Lower Palaeolithic Research Articles

Re-thinking the concept of embedded procurement: Insights from the lower Paleolithic of the Levant

Binford’s concept of embedded procurement, proposed over half a century ago, which suggests that lithic procurement was typically integrated with other subsistence activities, has become a cornerstone of raw material studies, and continues to dominate interpretations by many archeologists studying Lower and Middle Paleolithic flint sourcing. However, evidence from Lower Paleolithic Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave, and the Lower and Middle Paleolithic Dishon and Achbara flint extraction and reduction complexes, in Israel, suggests that this view warrants reconsideration. At Qesem Cave, significant proportions of non-local materials, particularly within specific typo-technological categories, indicate a selective approach to the procurement and exploitation of different flint types, including evidence of long-distant procurement. At Dishon and Achbara, multiple flint extraction and reduction tailing piles have been identified, featuring rejected handaxes and Levallois cores, and the geochemical composition similarity between this flint and handaxes from the Acheulian sites of at Ma’ayan Barukh and Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (GBY), both located ∼ 20 km from the Dishon complex, suggesting the existence of task-specific forays, dedicated to the organized extraction of flint. Based on these finds, we propose that the predominance of the embedded procurement model should be reassessed, as direct procurement strategies were already in use during the Lower Paleolithic of the Levant. Moreover, drawing on archaeological and ethnographic data, we argue that cultural, social, cosmological, and ontological factors also influenced lithic materials procurement practices among Lower Paleolithic populations.

When to generalise and when to specialise? Climate change and hominin biocultural adaptability in the African early and middle stone age

A growing number of authors have discussed the role of climate change in periods of important biological and cultural transition along the hominin lineage. This paper establishes a biocultural framework elucidating human behavioural adaptations during the African Early and Middle Stone Age, centred on three crucial dimensions of hunter-gatherer adaptation: mobility, social network dynamics, and technology. We contend that landscape properties, specifically resource diversity and seasonal to inter-annual resource variability, can be used to model the specific responses of hominin groups to climate change over time, based on their awareness of these properties. Specifically, we focus on hominin technological generalisation and specialisation, meaning the extent to which there is a high degree of specificity (or fit) between final tool form and the task(s) in which the tool is deployed.In this regard, we argue that the archaeological record reveals punctuated and discontinuous specialisation during certain phases of the Early Stone Age driven by landscape predictability. These periods encourage the expression of relevant innovations and stepwise increases in technological complexity. While some of them become lost to demographic or cultural stochasticity, others end up forming the basis for a standardisation of generalised forms within the context of unexpected climatic deterioration. This is highlighted by the late Acheulean: following a period of greater generalisation in the late Early Pleistocene correlating with repeated and severe orbitally-forced periods of aridity, smaller biface forms become more common (or absent) and regional experimentation with prepared-core technology in Eastern Africa takes place in the context of a return to more humid and stable climatic conditions. The onset of more arid and variable climates associated with the emergence of the Middle Stone Age led to the continental expansion of the prepared-core technological substrate underpinning generalised assemblages. The cycle continues in the Middle Stone Age with a return to climatic stability in the Late Pleistocene and subsequent regional diversification of this techno-complex, in which hominins responded with greater toolkit specialisation in a number of different ways. In this context, we support the existence of a cyclical and non-linear relationship between environmental adaptation and cognitive evolution, as part of a wider biocultural feedback loop, which contributes to explain the evolutionary roots of our “generalist specialist” niche.

The use of bones as tools in Late Lower Paleolithic of Central Italy

The Latium area in Italy has yielded rich evidence of Lower Paleolithic sites with both faunal remains, artefacts, and human fossil remains, such as the Ceprano human skull. Many are the sites where lithic industry has been found in association with bone industry. Medium and large animals were a key resource because they provided an enormous amount of meat and fat. However, they were extensively exploited for their bones, rich in marrow, and as raw material for tool production. Bone tools are so far few documented for early period of time and especially for the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. We report here evidence of bone tools and their efficiency of use for hominin groups living in the Frosinone-Ceprano basin during the MIS 11/10, a key period which records behavioral innovations and onset of the Neanderthal behaviors. In three sites, Isoletta, Colle Avarone and Selvotta, several bone tools and bone flakes have been discovered (MIS 11/10). They were associated to stone artefacts part of the hominins tool-kit. Technological and use-wear analyses conducted on these bone industries, dated between 410 and 430 ka, yield relevant results to understand the effectiveness of the bones tools found associated with lithic series, including handaxes.

