Proponents of the model known as the “human revolution” claim that modern human
behaviors arose suddenly, and nearly simultaneously, throughout the Old World ca. 40 …

Symbolic and utilitarian interpretations have been proposed for red ochre use in the African
Middle Stone Age, but these have rarely been developed. This paper reviews the …

South Africa and Lesotho (SAL) have been inhabited by tool-producing hominins for at least
two million years. Most of the information we have about the activities and technological …

A decade ago, we summarised the South African and Lesotho Stone Age technocomplex
sequence as a heuristic exercise, anchored in 242 dated assemblages (Lombard et al …

Page 1 Human Beginnings in South Africa Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age HJ
Deacon & Janette Deacon Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Human Beginnings in South …

The expansion of modern human populations in Africa 80,000 to 60,000 years ago and their
initial exodus out of Africa have been tentatively linked to two phases of technological and …

Africa's Middle Stone Age (MSA) may have lasted almost half a million years, but its earliest
expression is not yet well understood. The MSA is best known for innovations that appear in …

The later Pleistocene archaeological record of southernmost Africa encompasses several
Middle Stone Age industries and the transition to the Later Stone Age. Through this period …

Over the last two decades, red ochre has played a pivotal role in discussions about the
cognitive and cultural evolution of early modern humans during the African Middle Stone …

Birch tar production by Neanderthals—used for hafting tools—has been interpreted as one
of the earliest manifestations of modern cultural behavior. This is because birch tar …