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The Mumba rockshelter, located in the northwest of Lake Eyasi is key to understanding the Stone Age in East Africa. The stratigraphy of the site spans the last 130 ka BP and comprises levels from the Middle Stone Age, the Later Stone Age, the Pastoral Neolithic, and the Iron Age. In terms of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), Mumba has helped to define two lithic industries: Sanzako (130 ka BP) and Kisele (90–50 Ka BP) that characterize this techno-complex in northern Tanzania. The Sanzako industry was defined based on level VI-B at Mumba, which was excavated in 1938 by Köhl-Larssen. Here we present the study of the lithic assemblage excavated by Mehlman between 1977 and 1981. Mehlman subdivided this unit into three sublevels (Lower, Middle, and Upper), all of which remained unanalyzed and therefore, unpublished. The main features of the lithic assemblages found in the three sublevels are the presence of discoid, Levallois, and bipolar knapping methods. Additionally, the retouched tools are mainly sidescrapers, denticulates, and notches. This recent research enables us to understand the Sanzako industry in more detail, as well as its nature within the chronocultural framework of the MSA in northern Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Capsian, comprising the Typical Capsian and Upper Capsian facies, is a prominent North African prehistoric entity dating to the Early Holocene. Hundreds of rammadiyat (snail-shell mound) sites in eastern Algeria and Tunisia were occupied by Capsian hunter-gatherer communities. A significant technological change occurred at these sites during the mid-seventh millennium BCE. Pressure knapping, for producing a blade and trapeze lithic industry, emerged. This technique developed during the Mesolithic throughout the Mediterranean region. Understanding the earlier typological and technological variabilities and the exact timing of the emergence of pressure knapping is crucial in determining the local or foreign origin of this innovation in North Africa. Recent examination of legacy collections excavated in the Oum el Bouaghi area of Algeria during the interwar period fosters new perspectives on Capsian lithic industry variability. Our analyses document a complex lithic landscape for the Early Holocene, including a proposed "Central Early Capsian" facies for the early phases, as well as the persistence of strong regional variabilities in Upper Capsian lithic industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is arguably one of the most studied regions in Stone Age research. There are, however, considerable differences in research intensity with respect to different regions and time periods. While KwaZulu-Natal is an epicenter for Middle Stone Age (MSA) research, the Late Pleistocene LSA record is largely understudied in this region. Here we present a lithic assemblage from the site Umbeli Belli near Scottburgh dated to 17.8 ± 1.5ka BP. The lithic analysis of the GH 3 assemblages revealed both gradual and abrupt changes within this stratigraphic horizon, indicating relatively short-term changes in material cultural traditions. A comparison with other Robberg sites in the wider surroundings highlights the regional variability of the Robberg techno-complex and indicates potential directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological research has been carried out in the Eastern Rif (Morocco) since 1995 by a collaborative Moroccan-German research team. A major topic of the project is the transition from hunting-gathering to food production and related cultural developments. Innovations such as pottery and domesticated species appeared around 7.6 ka calBP. The cultivation of cereals and pulses is evident at that time. Two of the most important sites in the area are Ifri Oudadane and Ifri n'Etsedda. Both provide Epipaleolithic as well as Neolithic deposits. While innovative technologies such as pottery production and cultivation indicate external influences, lithic artifacts demonstrate local technological and behavioral traditions. Therefore, the study of lithic industries is crucial to understanding the nature of cultural continuity and discontinuity between the hunting-gathering and agricultural populations in the Eastern Rif. Ifri n'Etsedda provides two distinct Epipaleolithic deposits and thus offers the opportunity to study possible changes throughout the Epipalaeolithic and relationship to the later Early Neolithic (ENC). In combination with the earlier phases of Early Neolithic assemblages (ENA, ENB) at Ifri Oudadane, we are now in a better position to understand the development of early-to-mid Holocene lithic technology in the Eastern Rif. We show that the lithic record of Ifri n'Etsedda does not indicate any significant change in raw material supply, blank production, and tool distribution from the Early Epipaleolithic to the Early Neolithic B. Therefore, we argue for behavioral continuity from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic period. In contrast, the assemblages of the Early Neolithic C show changes in lithic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iberomaurusian