Ages for the middle stone age of Southern Africa: implications for human behavior and dispersal

Authors

Zenobia Jacobs, University of WollongongFollow
Richard G. Roberts, University of WollongongFollow
Rex F. Galbraith, University College London
Hilary J. Deacon, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Rainer Grun, Australian National University
Alex Mackay, Australian National UniversityFollow
Peter Mitchell, University of Oxford
Ralf Vogelsang, University of Cologne
Lyn Wadley, University of the WitwatersrandFollow

RIS ID

24652

Publication Details

Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R. G., Galbraith, R. F., Deacon, H. J., Grün, R., Mackay, A., Mitchell, P., Vogelsang, R. & Wadley, L. (2008). Ages for the middle stone age of Southern Africa: implications for human behavior and dispersal. Science, 322 (October), 733-735.

Abstract

The expansion of modern human populations in Africa 80,000 to 60,000 years ago and their initial exodus out of Africa have been tentatively linked to two phases of technological and behavioral innovation within the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa—the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort industries—that are associated with early evidence for symbols and personal ornaments. Establishing the correct sequence of events, however, has been hampered by inadequate chronologies. We report ages for nine sites from varied climatic and ecological zones across southern Africa that show that both industries were short-lived (5000 years or less), separated by about 7000 years, and coeval with genetic estimates of population expansion and exit times. Comparison with climatic records shows that these bursts of innovative behavior cannot be explained by environmental factors alone.