Challenging the Conventional Advent of Agriculture with a Salt Harvesting Industry of Early Neolithic Hunters

Early Neolithic Sapiens “Hunters” developed a sophisticated combination of processing their animal carcasses, tanning hides and skins and enabling salts and osmosis dehydration to sanctify their protein victuals. Primitive abattoir industry was enabled by the discovered use of critical quantities of common salt produced in open brine irrigated “fields” and accelerated by the corralling of funnel driven wild animal herds in the early Stone Age. Undissolved salts form where high temperatures and low rainfall create conditions of evaporation and transpiration exceed precipitation. Through capillary action, water containing salts deep in the soil is pulled up to the dry topsoil. As this water evaporates from the soil, the once leached salts are left behind. With no water to dissolve the salts or carry them away, they begin to accumulate in the topsoil. The growth and “gathering” or farming of salt crystals in fields it is hypothesized, has possibly been misinterpreted as evidence of a much later advanced plant cereal and crop spatial agriculture. This paper suggests that an earlier Hesiod metallic Sodium Age, cut short the Paleolithic Stone Age, pre-empting Hesiod’s, Copper, Bronze and Iron ages, and arable food cultivation, to first enable the sanctity and purity of sustaining protein meat.

Intentionality, pointing, and early symbolic cognition

Concepts such as “symbolism” and “symbolic cognition” often remain unspecified in discussions the symbolic capacities of earlier hominins. In this paper, I use conceptual tools from phenomenology to reflect on the origins of early symbolic cognition. In particular, I discuss the possible early use of pointing gestures around the time of the earliest known stone tool industries. I argue that unlike more basic social acts such as expression, gaze following, and attention-getters, which are used by extant non-human great apes, communicative pointing involves key elements that are characteristic of symbolic cognition. In particular, it involves “third order intentionality” as well as “shared practice horizons”: shared frameworks of understanding which are required for the interpretation of communicative acts whose meaning is not codified indexically or iconically in the signaling behavior. In the final part, I briefly review some indications for the use of pointing gestures around the time of the Lomekwian and Oldowan industries, as a way to sustain cooperation and possibly learning by instruction. It is suggested that pointing is more complex than is standardly acknowledged, and that it may have been an important communicative act for Early Stone Age hominins in transitioning to more fully symbolic speech capacities.

Refining Holocene sea‐level variations for the Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelagos, northern Norway: implications for prehistoric human–environment interactions

ABSTRACTThe Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelagos are located off the outer coast of northern Norway far from the center of the former Fennoscandian Ice Sheet and near the continental shelf edge. Existing relative sea‐level (RSL) data indicate a pronounced mid‐Holocene transgression and interesting connections with the region's prehistoric human settlement history. Here we present seven new sea‐level index points from isolation basins and five terrestrial limiting points from a coastal sedimentary sequence to refine the region's RSL history. Ingression and isolation contacts in isolation basin sediment cores are identified using sedimentary geochemical data, scanning X‐ray fluorescence profiles and phytoplankton analysis. The ages of these contacts are determined using radiocarbon‐based age models. Our index points range from 11.2 to 1.5k cal a bp and are combined with previously published data to predict the spatiotemporal evolution of sea level in this region using an ensemble of spatiotemporal empirical hierarchical models (STEHME). The new RSL curve constrains the timing of the mid‐Holocene transgression, which occurred from c. 9 to 6k cal a bp when sea level increased from −4 to 7 m above present day. From c. 6 to 5k cal a bp, RSL rapidly fell to c. 4 m above present values, and more gradually declined at an average rate of c. 0.8 m ka−1 over the last 5k cal a bp. Isobase maps derived using the STEHME show a decrease in the regional shoreline gradients since the transgression maximum from 0.25 to 0.07 m km−1. Our data also better define how RSL variations influenced the location and preservation of coastal settlement locations and harbors from the early Stone Age through historic intervals, improving understanding of regional human–environment interactions.

Genetic Variation in Relation to Demography of Male Population in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Until recently, it was believed that people settled in the area of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina only a few thousand years ago, that is, in the epoch of the Neolithic period 5-6 thousand years ago. Intensive archeological excavations revealed traces of men who lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Early Stone Age, or more precisely, in the Middle Paleolithic. In the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the material legacy of the Paleolithic is marked by the oldest monument of Paleolithic art in Southeast Europe - an engraving in the rock of the cave Badanj near Stolac, called Horse attacked by arrows, preserved fragmentarily, and was made around 12,000 BC. Genetic research revealed that the first people in Bosnia and Herzegovina were present even 20,000 years ago. A total of 2,501 people were tested in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they were classified into eight haplogroups: I, R, J, E, G, N, T and Q. The most common haplogroup in Bosnia and Herzegovina is haplogroup I. 52% of tested people belong to this haplogroup (I1- 8% i I2 - 44%). The second most common is haplogroup R with 21% (R1a-5% and R1b-16%), followed by haplogroups E-13%, J-9% (J1-1% and J2-8%), N-3%, G-2% and haplogroups T (3 tested, 0%) and Q (1 tested, 0%). Four haplogroups: I, R, E and J are represented in Bosnia and Herzegovina with 94%. The movement path of haplogroup I2-M423 begins 230,000 years ago from Africa and goes from Nigeria through Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, all the way to the Balkan Peninsula. The path ends in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina about 18,000 years ago. Censuses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are also presented in this work. The oldest population census of Bosnia and Herzegovina dates back to the very beginning of the seventeenth century, and was conducted during the Turkish rule in the Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian authorities was carried out in 1879. Censuses were made in 1885, 1895 and 1910. In the period 1921-2013 a total of nine censuses were carried out in B&H.

Set in Stone: Human–Horse Relations as Embodied in Shaped Stone Balls

AbstractThe enigmatic presence of uniquely shaped, spherical stones attracted the attention of archaeologists at Oldowan sites in Africa as early as a century ago. Shaped stone balls (SSBs) are among the oldest implements used by humans. For nearly 2 million years, they accompanied ancient humans as a stable cultural anchor throughout the Lower Paleolithic period and beyond. These tools reflect techno-cultural processes and Lower Paleolithic human perceptions of their relationships with the non-human animal world. Nonetheless, the few techno-functional studies focussing on these items have only scraped the surface of their research potential. In this paper, I will explore evidence suggesting that SSBs embody the relations of ancient humans with a particular animal—the horse—and propose that they might have played an active role in the social and cosmological realms of Lower Paleolithic (LP) ontology. Several previous studies indicate that they were shaped through a meticulous process. Traces of use and organic residues of marrow/fat associate them with bone-breaking activities. Furthermore, a comprehensive contextual analysis points to a correlation, observed at various sites, between SSBs and large herbivores, specifically horses. This correlation supports the premise that early humans relied on SSBs to extract calories from horses and points to a possible link between the simultaneous disappearance of large horses and SSBs from the Levantine landscape at the end of the LP. The role of horses in Paleolithic diet and culture is well reflected in the archaeological record. Following recent anthropological views, I advocate that SSBs played an important role in the human–horse alignment, embodying within them the world of perceptions and relationships of ancient humans with this non-human animal who shared their habitat.

Lower Palaeolithic in Korolevo I (Transcarpathia, Ukraine, East-Central Europe): the earliest in Europe?

A recently published article in “Nature” (Garba et al., 2024) claims that lithic finds in the lowermost artefact-bearing sediments of lithological unit 26 at the Korolevo I site (Transcarpathia, Ukraine) are the oldest in Europe, dated to ca. 1.42 Ma with cosmogenic nuclides of gravel pebbles. These surprisingly old dates were then used to build hypotheses on the geochronology and routes of the initial Homo erectus colonization of Europe from the east. The present author reviews all published and unpublished Lower Palaeolithic (LP) data of the Korolevo I site, the field investigations of which he also participated in the 1980s, and came to the following negative results. The dated pebbles in Korolevo I unit 26 are of “intrusive” character, they do not date unit 26 and its lithic finds. Also, the proposed Early Pleistocene interglacial MIS 47, 45 and 43 periods for the LP colonization of Europe either via Asia Minor and the Danube River valley or the Caucasus and the southern part of Eastern Europe do not correspond to the known palaeogeographic and archaeological data from Western Eurasia. Besides, our review of LP contexts in Korolevo I suggests that the so-called lowermost LP lithic artefacts found in situ in archaeological horizon VII within lithological unit 26 in Korolevo I in 1984-1986 are distributed randomly horizontally and vertically. Moreover, they are mostly unworked hyalodacite and siliceous sandstone pieces together with several artefacts redeposited from the sediments above. Accordingly, the only certainly LP material in Korolevo I we know so far is situated in archaeological horizon VI, which is geochronologically associated with the Middle Pleistocene inter-Mindel period or MIS 14, dated to ca. 550 ka BP. However, the Korolevo I site still appears to represent the oldest LP human occupation in both Eastern Central Europe and Ukraine.

