East African prehistory

This paper investigates two types of terracotta figurine, both from East African cultures, which are unusual in their resemblance to ceramic statuettes from pre-Indo-European south-eastern Europe (Old Europe) and the Ancient Near East (6th-1st millennium BCE).  The first type consists of a “phallic female” style of fertility doll from the Samburu or Turkana peoples of northern Kenya, in which an obviously phallic body-shape is given unmistakably female attributes such as breasts (“Gudza doll;” Section 1). The result resembles the well-known Amlash idols from Iran of the early 1st millennium BCE. The second type consists of figurines that look like Neolithic to Iron Age fertility statuettes of Eurasian provenance and includes an Astarte-like bird-headed goddess nursing an infant (Section 2). These were made by Beta Israel (Falasha) women from the Gondar region of Ethiopia. In recent years, most of this Jewish community has relocated to Israel. Many surprises are encountered in unravelling the origins, creation, use and appreciation of these two groups of curious and challenging artifacts. Ranging from Australopithecus to Zimbabwe, from Baba Yaga to Beta Israel and from Yemen to semen, the over-arching narrative could equally well have been titled "The Sex-Lives of Statuettes."

A single feather as symbol of all-encompassing divine balance was manifested in ancient Egypt to meet its complex needs as a state that embraced diverse peoples with conflictng interests. Balance, and consciously following developed inner promptings towards 'right' action instead of rigid external injunctons to do 'good' against 'evil', could very well be the key to restoring sacred order to the world. The intent of this paper is to trace the impact of The Feather of Ma'at and its accompanying teachings, within and far beyond the parameters of Africa. The paper explores the rippling influence of a cooperative relationship between humankind and the cosmos, its concept brought through a succession of sea journeys on circular ocean currents.

As the pace of global climate change accelerates, residents of the arid and semi-arid lands of northern Kenya face significant obstacles to maintain viable communities. Colonial and post-colonial political governance and economic models have broken down traditional mechanisms for coping with ecological stress. An archaeological example from the Chalbi Desert is presented as evidence of longue-durée persistence of human occupations through extreme climatic fluctuations. Occupations spanning from ca. 5000 to 600 years BP indicate the presence of robust regional exchange networks and either continuous or repeated occupation of this hot, dry, mosaic woodland. These systems are contrasted against the extrinsically imposed models that began in the late 1800s with the arrival of colonialism in which political economies are more focused on ethnic-territorial and global interests rather than regional cooperation. A long-term ecological model on how traditional systems evolved to cope with vulnerability associated with extreme climate conditions is needed to build resilient communities.

Summary: this paper considers the problem of how the archaeological record is distributed continuously across a landscape, and that consequently ‘sites’ are best considered as high density localities against a low density background. The paper develops a model of how human behaviour is landscape based, and is transformed into an archaeological record, and develops an off-site, artefact density approach and method.

We review the history of rock art research in Kondoa District, Tanzania, specifically the area covered by the ‘Kondoa Rock Art Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site’. We examine why, after nearly a century of research, there is neither a broadly agreed upon stylistic sequence for the rock art of the area nor a clear ascription of authorship. We seek to provide a solution to this impasse by introducing a rigorous and systematised analytical approach that considers both the content of the art and the location in which it was situated. The findings of our analysis, as presented here, demonstrate three clearly identifiable traditions of art, each with elements of overlap and borrowing. We provide an evidence based ascription of authorship to each tradition that confirms the ethnic complexity of the settlement of this area and lays the foundation for future studies of rock art interpretation and cultural interaction.

In his narrative, colonial administrator Harold Ingram describes the perspective that many missionaries and colonial executives held towards the African peoples. The notion of the ‘White man’s burden’ to save the world from uncivilized, and animalistic customs coupled with the theory of Africa as the Dark Continent, is one of the main reasons why early explorers and missionaries placed women in subordinate positions. This move thus overlooked the critical significance of contributions that pre-colonial African women contributed to the political, economic and social developmental structure in African communities. Missionary C.W. Hattersley confirmed the same notion towards pre-colonial Baganda women when he jotted in his 1908 book, The Baganda at home, that Ganda women had invariably occupied a place of subordination in society. Thus African women’s history was either overlooked or placed in positions of inferiority in preference for their male counterparts.

