Rethinking the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in southern Africa-A perspective from the highveld of Eswatini

GD Bader, A Mabuza, DP Williams, M Will - Quaternary Science Reviews, 2022 - Elsevier
The MSA/LSA transition is a major shift in the African archaeological record, but questions
on its beginning remain debated. In southern Africa, most sites suggest an origin of LSA …

The emergence of habitual ochre use in Africa and its significance for the development of ritual behavior during the Middle Stone Age

R Dapschauskas, MB Göden, C Sommer… - Journal of World …, 2022 - Springer
Over the last two decades, red ochre has played a pivotal role in discussions about the
cognitive and cultural evolution of early modern humans during the African Middle Stone …

The Southern African stone age sequence updated (II)

M Lombard, J Bradfield, MV Caruana… - The South African …, 2022 - JSTOR
A decade ago, we summarised the South African and Lesotho Stone Age technocomplex
sequence as a heuristic exercise, anchored in 242 dated assemblages (Lombard et al …

Environmental influences on human innovation and behavioural diversity in southern Africa 92–80 thousand years ago

A Mackay, SJ Armitage, EM Niespolo… - Nature Ecology & …, 2022 - nature.com
Abstract Africa's Middle Stone Age preserves sporadic evidence for novel behaviours
among early modern humans, prompting a range of questions about the influence of social …

Trajectories of cultural innovation from the Middle to Later Stone Age in Eastern Africa: Personal ornaments, bone artifacts, and ocher from Panga ya Saidi, Kenya

F d'Errico, AP Martí, C Shipton, E Le Vraux… - Journal of Human …, 2020 - Elsevier
Abstract African Middle Stone Age (MSA) populations used pigments, manufactured and
wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and produced fully shaped bone tools …

Archeology, environment, and chronology of the Early Middle Stone Age component of Wonderwerk Cave

M Chazan, F Berna, J Brink, M Ecker, S Holt… - Journal of Paleolithic …, 2020 - Springer
Abstract Although the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa, associated with major
cultural innovation including aspects of symbolic behavior and the development of complex …

Archaeological adhesives made from Podocarpus document innovative potential in the African Middle Stone Age

P Schmidt, TJ Koch, E February - Proceedings of the …, 2022 - National Acad Sciences
Studying the earliest archaeological adhesives has implications for our understanding of
human cognition. In southern Africa, the oldest adhesives were made by Homo sapiens in …

Experimentation preceding innovation in a MIS5 Pre-Still Bay layer from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa): emerging technologies and symbols

G Porraz, JE Parkington, P Schmidt… - Peer Community …, 2021 - peercommunityjournal.org
In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later
Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places …

The place beyond the trees: renewed excavations of the Middle Stone Age deposits at Olieboomspoort in the Waterberg Mountains of the South African Savanna …

A Val, P de la Peña, M Duval, S Bansal… - Archaeological and …, 2021 - Springer
Olieboomspoort is one of the few rock shelters in the vast interior of southern Africa
documenting pulses of occupation from the Acheulean until the end of the Later Stone Age …

Revisiting Mwulu's Cave: new insights into the Middle Stone Age in the southern African savanna biome

P de la Peña, A Val, DJ Stratford, F Colino… - Archaeological and …, 2019 - Springer
In this paper, we present a revised stratigraphy and results of preliminary analyses of the
archaeological material from Mwulu's Cave. This arises from two excavation campaigns …