Symbolic Arts and Rituals in the African Middle Stone-Age

Utafiti ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
E. John Collins
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
New Research ◽  
Western Eurasia

Since the 1950s the huge amount of archaeological research done in Africa has shown that Homo sapiens originally came from Africa rather than Western Eurasia as was previously thought. Nevertheless, some Western scholars retain a Eurocentric bias by suggesting that humans only became fully intelligent after they migrated out of Africa and settled in Europe where, during the ‘Upper Palaeolithic Transition’ around 45,000 years ago, there was an abrupt advance in human neural wiring. Their evidence is the relatively sudden change from Middle Palaeolithic to more advanced Upper Palaeolithic tools and the appearance of the spectacular figurative cave art of Europe. This mental revolution was initially believed to have occurred in ‘Cro-Magnon Man’ who lived in Europe and Western Eurasia 45,000-40,000 years ago and was considered to be the first human to have the cross-domain cognition and enhanced memory necessary for a sophisticated language and symbolic behaviour. In short, although after the 1950s archaeologists generally have acknowledged that prehistoric Africa was the cradle of mankind, some still insist that prehistoric Europe was the cradle of human intelligence. New research on the African Middle Stone Age (MSA), that itself goes back 300,000 years, is challenging this view. This paper provides some examples of symbolic, ritual and artistic behaviour, and indeed advanced tool making that took place during this period and up to around 60,000 years ago, long before the appearance of Cro-Magnon Man.

The Archaeology of Archaic and Early ModernHomo Sapiens: An African Perspective

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Allsworth-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Out Of Africa

Whereas in Europe the transition from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the replacement of Neanderthal by anatomically modern humans appear to be synchronous events, in Africa this is not the case. Neanderthals as such were not present in Africa, and if the ‘Out of Africa’ model is correct, the ancestors of anatomically modern humans must have made their appearance in a Middle Stone Age context before 100,000 years ago. Subsequently, it seems that they coexisted with Neanderthals for up to 70,000 years in the Near East. If a direct biological correlation can be ruled out, the question arises: what was the impetus for an Upper Palaeolithic ‘revolution’ and why should it have taken place at all?

Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan): A Contribution to the Understanding of the MSA of Eastern Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enza Elena Spinapolice ◽  
Andrea Zerboni ◽  
Michael Meyer ◽  
Donatella Usai
Keyword(s):  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Central Sudan ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
White Nile

AbstractThe middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeological excavation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for understanding cultural site formation and post-depositional dynamics. The stratigraphic sequence at al-Jamrab includes a thick cultural layer rich in Early and Middle Stone Age artefacts, preserved in a deeply weathered palaeosol developed on fluvial sediments. The cultural layer includes a two-fold human occupation covering the Middle Stone Age, with Acheulean and Sangoan bifacial artefacts, although an Early Stone Age/Middle Stone Age transitional phase cannot be excluded. The artefact-bearing unit is attributed to the Upper Pleistocene based on preliminary OSL dating, the local palaeoenvironmental context, and strong pedogenetic weathering. Considering the paucity of archaeological data for the Pleistocene of Sudan and the importance of this region in the study of human dispersal out of Africa, this preliminary work on a new site and its associated stratigraphic context provides insights into the early peopling of Sudan and adds one more tessera to the Eastern Africa picture.

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

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.

Lupemban

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 ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (330) ◽  
pp. 1433-1443 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals New investigations at the Middle Stone Age site of Pockenbank Rockshelter, Namibia

Antiquity ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (353) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabell Schmidt ◽  
Götz Ossendorf ◽  
Elena Hensel ◽  
Olaf Bubenzer ◽  
Barbara Eichhorn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Classic Model ◽  
The Past ◽  
Still Bay

In southern Africa, Middle Stone Age sites with long sequences have been the focus of intense international and interdisciplinary research over the past decade (cf. Wadley 2015). Two techno-complexes of the Middle Stone Age—the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort—have been associated with many technological and behavioural innovations of Homo sapiens. The classic model argues that these two techno-complexes are temporally separated ‘horizons’ with homogenous material culture (Jacobs et al.2008), reflecting demographic pulses and supporting large subcontinental networks. This model was developed on the basis of evidence from southern African sites regarded as centres of subcontinental developments.

