Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lithic Variability and Cultures in the East African Middle Stone Age

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Culture History and Convergent Evolution

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

Lithics are the most abundant archaeological evidence from the remote past, however the way they are used to reconstruct past human groups is often biased. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is the lithic techno-complex linked to the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa. However, there is no consensus in the scientific community about the significance of this lithic culture in terms of connections with particular human social groups nor its evolution. This paper focuses on the relation between lithic variability in the East African MSA and its meaning in terms of the structure of human groups, critical for interpreting the behavioral and evolutionary processes that led to Homo sapiens expansion within and out of Africa. Here I examine current knowledge and hypotheses and suggest some methodological advances to overcome the present difficulties.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adler, D. S., Wilkinson, K., Blockley, S., Mark, D., Pinhasi, R., Schmidt-Magee, B., et al. (2014). Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus. Science, 345, 1609–1613.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alimen, M. H., & y Zuber, J. Z. (1978). L’évolution de l’Acheuléen au Sahara nord-occidental: Saoura, Ougarta, Tabelbala: atlas. Paris: Service des publications du Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2001). Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science, 291, 1748–1753.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2002). Small things remembered: Origins of early microlithic industries in sub-Saharan Africa. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 12, 9–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2010). Coevolution of composite-tool technology, constructive memory, and language: Implications for the evolution of modern human behavior. Current Anthropology, 51, S135–S147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson-Gerfaud, P. (1990). Aspects of behaviour in the Middle Paleolithic: Functional analysis of stone tools from southwest France. In P. Mellars (Ed.), The emergence of modern humans (pp. 389–418). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andresfky, W. J. (1994). Raw material availability and the organization of technology. American Antiquity, 59, 21–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar Yosef, O., & Kuhn, S. (1999). The big deal about blades: Laminar technologies and human evolution. American Anthropologist, 101, 322–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. (2013). From hand to handle: The first industrial revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barth, F. (1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (Results of a Symposium Held at the University of Bergen, 23rd to 26th February 1967.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef, O. (2002). The upper paleolithic revolution. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 363–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basell, L. (2012). The Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa. In The Oxford handbook of African archaeology (pp. 387–387). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, P. (1988). The active role of behaviour in evolution. Evolutionary Processes and Metaphors, 19, 191–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyries, S. (1988). Industries lithiques: tracéologie et technologie. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biberson, P. (1961). Le Paléolithique inférieur du Maroc Atlantique (Vol. Fasc. 17). Rabat: Service des Antiquités du Maroc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. (1962). Archaeology as anthropology. American Antiquity, 28, 217–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. (1977). For theory building in archaeology. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. (1989). Isolating the transition to cultural adaptations: An organizational approach. In E. Trinkaus (Ed.), The emergence of modern humans: Biocultural adaptations in the later Pleistocene (pp. 18–41). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L., & Binford, S. R. (1968). Stone tools and human behavior. Scientific American, 220, 70–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleed, P. (1986). The optimal design of hunting weapons: Maintainability or reliability? American Antiquity, 51, 737–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleed, P. (2001). Trees or chains, links or branches: Conceptual alternatives for consideration of stone tool production and other sequential activities. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 8, 101–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blegen, N. (2017). The earliest long-distance obsidian transport: Evidence from the ∼200 ka Middle Stone Age Sibilo School Road Site, Baringo, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 103, 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blegen, N., Jicha, B. R., & McBrearty, S. (2018). A new tephrochronology for early diverse stone tool technologies and long-distance raw material transport in the Middle to Late Pleistocene Kapthurin Formation, East Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 121, 75–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boas, F. (1938). The mind of primitive man, Rev. Oxford, England: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (1994). Le concept Levallois: variabilité des méthodes. Paris: CRA-Monographies (9).

