Human Behavioral Differences in Southern Africa During the Later Pleistocene1

Abstract

An examination of four “Middle Stone Age” archaeological occurrences with specific attention to details of paleo‐environmental conditions (determined from archaeological data and by inference from the contemporary setting) and to the composition of stone artifact assemblages from each, suggests: (1) that each site is strategically located for the exploitation of more than one micro‐environment and (2) that the nature of exploitation of specific plant and animal resources may be largely responsible for differences in lithic inventory between the sites. These hypotheses, which seem very probable now, should be tested by future work.