Technological analysis of the Baboungué collections, Central African Republic: New data on the Early Stone Age macro-tools

Despite numerous sites attributed to Early Stone Age (ESA), the emergence and diversification of lithic industries in Central African Republic is still challenging for discussion. Among all these sites, those located near Baboungué village have been reported by Roger de Bayle des Hermens in the late 1960s, and provided artifacts from two localities, namely Baboungué 1 and Baboungué 2. Both sites are situated around 800 meters from Baboungué village within the Sangha River alluvial deposits. Nowadays, the lithic assemblages from Baboungué are stored at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, France. In this paper, we reappraise a selection of 90 pieces from both localities (Baboungué 1=26 and Baboungué 2=74), which have already been identified and classified by R. de Bayle des Hermens in “Recherches préhistoriques en République centrafricaine” (1975). He used a morphological and typological approach. We decided to apply a new technological approach on these collections. Reduction strategies (flaking and shaping) and techno-functional analysis were applied with a focus on the shaped tools and pebble tools. Even though, the classification made by R. de Bayle des Hermens is taken into consideration in our study. We introduced several new categories such as Large Flake Tools, and Trifacial Shaped Tools. We expose the unexpected diversity of Baboungué shaped tools and pebble tools both in terms of production and techno-function (structural specificities). This paper also describes for the first time the trifacial shaping strategies for Central African ESA, whereas traditional ESA bifacial shaping is absent. Finally, we question the techno-cultural and functional significance of these collections marked by robust to massive stone tools.

The Middle Stone Age of Atlantic Africa: A critical review

Evidence of early Homo sapiens populations at the Atlantic coast of Africa remains relatively poorly known in relation to other regions of the continent. Nevertheless, available data across the continent provides a good starting point for current and future research investigations. The many sites known, documented and studied contribute in an increasingly way to the global understanding of the human emergence, including evidence of human evolutionary and technological advances, specific adaptations to diverse environments, the diffusion of Homo species and how humans interacted with each other from the “Early Stone Age (ESA)” through to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) from northern and southern Africa to the West. The differences of knowledge between the Atlantic coast in regard to other regions might be attributed to a number of reasons including but not limited to the history of scientific interest, site formation processes or economic, institutional and political constraints. However, the region received a renewed attention and funds that, combined with new methods and techniques, has been allowing an increased training of new researchers and the acquisition of high-resolution archaeological, paleoenvironmental and chronological data. Together, these inputs will reduce the differences of knowledge between the Atlantic coast and the Northern, Southern and Eastern Africa regions. The African Atlantic Coast represents more than 40% of the continent's perimeter, covering all Africa's climate zones, the hot arid environments, mountainous regions, and tropical rainforest could become relevant barriers for human mobility, but the shallow continental platform, and the great number of river basins allowed mobility between north and south coastal biomes into the continental interiors. These may have provided predictable patchy clusters of resources allowing human populations to thrive, enabling greater mobility and consequent diffusion of cultural traits, resources, and DNA. In this paper we review the record about the prehistory, paleoenvironments and paleoanthropological visibility and potentiality of Atlantic Africa.

Early or Middle Stone Age? The lithic assemblage of Capangombe – Santo António, Namibe Province (Angola)

Capangombe – Santo António is an open-air site located 596m a.s.l. at the foothill of Morro Santo António, Namibe Province (southwest Angola). The inselberg of Santo António is associated to the Chela escarpment developing from the Marginal Mountain range parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, separating the Angolan inland plateau from the coastal semi-arid to arid plain. A dissected valley formed by the Leba-Capangombe stream exposed a conglomerate with abundant stone tools assigned to the Early Stone Age (ESA). The site was discovered in 1966 by Miguel Ramos, who collected a total of 1776 lithic artifacts, and further published a small report about the assemblage in 1971. In this preliminary analysis, Ramos focused on cleavers using the “French school” typology for the “hachereaux” in Northern Africa and concluded that there are several morphotypes identified in Capangombe-Santo António with specific features, suggesting the occurrence of a local tradition for the Late ESA/Middle Stone Age (MSA). The study presented here is a new analysis of the lithic assemblage curated at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. A sample of 1017 artefacts was analyzed for this project applying an extended descriptive methodology to characterize lithic raw material procurement, reduction sequences and typological classes. The chrono-cultural model initially proposed for the site is revised thanks to recent advances in Stone Age studies.