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E., Connan, J., Dessort, D., Muhesen, S., Mercier, N., Valladas, H., et al. (1996). Bitumen as hafting material on Middle Paleolithic artifacts. Nature, 380, 336–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordes, F. (1961). Mousterian cultures in France. Science, 134, 803–810.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1988). Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago: University of Chicago press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bräuer, G. (2008). The origin of modern anatomy: By speciation or intraspecific evolution? Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 17, 22–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Deino, A. L., Leslie, D. E., et al. (2018). Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science, 360, 90–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, C. (1995). Building a unified middle-range theory of artifact design. In C. Carr & J. Neitzel (Eds.), Style, society, and person (pp. 151–170). Boston: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charrié-Duhaut, A., Porraz, G., Cartwright, C. R., Igreja, M., Connan, J., Poggenpoel, C., et al. (2013). First molecular identification of a hafting adhesive in the late Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 3506–3518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D. (1988). The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity. Journal of World Prehistory, 2, 235–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D., & Kurashina, H. (1979). Hominid occupation of the East-Central Highlands of Ethiopia in the Plio-Pleistocene. Nature, 282, 33–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collard, M., Shennan, S. J., & Tehrani, J. J. (2006). Branching, blending, and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 169–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., & Banks, W. E. (2012). Identifying mechanisms behind Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age cultural trajectories. Current Anthropology, 54, S371–S387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dauvois, M. (1976). Précis de dessin dynamique et structural des industries lithiques préhistoriques. Perigueux: Fanlac.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dauvois, M. (1981). De la simultanéité des concepts Kombewa et Levallois dans l’Acheuléen du Maghreb et du Sahara nord-occidental. Préhistoire Africaine, 6, 313–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • de la Torre, I., Mora, R., Arroyo, A., & Benito-Calvo, A. (2014). Acheulean technological behaviour in the middle Pleistocene landscape of Mieso (East-Central Ethiopia). Journal of Human Evolution, 76, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Lumley, H., Beyene, Y., Bahain, J. J., Barsky, D., Cauche, D., Celiberti, V., et al. (2004). Le site de Middle Stone Age de la localité de Fejej FJ-102. In H. De Lumley & Y. Beyene (Eds.), Les sites préhistoriques de la région de Fejej, sud-Omo, Ethiopie, dans leur contexte stratigraphique et paléontologique (pp. 619–629). Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, L. G., Vale, G. L., Laland, K. N., Flynn, E., & Kendal, R. L. (2014). Human cumulative culture: A comparative perspective. Biological Reviews, 89, 284–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deino, A. L., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Sharp, W. D., & Potts, R. (2018). Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa. Science, 360, 95–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewar, R. E. (1995). Of nets and trees: Untangling the reticulate and dendritic in Madagascar’s prehistory. World Archaeology, 26, 301–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobres, M.-A., & Hoffman, C. R. (1994). Social agency and the dynamics of prehistoric technology. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 1, 211–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K. (2011). L’Afrique de l’Est dans la réflexion globale sur le Middle Stone Age. Annales d’Éthiopie, 26, 15–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K. (2012). Le Early Middle Stone Age d’Éthiopie et les changements techno-économiques à la période de l’émergence des premiers Homo sapiens. Ph.D. Dissertation, Bordeaux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K. (2014). A new chrono-cultural marker for the early Middle Stone Age in Ethiopia: The tranchet blow process on convergent tools from Gademotta and Kulkuletti sites. Quaternary International, 343, 40–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K., & Delagnes, A. (2016). The pattern of emergence of a Middle Stone Age tradition at Gademotta and Kulkuletti (Ethiopia) through convergent tool and point technologies. Journal of Human Evolution, 91, 93–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K., Igreja, M., Rots, V., Cnuts, D., & Porraz, G. (2020). Technology and function of Middle Stone Age points. Insights from a combined approach at Bushman Rock Shelter, South Africa. In H. Groucutt (Ed.), Culture history and convergent evolution: Can we detect populations in prehistory? (pp. 127–141). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douze, K., & Spinapolice, E. E. (2016). “For an updated vision of Middle Stone Age point production in Africa: How does McBrearty and Brooks’s (2000) map of point ‘styles’ look 16 years after?”—Session Presented at the 23th Biennial Meeting, SAFA. Toulouse Juin 26. July 2, 2016 (Vol. Abstract Book).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunnell, R. C. (1978). Style and function: A fundamental dichotomy. American ANTIQUITY, 43, 192–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durham, W. H. (1992). Applications of evolutionary culture theory. Annual Review of Anthropology, 21, 331–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eren, M. I., Greenspan, A., & Sampson, C. G. (2008). Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment. Journal of Human Evolution, 55, 952–961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Féblot-Augustins, J. (2009). Revisiting European Upper Paleolithic raw material transfers: The demise of the cultural ecological paradigm? In B. Adams & B. Blades (Eds.), Lithic materials and Paleolithic societies (pp. 25–46). Hoboken: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R. (1985). Optimality theory in anthropology. Man, 222–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R., & Lahr, M. M. (1997). Mode 3 technologies and the evolution of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 7, 3–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R. A., & Lahr, M. M. (2011). The evolution of the diversity of cultures. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 1080–1089.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamble, C. (1998). Palaeolithic society and the release from proximity: a network approach to intimate relations. World archaeology, 29(3), 426-449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galef, B. G., & Laland, K. N. (2005). Social learning in animals: empirical studies and theoretical models. AIBS Bulletin, 55(6), 489–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, A. J. H., & Lowe, C. V. R. (1929). The stone age cultures of South Africa. Capetown: AMS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramly, R. M. (1980). Raw material source, areas and curated tools assemblage. American Antiquity, 45, 823–833.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groucutt, H. S. (2020). Culture and convergence: The curious case of the Nubian Complex. In H. Groucutt (Ed.), Culture history and convergent evolution: Can we detect populations in prehistory? (pp. 55–86). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groucutt, H. S., Petraglia, M. D., Bailey, G., Scerri, E. M., Parton, A., Clark-Balzan, L., et al. (2015). Rethinking the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 24, 149–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guglielmino, C. R., Viganotti, C., Hewlett, B., & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1995). Cultural variation in Africa: Role of mechanisms of transmission and adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 92, 7585–7589.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayden, B. (1979). Palaeolithic reflections. Lithic technology and ethnographic excavations among Australian Aborigines. Canberra: Humanities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herries, A. I. (2011). A chronological perspective on the Acheulian and its transition to the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa: The question of the Fauresmith. International Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/961401.

  • Hewlett, B., DeSilvestri, A., & Guglielmino, C. R. (2002). Semes and genes in Africa. Current Anthropology, 43, 313–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hublin, J.-J., Ben-Ncer, A., Bailey, S. E., Freidline, S. E., Neubauer, S., Skinner, M. M., et al. (2017). New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature, 546, 289–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Igreja, M., & Porraz, G. (2013). Functional insights into the innovative Early Howiesons Poort technology at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 3475–3491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, C. R., & McBrearty, S. (2010). 500,000 year old blades from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 58, 193–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, D. (1986). A proposed method for distinguishing between blades and bladelets. Lithic Technology, 15, 34–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline, M. A., & Boyd, R. (2010). Population size predicts technological complexity in Oceania. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 277, 2559–2564.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroeber, A. L. (1949). The concept of culture in science. The Journal of General Education, 3, 182–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (1994). A formal approach to the design and assembly of mobile toolkits. American Antiquity, 59, 426–442.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (1995). Mousterian lithic technology and raw material economy: A cave study. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (2013). Roots of the middle Paleolithic in Eurasia. Current Anthropology, 54, S255–S268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leplongeon, A. (2014). Microliths in the middle and later stone age of eastern Africa: new data from Porc-Epic and Goda Buticha cave sites, Ethiopia. Quaternary International, 343, 100–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1964). Le geste et la parole I, Technique et langage. Paris: Albin Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lombard, M. (2006). Direct evidence for the use of ochre in the hafting technology of Middle Stone Age tools from Sibudu Cave. South African Journal of Science, 18, 57–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maher, L. A., & Macdonald, D. A. (2020). Communities of interaction: Tradition and learning in stone tool production through the lens of the Epipaleolithic of Khareh IV, Jordan. In H. Groucutt (Ed.), Culture history and convergent evolution: Can we detect populations in prehistory? (pp. 213–243). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauss, M. (1936). Les techniques du corps. Journal de psychologie, 32, 271–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S. (1981). Songhor: A middle stone age site in western Kenya. Quaternaria. Storia Naturale e Culturale del Quaternario, 23, 171–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S. (1988). The Sangoan-Lupemban and middle stone age sequence at the Muguruk site, western Kenya. World Archaeology, 19, 388–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., & Brooks, A. S. (2000). The revolution that wasn’t: A new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution, 39, 453–563.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., & Tryon, C. (2006). From Acheulean to Middle Stone Age in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. In E. Hovers & S. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition (pp. 257–277). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • McElreath, R., Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. (2003). Shared norms and the evolution of ethnic markers. Current Anthropology, 44, 122–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P., & Stringer, C. (1989). The human revolution. Behavioural and biological perspectives on the origins of modern humans. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, H. V., & Brown, F. H. (1984). Obsidian sources and patterns of source utilization in Kenya and northern Tanzania: Some initial findings. African Archaeological Review, 2, 129–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesoudi, A. (2016). Cultural evolution: A review of theory, findings and controversies. Evolutionary Biology, 43, 481–497.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minichillo, T. (2006). Raw material use and behavioral modernity: Howiesons Poort lithic foraging strategies. Journal of Human Evolution, 50, 359–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirazon Lahr, M. (2016). The shaping of human diversity: Filters, boundaries and transitions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 371, 20150241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirazon Lahr, M., & Foley, R. (2001). Mode 3, Homo helmei, and the pattern of human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene. In L. S Barham & K. A. Robson Brown (Eds.), Human roots, African and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene (pp. 23–39). Bristol: Western Academic & Specialist Press Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moncel, M. H. (2004). Raw material collecting in the European Middle Palaeolithic. Stones from distant areas and local raw material: were there large and small territories? Was there an exchange of stones between neandertal groups? In O. V. Smyntyna (Ed.), The use of living spaces in prehistory (Vol. 1224, pp. 13–23). Oxford: Bar International Series

