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22 - Development of the archaeological record during the Middle Stone Age of South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Sarah Wurz
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

It is in the context of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) that characteristic modern human morphotypes and behaviours appeared. In this chapter, MSA technologies, subsistence and site maintenance behaviours and their cognitive and behavioural implications are discussed in broad terms. The earliest MSA stone tool technology already shows behavioural complexity, but current evidence also indicates that bone tools, pyrotechnology, ochre technology, jewellery and engraved objects – which are all conventional markers for complex and modern behaviours – only appear in notable quantities from marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 onwards (from 130 to 85 kyr BP), with a discernible surge in MIS 4. Two of the MSA aspects that remain largely obscure due to a lack of fine grained information, however, are the regional extent of bone and stone tool technologies and the degree to which climatic events and environmental factors shaped human evolution and behaviour.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 371 - 384
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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