Stone Artefact Assemblages Research Articles

Garden Range 2: Taungurung rock art rockshelter site reveals 11,000 years of Aboriginal occupation of the Strathbogie Ranges, Central Victoria

This paper provides new insights into the long-term history of Aboriginal use of mountainous Victoria over the past 25,000 years. It presents results of excavations at Garden Range 2 rock art site located on the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges in central Victoria. The excavations were a research collaboration between the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) and Monash University. Results indicate possible ephemeral visitation by the Old People during the Last Glacial Maximum, clear evidence of occupation over the past 11,000 years, and increased activity since 1600 cal BP. The stone artefact assemblage is dominated by flakes of local quartz. Three igneous flakes from ground-edge axes, dating to after 700 cal BP, are contemporary with a grinding stone showing use-wear and residues from stone axe maintenance. The faunal assemblage is dominated by forest and grassland animals, such as macropod and emu, with mussel shells and fish bones indicating the use of nearby Seven Creeks. The rarity of ochre within sediments precludes insights into the age of rock art paintings on the shelter’s surface. Fossil pollen documents the nineteenth-century European forest clearances, a period when Taungurung people’s use of the site became unsafe. Unburnt fragments of rabbit and sheep bone suggest subsequent use of the site as a fox den. Garden Range 2 illustrates Aboriginal use of mountainous central Victoria during periods of significant environmental changes in the Early Holocene and possibly in the Late Pleistocene. These chronological patterns, including increased activity in the central Victorian uplands during the Late Holocene, match emerging chronological patterns of long-term use of other mountainous regions of southeastern Australia. How sites like Garden Range 2 relate to broader long-term Aboriginal use of more elevated sub-alpine and alpine (snow country) zones of central and eastern Victoria is a question for future archaeological research.

Microlithic Assemblage from the Terminal Pleistocene: Alawala Pothgul-lena Rock Shelter in the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka

Stone artifact assemblages have long been used for the identification of ancient cultural connections and trends through space and time. In this endeavor, archaeologists have focused on variations in lithic morphology. Sri Lankan sites dated from 47ka onwards, yield stone tools of the microlithic technological tradition. These complex tools are characterized by an expanding range of geometric tools, non-geometric tools, and the novel exploitation and sourcing of raw materials. From the Wet Zone of western Sri Lanka’s Gampaha District, the rock shelter-cave site of Pothgul-lena (PGL) was excavated in 2008-2009. Stone artifacts recovered from PGL belong to the microlithic tool tradition, an enduring technological tradition that has been in use in Lanka from approximately 50,000 years to early historic times. According to C14 dating, the PGL site has been occupied from the terminal Pleistocene (ca. 14ka) into the mid-Holocene (ca. 6ka). Preliminary analysis of artifacts revealed that they were fashioned using the freehand percussion (soft hammer) technique as well as the bipolar technique. The raw material used to produce microliths was quartz of both the clear and milky variety. A high number of cutters, one-edge cutters, scrapers and non-descript flake tools recovered from the excavation are described in this report.

Late Holocene technological provisioning at the Kings Table rockshelter, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

ABSTRACTTechnological analysis of the late Holocene component of the stone artefact assemblage recovered from the Kings Table rockshelter in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, provides the basis for an assessment of the site's role in broader late Holocene settlement‐subsistence systems. Drawing on Kuhn's widely employed “provisioning model”, as well as Kelleher's general pre‐contact occupation model for the Blue Mountains National Park (BMNP), we argue that the Kings Table rockshelter functioned as a short‐term field camp for logistically‐organised hunter‐gatherers whose principal residential bases were located in “off‐mountains” contexts. It is argued that the late Holocene component of the Kings Table assemblage has a technological “signature” entirely consistent with individual provisioning. Aboriginal groups occupying this site over the course of the late Holocene employed a mobile toolkit whose lithic component was dominated by artefacts manufactured out of high‐quality, transported silicified tuff and incorporated both backed artefact‐bearing composite tools and hafted edge‐ground hatchets (axes) as key elements.

Spatial analysis and site formation processes associated with the Middle Pleistocene hominid teeth from Q1/B waterhole, Boxgrove (West Sussex, UK)

Boxgrove is a key locale for our understanding of Middle Pleistocene human behaviour in Northwestern Europe. It provides high-resolution evidence for behaviour at scale in fine-grained sediments, dating from the end of the MIS13 interglacial at around 480,000 years ago. Excavations at this site in the last quarter of the twentieth century have provided a large body of interdisciplinary data, comprising stone artefact assemblages, well-preserved faunal remains and paleoenvironmental archives, from over 100 test pits and larger excavation areas. The excavation area designated Q1/B was excavated between 1995 and 1996 and provided a particularly deep and complex record of early human activity centred upon a pond or waterhole within the wider landscape. In this work, we present a new analysis of spatial data from a single sedimentary unit (Unit 4u) at the Boxgrove Q1/B site. We consider the spatial disposition of lithic and faunal materials, fabric analysis and the role of the palaeotopography in their distribution. The results indicate that, although the dynamic fluvial depositional environment had an undeniable role in the distribution of materials, the scale and nature of post-depositional movement are consistent with the artefacts being preserved within an autochthonous depositional context, not reworked from an earlier sedimentary unit or subject to long-distance transportation. These results are consistent with previous analysis which suggests that the overall lithic assemblage can be directly compared with others from the wider landscape in compositional terms to interpret the behavioural controls over site formation behind the Q1/B archaeology.

Characterising the stone artefact raw materials at Liang Bua, Indonesia

At Liang Bua, the type site of Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores, the stone artefact assemblages are dominated by two raw materials, qualitatively classified as chert and silicified tuff in previous studies. Field observations describe both stone types as locally abundant and of good flaking quality, but no systematic analysis has yet been carried out to characterise their nature. In this study, we conducted the first geological, mechanical, and quantitative assessment of these two raw materials using a suite of analytical approaches. Our results show that the two stone types are mineralogically alike in composition and derive from fossiliferous limestone that had undergone diagenetic silica replacement, but they clearly differ from one another geochemically. Therefore, the ‘chert’ and ‘silicified tuff’ categories used in previous studies are more aptly described as silica-dominated (i.e., SiO2-dominated) nodular chert and iron-rich (i.e., Fe2O3-rich) nodular chert, respectively. We discuss the implications of our results on the shift in raw material utilisation patterns at Liang Bua that occurred after ~ 46 ka and coincided with the arrival of Homo sapiens at the site.

Experimental Improvements to the Volume Ratio and Quantifying Movement Using Stone Artefact Analysis

Many conceptual frameworks of archaeological assemblages have assumed that stone artefact assemblages include all products of manufacture, use, and discard, although recent studies have indicated this is not always the case. The volume ratio is a method that examines the potential for the removal or addition of stone artefacts to an assemblage after manufacture. As humans transport material, and the movement of material effects the composition of assemblages, the alteration of an assemblage through the addition or removal of material can act as a proxy for mobility. This research uses three experimental assemblages to test the effect that different methods of volume quantification and reconstruction have on the calculation of the volume ratio. Results suggest observed assemblage volume is accurately and efficiently calculated using a standardised density of 2.46 g/cm³, while the modelled assemblage volume is relatively accurately calculated using either the Volumetric Reconstruction Method (VRM) or the Flake Volumetric Reconstruction Method (FVRM) with the potential for future research to further improve this methodology.

Extracting new information from old stones: An analysis of three quarries in the semi-arid Pilbara region, northwest Australia

Quarries are important archaeological sites in Australia. They represent the starting point for conditioning variability in stone artefact assemblages (e.g. raw material availability, accessibility, quality, size and shape) and serve as a basis to track human movement from source to discard. Despite this, there is relatively little published research on quarries. For example, in the Pilbara, Western Australia, where stone artefact assemblages are ubiquitous, the paucity of published quarry research makes it difficult to accurately reconstruct patterns of past human behaviour. This research begins to address these issues through the application of a suite of analytical techniques to three quarry sites located in Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Country in the inland Pilbara. Some variability in site use and reduction occurs between the three quarries. However, a clear pattern of assemblage formation involving natural heat fracture, non-intensive reduction, core transport, high proportions of non-intensively used tools and non-economic tool selection, was identified at all sites. The results demonstrate clear planning and manipulation of stone resources by Aboriginal people in the raw material rich Hamersley Range and demonstrate the vital importance of quarries as multi-functional locations in understanding wider systems of Aboriginal interaction with the Pilbara landscape.

