Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age.
Abstract
The Middle Stone Age in Africa The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens . Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science , this issue p. 86 , p. 90 , p. 95
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Increasing population density was plausibly associated with the cultural developments around 300,000 years ago.
“In favor of this general kind of idea, increasing population density was plausibly associated with the cultural developments reported by Brooks et al. (2018) around 300,000 years ago.”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Brooks et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Deino, A. L., Leslie, D. E., Ambrose, S. H., Ferguson, J. R., d’Errico, F., Zipkin, A. M., Whittaker, S., Post, J., Veatch, E. G., Foecke, K., & Clark, J. B.
- Affiliations
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- Berkeley Geochronology Center (US)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of Missouri (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Emory University (US)
- George Washington University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brooks, Alison S.
- Potts, Richard
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2018-04-06
- Volume
- 360
- Issue
- 6384
- Pages
- 90-94
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2789260142
- Cited by
- 412
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 15
- FWCI
- 204.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (EAR-1322017, BCS-0814304, BCS-1621158)
- Wenner-Gren Foundation (8623)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2011116368)
- NSF IGERT Program (DGE-0801634)
- National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Program (BCS-1240694)
- Peter Buck Fund for Human Origins Research
- NSF HOMINID Program (BCS-0218511)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and Rock Art Studies
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Keywords
- Middle Stone Age, obsidian sourcing, pigment use, human origins, technological transition, social exchange, East African prehistory, lithic technology
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Coloring Agents, Humans, Kenya, Social Behavior, Socioeconomic Factors, Human Characteristics, History, Ancient
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