Gold Miners on the Trail of the Earliest Humans in Eastern Saharan Africa. Investigating the Acheulean and Middle Stone Age in Sudanese Nubia

The Stone Age Archaeology of West Africa

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.137 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eleanor Scerri

Keyword(s):

West Africa ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

West African ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Wild Food ◽

Stone Age ◽

Population Movements ◽

Early 21St Century ◽

Ecological Zones

In the early 21st century, understanding West Africa’s Stone Age past has increasingly transcended its colonial legacy to become central to research on human origins. Part of this process has included shedding the methodologies and nomenclatures of narrative approaches to focus on more quantified, scientific descriptions of artifact variability and context. Together with a growing number of chronometric age estimates and environmental information, understanding the West African Stone Age is contributing evolutionary and demographic insights relevant to the entire continent. Undated Acheulean artifacts are abundant across the region, attesting to the presence of archaic Homo. The emerging chronometric record of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) indicates that core and flake technologies have been present in West Africa since at least the Middle Pleistocene (~780–126 thousand years ago or ka) and that they persisted until the Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene boundary (~12ka)—the youngest examples of such technology anywhere in Africa. Although the presence of MSA populations in forests remains an open question, technological differences may correlate with various ecological zones. Later Stone Age (LSA) populations evidence significant technological diversification, including both microlithic and macrolithic traditions. The limited biological evidence also demonstrates that at least some of these populations manifested a unique mixture of modern and archaic morphological features, drawing West Africa into debates about possible admixture events between late-surviving archaic populations and Homo sapiens. As in other regions of Africa, it is possible that population movements throughout the Stone Age were influenced by ecological bridges and barriers. West Africa evidences a number of refugia and ecological bottlenecks that may have played such a role in human prehistory in the region. By the end of the Stone Age, West African groups became increasingly sedentary, engaging in the construction of durable monuments and intensifying wild food exploitation.

The Early Middle Stone Age in South Africa

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.118 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Wurz

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Cutting Tools ◽

Complex Problem ◽

Modern Human ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Stone Age ◽

Fossil Evidence ◽

Core Technology

The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) from South Africa occurred, broadly, between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. This is a crucial phase in the history of Homo sapiens, as genetic and fossil evidence increasingly indicate that the roots of Homo sapiens reach back to this time. The fossil evidence from South Africa from this period is sparse, but the c. 260,000-year-old Homo helmei partial skull from Florisbad is especially significant in understanding modern human origins. A detailed chronological and regional framework for the EMSA is still in progress, but on the available evidence, the earliest EMSA occupations seem to be centered in the interior and northern regions. Transitional entities such as the Fauresmith and Sangoan and the first EMSA without large cutting tools, from Florisbad, are found in these areas. In the EMSA, biface technology as well as bipolar, discoidal, blade, and Levallois technologies were used to manufacture a wide variety of blanks, some of which were retouched into an array of tool types. Before lithic types such as hand-axes and bifacial points can be used as diagnostic criteria to define, for example, the Fauresmith and Pietersburg, further extended technological analyses are needed to determine their production sequences and context. Prepared core or Levallois technology occur frequently, but not always, in the EMSA. Prepared core technology entails careful planning to shape stone nodules geometrically prior to knapping the preformed blanks. EMSA hunters used Levallois and other pointed flakes as armatures in hafted thrusting spears. Levallois and composite tool technology reflect complex problem solving and hierarchical organizational cognitive capabilities. These competencies are also evident in early pigment processing. The clear footprint of the EMSA on the South African landscape indicates that several human groups populated this region during the Middle Pleistocene. It is highly likely that such groups were linked across Africa and that they collectively developed into Homo sapiens.

The oldest Homo erectus buried lithic horizon from the Eastern Saharan Africa. EDAR 7 - an Acheulean assemblage with Kombewa method from the Eastern Desert, Sudan

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0248279 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0248279

Author(s):

Mirosław Masojć ◽

Ju Yong Kim ◽

Joanna Krupa-Kurzynowska ◽

Young Kwan Sohn ◽

Maciej Ehlert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cutting Tools ◽

Eastern Desert ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Homo Erectus ◽

Luminescence Dating ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Nile Valley ◽