Revisiting the chronological attribution of microlitic complexes of the Koksharovsky Hill and Vtoroy Poselok I

In this paper, we consider the reasons behind the attribution of microlitic complexes of the Koksharovsky Hill and the Vtoroy Poselok I site to the late Neolithic. Statistical and typological characteristics of microlitic complexes of these sites fully conform to materials of the Mesolithic sites in the Middle Trans-Urals. The identification of chronological complexes of stone inventory in materials of mixed sites should be made after the full publication of the entire assemblage of stone artefacts. The comparison of the presented materials with the Neolithic sites of the Middle Trans-Urals shows the absence in the local late Neolithic of complexes with such set of stone tools — first of all, a large number of cutters and carvers, as well as burins on straight retouched truncation and geometric microlites. But it is precisely carvers, burins (especially the ones on straight retouched truncation) and geometric microlithes that appear as characteristic products of the Mesolithic period. The dating of the microlitic complexes of the Vtoroy Poselok I site and the Koksharovsky Hill to the late Neolithic contradicts the early profile of the stone assemblage. We deny the definition of the Vtoroy Poselok I site as a single-layer site. Specific features of soil formation in the territory of the Middle Trans-Urals resulted in that the cultural remains of all periods from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages are deposited within the soil layer of only 30–40 cm in thickness. Around the flow-through lakes all areas favorable for economic activities were inhabited repeatedly and in different archaeological epochs. In such particular sites, the objective prerequisites for the mechanical displacement of materials were created. Therefore, all complexes located in such places are mixed. The numerical ratio of the complexes of ce-ramics and stone products and the size of the dwelling in the Vtoroy Poselok I site is also inconsistent with the materials of the Neolithic sites of the Middle Trans-Urals. Given the mixed nature of materials of the Kok-sharovsky Hill and the Vtoroy Poselok I, the microlitic complex of artefacts present in both sites may indicate the presence of a significant Mesolithic admixture in them.

Reconstructing prehistoric environments in the Son and Belan valleys, north-central India: Retrospect and Prospect

Pioneering archaeological surveys in the Son and Belan valleys of north–central India in the 1970s revealed that these valleys had been occupied at least intermittently during the Lower Palaeolithic, Middle Palaeolithic, Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic. Later work in the early 1980s provided a reliable stratigraphic framework for the prehistoric sites and also resulted in the chance discovery of volcanic ash erupted from Toba volcano in Sumatra, Indonesia, 74,000 years ago. The discovery of the first Quaternary volcanic ash ever found in India prompted a search for the ash across the Indian sub–continent. By the early 1990s it was apparent that the entire sub–continent had been covered in a layer of ash 10–15 cm thick. Later work showed that some of this ash had been reworked by runoff and soil creep soon after deposition and accumulated in topographic depressions and valley bottoms where it remained in a relatively pure state. However, some of the ash has been reworked more than once since first deposited. Use of the ash as an isochronous marker depends upon establishing whether it is still in primary context and if not the degree to which it has been mixed with younger sediment. A key and as yet unresolved issue is whether or not the eruption had a major or minor regional and global environmental (including climatic) impact. High resolution records from speleothems, pollen spectra, varved lake deposits and ice cores will be needed to answer this question. The presence of similar stone artefact assemblages above and beneath the ash tells us nothing useful about the actual environmental impact of the eruption.

The pilot application of geochemical sourcing to an inland Pilbara archaeological landscape in north-western Australia

