Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

African Stone Age

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

The African Stone Age spans the first 2.5 Ma of human prehistory, beginning with the world’s earliest stone tool production and continuing through the historical period of European colonization. The African Stone Age includes a tremendous diversity in terms of the characteristics of its industries and the life ways engaged in by its makers. Archaeological research on African stone tool industries has had wide-ranging impacts on our understanding of processes of human evolution and the organization of past human societies.

Definition

The African Stone Age is conventionally divided into three phases, including the Early, Middle, and Later Stone Ages (ESA, MSA, and LSA). The ESA includes the Oldowan, Developed Oldowan, and Acheulean industries. Oldowan industry is thought to have begun with the world’s oldest known stone tool technology at the site of Gona, Ethiopia, dating to around 2.5 Ma (Semaw 2000). The Oldowan industry is characterized by the production of flakes using...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 5,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ambrose, S.H. 2001. Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science 291:1748-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asfaw, B., Y. Beyene, G. Suwa, R. Walter, T. White, G. Woldegabriel & T. Yemane. 1992. The earliest Acheulean from Konso-Gardula. Nature 360: 732-5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burkitt, M.K. 1925.Prehistory: a study of early cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Ann Arbor: The University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi, M., S. Di Lernia & E.A. Garcea. 1998. Some insights on the Aterian in the Libyan Sahara: chronology, environment, and archaeology. African Archaeological Review 15: 261-86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delagnes, A. & H. Roche. 2005. Late Pliocene hominid knapping skills: the case of Lokalei 2C, West Turkana, Keyna. Journal of Human Evolution 48: 435-72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, A.J. & C. Van Riet Lowe. 1929. The stone age cultures of South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 27: 1-289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C.S. & C.W. Marean. 2003. The origins of model human behavior. Current Anthropology 44: 627-51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C.S., F.E.D’Errico, C.W. Marean, R.G. Milo & R. Yates. 2001a. An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution 41: 631-78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, M.D. 1971. Olduvai Gorge, excavations in Beds I and III, 1960–1963, 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1976. The early stone industries of Olduvai Gorge. Colloquium V, IXth Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protoizistoric Sciences, Nice: 24-41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1983. The rock art of southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S. & A. Brooks. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453-563.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, G.S. 2007. Behavioral ecological models of lithic technological change during the later Middle Stone Age of South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1738-51.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, G.S. & J. T. Thomas. 2009. Re-examining the South African Middle-to-Later Stone Age transition: multivariate analysis of the Umhlatuzana and Rose Cottage Cave stone tool assemblages. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 44: 311-30.

    Google Scholar 

  • McPherron, S.P. 2000. Handaxes as a measure of the mental capabilities of early hominids. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 655-63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P. 1989. Major issues in the emergence of modern humans. Current Anthropology 30: 349-85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, T. 2004. Flakes stones and old bones: biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47: 118-64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roche, H. 2003. Les sites archéologiques plio-pléistocènes de la formation de Nachukui, Ouest-Turkana, Kenya: bilan synthétique 1997–2001. Comptes Rendus Palevol 2: 663-73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolland, N. 1995. Levallois technique emergence: single or multiple? A review of the Euro-African record, in H. L. Dibble & O. Bar-Yosef (ed.) The definition and interpretation of Levallois technology: 333–59. Madison (WI): Prehistory Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semaw, S. 2000. The world’s oldest stone artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: their implications for understanding stone technology and patterns of human evolution between 2·6–1·5 million years ago. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 1197-214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semaw, S., M. Rogers & D. Stout. 2009. The Oldowan-Acheulian transition: is there a “developed Oldowan” artifact tradition?, in M. Camps & P. Chauhan (ed.) Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: methods, theories, and interpretations: 173–93. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shea, J.J. 2011. Homo sapiens is as Homo sapiens was. Current Anthropology 52: 1-35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, N. 2002. The politics of archaeology in Africa. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 189-209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toth, N. & K. Schick. 2009. The Oldowan: the tool making of early hominins and chimpanzees compared. Annual Review of Anthropology 38: 289-305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyron, C.A. & S. McBrearty. 2002. Tephrostratigraphy and the Acheulian to Middle Stone Age transition in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 42: 211-25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C.A., S. McBrearty & P.-J. Texier. 2005. Levallois lithic technology from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya: Acheulian origin and Middle Stone Age diversity. African Archaeological Review 22: 199-229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadley, L. 2012. Two ‘moments in time’ during Middle Stone Age occupations of Sibudu, South Africa. South African Humanities 24: 79-97.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1993. The Pleistocene Later Stone Age south of the Limpopo River. Journal of World Prehistory 7: 243-96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wendorf, F., R. Schild, R. Said, C. V. Haynes, A. Gautier & M. Kobusiewisc. 1976. The prehistory of the Egyptian Sahara. Science 193: 103-14.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Barham, L. & P. Mitchell. 2008. The first Africans: African archaeology from the earliest toolmakers to most recent foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camps, M., & P. Chauhan. (ed.) 2009. Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: methods, theories, and interpretations. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, H.J. & J. Deacon. 1999. Human beginnings in South Africa: uncovering secrets of the Stone Age. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willoughby, P. 2007. The evolution of modern humans in Africa: a comprehensive guide. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Grant S. McCall & Rebecca Taylor-Perryman

Authors
  1. Grant S. McCall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rebecca Taylor-Perryman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Grant S. McCall .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

McCall, G.S., Taylor-Perryman, R. (2014). African Stone Age. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_658

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_658

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation