"Unpacking" Ancient Behaviors: Variability of Forager Land-Use during the Moroccan Middle Stone Age

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Far-Reaching Influence of Steven L. Kuhn" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Steve Kuhn’s contributions to the study of hunter-gatherer lithic technologies are far-reaching and include innovative analytical methods and theoretical approaches to understanding early human economic behaviors. Steve’s methods and theories have greatly influenced the interpretations of data from diverse regions and time periods. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Morocco is one example. Here, I present some of the most significant results of comparative analyses of selected MSA lithic assemblages from four Moroccan cave sites located in both coastal and inland settings. Results indicate a degree of variability in land-use behaviors between coastal and inland sites. This is reflected in differences in the prevalence of retouched artifacts, abundance of potentially specialized implements, rates of artifact reduction, and lithic raw material provisioning patterns. These data point to a general pattern of repeated, brief, and, at least in one site, specialized logistical occupations in the Moroccan littoral, whereas inland cave sites reflect relatively prolonged visits during which more varied tasks were conducted revealing diversity in behavioral adaptations associated with site setting. This research is largely grounded in the methods developed by Steve Kuhn and attests to the global legacy of his career.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Far-Reaching Influence of Steven L. Kuhn

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51497