A comparison of two African Mediterranean MSA adaptations: the Cape Floral Region and the Maghreb

Summary

Our lineage evolved in Africa when the earth was in the MIS 6 glacial phase, ~190 thousand years ago (kya). At the continent scale, it has been demonstrated that Africa became arid during glacial phases. However, Mediterranean climates within Africa offered humid refugia during past glacial phases. There are two regions within Africa that are characterized by Mediterranean climate: the Cape Floral Region (CFR) of South Africa and the Maghreb of northwest Africa. These two regions also have Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites that reveal the earliest proxies for symbolic and complex behavior. These proxies include shell beads, regionally distinct stone and bone tool technologies, and the incorporation of coastal resources into the diet. The appearance of these proxies in the archaeological records of the CFR and the Maghreb is roughly contemporaneous, despite being separated by a distance of over 8,000 km. Here we compare the African Mediterranean MSA adaptations and chronologies with a focus on two archaeological localities: Contrebandiers Cave, Morocco and Pinnacle Point, South Africa. Both were excavated with comparable advanced field technologies and excellent contextual control, and therefore allow the first methodologically controlled comparisons to be made between the MSA of Morocco and South Africa.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Building the Hunter-gatherer’s Paleoscape on the South African Coast: the archaeological record   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage