Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa

Deino, Alan L.; Behrensmeyer, Anna K.; Brooks, Alison S.; Yellen, John E.; Sharp, Warren D.; Potts, Richard

doi:10.1126/science.aao2216

Cited by 81 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…5). Similarly, changes in toolkits overlap with the 650 to 350 ka period, with modest reductions in Olorgesailie Acheulean stone tool sizes reported between 615 and 499 ka (14) and with the smaller toolkits of the MSA developing by about 320 ka (12)(13)(14). This increased environmental variability and the intense period of aridity also overlap with a major turnover in mammal faunas, with several large-bodied specialized grazing mammals becoming locally extinct and being replaced by related species with smaller body sizes (14,17).…”

Section: No Pollen and Diatomsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…S1-S3, and Tables S1-S7 for details of dating methods) and can be compared with a sequence that is 1.2 million years (Ma) old at Olorgesailie, 25 km to the northeast (9)(10)(11). The Olorgesailie deposits and archeological record document a transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age (MSA) toolkits (12)(13)(14), with the Magadi core, as well as cores from the neighboring Koora Basin drilled by the Olorgesailie Drilling Project (8,15), covering the period when Homo sapiens emerged in Africa (16). The Magadi and Olorgesailie records also span a turnover in large mammals before 320 thousand years (ka) ago (14), which has also been documented at Lainyamok between 500 and 400 ka, 15 km west of Magadi (17).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution

Owen

Muiruri

Lowenstein

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Evidence for Quaternary climate change in East Africa has been derived from outcrops on land and lake cores and from marine dust, leaf wax, and pollen records. These data have previously been used to evaluate the impact of climate change on hominin evolution, but correlations have proved to be difficult, given poor data continuity and the great distances between marine cores and terrestrial basins where fossil evidence is located. Here, we present continental coring evidence for progressive aridification since about 575 thousand years before present (ka), based on Lake Magadi (Kenya) sediments. This long-term drying trend was interrupted by many wet–dry cycles, with the greatest variability developing during times of high eccentricity-modulated precession. Intense aridification apparent in the Magadi record took place between 525 and 400 ka, with relatively persistent arid conditions after 350 ka and through to the present. Arid conditions in the Magadi Basin coincide with the Mid-Brunhes Event and overlap with mammalian extinctions in the South Kenya Rift between 500 and 400 ka. The 525 to 400 ka arid phase developed in the South Kenya Rift between the period when the last Acheulean tools are reported (at about 500 ka) and before the appearance of Middle Stone Age artifacts (by about 320 ka). Our data suggest that increasing Middle- to Late-Pleistocene aridification and environmental variability may have been drivers in the physical and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens in East Africa.

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Section: No Pollen and Diatomsmentioning

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution

Owen

Muiruri

Lowenstein

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…MSA horizons at BOK (sites BOK-1E/BOK-3, BOK-2, and BOK-4, from lowest to highest), dated 320 to 295 ka ago (18), occur in a succession of sedimentary fills of cross-cutting channels incised 2 to 4 m deep, indicating repeated cycles of erosion, filling, and development of floodplains ( Fig. 2A).…”

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confidence: 99%

Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa

Potts

Behrensmeyer

Faith

et al. 2018

Science

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161

118

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Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.

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“…The recent publication of a trio of papers on paleoanthropological work in the Olorgesailie basin further illustrates the complications currently associated with these topics (Brooks et al, 2018;Deino et al, 2018;Potts et al, 2018). The set of technologies and behaviors traditionally collectively termed as Middle Stone Age are argued to have arisen at Olorgesailie ~300 ka, and are suggested to be linked to environmental changes and major faunal turnover.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the actual time period key to understanding the trajectory and dynamics of these aspects (i.e. 500-300 ka) is missing from that basin's record due to non-deposition (Deino et al, 2018). Research on this unsampled time period will be crucial to resolving the theories and claims surrounding the evolutionary context of our species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Newly discovered Middle Pleistocene hominid-bearing deposits from the Lower Awash basin, Ethiopia

Sahle

Giusti

Tourloukis

2019

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Recent paleoanthropological surveys conducted in the Lower Awash basin (Afar Rift) have led to the discovery of new localities. Here we announce and describe the latest addition to the roster of hominid-bearing research areas in this basin. Located east of the modern Awash River and west of the Megenta mountain ridge, localities in the new research area contain extensive clay and silty-sand deposits variably capped by a widespread sandstone layer rich in archaeology and vertebrate fossils. Some of the localities are associated with volcanic tuffs suitable for radioisotopic age determination. A Middle Pleistocene antiquity is strongly inferred from the sampled fauna and archaeology; precise age estimates await results from ongoing tephra geochronological and geochemical analyses. Much of the archaeology falls under the conventional category of late Acheulean; assemblages identifiable as 'Middle' and 'Later Stone Age' are documented in a few localities. The vertebrate fauna from the closely probed Acheulean and hominid-bearing localities indicates a relatively wooded, near-water habitat. The cranial and postcranial fossil hominid (and faunal) remains from the new localities promise insights into the patterns of human evolution across the Middle Pleistocene, a period currently poorly understood. Similarly, the archaeological occurrences provide unique opportunities for testing outstanding hypotheses about the origin of nuanced technologies and behaviors across the later Middle Pleistocene.

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Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa

Cited by 81 publications

References 51 publications

Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution

Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution

Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa

Newly discovered Middle Pleistocene hominid-bearing deposits from the Lower Awash basin, Ethiopia

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