] [Revised: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The role of demography is often suggested to be a key factor in both biological and cultural evolution. Recent research has shown that the linkage between population size and cultural evolution is not straightforward and emerges from the interplay of many demographic, economic, social and ecological variables. Formal modelling has yielded interesting insights into the complex relationship between population structure, intergroup connectedness, and magnitude and extent of population extinctions. Such studies have highlighted the importance of effective (as opposed to census) population size in transmission processes. At the same time, it remained unclear how such insights can be applied to material culture phenomena in the prehistoric record, especially for deeper prehistory. In this paper we approach the issue of population sizes during the time of the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition through the proxy of regional trajectories of lithic technological change, identified in the archaeological records from Africa, the Levant, Southwestern and Northwestern Europe. Our discussion of the results takes into consideration the constraints inherent to the archaeological record of deep time - e.g., preservation bias, time-averaging and the incomplete nature of the archaeological record - and of extrapolation from discrete archaeological case studies to an evolutionary time scale. We suggest that technological trajectories of change over this transitional period reflect the robustness of transmission networks. Our results show differences in the pattern and rate of cultural transmission in these regions, from which we infer that information networks, and their underlying effective population sizes, also differed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ariel Malinsky-Buller
- MONREPOS, Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, 56567, Neuwied, Germany.
| | - Erella Hovers
- The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel; International Affiliate, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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34
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Key A, Merritt SR, Kivell TL. Hand grip diversity and frequency during the use of Lower Palaeolithic stone cutting-tools. J Hum Evol 2018; 125:137-158. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2017] [Revised: 08/21/2018] [Accepted: 08/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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35
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Key AJM, Dunmore CJ. Manual restrictions on Palaeolithic technological behaviours. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5399. [PMID: 30128191 PMCID: PMC6098946 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2018] [Accepted: 07/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The causes of technological innovation in the Palaeolithic archaeological record are central to understanding Plio-Pleistocene hominin behaviour and temporal trends in artefact variation. Palaeolithic archaeologists frequently investigate the Oldowan-Acheulean transition and technological developments during the subsequent million years of the Acheulean technocomplex. Here, we approach the question of why innovative stone tool production techniques occur in the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological record from an experimental biomechanical and evolutionary perspective. Nine experienced flintknappers reproduced Oldowan flake tools, ‘early Acheulean’ handaxes, and ‘late Acheulean’ handaxes while pressure data were collected from their non-dominant (core-holding) hands. For each flake removal or platform preparation event performed, the percussor used, the stage of reduction, the core securing technique utilised, and the relative success of flake removals were recorded. Results indicate that more heavily reduced, intensively shaped handaxes with greater volumetric controls do not necessarily require significantly greater manual pressure than Oldowan flake tools or earlier ‘rougher’ handaxe forms. Platform preparation events do, however, require significantly greater pressure relative to either soft or hard hammer flake detachments. No significant relationships were identified between flaking success and pressure variation. Our results suggest that the preparation of flake platforms, a technological behaviour associated with the production of late Acheulean handaxes, could plausibly have been restricted prior to the emergence of more forceful precision-manipulative capabilities than those required for earlier lithic technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair J M Key
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher J Dunmore
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
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36
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78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later stone age innovation in an East African tropical forest. Nat Commun 2018; 9:1832. [PMID: 29743572 PMCID: PMC5943315 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04057-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2017] [Accepted: 03/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of research on this transition is currently focused on southern Africa due to a lack of long-term, stratified sites across much of the African continent. Here, we report a 78,000-year-long archeological record from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya. Following a shift in toolkits ~67,000 years ago, novel symbolic and technological behaviors assemble in a non-unilinear manner. Against a backdrop of a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, localized innovations better characterize the Late Pleistocene of this part of East Africa than alternative emphases on dramatic revolutions or migrations. Most of the archaeological record of the Middle to Later Stone Age transition comes from southern Africa. Here, Shipton et al. describe the new site Panga ya Saidi on the coast of Kenya that covers the last 78,000 years and shows gradual cultural and technological change in the Late Pleistocene.
