Style, Symbolism, and Complex Technology: The Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa

Abstract

Shea, in his response to our (2011) article, comments on the apparent relative “lateness” of archaeological evidence for “style, symbolism, and complex technology” associated with Homo sapiens in Africa and also why it appears to be particularly concentrated in the southern African region. In relation to this latter point, he asks whether this may not relate to an “artifact of sampling.” Has the rest of Africa not been as systematically well excavated as in South Africa? We agree with him on both counts and grant that the archaeological record in most of Africa is too patchy to really fill in the missing gaps in our knowledge of the Middle Stone Age (MSA). There is also a preponderance of evidence after 100 ka that, at first glance, suggests a late evolutionary development in human symbolic behavior. In agreement with Shea, we also suggest this may relate to the simple fact that there are few well-preserved and well-dated sites in Africa associated with H. sapiens that predate this period. More MSA archaeological sites, carefully excavated and dated, are needed for us to develop our current knowledge of the role that symbolic material culture may have played in the behavioral evolution of H. sapiens. However, we should also point out that our knowledge of the African MSA has increased substantially in the past decade and that new information from a number of countries in Africa, apart from South Africa, and before the 77-ka Still Bay deadline that Shea refers to, has been most informative (e.g., d’Errico and Henshilwood 2011). It is thus apparent that the Still Bay (c. 77–72-ka) and Howiesons Poort (c. 65–59-ka) technotraditions are not the oldest examples, nor the only ones in Africa, that have evidence for material culture that has embedded common meanings. Early examples include abstract designs, engraved on bone and ochre, with an age of c. 100 ka that were found in South Africa (Henshilwood, d’Errico, and Watts 2009). Finds of perforated marine shells used as personal ornaments—arguably the most convincing evidence of early symbolic material culture—are found at sites in South Africa (d’Errico et al. 2005;