Past human mobility, often reconstructed using stone artefact assemblages, is an important component of Australian archaeology. Tracing the transport of stone artefacts enables direct measures of the direction and distance of past Aboriginal movement across landscapes. Sourcing transported stone artefacts to their geological point of origin therefore has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of human mobility. Beyond this, the identification of artefact source locations is also critical for stone artefact analyses since raw material factors strongly condition assemblage formation. However, relatively little stone sourcing has been completed in Australia. This is particularly the case for the inland Pilbara, north-western Australia, where almost no sourcing work has been published. This paper presents the results of a limited pilot study which aimed to test the application of petrographic and in situ laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) analytical techniques to the sourcing of transported artefacts from three Pilbara quarried outcrops to two non-quarried open surface sites. The results indicate that geochemical interelement ratios (e.g., La/Nd and U/Th) can discriminate between both quarry sites and artefacts. A clear petrographic and geochemical match between a quarry and one stone artefact discarded at a non-quarried site was found, and different samples collected from the same quarry yielded overlapping geochemical signatures. This suggests that LA-ICPMS has the potential to elucidate artefact transport (as a proxy for the movement of people) between locations, effectively linking these places as part of a behavioural system. While a larger database of artefact and quarry specimens is needed to fully explore both the efficacy of the approach and the archaeological implications, this study suggests that sourcing techniques hold significant promise for reconstructing past human mobility in the Pilbara and for demonstrating landscape-scale connections between sites.

Local lithic landscapes and local source complexity: Developing a new database for geological sourcing of archaeological stone artefacts in North-Western Australia

Raw material sourcing is critical for not only understanding past mobility and stone technology but also the formation of stone artefact assemblages. Despite this, very little sourcing work has been conducted in Western Australia where stone artefacts dominate the archaeological record. This problem exists partially because of a generally complex local and regional geology. At the same time, in the wider literature, there is also a tendency to focus on sourcing non-local (>10 km) artefacts over local artefacts (<10 km). To exemplify these problems, this paper focuses on raw material sourcing in parts of the coastal Carnarvon and Pilbara, particularly Barrow Island and Cape Range. Both landscapes have long occupation histories (>40 ka). A raw material database of both local and non-local sources is proposed. This database is initially focused on macroscopic, petrographic and some geochemical analysis which can later be extended to include more detailed geochemistry. The first set of results from the database indicate that both limestone and calcrete were sourced locally, while locally available indurated rocks like sandstone have more variable source locations, including the possibility of now-drowned parts of the inner shelf. It is hoped that this study may be translated to other parts of Australia and beyond, where there are similar complexities in sourcing of stone artefacts.

Evaluating prepared core assemblages with three-dimensional methods: a case study from the Middle Paleolithic at Skhūl (Israel)

Levallois technology is a hallmark of many Middle and Late Pleistocene stone artifact assemblages, but its definition has been much debated. Here we use three-dimensional photogrammetry to investigate the geometric variation among Levallois and discoidal core technologies. We created models of experimental and archaeological stone artifact assemblages to quantitatively investigate the morphologies of Levallois and discoidal core technologies. Our results demonstrate that technological characteristics of Levallois technology can be distinguished from discoidal variants by analyzing the relative volumes and angles of the two flaking surfaces. We apply these methods to a random subset of Middle Paleolithic cores from Skhūl (Israel) and show that, overall, the Skhūl archaeological sample falls in range with the experimental Levallois sample. This study advocates the investigation of core technology on a spectrum to elucidate particular reduction trajectories while maintaining visible outliers and dispersion within an assemblage. Our quantified approach to studying centripetal core technology broadly is particularly applicable in studies related to forager mobility strategy and raw material use. Ultimately, the methods developed here can be used across temporal and geographic boundaries and facilitate attribute-based inter-site comparisons.

The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological and faunal finds at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in light of the revised chronology for Homo floresiensis

Liang Bua, the type site of Homo floresiensis, is a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores with sedimentary deposits currently known to range in age from about 190 thousand years (ka) ago to the present. Recent revision of the stratigraphy and chronology of this depositional sequence suggests that skeletal remains of H. floresiensis are between ∼100 and 60 ka old, while cultural evidence of this taxon occurs until ∼50 ka ago. Here we examine the compositions of the faunal communities and stone artifacts, by broad taxonomic groups and raw materials, throughout the ∼190 ka time interval preserved in the sequence. Major shifts are observed in both the faunal and stone artifact assemblages that reflect marked changes in paleoecology and hominin behavior, respectively. Our results suggest that H. floresiensis and Stegodon florensis insularis, along with giant marabou stork (Leptoptilos robustus) and vulture (Trigonoceps sp.), were likely extinct by ∼50 ka ago. Moreover, an abrupt and statistically significant shift in raw material preference due to an increased use of chert occurs ∼46 thousand calibrated radiocarbon (14C) years before present (ka cal. BP), a pattern that continues through the subsequent stratigraphic sequence. If an increased preference for chert does, in fact, characterize Homo sapiens assemblages at Liang Bua, as previous studies have suggested (e.g., Moore et al., 2009), then the shift observed here suggests that modern humans arrived on Flores by ∼46 ka cal. BP, which would be the earliest cultural evidence of modern humans in Indonesia.