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37
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Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Leslie DE, Ambrose SH, Ferguson JR, d'Errico F, Zipkin AM, Whittaker S, Post J, Veatch EG, Foecke K, Clark JB. Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science 2018; 360:90-94. [PMID: 29545508 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison S Brooks
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. .,Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - John E Yellen
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.,Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA. .,Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Post Office Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - David E Leslie
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - Stanley H Ambrose
- Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | | | - Francesco d'Errico
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199-De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.,Senter for Fremragende Forskning (SFF) Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Postboks 7805, 5020 Bergen, Norway
| | - Andrew M Zipkin
- Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Scott Whittaker
- Laboratory of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Jeffrey Post
- Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | | | - Kimberly Foecke
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
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38
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Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Faith JT, Tryon CA, Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Deino AL, Kinyanjui R, Clark JB, Haradon CM, Levin NE, Meijer HJM, Veatch EG, Owen RB, Renaut RW. Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa. Science 2018; 360:86-90. [PMID: 29545506 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA. .,Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah and Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
| | - Christian A Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Alison S Brooks
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - John E Yellen
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Catherine M Haradon
- Department of Earth Science, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Hanneke J M Meijer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,University Museum, Department of Natural History, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | | | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
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39
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Tryon CA, Lewis JE, Ranhorn KL, Kwekason A, Alex B, Laird MF, Marean CW, Niespolo E, Nivens J, Mabulla AZP. Middle and Later Stone Age chronology of Kisese II rockshelter (UNESCO World Heritage Kondoa Rock-Art Sites), Tanzania. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0192029. [PMID: 29489827 PMCID: PMC5830042 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2017] [Accepted: 01/16/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The archaeology of East Africa during the last ~65,000 years plays a central role in debates about the origins and dispersal of modern humans, Homo sapiens. Despite the historical importance of the region to these discussions, reliable chronologies for the nature, tempo, and timing of human behavioral changes seen among Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological assemblages are sparse. The Kisese II rockshelter in the Kondoa region of Tanzania, originally excavated in 1956, preserves a ≥ 6-m-thick archaeological succession that spans the MSA/LSA transition, with lithic artifacts such as Levallois and bladelet cores and backed microliths, the recurrent use of red ochre, and >5,000 ostrich eggshell beads and bead fragments. Twenty-nine radiocarbon dates on ostrich eggshell carbonate make Kisese II one of the most robust chronological sequences for understanding archaeological change over the last ~47,000 years in East Africa. In particular, ostrich eggshell beads and backed microliths appear by 46-42 ka cal BP and occur throughout overlying Late Pleistocene and Holocene strata. Changes in lithic technology suggest an MSA/LSA transition that began 39-34.3 ka, with typical LSA technologies in place by the Last Glacial Maximum. The timing of these changes demonstrates the time-transgressive nature of behavioral innovations often linked to the origins of modern humans, even within a single region of Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian A. Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Jason E. Lewis
- Turkana Basin Institute and Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America
| | - Kathryn L. Ranhorn
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Amandus Kwekason
- National Museum of Tanzania, Shaaban Robert Street, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Bridget Alex
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Myra F. Laird
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Curtis W. Marean
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- African Center for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
| | - Elizabeth Niespolo