Geometric Morphometric

Although essential for reconstructing hominin behaviour during the Early Palaeolithic, only a handful of Acheulean sites have been dated in the Eastern Sahara region. This is due to the scarcity of sites for this time period and the lack of datable material. However, recent excavations in the Atbara region (Sudan) have provided unique opportunities to analyse and date Acheulean stone tools. We report here on EDAR 7, part of a cluster of Acheulean and Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites that were recently discovered in the Eastern Desert Atbara River (EDAR) region, located in the Eastern Desert (Sudan) far from the Nile valley. At EDAR 7, a 3.5 metre sedimentary sequence was excavated, allowing an Acheulean assemblage to be investigated using a combination of sedimentology, stone tool studies and optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL). The site has delivered a complete Acheulean knapping chaine opératoire, providing new information about the Saharan Acheulean. The EDAR 7 site is interpreted as a remnant of a campsite based on the co-occurrence of two reduction modes: one geared towards the production of Large Cutting Tools (LCTs), and the other based on the flaking of small debitage and production of flake tools. Particularly notable in the EDAR 7 assemblage is the abundance of cleavers, most of which display evidence of flake production. Implementation of giant Kombewa flakes was also observed. A geometric morphometric analysis of hand-axes was conducted to verify a possible Late Acheulean assemblage standardisation in the Nubian Sahara. In addition, the analysis of micro-traces and wear on the artefacts has provided information on the use history of the Acheulean stone tools. Sediment analyses and OSL dating show that the EDAR 7 sequence contains the oldest Acheulean encampment remains in the Eastern Sahara, dated to the MIS 11 or earlier. This confirms that Homo erectus occupied the EDAR region during Middle Pleistocene humid periods, and demonstrates that habitable corridors existed between the Ethiopian Highlands, the Nile and the Red Sea coast, allowing population dispersals across the continent and out of it.

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aao2646 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 360 (6384) ◽

pp. 90-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Alison S. Brooks ◽

John E. Yellen ◽

Richard Potts ◽

Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽

Alan L. Deino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Homo Sapiens ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Stone Age ◽

Red Pigment ◽

Associated Fauna ◽

Long Distance ◽

Tool Materials ◽

Uranium Series

Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typifyHomo sapienshad 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.

On the issues related to the discoid cores

Chinese Archaeology ◽

10.1515/char-2017-0014 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 174-178

Author(s):

Youcheng Chen ◽

Tongli Qu

Keyword(s):

Middle Stone Age ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Middle Paleolithic ◽

Stone Age ◽

The West ◽

Upper Pleistocene ◽

Old World ◽

Insight Into

AbstractThe discoid core and the Levallois core are important symbols of the Middle Paleolithic Age in the west of the Old World. The two types of artifacts show not only technical relationships but also differences. The discoid core can be classified into two sub-types, namely the unifacial and the bifacial classes. In China, discoid cores may have appeared in the upper Middle Pleistocene, and prevailed in the lower and middle Upper Pleistocene, which corresponded to the middle Paleolithic Age in Europe and to the Middle Stone Age in Africa. The discovery and study of discoid cores provide significant insight into the culture of the Middle Paleolithic Age in China.

Four-Field Co-evolutionary Model for Human Cognition: Variation in the Middle Stone Age/Middle Palaeolithic

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory ◽

10.1007/s10816-020-09502-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marlize Lombard ◽

Anders Högberg

Keyword(s):

Homo Sapiens ◽

Evolutionary Model ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Brain Morphology ◽

Middle Palaeolithic ◽

Stone Age ◽

Future Studies ◽

Evolutionary Trajectories ◽

Two Populations

AbstractHere we explore variation and similarities in the two best-represented population groups who lived during the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic—the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Building on approaches such as gene-culture co-evolution, we propose a four-field model to discuss relationships between human cognitive evolution, biology, technology, society, and ecology. We focus on the pre-50-ka phase, because we reason that later admixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Eurasia may make it difficult to separate them in terms of cognition, or any of the other fields discussed in this paper. Using our model enabled us to highlight similarities in cognition between the two populations in terms of symbolic behaviour and social learning and to identify differences in aspects of technical and social cognition. Dissimilarities in brain-selective gene variants and brain morphology strongly suggest differences in some evolutionary trajectories that would have affected cognition. We therefore suggest that rather than insisting that Neanderthals were cognitively ‘the same’ as Homo sapiens, it may be useful to focus future studies on Neanderthal-specific cognition that may have been well-developed within their specific context at the time.

Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.24234 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Lee R Berger ◽

John Hawks ◽

Paul HGM Dirks ◽

Marina Elliott ◽

Eric M Roberts

Keyword(s):

Middle Stone Age ◽

Present Knowledge ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Late Time ◽