Coastal occupation before the “Big Swamp”: Results from excavations at John Wayne Country Rockshelter on Barrow Island

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we present a terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene archaeological record from John Wayne Country Rockshelter (JWCR), located on Barrow Island in north‐western Australia. The rock shelter was used between 15000 and 7000 calBP, and provides insights into how Aboriginal people interacted with a changing coastal landscape throughout postglacial sea‐level rise. The faunal record reflects this fluctuating local landscape. The late Pleistocene faunal assemblage largely consists of arid plains terrestrial fauna, and then transitions to a diverse marine invertebrate taxa midden. This record demonstrates coastal resource use throughout the terminal Pleistocene, before the expansion of mangrove forests across northern Australia. The stone artefact assemblages indicate varied expedient reduction patterns. The assemblages include artefacts manufactured from local limestone and non‐local sources. Our analyses indicate that occupation durations at JWCR were longer during the late Pleistocene compared to the early Holocene, when productive mangrove environments became proximal. The implications of these results are twofold. First, effective use of coastal plain environments was probably just as important for coastal occupation as marine resource procurement. Second, the presence of relatively dense marine faunal assemblages is not necessarily a reliable proxy for individual coastal‐site occupational intensity under conditions of local resource productivity.

Watura Jurnti: A 42000–45000‐year‐long occupation sequence from the north‐eastern Pilbara

ABSTRACTWatura Jurnti (DAA #6287) was first occupied in 42000–45000 BP, with evidence of occupation continuing through the arid LGM and deglacial period to c.15000 BP. There was a very pronounced reduction in both occupation and deposition between c.15000 and 1500 BP. The small size and nature of the stone artefact assemblage indicates that use of the shelter has been intermittent and non‐intensive throughout most of the past 42–45 ka. Watura Jurnti is on an isolated ridge on the northern margin of the Pilbara and its occupational history shows that the more marginal areas of the arid zone, including the sandy and stony deserts of adjacent to the northern Pilbara, were subject to intermittent visitation before, during and after the LGM.

An investigation of human responses to climatic fluctuations at Allen’s Cave, South Australia, from ca 40,000 to 5,000 BP, by a technological analysis of stone artefacts

Following its initial occupation ca 40,000 years ago, Aboriginal people using Allen’s Cave in South Australia’s arid zone experienced two major climatic changes. From the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at ca 30,000 cal. BP, until its peak at ca 22,000–18,000 cal. BP, aridity in Australia reached its most intense phase during the human occupation of the site. Conversely, conditions around the Allen’s Cave region during the early Holocene, 11,000–8,000 cal. BP, were the most favourable for human occupation. In this paper, we present the results of a technological and statistical re-analysis of previously excavated Allen’s Cave stone artefact assemblages, focusing on the period ca 40,000–5,000 cal. BP, to examine whether people made adjustments to stone tool manufacture in response to these climatic fluctuations. Our results and interpretations are consistent with some of the conclusions of previous scholars, primarily that the site was used for infrequent visitation rather than long-term occupation, and that little change occurred in the production of stone artefacts (despite changing environmental conditions). We also concur that lithic evidence exists for trade/exchange and/or a change in foraging range or stone curation practices at the start of the early Holocene. However, we do not support all prior claims for significant cultural and demographic changes at this time and we argue that Allen’s Cave was probably abandoned from ca 30,000 to 26,000 cal. BP. The ca 4,000 year hiatus, combined with probable increased visitation after the LGM, suggests that whilst stone tool technology remained largely consistent during the period of focus, Aboriginal people did alter their occupation patterns in response to environmental changes. On the basis of these new interpretations about the site’s occupation history, we provide updated observations in order to contribute to desert occupation modelling.

Ecological risk, demography and technological complexity in the Late Pleistocene of northern Malawi: implications for geographical patterning in the Middle Stone Age

ABSTRACTThe Late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) record of Africa provides early examples of standardised stone tool production and complex manufacturing sequences, superficially implying a long‐term trend towards greater complexity in MSA technology at a continental scale. However, at this scale, spatial and temporal expressions of technological complexity are uneven. New lithic and chronometric data from the East–Central African record add further regional perspective to these patterns. Stone artefact assemblages from Karonga, northern, Malawi (92–22 ka), persistently lack the complexity demonstrated elsewhere in Africa at the same times, despite similar lithic raw materials. These new data provide an essential avenue for exploring hypotheses about the roles of environmental risk and demography in shaping the expression of MSA technology across the continent, not just at a local scale. When set within this framework, the simplicity of the Karonga MSA is best explained by its position in an environment that was persistently low in relative extrinsic subsistence risk. These results reinforce that motivations to invest in complex tools were variable through space and time, and that this variation, more than factors relating to behavioural capacity, may explain the patchy evidence for lithic complexity in the later MSA.

Early Pleistocene archaeological occurrences at the Feiliang site, and the archaeology of human origins in the Nihewan Basin, North China.

The Early Pleistocene archaeological evidence from the fluvio-lacustrine sequence of the Nihewan Basin (North China) offers an excellent opportunity to explore early human evolution and behavior in a temperate setting in East Asia, following the earliest ‘Out of Africa’. Here we present the first comprehensive study of the Feiliang (FL) site, with emphasis on the archaeological sequence, site integrity, and stone artifact assemblages. Magnetostratigraphic dating results show that early humans occupied the site ca. 1.2 Ma. Archaeological deposits were buried rapidly in primary context within shallow lake margin deposits, with only minor post-depositional disturbance from relatively low energy hydraulic forces. The FL lithic assemblage is characterized by a core and flake, Oldowan-like or Mode 1 technology, with a low degree of standardization, expedient knapping techniques, and casually retouched flakes. The bone assemblage suggests that hominin occupation of the FL site was in an open habitat of temperate grassland with areas of steppe and water. The main features of the FL assemblage are discussed in the context of the early Pleistocene archaeology of Nihewan, for which an assessment of current and future research is also presented.

Selected samples: The nature of silcrete adzes in the formation of Australian stone artefact assemblages

Silcrete flakes and cores are abundant in the surface assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia but retouched tools made from silcrete are much less frequent, especially the heavily retouched forms like flake adzes. The distribution and abundance of these forms together with other silcrete retouched tools is investigated. While heavily retouched forms are present, forms thought to represent the intermediate stages of rejuvenation reduction are largely absent. This absence is used to consider how archaeological sites from the region should be interpreted. It is concluded that sites should not be interpreted as though they represent a material record of activities that occurred only at the place where archaeological sites are identified.

A new MIS 3 radiocarbon chronology for Mochena Borago Rockshelter, SW Ethiopia: Implications for the interpretation of Late Pleistocene chronostratigraphy and human behavior

With excavated layers spanning a period from >49ka to ~36ka, Mochena Borago Rockshelter reveals a complex sequence of Late Pleistocene human occupation punctuated by volcanic events. Fifty-nine radiocarbon ages make Mochena Borago one of the best-dated Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in eastern and northeastern Africa. However, complex site formation processes, dramatic stratigraphic differences between non-contiguous excavation areas, and “outlier” dates that appear in various parts of Mochena Borago's sequence, complicate efforts to develop a secure and detailed chronology for local and regional behavioral changes. This article focuses on contiguous squares within the Block Excavation Area (BXA) trench at the northern end of the shelter. Bayesian modeling of thirty-seven dates from six major lithostratigraphic units within the BXA yields a revised series of age ranges; these differ from the previous age model (derived from weighted means) in subtle but important ways. Perspectives gained through Bayesian analysis stimulate more careful consideration of the complex site formation processes operating at Mochena Borago, the contextual integrity of the site's robust and distinctive flaked stone artifact assemblages (lithics), and potential correlations between lithic changes and environmental events that occur on local, regional, and global scales. As these factors come into focus, Mochena Borago can serve as an important chronological benchmark to better understand human behavior in eastern and northeastern Africa around the time of the second major dispersal of Homo sapiens.