The Middle Stone Age archaeology of the Senegal River Valley by Scerri, E, Blinkhorn, J, Groucutt, H, Niang, K

“…In this paper, we contribute towards redressing this imbalance though a summary of the state of knowledge of the West African Middle Stone Age (MSA), and the presentation of preliminary analyses of ten newly discovered MSA archaeological sites situated along the Senegal River. …”

Bone retouchers and technological continuity in the Middle Stone Age of North Africa by Turner, E, Humphrey, L, Bouzouggar, A, Barton, N

“…Evidence for specialised bone tools has recently been reported for the Middle Stone Age of North Africa [one], which complements similar finds of slightly younger age in South Africa [two, three]. …”

The North African Middle Stone Age and its place in recent human evolution by Scerri, E

“…The North African Middle Stone Age (NAMSA, ∼300-24 thousand years ago, or ka) features what may be the oldest fossils of our species as well as extremely early examples of technological regionalization and ‘symbolic’ material culture (d'Errico, Vanhaeren, Barton, Bouzouggar, Mienis, Richter, Hublin, McPherron, Louzouet, & Klein, 2009; Scerri, 2013a; Richter, Grün, Joannes-Boyau, Steele, Amani, Rué, Fernandes, Raynal, Geraads, Ben-Ncer Hublin, McPherron, 2017). …”

Seasonal scheduling of shellfish collection in the Middle and Later Stone Ages of southern Africa by Loftus, E, Lee-Thorp, J, Leng, M, Marean, C, Sealy, J

“…Results from two Middle Stone Age sites, Klasies River and Pinnacle Point 5–6, show distinct seasonal patterns that likely reflect the seasonal availability of resources in the two locations. …”

Moshebi's shelter at fifty: Reinvestigating the Later Stone Age of the Sehlabathebe Basin, Lesotho by Mitchell, P, Arthur, C, Pinto, H, Capelli, C

“…His excavations there identified a sequence of both Middle and Later Stone Age (LSA) industries, the latter falling within the last 2200 years. …”

Making points: the Middle Stone Age lithic industry of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana by Staurset, S, Coulson, SD, Mothulatshipi, S, Burrough, SL, Nash, DJ, Thomas, DSG

“…The spread of Homo sapiens to new environmental settings, the expansion of diet breadth, the development of more complex technology and the use of personal ornaments have all been recognized at well-documented Middle Stone Age (MSA) cave and shelter sites, particularly along the South African coast. …”

Life histories at stone age Zvejnieki based on stable isotope profiles of tooth dentine by Henderson, R, Zarina, G, Czermak, A, Schulting, R, Henderson, P, Legzdiņa, D, Zagorska, I, Lee-Thorp, J

Implications of a new chronology for the interpretation of the Middle and Later Stone Age of the upper Zambezi Valley by Burrough, S, Thomas, D, Barham, L

“…Single grain OSL dating has been used to produce new chronologies for three previously investigated sites in the northern Kalahari basin in western Zambia containing both Middle and Later Stone Age material (Phillipson, 1975a, b). We find that Mode 3 (Middle Stone Age, MSA) assemblages in the Upper Zambezi Valley pre-date the Last Glacial Maximum. …”

Lacustrine geoarchaeology in the central Kalahari: implications for Middle Stone Age behaviour and adaptation in dryland conditions by Thomas, DSG, Burrough, S, Coulson, S, Mothulatshipi, S, Nash, DJ, Staurset, S

“…The Middle Stone Age (MSA) was a time of great human adaptation and innovation. …”

New insights into the late Middle Stone Age occupation of Oued el Akarit, southern Tunisia by Barton, RNE, Belhouchet, L, Collcutt, SN, Aouadi, N, Albert, PG, Douka, K, Drake, N, Linderholm, L, Macphail, RI, McLean, D, Mekki, H, Peat, D, Schwenninger, JL, Smith, VC

“…Excavations in 2015 and 2019 at Oued el Akarit revealed one of a number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) horizons near the top of a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene deposits. …”

90,000 year-old specialised bone technology in the Aterian Middle Stone Age of North Africa by Bouzouggar, A, Humphrey, LT, Barton, N, Parfitt, SA, Balzan, L, Schwenninger, J-L, Hajraoui, MA, Nespoulet, R, Bello, SM