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, J. H. (2001). Ethnogenetic patterns in native North America. Archaeology, Language, and History, 31–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muir, I., & Hivernel, F. (1976). Obsidians from the Melka-Konture prehistoric site, Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 3, 211–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mussi, M., Altamura, F., Macchiarelli, R., Melis, R. T., & Spinapolice, E. E. (2013). Garba III (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia): A MSA site with archaic Homo sapiens remains revisited. Quaternary International, 343, 28–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negash, A., & Shackley, M. S. (2006). Geochemical provenance of obsidian artefacts from the MSA site of Porc Epic, Ethiopia. Archaeometry, 48, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negash, A., Shackley, M. S., & Alene, M. (2006). Source provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Early Stone Age (ESA) site of Melka Konture, Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 1647–1650.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, M. C. (1991). The study of technological organization. Archaeological Method and Theory, 3, 57–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunn, C. L., Arnold, C., Matthews, L., & Mulder, M. B. (2010). Simulating trait evolution for cross-cultural comparison. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365, 3807–3819.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1974). New examination of lithic implement from Porc-épic (Ethiopia) points. Anthropologie, 78, 529–551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Picin, A. (2018). Technological adaptation and the emergence of Levallois in Central Europe: New insight from the Markkleeberg and Zwochau open-air sites in Germany. Journal of Quaternary Science, 33, 300–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premo, L. S., & Hublin, J.-J. (2009). Culture, population structure, and low genetic diversity in Pleistocene hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 33–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premo, L. S., & Kuhn, S. L. (2010). Modeling effects of local extinctions on culture change and diversity in the Paleolithic. PLoS One, 5, e15582.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premo, L. S., & Scholnick, J. B. (2011). The spatial scale of social learning affects cultural diversity. American Antiquity, 76, 163–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rightmire, G. P. (2001). Patterns of hominid evolution and dispersal in the Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary International, 75, 77–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roche, H., & Texier, P. (1995). Evaluation of technical competence of Homo erectus in East Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. In J. R. F. Bower & S. Sartono (Eds.), Human Evolution in its Evolutionary Context: Proceedings of the Pithecanthropus Centennial 1893–1993 Congress, Pithecanthropus Centenniel Foundation (pp. 153–167). Leiden: Leiden University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolland, N. (1995). Levallois technique emergence: Single or multiple? A review of the Euro-African record. In H. Dibble & O. Bar-Yosef (Eds.), The definition and interpretation of Levallois technology. Monographs in Word Archaeology 23 (pp. 333–359). Madison: Prehistory Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sackett, J. R. (1982). Approaches of style in lithic archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1, 59–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E. M. (2017). The North African Middle Stone Age and its place in recent human evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology, 26, 119–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E. M. (2018). The origin of our species. New Scientist, 238(3175), 34–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E. M., Drake, N. A., Jennings, R., & Groucutt, H. S. (2014). Earliest evidence for the structure of Homo sapiens populations in Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 101, 207–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E. M. L., Thomas, M. G., Manica, A., Gunz, P., Stock, J. T., Stringer C., et al. (2018). Did our species evolve in subdivided populations across Africa, and why does it matter? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 33, 582–594.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1976). Behavioural archaeology. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackley, M. S., & Sahle, Y. (2017). Geochemical characterization of Four Quaternary obsidian sources and provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Middle Stone Age Site of Gademotta, Main Ethiopian Rift. Geoarchaeology, 32, 302–310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shea, J. J. (2008). The Middle Stone Age archaeology of the Lower Omo Valley Kibish Formation: Excavations, lithic assemblages, and inferred patterns of early Homo sapiens behavior. Journal of Human Evolution, 55, 448–485.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shea, J. J., Fleagle, J. G., & Assefa, Z. (2007). Context and chronology of early Homo sapiens fossils from the Omo Kibish Formation, Ethiopia. In P. Mellars, K. Boyle, O. Bar-Yosef, & C. Stringer (Eds.), Rethinking the human revolution (pp. 153–162). Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monograph.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shennan, S., & Collard, M. (2005). Investigating processes of cultural evolution. In R. Mace, C. J. Holden, & S. J. Shennan (Eds.), The evolution of cultural diversity: A phylogenetic approach (pp. 133–164). London: University College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. (1996). An exegesis of the curation concept. Journal of Anthropological Research, 52, 259–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinopoli, C. M. (1991). Style in arrows: A study of an ethnographic collection from the western United States. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinapolice, E. E. (2012). Raw material economy in Salento (Apulia, Italy): New perspectives on Neanderthal mobility patterns. Journal of archaeological science, 39, 680–689.