lithic industries in the Maghreb are known for their microlithization characteristics beginning ca. 25 ka cal BP. The analyses of the Iberomaurusian lithic assemblages in Algeria have mostly focused on typological and stylistic issues. These are good for distinguishing the various archaeological entities encountered in the region but inadequate for understanding the techno-economic behaviors that these industries supported. A technological approach to analysis allows for the recognition of the choices made by the knappers throughout the core reduction processes, the blank production, the transformation of blanks into tools, and the debitage methods and techniques. It has proven useful for understanding not only lithic production process but also the roles that lithic tools played in various subsistence economies. Hence, this paper uses a technological approach to reanalyze the lithic assemblages from Tamar Hat, Rassel, and Columnata. The lithic industries of these three sites are characterized by the tendency toward microlithization as attested by the presence of small chipped stone artifacts on diminutive blanks. The results suggest that the hunter-gatherer populations of the Maghreb produced microliths using a wide range of technological options during the Late Pleistocene. The study also reveals diachronic changes in the production modalities of the microliths. These changes are likely related to variations in hunting strategies in different ecological niches and as adaptive strategies to various paleoclimatic events of the Late Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iberomaurusian lithic assemblages from Ifri El Baroud (northeast Morocco) are discussed from techno-economic, typological, and functional points of view. The site preserves an archaeological sequence spanning the period ca. 23,000–13,000 cal BP. The analysis of the lithic materials from the sequence highlights the diachronic changes in human behavior. Results show a strong relationship between paleoenvironmental shifts and changes in settlement strategies and lithic production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neolithic stone tool production in Sudan was quite diverse but exhibited high standards of production, as exemplified by the adze-like artifacts called "gouges". Drawing on data from several sites in Jebel Sabaloka, and comparative data from Shaheinab and Sheikh el-Amin, our paper examines the economy of gouge production from a technological point of view. More specifically, we discuss the process of gouge production and distribution through the study of raw material sourcing and methods of manufacture. We determine that the Neolithic people of central Sudan preferred rhyolites for the manufacture of gouges and that the production was highly standardized. We also examine the implications of gouge production for understanding Neolithic social networks in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loiyangalani is important to the understanding of human occupation patterns in the Serengeti and Northern Tanzania during the Middle Stone Age in terms of food-processing activities and lithic technology. The abundant faunal remains at the site show that it was used for game processing. The lithic technology was based on prepared core methods, dominated by the discoid and Levallois types, for the production of flakes. The retouched tools found at the site (scrapers, denticulates, and notches) are characteristic of activities associated with animal butchering while those connected with hunting activities are scarce. Some previous studies proposed that the Middle Stone Age occupation at Loiyangalani represents an independent industry in the region since the techno-typological differences noted between it and the neighboring sites are quite striking. We revisit this hypothesis by using three approaches—taphonomy, typology, and technology—for analyzing the MSA assemblage in Loiyangalani. We then compare the data from these three analyses with two other MSA industries in Northern Tanzania—Mumba and Nasera. Using principal component and cluster analyses to evaluate the typological and technological variation in these three industries, we show the patterns of differences and similarities among them and offer explanations for these patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site in South Africa is renowned for its karstic cave systems, which have yielded extensive fossil and stone tool assemblages dating to the Plio-Pleistocene period. The archaeological record from these caves has provided significant evidence for the evolution of lithic technology in southern Africa. Open-air sites have also been documented in this region, although they rarely receive scientific attention due to their lack of spatial and stratigraphic contexts. However, archaeological research has demonstrated that lithic production strategies were organized through landscape-scale constraints including the availability of raw materials and the energetic costs of their transport. As such, the study of open-air Stone Age sites in the Cradle of Humankind can potentially offer insight into the relationships between raw material procurement and reduction