Stone Age ◽

Star System ◽

Cave System ◽

Hominin Evolution ◽

Cradle Of Humankind ◽

Close Relatives

New discoveries and dating of fossil remains from the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, have strong implications for our understanding of Pleistocene human evolution in Africa. Direct dating of Homo naledi fossils from the Dinaledi Chamber (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib10">Berger et al., 2015</xref>) shows that they were deposited between about 236 ka and 335 ka (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib36">Dirks et al., 2017</xref>), placing H. naledi in the later Middle Pleistocene. Hawks and colleagues (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Hawks et al., 2017</xref>) report the discovery of a second chamber within the Rising Star system (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib34">Dirks et al., 2015</xref>) that contains H. naledi remains. Previously, only large-brained modern humans or their close relatives had been demonstrated to exist at this late time in Africa, but the fossil evidence for any hominins in subequatorial Africa was very sparse. It is now evident that a diversity of hominin lineages existed in this region, with some divergent lineages contributing DNA to living humans and at least H. naledi representing a survivor from the earliest stages of diversification within Homo. The existence of a diverse array of hominins in subequatorial comports with our present knowledge of diversity across other savanna-adapted species, as well as with palaeoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. H. naledi casts the fossil and archaeological records into a new light, as we cannot exclude that this lineage was responsible for the production of Acheulean or Middle Stone Age tool industries.

Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers of Nubia

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.58 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 79-100

Author(s):

Mirosław Masojć

Keyword(s):

Middle Stone Age ◽

Upper Paleolithic ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Nile Valley ◽

Stone Age ◽

Human Settlement ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Lower Paleolithic ◽

Upper Egypt

The chapter is devoted to the earliest human settlement in Nubia, which took place in the Pleistocene, with numerous references to neighboring areas, especially Upper Egypt. Paleolithic groups of humans probably appeared in Nubia in the Early Pleistocene, but well-documented sites—connected with Lower Paleolithic-Acheulean complex industries—are dated only to Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-7). Some of the oldest Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblages in Africa were discovered in Nubia (ca. 220 ka, MIS 7). Numerous MSA sites (ca. 220–40 ka, MIS 7-3) with predominating Levallois technology are situated within the Nile valley and the neighboring deserts, mainly in oases. The onset of Upper Paleolithic (ca. 40–20 ka, MIS 3-2) blade technology was recorded together with the oldest mining. Late Paleolithic groups of humans (20–11 ka, MIS 2), characterized by considerable diversity in the hyper-arid period, lived only in the Nile valley. Local examples of rock paintings come from that period. Pleistocene human remains from Nubia are extremely rare; they all represent H. sapiens. Cemeteries with numerous burials, some of which display evidence of violence, were also discovered in this area.

Lupemban

10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.36 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nicholas Taylor

Keyword(s):

21St Century ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Central Africa ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Congo Basin ◽

Spatiotemporal Variability ◽

Evolutionary Significance ◽

Forest Belt ◽

Stone Age ◽

Tree Roots

The Lupemban is an industry of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) that is found across the Congo Basin and on its plateau margins in central Africa. It takes its name from the site of Lupemba that was discovered in 1944 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, then the Belgian Congo). The Lupemban’s distinctive toolkit of elongated lanceolate bifaces, core-axes, points, blades, and other small tools coincides with the equatorial forest belt and is suitable for constructing hafted implements, which has led to speculation it was a special and specific prehistoric adaptation to rainforest foraging. Although poorly dated across most of its geographic range, radiometric dates for the Lupemban at Twin Rivers (Zambia) show it is at least ~265 ka years old, placing it among the oldest known expressions of the regional MSA. As such, the Lupemban bears on 21st-century debates about the evolution of complex cognitive abilities and behaviors that characterize the emergence of Homo sapiens at or before 300 ka bp. In spite of the Lupemban’s potential importance for understanding the evolution of technology, human–environment interactions, and cognition in early Homo sapiens, the industry remains enigmatic and poorly understood. Logistical, ecological, and political challenges continue to impede fieldwork in central Africa. Moreover, at sites including Gombe Point (DRC), severe soil bioturbation by tree roots has caused the vertical displacement of buried artifacts, which corrupts the basic integrity of stratigraphic sequences. This problem is known to be widespread and means that after 100 years of research, central Africa still lacks a refined Stone Age cultural sequence. Consequently, very little is known about spatiotemporal variability within the Lupemban, or its specific environmental or cultural adaptations. At the site of Kalambo Falls (Zambia), the industry is found in secondary but stratified context, which, as of the early 21st century, offers the best glimpse into Lupemban technology and its potential evolutionary significance.

What happened to the human mind after the Howiesons Poort?

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00062153 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 85 (330) ◽

pp. 1433-1443 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Marlize Lombard ◽

Isabelle Parsons

Keyword(s):

Southern Africa ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Human Mind ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Cognitive Evolution ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Bow And Arrow ◽

Survival And Development

The authors deliver a decisive blow to the idea of unidirectional behavioural and cognitive evolution in this tightly argued account of why the bow and arrow was invented and then possibly laid aside by Middle Stone Age communities in southern Africa. Finding that all are modern humans (Homo sapiens), they paint a picture of diverse strategies for survival and development from 75 000 years ago onwards. It is one in which material inventions can come and go, human societies negotiating their own paths through a rugged mental landscape of opportunity.