Continuity of the Middle Stone Age into the Holocene

Jacopo N Cerasoni,Alison Crowther,James Blinkhorn,Khady Niang,Huw S Groucutt,William Mills,Ian Candy,Mark D Bateman,Eleanor M L Scerri

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79418-4

Abstract

The African Middle Stone Age (MSA, typically considered to span ca. 300–30 thousand years ago [ka]), represents our species’ first and longest lasting cultural phase. Although the MSA to Later Stone Age (LSA) transition is known to have had a degree of spatial and temporal variability, recent studies have implied that in some regions, the MSA persisted well beyond 30 ka. Here we report two new sites in Senegal that date the end of the MSA to around 11 ka, the youngest yet documented MSA in Africa. This shows that this cultural phase persisted into the Holocene. These results highlight significant spatial and temporal cultural variability in the African Late Pleistocene, consistent with genomic and palaeoanthropological hypotheses that significant, long-standing inter-group cultural differences shaped the later stages of human evolution in Africa.

Highlights

The African Middle Stone Age (MSA, typically considered to span ca. 300–30 thousand years ago [ka]), represents our species’ first and longest lasting cultural phase
The studied sediments at Laminia are found within exposures of this terrace feature whilst the site of Saxomununya is found on the terrace surface
The dates of ca. 11 ka from Saxonomunya and ca. 21–24 ka from Laminia sit at the end of a chronological arc of MSA assemblages in West Africa

Summary

Introduction

The African Middle Stone Age (MSA, typically considered to span ca. 300–30 thousand years ago [ka]), represents our species’ first and longest lasting cultural phase. The African Middle Stone Age (MSA) is a cultural phase characterized by features such as a focus on prepared core lithic technology, hafting, and long-distance exchange, that emerged synchronously with the biological appearance of our species, Homo sapiens[1,2,3,4,5] (see Supplementary Materials [SM]). Together with these characteristics, the spatial and temporal distribution of the MSA across Africa between ca. The majority of West African MSA sites offer limited chronological control (e.g.23–25), demanding clear demonstrations of the young timeframe of their occurrence to successfully integrate them into broader evolutionary models

Methods

Results

Conclusion