processes in this region. Here, we present a case study from the open-air locality of Elandsdrift Farm, which preserves a palimpsest of Earlier and Middle Stone Age lithic materials. While the chronological and spatial contexts of this locality present significant interpretative challenges, the Elandsdrift Farm lithic materials are not without scientific value. A landscape archaeological approach is employed to explore the influence of raw material transport on tool-making. Trends in core reduction intensity and flaking efficiency suggest that landform ruggedness and distances traveled to procure raw materials significantly influenced lithic production strategies throughout the Early to Middle Pleistocene. Despite the contextual challenges presented by open-air localities, landscape archaeological methods can inform the economic aspects of lithic scatters in this region, which cannot be easily inferred from archaeological assemblages in cave contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the late Pleistocene lithic sequence at Klipfonteinrand (KFR) rockshelter in the eastern Cederberg of the Western Cape. A characteristically Robberg technological system associated with the production of small silcrete blades from small cores was in place at the site by ~ 22 ka (thousand years ago) with a hornfels-dominant, non-microlithic Oakhurst system replacing it ~ 16 ka. Key technological differences in lithic material selection, artifact size, form, and techniques relating to the manufacturing process itself are apparent between early and later components within the Robberg, and between the Robberg and Oakhurst more broadly. Results suggest that technological change during the late Pleistocene was a fluid process involving continual modifications within the broad regional technological system. Variation during the Robberg occurred within a constrained range and the nature of change through the sequence was overall relatively gradual. The KFR data contributes to the emerging picture of the Robberg as temporally, spatially, and technologically complex with nuanced variation at a very fine scale of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the study of Oldowan technological variability, and the observed inter-assemblage diversity has been attributed to a number of causes, including raw material availability, different hominin species, and cultural and diachronic variation. This paper explores technological variability through the study of Naiyena Engol 2, an Oldowan site dated at c.1.8-1.7 Ma and located in the Nachukui Formation of West Turkana, Kenya. Site formation processes, stratigraphic and taphonomic aspects of Naiyena Engol 2, are reported and are followed by a discussion of the lithic assemblage, focusing on flaking techniques and battering activities. Our results show important diversity of flaking techniques within the same assemblage, suggesting that lithic variability is not only an inter-site phenomenon but also may be found within single Oldowan sites. Additionally, the overall low flake productivity of Naiyena Engol 2 is in sharp contrast with patterns observed in other West Turkana assemblages such as Lokalalei 2, thus also supporting the existence of significant inter-assemblage variability during the Oldowan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tamar Hat rockshelter (Béjaïa, northeastern Algeria) has yielded a lithic assemblage showing general characteristics of an Iberomaurusian Early Late Stone Age nature. Specific 'becs,' which we shall call 'becs of Tamar Hat,' appear as an important component of the assemblage in the upper occupations, which occurred at the end of Late Glacial Maximum. These becs, from a technological point of view and especially by their shaping processes, constitute a reliable reference collection, though showing morphological variability resulting in part to the reduction process. The use-wear analysis conducted, based on a microscopic examination validated by experimentation, testifies the becs would have functioned for engraving hard bone, such as those of deer. Other scars observed on the sharp edge and lower face near the active portion of the tool are caused by hafting. Hence, the results of the technological and functional analyses of the becs from Tamar Hat reveal the presence of specialized activities in the upper occupations, related to the animal bone processing. These results are supported by the archaeozoological study, which confirms that the site functioned as a seasonal habitat, where Megacerin deer was exploited in the upper occupations for utilitarian, non-food purposes. The emergence of the use of the becs of Tamar Hat is synchronous with the end of the Upper Paleolithic, prior to the expansion of bec use in the Upper Magdalenian of Europe, where technical and stylistic convergences were observed. This raises the question of the emergence of these lithic implements in North Africa and the possible spread of similar industries elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assemblage of stone tools from P. Beaumont's Excavation 1 at Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa, provides a unique stratified sequence covering a large part of the Earlier Stone Age. A combination of cosmogenic burial age and paleomagnetic age dating provides limited chronometric constraint on this sequence. The Wonderwerk sequence provides evidence for the development of Earlier Stone Age technology in southern Africa that parallels the sequence known from East Africa. This paper presents a technological discussion of biface technology at Wonderwerk Cave as well as an overview of the associated lithic assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this work is to examine the Aterian complex in the context of modern human origins through the analysis of the lithic industries from a geographically strategic area, the Jebel Gharbi (Libya). From a chronological point of view, the Aterian fits the time period of the Out of Africa 2 dispersal. During geoarchaeological surveys of the Jebel Gharbi carried out by the Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission, 25 Aterian sites were found. The technology of the Aterian lithic industries from the Jebel Gharbi shows affinities both with the Aterian industries from Morocco and coeval industries from Egypt such as Taramsa. The affinities between contemporary Libyan Aterian industries, Egyptian industries, and some series from the Levant open new perspectives on the possible models of contact and displacement of human groups in a key period for the history of humankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gombore II site dates to circa the Brunhes Matuyama Reversal and is one of the Acheulean localities of the Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia) archaeological complex, known since the 1970s. In 2001, this locality was selected as the site for an Open Air Museum and thus excavated. The excavation area has yielded an abundant Acheulean lithic assemblage manufactured on volcanic raw materials in close association with numerous paleontological remains. A technological analysis was carried out on a fraction of the bifacial tools (bifaces and cleavers) which could be temporarily removed from the displayed surface in the museum. This set of artefacts reveals new data about the bifacial shaping strategies adopted at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene in Ethiopia. The use of obsidian and the systematic manufacturing of twisted bifaces are original features of the assemblage. These data are discussed in the framework of penecontemporaneous East African sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleoclimatic data indicate that the Pleistocene/Holocene transition was a period of considerable ecological change in the Caledon Valley of the southern African interior. Stone artefact assemblages from sites in one part of this region, the Phutiatsana ea Thaba Bosiu (PTB) Basin of western Lesotho, were analyzed in order to investigate whether changes in settlement and subsistence strategies during this period are also reflected in the organization of lithic technologies. It appears that although technological solutions to the problems of subsistence risk may have been emphasized during the late Pleistocene, social means, such as exchange, dominated at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. Subsequent innovation or adoption of new formal tool types suggests that both strategies were important from the middle Holocene onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent excavations at Rose Cottage Cave, located in the Free State, South Africa, have revealed both a transitional assemblage, dated to ca. 20,000 bp, and a final Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblage, dated to ca. 28,000 bp. Preliminary analysis of these assemblages was undertaken to determine if the current European model of a “cultural revolution” for the emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic can be applied to the southern African evidence. Examination of these assemblages revealed that differences occurred between the transition in Europe and that in southern Africa in both the chronology of the transition and the degree to which this complete cultural package is linked to the emergence of Late Stone Age (LSA) technology. The methods of lithic production, the chronology of the MSA/LSA transition, and the associated behavioral characteristics were examined and results indicated that the technological change which occurred during the MSA/LSA transition was not a dramatic innovation in technology but, rather, a shift in the emphasis of production from a level of technology already in place and demonstrate a level of continuity between the MSA and the LSA. As a gradual occurrence, the MSA/LSA transition does not seem to fit the time frame for the European Upper Palaeolithic; it both occurs at a later period and takes longer to transpire. In addition, the origins of symbolic use of lithics appear to lie within the MSA, indicating that a more complex set of behavioral adaptation was occurring in the late Pleistocene in southern Africa, and that the MSA/LSA transition in this region does not adequately conform to the model of a revolutionary shift in behavior and technology that is proposed for the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]