Projectile Technologies of the African MSA

One of the most significant barriers to understanding the emergence of Late Palaeolithic adaptations is the absence of a comparative analytical framework encompassing African MSA/LSA and Eurasian Middle/Late Palaeolithic industries. Projectile armatures, varying widely in time and space, constitute many of the original “fossiles directeurs” of the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic, and their development may have been important in the eventual dominance of anatomically modern humans across this region. At an earlier date, the African MSA is distinguished from most Middle Palaeolithic industries of Eurasia by the complexity and patterned variation of projectile armatures, as well as by their numerical dominance in many industries. This paper will review the patterning of projectile armatures in Africa, discuss alternative approaches to analysis, and present a comparative study of armatures from two African regions and the Levant. We argue that the small size of many MSA points implies the existence of a complex projectile technology rather than simple spears.