“…In this paper we report on a bone artefact from Aterian Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits in Dar es-Soltan 1 cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. …”

A new chronology for Rhafas, Northeast Morocco, Spanning the North African Middle Stone Age through to the Neolithic by Doerschner, N, Fitzsimmons, K, Ditchfield, P, McLaren, S, Steele, T, Zielhofer, C, McPherron, S, Bouzouggar, A, Hublin, J

“…The cave of Rhafas (northeast Morocco) provides valuable chronological information about cultural changes in the Maghreb during the Palaeolithic due to its long stratified archaeological sequence comprising Middle Stone Age (MSA), Later Stone Age (LSA) and Neolithic occupation layers. …”

78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later stone age innovation in an East African tropical forest. by Shipton, C, Roberts, P, Archer, W, Armitage, SJ, Bita, C, Blinkhorn, J, Courtney-Mustaphi, C, Crowther, A, Curtis, R, Errico, FD, Douka, K, Faulkner, P, Groucutt, HS, Helm, R, Herries, AIR, Jembe, S, Kourampas, N, Lee-Thorp, J, Marchant, R, Mercader, J, Marti, AP, Prendergast, ME, Rowson, B, Tengeza, A, Tibesasa, R, White, TS, Petraglia, MD, Boivin, N

“…The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. …”

Persistence of Middle Stone Age technology to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition supports a complex hominin evolutionary scenario in West Africa by Scerri, E, Blinkhorn, J, Niang, K, Bateman, M, Groucutt, H

“…Here, we provide a preliminary report of the first excavated and dated Stone Age site in northern Senegal which features the youngest Middle Stone Age (MSA) technology yet documented in Africa. …”

Reinvestigation of Kuumbi cave, Zanzibar, reveals later stone age coastal habitation, early Holocene abandonment and iron age reoccupation by Shipton, C, Crowther, A, Kourampas, N, Prendergast, M, Horton, M, Douka, K, Schwenninger, J, Faulkner, P, Quintana Morales, E, Langley, M, Tibesasa, R, Picornell-Gelabert, L, Wilmsen, E, Doherty, C, Veall, M, Ali, A, Petraglia, M, Boivin, N

“…Questions concerning the identities, geographical distributions and chronologies of foraging, herding and agricultural populations — often problematically equated with the chronological labels ‘Later Stone Age (LSA)’, ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Iron Age’ — are still unresolved. …”

Origins of the Iberomaurusian in NW Africa: new AMS radiocarbon dating of the Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Taforalt Cave, Morocco. by Barton, R, Bouzouggar, A, Hogue, J, Lee, S, Collcutt, SN, Ditchfield, P

Mapping Middle Stone Age human mobility in the Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana) through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts by Nash, DJ, Ciborowski, TJR, Coulson, S, Staurset, S, Burrough, S, Mothulatshipi, S, Thomas, DSG

“…This study combines the use of geochemical provenancing, chaîne opératoire analysis and geochronology to examine patterns of lithic raw material procurement at five single-use open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites in Ntwetwe Pan, part of the Makgadikgadi Pans complex in north-central Botswana. …”

New radiocarbon dates and Bayesian models for Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1: implications for the South African later stone age sequence by Loftus, E, Sealy, J, Lee-Thorp, J

“…The southern African Later Stone Age sequence is widely considered to be well dated based on radiocarbon dates from dozens of archaeological sites, and apparently shows more or less synchronous cultural shifts across an extensive area. …”

Post-depositional disturbance and spatial organization at exposed open-air sites: Examples from the Middle Stone Age of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana by Staurset, S, Coulson, S, Mothulatshipi, S, Sallie, BL, Nash, DJ, Thomas, D

“…The influence of natural factors such as bioturbation or sediment movement caused by wind and water is a perennial concern for Stone Age site selection and subsequent interpretation. …”

Discontinuities in hunter-gatherer prehistory in southern African drylands by Mitchell, P

“…This paper identifies several instances where different kinds of discontinuity seem apparent and different kinds of approaches have been, or could be, taken to address them over the past 25,000 years (the approximate time-frame of the Later Stone Age). Fundamental to all the cases examined is a basic feature of southern Africa’s geography, the distinction between summer-, winter-, and year-round-rainfall regimes that cuts across the sub-continent’s arid and semi-arid zones. …”