The Middle Stone Age of the Central Sahara: Biogeographical opportunities and technological strategies in later human evolution

Foley, Robert; Maíllo‐Fernández, José‐Manuel; Lahr, Marta Mirazón

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.12.017

Cited by 33 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Aumassip, 2004; see discussion in : Foley et al 2013). Our technological analysis offers a wider point of view not based solely on typology, and the presence or absence of a tool type (i.e.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aterian lithic technology and settlement system in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya

Spinapolice

Garcea

2014

Quaternary International

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aterian tanged tools are found across Africa, including both in the Maghreb and all the Sahara west of the Nile valley (Tillet, 2000;Aumassip, 2004;Garcea, 2009;Foley et al 2013).…”

Section: Tanged Tools and Bifacial Foliatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aterian lithic technology and settlement system in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya

Spinapolice

Garcea

2014

Quaternary International

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“…These basins have their own distinct responses to climatic change (as they largely relate to precipitation and run-off), and as a result, high levels of endemism in some cases. If hominins are both responding to environmental changes as other taxa, and subject to distance effects, then there may well have been asynchrony between basins, refugia networks occurring between adjacent basins, and particular patterns of dispersals between adjacent basins [50][51][52]. In this regard, two basins stand out as particularly interesting -Turkana and the Nile.…”

Section: African Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Africa is comprised of a number of large basins that act as biogeographical units (see text for discussion). Adapted from [51].…”

Section: African Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Geography and the Afrotropical Model of Hominin Evolution

Foley¹

2018

BMSAP

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During the second half of the twentieth century, the evidence that Africa was central to hominin evolution became overwhelming. The earliest occurrences of most of the fossil hominin taxa and lithic technologies are to be found in Africa, and there is also strong evidence that humans are closely related to African apes, and that the genetic origins of modern humans lie in Africa. The aim of this article is to consider the possible evolutionary and ecological basis for this — why should Africa be so central? After considering biases in the record that might promote an African record, this article uses evolutionary geography – the spatial and distributional properties of the evolutionary process — to consider the factors that lead to higher rates of speciation, novelty and dispersals, as well as the way in which the African ecological context is structured and changes through time. Critical factors identified are the variable role of the Sahara, the different extent of the Afrotropical realm as climate changes, the impact of basin structure, and the effect of variable topography and surface water distribution. The key factor is biogeographic regionalisation and the shared evolutionary histories that reflect this. It is proposed that hominin evolution is globally part of the Afrotropical realm and its history, and that biogeographical variation within Africa is a key to understand the diverse nature of African hominins and their potential to disperse beyond the continent. More broadly, this article shows the importance of placing hominin evolution into a comparative and theoretical framework, particularly evolutionary geography, and proposes a more general basis for the Afrotropical Model of Hominin Evolution.

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“…When we address the processes of 'greening' the Sahara during multiple Pleistocene periods, the roles played by long-lasting oases serving as refugia for vegetation and fauna--and humans--should be considered (cf. Larrasoaña, 2012;Smith, 2012;Foley et al, 2013;Larrasoaña et al, 2013). One such oasis is Dakhleh Oasis (also Dakhla or Dakla) in the Egyptian Western Desert, the largest in both modern population and cultivated area (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing long-term habitability at an eastern Sahara oasis: ESR dating of molluscs and herbivore teeth at Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt

Kleindienst

Blackwell

Skinner

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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In the northeastern Sahara, electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of when animals lived documents their habitability in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. A Middle Pleistocene paleolake(s) covered >1700 km 2. At eastern Locality Dak348, 10m thick, remnant lacustrine marls yielded Pleistocene fauna, rare artefacts, and plant casts. No obvious unconformity exists within these deposits. From upper horizons, a hartebeest tooth ESR dated at 195 ± 11 ka, correlates with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7, while molluscs from a stratigraphically higher horizon averaged 89 ± 10 ka, correlating with MIS 5a/b. At western Locality Dak006, upslope deflation has left a temporally mixed surficial lag. Numerous lagged tooth fragments, independently dated by ESR, correlate with MIS 5 through 17. Fragments from a slope sand unit correlate with MIS stages 3 through 6. One bovid tooth associated with Younger Middle Stone Age artefacts in the base of the sand dated at 84 ± 7 ka (MIS 5a/b). Molluscs from Romano-Byzantine backdirt at a breached artesian vent dated to 8-15 ± 1 ka, suggesting that ponds formed during MIS 1 and 2. Even without well defined sedimentary contexts, ESR frequency data indicate that the oasis was habitable for herbivores during at least twelve stages in the Mid-Late Quaternary, and, therefore, likely also for humans.

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The Middle Stone Age of the Central Sahara: Biogeographical opportunities and technological strategies in later human evolution

Cited by 33 publications

References 76 publications

Aterian lithic technology and settlement system in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya

Aterian lithic technology and settlement system in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya

Evolutionary Geography and the Afrotropical Model of Hominin Evolution

Assessing long-term habitability at an eastern Sahara oasis: ESR dating of molluscs and herbivore teeth at Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt

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