From the Middle to the Later Stone Age in Eastern Africa

Abstract

The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in sub-Saharan Africa occurred sometime between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. It is supposed to be the period in which (already) anatomically modern Homo sapiens became behaviorally modern “Upper Palaeolithic” people. It is said to occur prior to the dispersal(s) out of Africa which brought modern humans into Eurasia and elsewhere. Various evolutionary models have been applied to this period, most notably Richard Klein’s idea that some Africans went through a sudden neurological transformation that resulted in the development of symbolically-based language and culture. This made the dispersal possible, and almost inevitable. What is less well known is that there are few archaeological records in the African continent which can be used to test these models. This paper reviews the evidence for the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in East Africa. While genetics and geochronology point to an African origin of our own species, it is still difficult to conclude what happened during the Upper Pleistocene that led to the spread of anatomically modern humans out of the continent.