Eastern Africa (broadly Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) has yielded the earliest fossils of modern humans, the earliest evidence for Mode 3 technologies (Middle Stone Age), and is one of the areas in which modern humans may well have been endemic. This paper reviews the genetic, archaeological, and fossil evidence for the evolution of modern humans across MIS 6-2 in eastern Africa, and places this into the context of Middle Pleistocene human evolution, the development of the Middle Stone Age across the continent, and climatic change over the last two glacial cycles. We argue that while there is a paucity of well-dated sites that reduces the resolution of any interpretation, the available evidence indicates a major role for eastern Africa as an area of endemism, most probably related to the interaction of mosaic environments and refugia. We show that the evolution of modern humans has roots that extend well before MIS 6, and propose four overlapping stages, making this a much more prolonged process than has traditionally been described. There is a broad relationship between evolutionary history and major climatic oscillations; nevertheless , a closer examination reveals a more complex pattern. There are periods of synchrony and asynchrony in both contextual and evolutionary/behavioral changes, and these show variable links to both northern and southern Africa. Although eastern, northern and southern Africa (with central and western being largely unknown) show similarities and ultimately the same evolutionary and behavioral outcome, they also exhibit independent trajectories that require further research to throw light on the processes involved.

The habitats preferred by hominins and other species are an important theme in palaeoanthropology, and the ‘mosaic habitat’ (also referred to as habitat heterogeneity) has been a central concept in this regard for the last four decades. Here we explore the development of this concept – loosely defined as a range of different habitat types, such as woodlands, riverine forest and savannah within a limited spatial area – in studies of human evolution over the last 60 years or so. We outline the key developments that took place
before and around the time when the term ‘mosaic’ came to wider palaeoanthropological attention. To achieve this, we used an analysis of the published literature, a study of illustrations of hominin evolution from 1925 onwards and an email survey of senior researchers in palaeoanthropology and related fields. We found that the term ‘mosaic’ starts to be applied in palaeoanthropological thinking during the 1970s due to
the work of a number of researchers, including Karl Butzer and Glynn Isaac, with the earliest usage we
have found of ‘mosaic’ in specific reference to hominin habitats being by Adriaan Kortlandt (1972). While we observe a steady increase in the numbers of publications reporting mosaic palaeohabitats, in keeping with the growing interest and specialisation in various methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, we also note that there is a lack of critical studies that define this habitat, or examine the temporal and spatial scales associated with it. The general consensus within the field is that the concept now requires more detailed definition and study to evaluate its role in human evolution.

ABSTRACT Research conducted along the Bulbula River (Ziway–Shala basin, Main Ethiopian Rift) has yielded archaeological assemblages that document various phases of the Upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The oldest period documented is dated to ∼34–33,000 Cal BP (DW1), and the second is dated to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, between 14,000 and 11,000 Cal BP (B1s1, DW2s2 and DW2s1). The analysis of these assemblages and their comparison offer new perspectives on early LSA industries, and on the development and diversity of partially microlithic industries at the end the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. Through the characterization of techno-economic changes in the context of shifting environments and their exploitation by humans, our results intend to provide new insights into human behavioral evolution on a local scale and for a time period that is currently insufficiently known. This study highlights the existence of major breaks in the archaeological record of the area during MIS 3–1.

Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa's offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region's pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization-and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became "maritime"-are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.

Excavations at the site of Goda Buticha, Ethiopia, have recovered a small sample of engraved ostrich eggshell (EOES) fragments. The earliest specimens date to ~34 ka and ~ 43 ka, thus representing the oldest known examples of EOES in eastern Africa, and occur in association with a Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblage. The occurrence of EOES at Goda Buticha persists into the Holocene, similar to certain MSA technological features. EOES provides an additional line of evidence through which to examine the variability in the MSA and the complex transition from the MSA to the Later Stone Age in eastern Africa.

