An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language

At issue in this article is the soundness of archaeological inferences which proceed stepwise from data about the material culture of Middle Stone Age humans, via assumptions about their symbolic behaviour, to the conclusion that they had modern language. Taking as paradigmatic the inference that the humans who inhabited Blombos Cave in South Africa some 75,000 years ago had fully syntactical language, the article argues that the inferential step from symbolic behaviour to modern language lacks the required warrant. This step, it is shown, is not underpinned by an adequate bridge theory of the putative links between symbolic behaviour and modern language. The bridge theories invoked to date to shore up the Blombos inference are flawed, for instance, in that they incorporate untenable assumptions about language, including an incorrect view of the expressive power of relatively simple linguistic means.

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A quantitative analysis of wear distributions on Middle Stone Age marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports ◽

10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102137 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 102137

Author(s):

Amy Hatton ◽

Benjamin J. Schoville ◽

Jayne Wilkins

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Shell Beads ◽

Blombos Cave ◽

Marine Shell

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Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age larger mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa

Journal of Human Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.01.013 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 60 (6) ◽

pp. 746-767 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Jessica C. Thompson ◽

Christopher S. Henshilwood

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Faunal Assemblage ◽

Taphonomic Analysis ◽

Blombos Cave

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Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/ncomms2897 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 102

Author(s):

Martin Ziegler ◽

Margit H. Simon ◽

Ian R. Hall ◽

Stephen Barker ◽

Chris Stringer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Ocean Circulation ◽

Modern Human ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Human Populations ◽

Stone Age ◽

Sub Saharan

Abstract The development of modernity in early human populations has been linked to pulsed phases of technological and behavioural innovation within the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. However, the trigger for these intermittent pulses of technological innovation is an enigma. Here we show that, contrary to some previous studies, the occurrence of innovation was tightly linked to abrupt climate change. Major innovational pulses occurred at times when South African climate changed rapidly towards more humid conditions, while northern sub-Saharan Africa experienced widespread droughts, as the Northern Hemisphere entered phases of extreme cooling. These millennial-scale teleconnections resulted from the bipolar seesaw behaviour of the Atlantic Ocean related to changes in the ocean circulation. These conditions led to humid pulses in South Africa and potentially to the creation of favourable environmental conditions. This strongly implies that innovational pulses of early modern human behaviour were climatically influenced and linked to the adoption of refugia.

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