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Joelle Nivens
- Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
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Blinkhorn J, Petraglia MD. Environments and Cultural Change in the Indian Subcontinent. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1086/693462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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41
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Scerri EML. The North African Middle Stone Age and its place in recent human evolution. Evol Anthropol 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor M. L. Scerri
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology; University of Oxford; Oxford U.K
- Department of Archaeology; Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History; Jena Germany
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Rosso DE, d’Errico F, Queffelec A. Patterns of change and continuity in ochre use during the late Middle Stone Age of the Horn of Africa: The Porc-Epic Cave record. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0177298. [PMID: 28542305 PMCID: PMC5443497 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2017] [Accepted: 04/25/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Ochre is found at numerous Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites and plays a key role in early modern human archaeology. Here we analyse the largest known East African MSA ochre assemblage, comprising 40 kg of ochre, found at Porc-Epic Cave, Ethiopia, spanning a period of at least 4,500 years. Visual characterisation of ochre types, microscopic identification of traces of modification, morphological and morphometric analysis of ochre pieces and modified areas, experimental reproduction of grinding processes, surface texture analysis of archaeological and experimentally ground ochre facets, laser granulometry of ochre powder produced experimentally on different grindstones and by Hamar and Ovahimba women from Ethiopia and Namibia respectively, were, for the first time, combined to explore diachronic shifts in ochre processing technology. Our results identify patterns of continuity in ochre acquisition, treatment and use reflecting both persistent use of the same geological resources and similar uses of iron-rich rocks by late MSA Porc-Epic inhabitants. Considering the large amount of ochre processed at the site, this continuity can be interpreted as the expression of a cohesive cultural adaptation, largely shared by all community members and consistently transmitted through time. A gradual shift in preferred processing techniques and motions is interpreted as reflecting cultural drift within this practice. Evidence for the grinding of ochre to produce small quantities of powder throughout the sequence is consistent with a use in symbolic activities for at least part of the ochre assemblage from Porc-Epic Cave.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Eugenia Rosso
- Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques (SERP), Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Francesco d’Errico
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
- Evolutionary Studies Institute and DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Alain Queffelec
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
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Evaluating the potential for tactical hunting in the Middle Stone Age: Insights from a bonebed of the extinct bovid, Rusingoryx atopocranion. J Hum Evol 2017. [PMID: 28622933 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The foraging behaviors of Middle Stone Age (MSA) early modern humans have largely been based on evidence from well-stratified cave sites in South Africa. Whereas these sites have provided an abundance of data for behavioral reconstruction that are unmatched elsewhere in Africa, they are unlikely to preserve evidence of the diversity of foraging strategies employed by MSA hunters who lived in a variety of ecological and landscape settings across the African continent. Here we describe the results of recent excavations at the open-air site of Bovid Hill at Wakondo, Rusinga Island, Kenya, which yielded 24 in situ MSA artifacts within an assemblage of bones comprised exclusively of the extinct alcelaphin bovid Rusingoryx atopocranion. The excavated faunal assemblage is characterized by a prime-age-dominated mortality profile and includes cut-marked specimens and an associated MSA Levallois blade-based artifact industry recovered from a channel deposit dated to 68 ± 5 ka by optically stimulated luminescence. Taphonomic, geologic, and faunal evidence points to mass exploitation of Rusingoryx by humans at Bovid Hill, which likely represents an initial processing site that was altered post-depositionally by fluvial processes. This site highlights the importance of rivers and streams for mass procurement in an open and seasonal landscape, and provides important new insights into MSA behavioral variability with respect to environmental conditions, site function, and tactical foraging strategies in eastern Africa. Bovid Hill thus joins a growing number of MSA and Middle Paleolithic localities that are suggestive of tactical hunting behaviors and mass capture of gregarious ungulate prey.
