78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later Stone Age innovation in an East African tropical forest

Abstract

The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of research on this transition is currently focused on southern Africa due to a lack of long-term, stratified sites across much of the African continent. Here, we report a 78,000-year-long archeological record from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya. Following a shift in toolkits ~67,000 years ago, novel symbolic and technological behaviors assemble in a non-unilinear manner. Against a backdrop of a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, localized innovations better characterize the Late Pleistocene of this part of East Africa than alternative emphases on dramatic revolutions or migrations.

The Middle/Later Stone Age transition and cultural dynamics of late Pleistocene East Africa

“…The coastal region includes the well‐dated site of Panga ya Saidi and the undated site complex of Mtongwe, both in Kenya. Kuumbi Cave on Zanzibar has LSA strata as early as the LGM.…”

“…East Africa is a useful region to study because of its relatively large number of archeological sequences that sample the MSA/LSA transition, including Enkapune ya Muto, Kisese II, multiple sites at Lukenya Hill, Magosi, Magubike, Mtongwe, Mumba, Nasera, Panga ya Saidi, and Shurmai; individual MSA and LSA sites in the Lake Victoria basin, Olduvai Gorge, and Kuumbi Cave provide additional constraints on the transition but lack extensive stratigraphic sequences or large sample sizes sufficient to assess change over time (Table ). East Africa as defined here encompasses ~1.77 million km 2 and can serve as a useful point of comparison for other similarly sized regions that also preserve MSA/LSA sequences, such as Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa (~1.88 million km 2 ), as well as southern Africa (~2.09 million km 2 ) …”

“…At GvJm22 (Lukenya Hill), fossil and isotopic data suggest no significant difference in local habitats between MSA and LSA strata, and at Mumba, technological changes show no clear correlation with global changes in climate . In these cases from the Rift Valley, as well as at Panga ya Saidi from the coastal region, behavioral change appears to have occurred independent of environmental change. However, at Nasera, across multiple MSA and LSA strata, the abundance of bipolar cores is highly correlated with faunal evidence for more mesic conditions, backed microlith abundance increases with more open environments, and Levallois core abundance declines with shifts from closed to open habitats .…”

“…(a) Ostrich eggshell beads and production debris, spit XVII, Kisese II; (b) ochre‐stained “palette” or lower grindstone, spit III, Kisese II; (c) ochre fragment with grinding facets and striations, spit VI, Kisese II; (d) notched/incised bone projectile point, context 1015, Kuumbi Cave; (e) gastropod and sea shell ( Conus ) beads, layers 4–16, Panga ya Saidi; (f, g) upper grindstones, bed V, Mumba . Copyright from University of Tübingen (h) notched or incised bone fragment, layer 8, Panga ya Saidi. Images c, d, and h use the scale bar on the right; all other use the scale bar on the left [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Going big versus going small: Lithic miniaturization in hominin lithic technology

“…These assemblages are devoid of bladelets. Shipton et al's data from the ~78 k record at Panga ya Saidi in Kenya shows small unretouched flakes, blade production, and small backed tools occur recurrently and intermittently, with no evidence for a unilinear accumulation of traits or a uniform uptake of the three traits as a “miniaturized” technological package. Southern African Middle and Later Pleistocene Middle Stone Age sites show numerous instances of miniaturized flake and blade production including those associated with the HP technocomplex …”