New Data on the Lower Paleolithic of Tajikistan: Materials of Lakhuti IV, Trench 3

Purpose. The paper presents a description of the stratigraphic and planigraphic situation at the excavation 3 of the Lakhuti IV site (Khovaling loess plateau, Tajikistan) recorded during field work in 2022.Results. The cross-section has 18 layers grouped into three strata: L6 glacial period sediments (MIS 14), 6a and 6b soil complexes (MIS 15). The identified technocomplexes belong to the late Karatau culture of the Lower Paleolithic of Tajikistan. The level 5.2 planigraphy indicates that the investigated area could be a fragment of a workshop site where primary processing of stone raw materials was carried out. The layer L6 artefacts indicates that the region was continuously developed by humans, and glacial conditions in the Middle Pleistocene affected the intensity of these processes only.Conclusions. The closest analogues to the late Karatau complexes can be traced in the Soan pebble-flake industries of the Northern Hindustan. They have a similar age to Tajik materials (second half of the Middle Pleistocene), geomorphological position (deposits of high terraces in the upper reaches of the Indus, Soan, and other rivers in the Himalayas foothill zone), a similar raw material base (river alluvium). Also they have a number of technical and typological characteristics, which include: citron and radial knapping; a higher percentage of large flakes and “citrons”; choppers, simple side-scrapers and unifaces in tool-kits; lack of bifacial technique. As a result of a new stage in the study of the Lower Paleolithic complexes in the region, authors proposed a new model, according to which the region was continuously developed by hominins, and glacial conditions mainly influenced the intensity of these processes.

Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago

Wood artefacts rarely survive from the Early Stone Age since they require exceptional conditions for preservation; consequently, we have limited information about when and how hominins used this basic raw material1. We report here on the earliest evidence for structural use of wood in the archaeological record. Waterlogged deposits at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dated by luminescence to at least 476 ± 23 kyr ago (ka), preserved two interlocking logs joined transversely by an intentionally cut notch. This construction has no known parallels in the African or Eurasian Palaeolithic. The earliest known wood artefact is a fragment of polished plank from the Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, more than 780 ka (refs. 2,3). Wooden tools for foraging and hunting appear 400 ka in Europe4–8, China9 and possibly Africa10. At Kalambo we also recovered four wood tools from 390 ka to 324 ka, including a wedge, digging stick, cut log and notched branch. The finds show an unexpected early diversity of forms and the capacity to shape tree trunks into large combined structures. These new data not only extend the age range of woodworking in Africa but expand our understanding of the technical cognition of early hominins11, forcing re-examination of the use of trees in the history of technology12,13.

Tracking Early Hominin Foraging Behavior at DS Site (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge)

Academic discussions about African Early Stone Age site formation, animal carcass acquisition by hominins, the regularity of meat consumption or the use of central places have mainly relied on taphonomic studies of a few archaeofaunal assemblages, such as FLK Zinj (1.84 Ma [million years] ago, Olduvai Gorge Bed I, Tanzania). The DS site lies on the same paleosurface as FLK Zinj and constitutes an equally well-preserved, vertically-discrete deposit. The site has been extensively excavated in recent years (554 m²) and represents an invaluable opportunity to address key and long debated issues regarding early hominin lifeways with new approaches based on using robust and reliable statistical methods, including machine learning. Taphonomic studies can also greatly benefit from including the spatial component in the interpretations of a site’s formation and functionality. The results of the taphonomic and spatial study of DS point to the following behavioral components of hominin lifeways with regard to their foraging strategies: 1) regular primary access to animal carcasses; 2) selective animal carcass acquisition; and 3) collective animal carcass consumption in central-provisioning places. These features also point to cooperation and food sharing. The evidence from DS indicates that early Homo showed significant behavioral complexity relative to extant primates and a cohesive social structure. Two more newly discovered anthropogenically supported sites from the same period (PTK and AGS, Bed I Olduvai Gorge) that are currently being analyzed will soon shed further light on these adaptations.

Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant: A View from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel)

Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant: A View from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel)

Obsidian in Ethiopia: a Geoarchaeological perspective

In Ethiopia, obsidian is mainly found in the Afar Depression and the Main Ethiopian Rift. The compositional and petrological features of these obsidians vary. Some volcanic centers show that varying volcanic eruptions from a single center may not necessarily imply variable chemistry. Obsidian has been dated using K/Ar, Ar/Ar, and fission track methods to determine the time of eruption but there are also a few dates on artifacts by hydration dating to establish the time of tool manufacture. Many of the geological sources were utilized by prehistoric populations beginning at least since the Early Stone Age but obsidian became commonly used during the Middle Stone Age. Obsidian based stone tool use for scraping in Ethiopia persisted until recent times.

