‘Out of Africa’ from an Egyptian point of view

Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa

“…Several authors have noted the absence of a clear archaeological "out-of-Africa" signature, stressing that there is little recognizably (northern or eastern) "African" about the archaeological record of early Homo sapiens in Asia, Europe, or Australia (e.g., Shea, 2011b;Vermeersch 2001). For example, the oldest members of our species outside of Africa are found at Qafzeh, Israel, in association with artifacts that fit comfortably within the Levantine Mousterian (Hovers 2009).…”

“…Although variable artifact typologies in use among researchers can reduce the utility of such approaches (Vermeersch 2001), the categories used here are sufficiently broad to minimize this problem. The data are used to examine (1) temporal variability among EMSA and LMSA sites (e.g., Shea 2011b), (2) geographic variability across eastern African sites (Clark 1988;McBrearty and Brooks 2000), and (3) local, site-specific sources of variation.…”

The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin Dispersals

“…It is also an obvious bridgehead for movement into the coastal regions of the Red Sea. Substantial finds of material have also, of course, been recorded in the Nile Valley and the adjacent desert regions, notably the Fayum (Wendorf and Marks, 1968;Wendorf, 1976;Vermeersch, 2001), though early Pleistocene or earlier material is elusive, perhaps because of lack of suitably early geological exposures.…”

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

“…They do not necessarily imply an especially close cultural connection between the Levant and Nile Valley during the MP. Unfortunately, regional differences in the conventions used for describing MP assemblages makes it difficult to evaluate the similarities and differences between MP industries in the Levant and Northeast Africa (Vermeersch, 2001).…”