Anatomically Modern Humans emerged in eastern and/or Southern Africa from the late Middle Pleistocene, bearing with them a large battery of technical, socio-economic (and symbolic) advanced beahviours and new subsistence strategies. This so-called modern behaviour, which will occur across the continent and throughout the Upper Pleistocene, will be expressed by the high diversity and plurality of features over tens of thousands of years, conditioned by the variety of environmental variables and climatic fluctuations . In this course, we will review the Middle Stone Age cultural period, considering its appearance, development and diversity, as well as the modalities of the transition toward the Later Stone Age during the late Pleistocene.
- Teacher: David Pleurdeau