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

Ceri Shipton (), Patrick Roberts (), Will Archer, Simon J. Armitage, Caesar Bita, James Blinkhorn, Colin Courtney-Mustaphi, Alison Crowther, Richard Curtis, Francesco d’ Errico, Katerina Douka, Patrick Faulkner, Huw S. Groucutt, Richard Helm, Andy I. R Herries, Severinus Jembe, Nikos Kourampas, Julia Lee-Thorp, Rob Marchant, Julio Mercader, Africa Pitarch Marti, Mary E. Prendergast, Ben Rowson, Amini Tengeza, Ruth Tibesasa, Tom S. White, Michael D. Petraglia and Nicole Boivin ()
Additional contact information
Ceri Shipton: University of Cambridge
Patrick Roberts: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Will Archer: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Simon J. Armitage: University of London
Caesar Bita: Malindi Museum, National Museums of Kenya
James Blinkhorn: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Colin Courtney-Mustaphi: University of York, Heslington
Alison Crowther: British Institute in Eastern Africa
Richard Curtis: La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus
Francesco d’ Errico: University of Bergen
Katerina Douka: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Patrick Faulkner: The University of Sydney
Huw S. Groucutt: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Richard Helm: Canterbury Archaeological Trust
Andy I. R Herries: La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus
Severinus Jembe: National Museums of Kenya
Nikos Kourampas: University of Edinburgh
Julia Lee-Thorp: University of Oxford
Rob Marchant: University of Liverpool
Julio Mercader: University of Calgary
Africa Pitarch Marti: UMR 5199 PACEA, CNRS/Université de Bordeaux
Mary E. Prendergast: Saint Louis University
Ben Rowson: National Museum Wales, Cathays Park
Amini Tengeza: National Museums of Kenya
Ruth Tibesasa: University of Pretoria
Tom S. White: University Museum of Zoology
Michael D. Petraglia: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Nicole Boivin: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04057-3

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