Heritage preservation and development initiatives by Haya villagers in NW Tanzania have led to a collaboration that has produced important insights into change in heritage meanings over the last several decades. The impact
of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been profound, nearly eliminating an older generation of male keepers of oral traditions—one of two heritage domains valorized by the Haya today. Male keepers of oral testimonies have been
replaced by women who are now elevated to a new status that recognizes their mastery of oral history about community affairs. As villagers cope with the daily stresses of making a living from an increasingly impoverished landscape,
they make human rights claims to food, shelter, and economic opportunity. Mixed with these stated needs are discourses about heritage lost, and a need to recuperate respect for the past, for ancestors, and for the senses of
place associated with embodied rituals performed at shrines. These claims to human rights play out in performances such as shrine reconstructions and heritage tours that amplify embodied experiences while simultaneously enhancing economic opportunities for alienated youth who also gain knowledge of their once rich heritage.

The Western Periphery of the Red Sea (WPRS) is an important region for paleoanthropological discussions about the history of hominin dispersal out of Africa. This paper examines the existing Paleolithic evidence in the region and some key aspects of its environmental setting, with the goal of assessing its role in hominin survival and dispersals. The paper's chronological focus is the span 1.8-0.05 million years ago (Ma). Although the majority of the Paleolithic (Stone Age) sites so far documented in the region lack precise chronological control, the available evidence comprises Acheulean, Middle and Later Stone Age technocomplexes that can be broadly linked to distinct hominin settlement episodes. Most of the documented sites appear to be related to terrestrial niche exploitation around channelized alluvial plains between the coastal zone and the eastern slopes of the Red Sea Hills, although wave erosion may have destroyed sites associated with coastal resource use. As an extension of the East African Rift System, the WPRS mirrors the landscape features of the fossil-rich Rift Valley region, with the addition of a coastal niche. Thus, it may have posed little survival risk for hominins coming from the inland habitats, and some of the inhabitant populations may have easily dispersed toward Eurasia from there.

Stone Ages archaeology in Sudan began in the early
forties of the last century. And while many Palaeolithic
sites have been discovered, still very little is known
about the Acheulean sites in Central and Northern
Sudan. Most of the discovered Acheulean sites show
homogenous as well as heterogeneous features in lithic
technology and typology. The homogeneity in general
is due to the cultural diffusion and continuities, while
the heterogeneity in lithic technologies attested in African archaeology can often be attributed to regional
diversity and economic adaptations. These situations
necessitated taxonomic nomenclatures (Chellean,
developed Oldwan, Early Acheulean, Sangoan, Tumbian, Lupemban and Nubian Levallois).
From a general point of view, the previous studies
have resulted in a substantial basic part of the relevant
knowledge about the Acheulean stone tools.

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 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.

In August 2016, the In-Africa Project, which focuses on the palaeo-environment and human occupation of West Turkana during the late Quaternary (http://in-africa.org/), encountered a stone platform and cairn whilst surveying an area between the Napudet Mountains and the Kerio River in Southwest Turkana. Different from other simple cairns in the area, this structure, locally known as Aliel, also exhibits: a) a single standing stone within the construction of the cairn; and b) a significant assemblage of pottery sherds (including Nderit ware) upon the surface of the platform. Cairns, circles, platforms and stone structures are well-known features of the prehistory of the Turkana Basin (Robbins, 2006, Wright et al., 2016), including complex megalithic architecture in the form of ‘Pillar sites’ characterised by the presence of multiple stone pillars emplaced vertically on the ground within a constructed platform, such as Lothagam, Jarigole and Kalokol (Hildebrand et al. 2011, Grillo & Hi...

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.

