Reinvestigation of Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar, reveals Later Stone Age coastal habitation, early Holocene abandonment and Iron Age reoccupation

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. The coastal region includes five features that distinguish it from other regions in East Africa, including (a) the early (63–67 ka) use of beads made of marine shell that precede those of ostrich eggshell and (b) the manufacture of bone or tusk tools.…”

“…The rainforest is also subject to extensive contraction, fragmentation, or expansion caused by increases or decreases in rainfall that may have contributed to intermittent hominin occupation of its margins . Nearshore islands such as Zanzibar appear to have been occupied as early as the LGM ~18–26 ka, possibly aided by lowered sea level . Although taxonomically dominated by extant taxa (Table ), fossil fauna at a number of archeological sites indicate generally more arid conditions throughout the region for much of the Late Pleistocene.…”

“…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 ) …”

“…44 Nearshore islands such as Zanzibar appear to have been occupied as early as the LGM~18-26 ka, possibly aided by lowered sea level. 47,48 Although taxonomically dominated by extant taxa (Table 1), fossil fauna at a number of archeological sites indicate generally more arid conditions throughout the region for much of the Late Pleistocene.…”

Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure

“…Sealinks Project excavations in 2012 documented a complex depositional sequence stretching discontinuously over 20,000 years, containing evidence of LSA and MIA occupations in five discernible phases (Shipton et al, 2016). The analyzed specimen (I0589, Tanzania_Zanzibar_1400BP) is a complete second phalanx of an adult (Sealinks Project faunal catalog no.…”