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene age and archaeological context for the hominin calvaria from GvJm-22 (Lukenya Hill, Kenya)

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (9) ◽  
pp. 2682-2687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian A. Tryon ◽  
Isabelle Crevecoeur ◽  
J. Tyler Faith ◽  
Ravid Ekshtain ◽  
Joelle Nivens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Morphological Variability ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle And Late Pleistocene ◽  
Age Range

Kenya National Museums Lukenya Hill Hominid 1 (KNM-LH 1) is a Homo sapiens partial calvaria from site GvJm-22 at Lukenya Hill, Kenya, associated with Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological deposits. KNM-LH 1 is securely dated to the Late Pleistocene, and samples a time and region important for understanding the origins of modern human diversity. A revised chronology based on 26 accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates on ostrich eggshells indicates an age range of 23,576–22,887 y B.P. for KNM-LH 1, confirming prior attribution to the Last Glacial Maximum. Additional dates extend the maximum age for archaeological deposits at GvJm-22 to >46,000 y B.P. (>46 kya). These dates are consistent with new analyses identifying both Middle Stone Age and LSA lithic technologies at the site, making GvJm-22 a rare eastern African record of major human behavioral shifts during the Late Pleistocene. Comparative morphometric analyses of the KNM-LH 1 cranium document the temporal and spatial complexity of early modern human morphological variability. Features of cranial shape distinguish KNM-LH 1 and other Middle and Late Pleistocene African fossils from crania of recent Africans and samples from Holocene LSA and European Upper Paleolithic sites.

scholarly journals Explanations of variability in Middle Stone Age stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use in Eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Blinkhorn ◽  
M. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Population History ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Assemblage Composition

AbstractThe Middle Stone Age (MSA) corresponds to a critical phase in human evolution, overlapping with the earliest emergence of Homo sapiens as well as the expansions of these populations across and beyond Africa. Within the context of growing recognition for a complex and structured population history across the continent, Eastern Africa remains a critical region to explore patterns of behavioural variability due to the large number of well-dated archaeological assemblages compared to other regions. Quantitative studies of the Eastern African MSA record have indicated patterns of behavioural variation across space, time and from different environmental contexts. Here, we examine the nature of these patterns through the use of matrix correlation statistics, exploring whether differences in assemblage composition and raw material use correlate to differences between one another, assemblage age, distance in space, and the geographic and environmental characteristics of the landscapes surrounding MSA sites. Assemblage composition and raw material use correlate most strongly with one another, with site type as well as geographic and environmental variables also identified as having significant correlations to the former, and distance in time and space correlating more strongly with the latter. By combining time and space into a single variable, we are able to show the strong relationship this has with differences in stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use, with significance for exploring the impacts of processes of cultural inheritance on variability in the MSA. A significant, independent role for terrain roughness for explaining variability in stone tool assemblages highlights the importance of considering the impacts of mobility on structuring the archaeological record of the MSA of Eastern Africa.

scholarly journals Using morphometrics to reappraise old collections: The study case of the Congo Basin Middle Stone Age bifacial industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isis Mesfin ◽  
Alice Leplongeon ◽  
David Pleurdeau ◽  
Antony Borel
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Elliptic Fourier Analysis ◽  
Linear Measurements ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Study Case ◽  
Shape Ratio

Despite its strategic location within the continent, Central Africa is rarely integrated into the reconstruction of population dynamics during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa, especially in terms of the emergence, diffusion and behavioural patterns of Homo sapiens. However, hundreds of sites have been discovered in Central Africa during the 20th century and attributed to the Lupemban, one of the main MSA technological complexes of the region. This complex is mainly characterised by typological criteria based on the numerous bifacial pieces found in the Congo Basin and interpreted as an adaption to the rainforest environment. Most of these Lupemban assemblages have not been studied for decades and thus it is particularly difficult to assess their diversity. This paper presents a detailed combined morphometrical approach (linear measurements and indices, Log Shape Ratio, Elliptic Fourier Analysis) to take a fresh and rigorous look at the Lupemban bifacial tools. We discuss the comparison of different morphometrical approaches to deal with “old” collections for which contexts, particularly chronological ones, are partially missing. We present the results of this approach on three assemblages of bifacial pieces gathered in the 1930s and late 1960s. We quantify their variability and discuss not only their homogeneity but also the variation of a Lupemban hallmark, namely the “Lupemban point”.

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