ما زالت مسألة الهجرة المبكرة للإنسان الأول من جنوب شرق إفريقيا إلي أوربا وآسيا قضية جدلية قيد البحث والتقصي. وهي فرضية ظهرت بعد اكتشاف أقدم آثار الإنسان في كل من تنزانيا وكينيا وأثيوبيا والخاصة بالعصر الحجري القديم المبكر والتي تمثلت في أدوات حجرية أطلق عليها مسميات الألدوانية والأشولية. وتوصلت الأبحاث إلي أن من صنعها هما الهوموهوبلز والهومواركتوس. وفي الوقت ذاته وجدت مثيلات الأشولية في شمال شرق إفريقيا وجنوب غرب آسيا وأوربا ولكنها أحدث عن المعروفة في جنوب شرق إفريقيا. وهنا بدأت التساؤلات حول زمن وطريق انتقالها وطرحت الفرضية حول سواحل البحر الأحمر أو نهر النيل كمعبر رئيسي لتلك الهجرة الأولى للإنسان خارج إفريقيا.
وعلى الرغم من توسع دائرة العمل الآثاري في السودان لم تجرى بحوث منظمة حول هذا الموضوع. وما وجد من مكتشفات للعصر الحجري القديم المبكر في وسط السودان وشماله من موقع خور أبو عنجة ومواقع بوادي حلفا وجزيرة صاي افتقر للأدوات الحجرية المبكرة والتراصفات الطبقية والبقايا العضوية. وظلت نتائجه مؤشر على دور السودان في قدم إفريقيا.
من خلال الأبحاث الآثارية الأخيرة لجامعة النيلين والممولة من وزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي والمشروع المشترك مع جامعة فروسواف ببولندا والممول من منظمة العلوم البولندية تم الكشف عن مواقع أثرية غنية للعصر الحجري القديم الأسفل. تختلف عن المعروفة سابقاً في السودان وأكثر شبهاً بالمعروفة في جنوب شرق إفريقيا من خلال حجم الموقع وكمية ونوعية الآثار الأشولية على سطحه وفي أعماق رأسية طبقية.
في هذه الورقة نناقش تلك الفرضية الاقليمية من خلال تلك المكتشفات الأثرية لمشروع آثار العصور الحجرية في الصحراء الشرقية لأسفل نهر عطبرة. وذلك بدراسة تاريخ الفرضية وتحليل نتائج الأبحاث السابقة وربطها بالمكتشفات الجديدة للمشروع لابراز دور السودان الحضاري في خروج أقدم الثقافات من جنوب شرق إفريقيا إلي أوربا وآسيا.
توصلت دراسات تصنيف الأدوات الحجرية وانتشار مواقعها الأثرية حول المنخفضات القديمة وموقعها الجغرافي لشرق إفريقيا أن منطقة نهر عطبرة كان لها الدور الأعظم في انتشار مجموعات الهومواركتوس المبكرة من منخفضات جنوب شرق إفريقيا إلي شمالها عبر نهر عطبرة وسواحله من بحيرات قديمة.

ABSTRACT This paper presents the lithic analysis from the stratified deposits of one of the Laas Geel rock shelters in Somaliland (Shelter 7). This set of sites identified in 2002 is composed of around 20 rock shelters, most featuring polychromic paintings attributed to the Holocene. Moreover, Shelter 7 yielded numerous remains that are divided into two major chono-cultural phases. Microlithic industries from the upper part of the deposit are ascribed to the Late Stone Age (LSA). In contrast, the industries from the lower part of the deposit feature an association of LSA characteristics (but quite different from the ones from the upper part of the deposit) with technical traits that belong to the MSA, and especially the presence of a Levallois technology. This association reintroduces the question of the existence of an industry (or facies) once labeled “Hargeisan” and characterized by mixed features from the MSA and the LSA in this part of Africa at the end of the Pleistocene. Our analysis of these industries culminates in a reconsideration of the definitions proposed by Clark in his seminal book, “The Prehistory of the Horn of Africa” (1954). This study provides new typo-technological data from the upper part of the Laas Geel Shelter 7 deposit that contribute to refining Clark's definition of the ‘Somaliland Wilton’ industry. In addition, the association of blade/bladelet production with typical Levallois production in the lower part of this site's deposits supports a comparison with the “Hargeisan Industry”. The industries recovered from Laas Geel Shelter 7 reintroduce debates on the existence of the “Hargeisan industry” and provide new data on the technological transition between the MSA and the LSA in the Horn of Africa.

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 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.

Evidence for regional diversities can be observed over long cultural horizons in Sudanese archaeology,
especially in view of prehistoric artifacts. Archaeological studies on Palaeolithic material recovered
along the Nile and in the desert territories led to a chronological and technological differentiation into
the Early, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic with their respective stone tool repertoires. Central Sudan and
the Bayuda desert are the regions where the first discoveries of Palaeolithic sites were made, while recent
fieldwork adds much new information from the Eastern Desert of Lower Atbara River.
Previous studies of the Sudanese Palaeolithic have demonstrated large differentiations in stone tool
technology, typology and horizons. In general, however, earlier comparisons were conducted between
Central and Northern Sudan, while there are no endeavors comparing Central Sudan, the Bayuda desert
and the Eastern Desert of Lower Atbara River. In the following contribution, the hypothesis will be
raised that geographical diversities in these three regions lead to contrasting human adaptations, which
thus might be reflected in the Palaeolithic stone tool repertoires.
This paper puts the data of Palaeolithic stone tools from Central Sudan, the Bayuda desert and the
Eastern Desert of Lower Atbara River into context, first, with earlier interpretations given in previous
publications, second, with a revision of the Khaleefa Museum collections, whose stone tool assemblage
was gathered by Anthony J. Arkell between 1940–1950, and, third, with surveys and test pits laid out in
the Eastern Desert of Lower Atbara River in 2014.
Multiple approaches towards comparative studies were taken in examining publications and stone
tools, resulting in the disclosure of considerable differentiations in Palaeolithic stone tools in terms of
archaeological cultures and chronology. The comparison of Palaeolithic stone tool assemblages from
the three respective regions sheds light on the main course of cultural interactions in the Sudanese Nile
basin regions and the interrelationship of Palaeolithic stone tools in the context of cultural development

M. Mussi, F. Altamura, R. Bonnefille, D. De Rita, R.T. Melis, 2016. The environment of the Ethiopian highlands at the Mid Pleistocene Transition: Fauna, flora and hominins in the 850-700 ka sequence of Gombore II (Melka Kunture). Quaternary Science Reviews, 149, pp. 259-268.


Abstract: Environment, climatic change and human evolution have been debated over the last 50 years giving special attention to the Plio-Pleistocene sites of the Rift Valley. In this paper we discuss the environment and the limits of hominin adaptability based on evidence from Melka Kunture, at 2000 m asl on the Ethiopian highlands, and specifically on the ∼850 ka to ∼700 ka sequence at sub-site Gombore II. Human fossils and multiple Acheulean occurrences, as well as hippo remains and footprints, combined with palynological analysis, provide a highly detailed chronological resolution of the changing local environmental conditions during the last ∼150 ka of the MPT (Mid Pleistocene Transition), including the sequence of events after a volcanic eruption. Layers containing footprints and fossils are evidence of near-continuous occupation by hippos and their recolonization of the area after a disruptive volcanic eruption. Conversely, Acheulean implements and human fossils suggest that peopling by hominins occurred at a different and discontinuous pace even when the flora and fauna were re-established and the environment was rather stable. Most notably, the assembled evidence points to the limits of Homo erectus s.l. adaptability. Apparently, this hominin could no longer live at 2000 m asl when the climate deteriorated during glacial isotopic stage 20, becoming markedly colder than it is today, but re-colonized the area when the climate turned warmer again during isotopic stage 19

(H)origin is a three year research program founded by the SIR -Italian Ministry of Research and Education. The aim of the (H)origin project is to investigate the relation between the behavioral and biological modernity in East Africa  from the Late Middle Pleistocene to the Upper Pleistocene, in the key period of emergence and affirmation of modern humans.
Fieldwork in East Africa is a central part of the research project, focused on three different areas: investigation of the West Turkana (Kenya) MSA sites whitin of the IN-Africa project (PI Marta Lahr); the opening of MSA sites within the Italian Archaeological Mission in Southern Ethiopia; and the investigation of the MSA Site in Omdurman, Sudan, directed by Donatella Usai.
The goal of the project is to test models about the Homo sapiens adaptation in East Africa and to relate MSA technology with human evolution in a broad sense.

Unlike archaeologists working in Europe, Southwest Asia, and North America, Africanists have been slow to explore links between culturally structured, everyday practices, and refuse disposal, remaining inclined to view all "midden" accumulations as undifferentiated deposits. However, African ethnographic cases and archaeological researches elsewhere demonstrate that such accumulations can be highly selective and culturally structured compositions. This paper reviews examples that have shown cultural structure in the disposition of spent items. It then explores African ethnographic and archaeological cases, one from Niger and three from East Africa, in which handling of culinary artifacts and products may reveal links between household and community through habitual acts of refuse placement. Résumé Contrairement aux archéologues travaillant en l'Europe, l'Asie du Sudouest, et en l'Amérique du Nord, les africanistes ont été un peu lents à explorer les liens entre les pratiques quotidiennes structurées culturellement et la deposition des déchets ; ils restent disposés à considérer des accumulations des dépôts comme les depositionsindifférenciés. Neanmoins, plusieurs cas ethnographiques africaines et études archéologiques d'ailleurs démontrent que ces accumulations des dépôts peuvent être sélectives et structurées culturellement. Cet article résume des exemples qui ont montré la structuration culturelle de la disposition des objets usés. Ensuite, il présent des cas africaines, deux ethnoarchéologiques et deux archéologiques, qui proviennent de Niger et de l'Afrique de l'Est, où le traitement des outils et des produits culinaires peuvent révéler des liens entre les foyers individuels et leurs communautés, dans ses actes habituels de l'emplacement de déchets.

Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa's offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region's pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization-and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became "maritime"-are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.

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.

ABSTRACT Research conducted along the Bulbula River (Ziway–Shala basin, Main Ethiopian Rift) has yielded archaeological assemblages that document various phases of the Upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The oldest period documented is dated to ∼34–33,000 Cal BP (DW1), and the second is dated to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, between 14,000 and 11,000 Cal BP (B1s1, DW2s2 and DW2s1). The analysis of these assemblages and their comparison offer new perspectives on early LSA industries, and on the development and diversity of partially microlithic industries at the end the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. Through the characterization of techno-economic changes in the context of shifting environments and their exploitation by humans, our results intend to provide new insights into human behavioral evolution on a local scale and for a time period that is currently insufficiently known. This study highlights the existence of major breaks in the archaeological record of the area during MIS 3–1.

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 study of Paleolithic began early in the Nile basin, whenever the early stone tools in Kenya and Ethiopia shown large differentiation in the sites landscape and content. That is what led to raise many questions of early prehistory in the North east Africa.
One of the most important, yet contentious, topics in Paleolithic technology studies in North east Africa, is the beginnings, transition, change and pathway of the spread of early hominin populations dispersing through north east Africa. The Nile and the desert played a role in this debate as significant as the geographical and technological variability in large cutting tools of Early Paleolithic in the Sudan. While the geographical and geological data indicate that the Sudan is the main corridor of early human transition out of Africa from south/east to north/east, the archaeological evidence is still unclear.
Many Paleolithic sites have found in the Sudan, a little revealed early stone tools, whatever shown large variability in the technology and typology. The main Early Paleolithic sites in the Sudan have been found in central and Northern Sudan, the classification studies shows a large differentiation in the stone tools. And in both regions there are the lack of early tools when it compared with south east Africa.
The Author made a survey and some test pits in the eastern desert of lower Atbara River, a number of Early Paleolithic sites have been discovered, the most important of these sites is Jebel ElGrain site, which is distinguished by the site setting and the surface accumulations of Acheulean stone tools.
The results of the survey and test pits in the lower Atbara River allow us to analyze and compare the early stone industries in the Nile Basin. That satisfies on similarity (usually typological) in terms of its compliance with other in order to judge their overall degree of relatedness.
This study tries to offers an approach to analysis and classification of Early Paleolithic stone tools, which provides relatively objective criteria for comparing stone tool traditions.
The present discussion tries to draw on these ideas to test the proposal and distribution similarities of the hand axes and cleavers techniques appearances in assemblages of Early Paleolithic sites in the Nile basin. This study is based on the samples collected from the surface and test pits, with the general observations of the sites setting and raw materials accessibility.