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Africa from MIS 6-2 pp 147–159Cite as

Technological Systems, Population Dynamics, and Historical Process in the MSA of Northern Africa

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Abstract

This paper presents an alternative historical interpretation of regional patterns in MSA lithic industries of northern Africa, based on the observation that our current systematics often disguise real similarities and differences in the archaeological record. With regard to the early MSA, it is argued that the geographical distribution of the Sangoan is much wider than previously acknowledged and that it is present up to the Mediterranean coast. It may be the archaeological signature of an early expansion of anatomically modern humans. From the Last Interglacial onward, the distribution of the Nubian Complex records population influx in the eastern Sahara and in regions east of the Nile, including the Red Sea mountains and the Arabian peninsula. During the middle part of MIS 5, human populations in many parts of northern Africa may have been small or even absent. It is only in its final phase that this tendency is reversed again and that Late Nubian Complex sites frequently occur in the entire eastern range of the Saharan-Arabian belt. To the west, the Late Nubian Complex has a marked boundary and it is argued that the Aterian of the Central Sahara records a phenomenon of cultural assimilation between western and eastern populations. All these demographic processes are triggered by the aridification of northern Africa, ultimately leading to a phase of profound cultural and social change of which an Upper Palaeolithic mode of production is the outcome.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This identification represents the present author’s opinion, based on the data presented in the cited reference and on a cursory inspection of some artefacts during a visit to the National Museum in Addis Abeba, facilitated by Tim White on the occasion of The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and Modern Human Origins conference, National Museums of Kenya and National Museum of Ethiopia, 2005.

  2. 2.

    Personal observation during a research visit at the National Museum in Addis Abeba. June 2012.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the editors for inviting me to write a contribution to this volume. I express my gratitude to institutions and colleagues who have invited me to take part in their projects or who have permitted me to look at collections: Graeme Barker (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge) and the TRANS-NAP project for the Haua Fteah collection; François Bon (Université de Toulouse) and the direction of the National Museum of Ethiopia ; Nena Galanidou (University of Crete) for introducing me to the southeast coast of Crete; Anthony E. Marks for receiving me in Santa Fe and conversations on Paleolithic Arabia ; Jeff Rose (University of Birmingham) for my participation in the 2012 mission in Dhofar, Oman. The research underlying this paper was funded by Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders (Project Ref. K8.007.12N).

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  1. Prehistoric Archaeology Unit, Institute of Geo-Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001, Louvain, Belgium

    Philip Van Peer

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  1. University of Cambridge, McDonald Inst. for Archaeological Rsch, United Kingdom

    Sacha C. Jones

  2. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA

    Brian A. Stewart

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Van Peer, P. (2016). Technological Systems, Population Dynamics, and Historical Process in the MSA of Northern Africa. In: Jones, S., Stewart, B. (eds) Africa from MIS 6-2. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_8

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