The Pointe de Saint-Colomban site (Carnac, France): redefinition of the Colombanian culture, in the framework of the European Acheuleans

The technocomplexes of the European Lower Palaeolithic are often attributed to the so-called Acheulean. Through several prehistoric sites located in the South Armorican coast, a distinct and contemporary Acheulean cultural facies was proposed at the end of the 1980s. Based on the study of lithic industries at the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site in Carnac, it is called “Colombanian” and is characterised by the coexistence of macro-tools on pebbles and a variety of small tools on flakes. As is often the case, the presence or absence of handaxes is a determining criterion to qualify a lithic assemblage as “Acheulean”. However, this categorial attribution loses all meaning when a technological analysis is conducted. Consequently, we used a techno-structural approach to illustrate the technological and functional variability of lithic artefacts from the early occupations of the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site (layers 5, 6 and 7). The application of the “chaîne opératoire” principle allowed us to reveal the processes and objectives of the lithic production system and to establish a homogeneous reading grid among the different pieces of the assemblage. We present here the data from our study which clearly shows that the “Colombanian” is no longer valid and that we need to initiate a change of definition. The lithic industry of the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site is dominated by the concept of flaking (débitage) represented by numerous cores and flake tools. The concept of shaping (façonnage) is illustrated by only two sandstone pebble tools. All this highlights the diversity and originality of the lithic technical systems of the Lower Palaeolithic of the Atlantic Armorican coastline.

Recasting the Sangoan Stone Age Techno-Complex in the Stone Age Nomenclature at Sango Bay, Southern Uganda

This paper discusses the complex use of the term ‘Sangoan’ and its placement between the Early Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) using data from Simba Hill in Sango Bay. The purpose is to examine whether the Sangoan is Acheulean, Middle Stone Age, or an independent lithic industry at Sango Bay. Four specific objectives guided the study: reviewing the Stone Age terminology, Sangoan lithic typology, technology, and environmental characteristics. A detailed literature review of the Stone Age nomenclature shows patterns and trends of the Sangoan terminology; while a combined lithic assemblage from the archaeological surface survey and excavation yielded heavy and light-duty lithic tools. The 13 sites identified within the 202.6km surveyed had 73 lithic artefacts, while the excavation unit yielded 1344 lithic artefacts. The results suggest that the Sangoan typology at Sango Bay has five general lithic categories of shaped tools, backed pieces, cores, and debitage. Typologically, the conventional Sangoan lithics at Sango Bay include lanceolates, picks, cleavers, discoids, becs, points and core axes. Technologically, the Levallois lithic reduction strategy characterises the Sangoan with unifacial and bifacial retouch and core technology elements. The toolmakers at Sango Bay used local raw materials, suggesting they were not highly mobile in terms of raw materials. Conclusively, therefore, the Sangoan is a transitional lithic industry.

The first uses of colour: what do we know?

Colour strongly shapes our perception of the world and plays a main role in the emergence of language and in the transmission of information. It has been shown that systematic use of ochre, along with other cultural traits that reflect cognitive complexity, disappear and reappear from the archaeological record, suggesting that cultural transmission follows discontinuous trajectories that to this day are unknown to us. Understanding when humans started using colour and how this feature evolved may therefore be instrumental to understand the evolutionary paths followed by members of our lineage towards cultural complexity. The earliest secure evidence for ochre use is found at 300.000-year-old archaeological sites from Africa and Europe. It usually consists of iron-rich rocks characterized by a red, orange, yellow or brown colour and/or streak, modified by grinding, scraping and knapping to produce red or yellow powder, ochre residues adhering to different types of artefacts or sediment stained with ochre or rich in ochre microfragments. Around 160 ka, ochre use becomes a recurrent feature. Although analyses of ochre collections have become increasingly frequent, there is still very little information on the first instances of ochre use and on how this cultural feature evolved through time. Most cases of early evidence for colour use by different human fossil species were recovered during excavations conducted several decades ago, when ochre was not documented systematically. Excluding a few recently studied cases, there is often a lack of evidence to support the anthropogenic nature of these findings. The aim of this paper is to summarise what we know on ochre use during the Lower Palaeolithic / Early Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Palaeolithic / Middle Stone Age (MSA), review techniques currently used for the analysis of this material and highlight analytical and theoretical issues surrounding this complex cultural feature.