90,000 year-old specialised bone technology in the Aterian Middle Stone Age of North Africa.

Abdeljalil Bouzouggar,Silvia M Bello,Mohammed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui,Simon A Parfitt,Nick Barton,Louise T Humphrey,Jean-Luc Schwenninger,Laine Clark Balzan,Roland Nespoulet,Alex Dickson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202021

Abstract

The question of cognitive complexity in early Homo sapiens in North Africa is intimately tied to the emergence of the Aterian culture (~145 ka). One of the diagnostic indicators of cognitive complexity is the presence of specialised bone tools, however significant uncertainty remains over the manufacture and use of these artefacts within the Aterian techno-complex. In this paper we report on a bone artefact from Aterian Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits in Dar es-Soltan 1 cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It comes from a layer that can be securely dated to ~90 ka. The typological characteristics of this tool, which suggest its manufacture and use as a bone knife, are comparatively similar to other bone artefacts from dated Aterian levels at the nearby site of El Mnasra and significantly different from any other African MSA bone technology. The new find from Dar es-Soltan 1 cave combined with those from El Mnasra suggest the development of a bone technology unique to the Aterian.

Highlights

North Africa yields one of the richest hominin fossil records of early Homo sapiens [1,2,3], associated with a Middle Stone Age (MSA) culture that displays some of the same characteristics as contemporaneous sub-Saharan assemblages, where early cognitive complexity is recognised [4]
The oldest specialised bone tools so far known from sub-Saharan Africa come from Katanda (Democratic Republic of Congo) and are dated to ~90 ka [42]
With the exception of the specialized bone tools from Sibudu Cave and Katanda, these early finds are restricted to pointed forms

Summary

Introduction

North Africa yields one of the richest hominin fossil records of early Homo sapiens [1,2,3], associated with a Middle Stone Age (MSA) culture that displays some of the same characteristics as contemporaneous sub-Saharan assemblages, where early cognitive complexity is recognised [4]. These include the systematic processing and use of pigments and the production of shell bead ornaments that are argued to represent symbolically mediated behaviour.

Materials and methods

Discussion and conclusions