Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

Published:2018-04-06 Issue:6384 Volume:360 Page:90-94
ISSN:0036-8075
Container-title:Science
language:en
Short-container-title:Science

Author:

Brooks Alison S.¹²^ORCID,Yellen John E.²³^ORCID,Potts Richard²⁴^ORCID,Behrensmeyer Anna K.⁵^ORCID,Deino Alan L.⁶^ORCID,Leslie David E.⁷^ORCID,Ambrose Stanley H.⁸^ORCID,Ferguson Jeffrey R.⁹,d’Errico Francesco¹⁰¹¹^ORCID,Zipkin Andrew M.⁸^ORCID,Whittaker Scott¹²,Post Jeffrey¹³,Veatch Elizabeth G.¹⁴^ORCID,Foecke Kimberly¹^ORCID,Clark Jennifer B.²^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.

2. Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.

3. Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA.

4. Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Post Office Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.

5. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.

6. Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.

7. Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.

8. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

9. University of Missouri Research Reactor Center, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

10. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199–De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.

11. Senter for Fremragende Forskning (SFF) Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Postboks 7805, 5020 Bergen, Norway.

12. Laboratory of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.

13. Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.

14. Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.

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

Funder

National Science Foundation

Wenner-Gren Foundation

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

NSF IGERT Program

National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Program

Peter Buck Fund for Human Origins Research

NSF HOMINID Program

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary