A late Middle Pleistocene Middle Stone Age sequence identified at Wadi Lazalim in southern Tunisia

Abstract

The late Middle Pleistocene, starting at around 300 ka, witnessed large-scale biological and cultural dynamics in hominin evolution across Africa including the onset of the Middle Stone Age that is closely associated with the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens. However, archaeological and geochronological data of its earliest appearance are scarce. Here we report on the late Middle Pleistocene sequence of Wadi Lazalim, in the Sahara of Southern Tunisia, which has yielded evidence for human occupations bracketed between ca. 300–130 ka. Wadi Lazalim contributes valuable information on the spread of early MSA technocomplexes across North Africa, that likely were an expression of large-scale diffusion processes.

Following the evolution of Homo sapiens across Africa using a uniparental genetic guide

“…The wide chronological window open in eastern Africa by the L5 coalescent interval (95% CI: 312 -158 kya) allows to include in it the most notable fossil and stone assemblages excavated in this area as are the modern human remains recovered at Omo-Kibish (Ethiopia) and dated to more than 200 kya 91,92 , or the Herto (Ethiopia) remains dated around 160 kya 93 . The Sangoan-Lupemban lithic industries of equatorial Africa, mentioned above, have also been found at Lake Eyasi in Tanzania 94 , and in Kenya at the Muguruk site 95 , even most interesting is the presence of stratified Sangoan-Lupemban assemblages as far as northern Sudan, at Sai Island, dated around 230 kya that has been interpreted as the result of a possible human norward dispersal from equatorial Africa during the MIS 7 interglacial period 96,97 .…”

“…The association of these groups with Sangoan and Lupemban lithic technologies agree in time and space, however, it seems a cultural throwback that descendant of the makers of Mousterian MSA industries 4 opted for more primitive lithic strategies, although this could be justified as a special adaptation to new environments. At this respect, it should be mentioned the presence of a Sangoan of northeastern Africa technology included over a northwestern Africa Levallois Mousterian substratum at Wadi Lazalim in southern Tunisia 97 . Afterward, molecular markers signal a clear northward geographic progression signaled by L5 and L3'4'6 mtDNA clades at the eastern African region and, less evidently, by the L2 clade at the central region.…”