REVISING MODELS FOR THE CULTURAL STRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE OF THE MIDDLE STONE AGE

摘要

During recent decades, studies of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) have moved from relative obscurity to become a central focus of international research in Stone Age archaeology and paleoanthropology. The MSA dates between c. 300 and 30 ka BP and is characterised by the evolution of anatomically and culturally modern humans in Africa. Here we comment briefly on the state of research on the MSA of southern Africa. We draw on recent publications and meetings including an international workshop entitled: Contextualizing technological change and cultural evolution in the MSA of southern Africa, which was held in September 2014 in Tubingen to address new developments in the study of the MSA (Conard et al. 2014).