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Robinson JR. Thinking locally: Environmental reconstruction of Middle and Later Stone Age archaeological sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia based on ungulate stable isotopes. J Hum Evol 2017; 106:19-37. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2015] [Revised: 01/25/2017] [Accepted: 01/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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The earliest long-distance obsidian transport: Evidence from the ∼200 ka Middle Stone Age Sibilo School Road Site, Baringo, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2016; 103:1-19. [PMID: 28166905 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2016] [Revised: 11/12/2016] [Accepted: 11/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
This study presents the earliest evidence of long-distance obsidian transport at the ∼200 ka Sibilo School Road Site (SSRS), an early Middle Stone Age site in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. The later Middle Pleistocene of East Africa (130-400 ka) spans significant and interrelated behavioral and biological changes in human evolution including the first appearance of Homo sapiens. Despite the importance of the later Middle Pleistocene, there are relatively few archaeological sites in well-dated contexts (n < 10) that document hominin behavior from this time period. In particular, geochemically informed evidence of long-distance obsidian transport, important for investigating expansion of intergroup interactions in hominin evolution, is rare from the Middle Pleistocene record of Africa. The SSRS offers a unique contribution to this small but growing dataset. Tephrostratigraphic analysis of tuffs encasing the SSRS provides a minimum age of ∼200 ka for the site. Levallois points and methods of core preparation demonstrate characteristic Middle Stone Age lithic technologies present at the SSRS. A significant portion (43%) of the lithic assemblage is obsidian. The SSRS obsidian comes from three different sources located at distances of 25 km, 140 km and 166 km from the site. The majority of obsidian derives from the farthest source, 166 km to the south of the site. The SSRS thus provides important new evidence that long-distance raw material transport, and the expansion of hominin intergroup interactions that this entails, was a significant feature of hominin behavior ∼200 ka, the time of the first appearance of H. sapiens, and ∼150,000 years before similar behaviors were previously documented in the region.
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Rosso DE, Pitarch Martí A, d’Errico F. Middle Stone Age Ochre Processing and Behavioural Complexity in the Horn of Africa: Evidence from Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0164793. [PMID: 27806067 PMCID: PMC5091854 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2016] [Accepted: 09/30/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Ochre is a common feature at Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites and has often been interpreted as a proxy for the origin of modern behaviour. However, few ochre processing tools, ochre containers, and ochre-stained artefacts from MSA contexts have been studied in detail within a theoretical framework aimed at inferring the technical steps involved in the acquisition, production and use of these artefacts. Here we analyse 21 ochre processing tools, i.e. upper and lower grindstones, and two ochre-stained artefacts from the MSA layers of Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, dated to ca. 40 cal kyr BP. These tools, and a large proportion of the 4213 ochre fragments found at the site, were concentrated in an area devoted to ochre processing. Lower grindstones are made of a variety of raw materials, some of which are not locally available. Traces of use indicate that different techniques were employed to process ochre. Optical microscopy, XRD, μ-Raman spectroscopy, and SEM-EDS analyses of residues preserved on worn areas of artefacts show that different types of ferruginous rocks were processed in order to produce ochre powder of different coarseness and shades. A round stone bearing no traces of having been used to process ochre is half covered with residues as if it had been dipped in a liquid ochered medium to paint the object or to use it as a stamp to apply pigment to a soft material. We argue that the ochre reduction sequences identified at Porc-Epic Cave reflect a high degree of behavioural complexity, and represent ochre use, which was probably devoted to a variety of functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Eugenia Rosso
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France
- Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques (SERP), Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Africa Pitarch Martí
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France
- Grup de Recerca Aplicada al Patrimoni Cultural (GRAPAC), Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Francesco d’Errico
- UMR-CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France
- Evolutionary Studies Institute and DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Tryon CA, Faith JT. A demographic perspective on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition from Nasera rockshelter, Tanzania. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20150238. [PMID: 27298469 PMCID: PMC4920295 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Increased population density is among the proposed drivers of the behavioural changes culminating in the Middle to Later Stone Age (MSA-LSA) transition and human dispersals from East Africa, but reliable archaeological measures of demographic change are lacking. We use Late Pleistocene-Holocene lithic and faunal data from Nasera rockshelter (Tanzania) to show progressive declines in residential mobility-a variable linked to population density-and technological shifts, the latter associated with environmental changes. These data suggest that the MSA-LSA transition is part of a long-term pattern of changes in residential mobility and technology that reflect human responses to increased population density, with dispersals potentially marking a complementary response to larger populations.This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian A Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Michie Building (Level 3), Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