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinapolice, E. E. (2014). New Insights on the Early Middle Stone Age of Garba III, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia, Workshop “The African Roots of Hunan Behaviour”, LCHES, Cambridge, May 15th 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinapolice, E. E. (2016). East African MSA: Regionalization and Variability, SAA 81ST Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida April 6–10, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stout, D., Bril, B., Roux, V., DeBeaune, S., Gowlett, J. A. J., Keller, C., ... & Stout, D. (2002). Skill and cognition in stone tool production: an ethnographic case study from Irian Jaya. Current anthropology, 43(5), 693–722.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stringer, C., & Galway-Witham, J. (2017). Palaeoanthropology: On the origin of our species. Nature, 546, 212–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tostevin, G. B. (2012). Seeing lithics: A middle-range theory for testing for cultural transmission in the Pleistocene. American School of Prehistoric Research Monograph Series. Peabody Museum, Harvard University; and Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trigger, B. (1996). A history of archaeological thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A. (2006). “Early” Middle Stone Age lithic technology of the Kapthurin Formation (Kenya). Current Anthropology, 47, 367–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., & Faith, J. T. (2013). Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa. Current Anthropology, 54, S234–S254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., McBrearty, S., & Texier, P.-J. (2005). Levallois lithic technology from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya: Acheulian origin and Middle Stone Age Diversity. African Archaeological Review, 22, 199–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., & Ranhorn, K. L. (2020). Raw material and regionalization in Stone Age East Africa. In H. Groucutt (Ed.), Culture history and convergent evolution: Can we detect populations in prehistory? (pp. 143–156). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Peer, P., Fullagar, R., Stokes, S., Bailey, R. M., Moeyersons, J., Steenhoudt, F., et al. (2003). The Early to Middle Stone Age transition and the emergence of modern human behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. Journal of Human Evolution, 45, 187–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, N., Nomade, S., Negash, A., & Renne, P. R. (2006). Forensic 40Ar/39Ar dating: A provenance study of Middle Stone Age obsidian artifacts from Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 1749–1765.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadley, L. (2005). Putting ochre to the test: Replication studies of adhesives that may have been used for hafting tools in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 49, 587–601.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadley, L. (2010). Compound-adhesive manufacture as a behavioral proxy for complex cognition in the Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology, 51, S111–S119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wendorf, F., & Schild, R. (1974). A Middle Stone Age sequence from the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia. Warsaw: Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut HistoriiKultury Materialnej.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., et al. (1999). Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature, 399(6737), 682–685.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, T. D., Asfaw, B., DeGusta, D., Gilbert, H., Richards, G. D., Suwa, G., et al. (2003). Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature, 423, 742–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M., & Ashton, N. (2003). Lower Palaeolithic core technology and the origins of the Levallois method in north-western Europe. Current Anthropology, 44, 598–609.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiessner, P. (1983). Style and social information in Kalahari San projectile points. American Antiquity, 48, 253–276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiessner, P. (1984). Reconsidering the behavioral basis for style: A case study among the Kalahari San. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 3, 190–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, J., & Chazan, M. (2012). Blade production ∼500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: Support for a multiple origins hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene blade technologies. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39, 1883–1900.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wobst, H. M. (1974). Boundary conditions for Paleolithic social systems: A simulation approach. American Antiquity, 39, 147–178.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Amilcare Bietti, who taught me the concept of “culture”. I wish to thank Huw Groucutt for inviting me to contribute to the volume and for his useful suggestions and comments. I thank three anonymous reviewers for their precious comments and insights, they strongly contributed to making this paper better. Thanks to Simone Ghiaroni for the anthropological clarifications. This research is part of the (H)ORIGIN Project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research within the framework of the SIR 2014 program (Project RBSI142SRD, PI: E.E. Spinapolice). The research is also part of the RLM 2014 program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Enza Elena Spinapolice

Authors
  1. Enza Elena Spinapolice
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enza Elena Spinapolice .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Extreme Events Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

    Huw S. Groucutt

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Spinapolice, E.E. (2020). Lithic Variability and Cultures in the East African Middle Stone Age. In: Groucutt, H. (eds) Culture History and Convergent Evolution. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation