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The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) is often mistakenly understood to be synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic of Europe, especially due to their roughly contemporaneous time span, however, the Middle Paleolithic of Europe represents an entirely different hominin population, Homo neanderthalensis, than the MSA of Africa, which did not have Neanderthal populations. Additionally, current archaeological research in Africa has yielded much evidence to suggest that modern human behavior and cognition was beginning to develop much earlier in Africa during the MSA than it was in Europe during the Middle Paleolithic.[1]
The earliest remains of Homo sapiens date back to approximately 195 thousand years ago in eastern Africa.[2] In the the archaeological record of both eastern Africa and southern Africa, there is immense variability associated with Homo sapien sites and it is during this time that we see evidence of the origins of modern human behavior. According to McBrearty and Brooks, there are four features that are characteristic of modern human behavior: abstract thinking, the ability to plan and strategize, "behavioral, economic and technological innovativeness," and symbolic behavior.[3]
Numerous sites in southern Africa reflect these characteristics. Blombos Cave, South Africa contains personal ornaments and what are presumed to be the tools used for the production of artistic imagery, as well as bone tools.[4] Still Bay and Howieson's Poort contain variable tool technologies.[5] These different types of assemblages allow researchers to extrapolate behaviors that would likely be associated with such technologies, such as shifts in foraging behaviors, which are further supported by faunal data at these sites.[1]
- ^ a b d'Errico, Francesco; Banks, William E. (2013). "Identifying Mechanisms behind Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age Cultural Trajectories". Current Anthropology.
- ^ Tryon, Christian A.; Faith, J. Tyler (2013). "Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa". Current Anthropology.
- ^ McBrearty, Sally; Brooks, Alison (2000). "The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior". Journal of Human Evolution.
- ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S.; d'Errico, Francesco; Marean, Curtis W.; Milo, Richard G.; Yates, Royden (2001). "An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language". Journal of Human Evolution.
- ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S.; Dubreuil, Benoit (2011). "The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, 77-59 ka: Symbolic Material Culture and the Evolution of the Mind during the African Middle Stone Age". Current Anthropology.