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Crevecoeur I, Brooks A, Ribot I, Cornelissen E, Semal P. Late Stone Age human remains from Ishango (Democratic Republic of Congo): New insights on Late Pleistocene modern human diversity in Africa. J Hum Evol 2016; 96:35-57. [PMID: 27343771 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2015] [Revised: 04/08/2016] [Accepted: 04/19/2016] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Although questions of modern human origins and dispersal are subject to intense research within and outside Africa, the processes of modern human diversification during the Late Pleistocene are most often discussed within the context of recent human genetic data. This situation is due largely to the dearth of human fossil remains dating to the final Pleistocene in Africa and their almost total absence from West and Central Africa, thus limiting our perception of modern human diversification within Africa before the Holocene. Here, we present a morphometric comparative analysis of the earliest Late Pleistocene modern human remains from the Central African site of Ishango in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The early Late Stone Age layer (eLSA) of this site, dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (25-20 Ky), contains more than one hundred fragmentary human remains. The exceptional associated archaeological context suggests these remains derived from a community of hunter-fisher-gatherers exhibiting complex social and cognitive behaviors including substantial reliance on aquatic resources, development of fishing technology, possible mathematical notations and repetitive use of space, likely on a seasonal basis. Comparisons with large samples of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene modern human fossils from Africa and Eurasia show that the Ishango human remains exhibit distinctive characteristics and a higher phenotypic diversity in contrast to recent African populations. In many aspects, as is true for the inner ear conformation, these eLSA human remains have more affinities with Middle to early Late Pleistocene fossils worldwide than with extant local African populations. In addition, cross-sectional geometric properties of the long bones are consistent with archaeological evidence suggesting reduced terrestrial mobility resulting from greater investment in and use of aquatic resources. Our results on the Ishango human remains provide insights into past African modern human diversity and adaptation that are consistent with genetic theories about the deep sub-structure of Late Pleistocene African populations and their complex evolutionary history of isolation and diversification.
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Affiliation(s)
- I Crevecoeur
- UMR 5199 PACEA, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
| | - A Brooks
- Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
| | - I Ribot
- Département d'Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| | - E Cornelissen
- Culturele Antropologie/Prehistorie en Archeologie, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika (KMMA), Tervuren, Belgium
| | - P Semal
- Scientific Service of Heritage, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels, Belgium
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The pattern of emergence of a Middle Stone Age tradition at Gademotta and Kulkuletti (Ethiopia) through convergent tool and point technologies. J Hum Evol 2016; 91:93-121. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2015] [Revised: 11/19/2015] [Accepted: 11/20/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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50
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Will M, Mackay A, Phillips N. Implications of Nubian-Like Core Reduction Systems in Southern Africa for the Identification of Early Modern Human Dispersals. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0131824. [PMID: 26125972 PMCID: PMC4488358 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131824] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2015] [Accepted: 06/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Lithic technologies have been used to trace dispersals of early human populations within and beyond Africa. Convergence in lithic systems has the potential to confound such interpretations, implying connections between unrelated groups. Due to their reductive nature, stone artefacts are unusually prone to this chance appearance of similar forms in unrelated populations. Here we present data from the South African Middle Stone Age sites Uitpanskraal 7 and Mertenhof suggesting that Nubian core reduction systems associated with Late Pleistocene populations in North Africa and potentially with early human migrations out of Africa in MIS 5 also occur in southern Africa during early MIS 3 and with no clear connection to the North African occurrence. The timing and spatial distribution of their appearance in southern and northern Africa implies technological convergence, rather than diffusion or dispersal. While lithic technologies can be a critical guide to human population flux, their utility in tracing early human dispersals at large spatial and temporal scales with stone artefact types remains questionable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tubingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alex Mackay
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Natasha Phillips
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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