The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior.

The origins of modern human behavior are marked by increased symbolic and technological complexity in the archaeological record. In western Eurasia this transition, the Upper Paleolithic, occurred about 45,000 years ago, but many of its features appear transiently in southern Africa about 45,000 years earlier. We show that demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation in regional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatial structuring of cultural skill accumulation. Genetic estimates of regional population size over time show that densities in early Upper Paleolithic Europe were similar to those in sub-Saharan Africa when modern behavior first appeared. Demographic factors can thus explain geographic variation in the timing of the first appearance of modern behavior without invoking increased cognitive capacity.

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Late Pleistocene Demography and the Appearance of Modern Human Behavior

In the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic after about 35,000 years ago, abstract or depictional images provide evidence for cognitive abilities considered integral to modern human behavior. Here we report on two abstract representations engraved on pieces of red ochre recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave in South Africa. A mean date of 77,000 years was obtained for the layers containing the engraved ochres by thermoluminescence dating of burnt lithics, and the stratigraphic integrity was confirmed by an optically stimulated luminescence age of 70,000 years on an overlying dune. These engravings support the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa at least 35,000 years before the start of the Upper Paleolithic.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/295/5558/1278.full.pdf

Emergence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa.

Archaeology’s main contribution to the debate over the origins of modern humans has been investigating where and when modern human behavior is first recognized in the archaeological record. Most of this debate has been over the empirical record for the appearance and distribution of a set of traits that have come to be accepted as indicators of behavioral modernity. This debate has resulted in a series of competing models that we explicate here, and the traits are typically used as the test implications for these models. However, adequate tests of hypotheses and models rest on robust test implications, and we argue here that the current set of test implications suffers from three main problems: (1) Many are empirically derived from and context‐specific to the richer European record, rendering them problematic for use in the primarily tropical and subtropical African continent. (2) They are ambiguous because other processes can be invoked, often with greater parsimony, to explain their character. (3) Many ...

/pdf/the-origin-of-modern-human-behavior-3zwsntubb7.pdf

The origin of modern human behavior.

The archaeology of place

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 behavioral innovation within the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa-the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort industries-that are associated with early evidence for symbols and personal ornaments. Establishing the correct sequence of events, however, has been hampered by inadequate chronologies. We report ages for nine sites from varied climatic and ecological zones across southern Africa that show that both industries were short-lived (5000 years or less), separated by about 7000 years, and coeval with genetic estimates of population expansion and exit times. Comparison with climatic records shows that these bursts of innovative behavior cannot be explained by environmental factors alone.

/pdf/ages-for-the-middle-stone-age-of-southern-africa-wr7pdoapzi.pdf

Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behavior and Dispersal

The Stone Age is now beginning to be recognised as vital in establishing who we are and where we have come from. This period has long been neglected.

Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age

This paper reviews research at two sites in the southern Cape, South Afnca that together span the last 125 ka: Boomplaas and Klasies River main site. Environmental and cultural changes are discussed. The contrasts between the Late Pleistocene and Holocene and between the earlier and later Holocene environments are detailed. Climates have been similar to the present and more favourable for human settlement in the last 5 ka than at any time since the Lasl Interglacial. The Middle-Later Stone Age inteqace predates 21 ka in the Boomplaas sequence. The Howieson's Poort at the base of the Boomplaas sequence is a horizon marker that is also found in the top of the Klasies River main site. Human remains from Klasies River are dated to 90 ka and 120 ka. It is argued that these sites were occupied by morphologically and cognitively modem humans. *Received September 1995

Two Late Pleistocene-Holocene Archaeological Depositories from the Southern Cape, South Africa

Comparative studies of Late Pleistocene human remains from Klasies River Mouth, South Africa

This paper argues that southern Africa was a remote part of the Old World in the late Pleistocene (125- 10 ka ago). Because of this isolated position there was continuity without significant replacement in the resident population. Isolation and the relatively recent spread of agriculture to the region has allowed a section of this population to survive into the present. They are the Bushmen (San). Studies of geographic patterning in conventional genetic markers and mitochrondrial DNA indicate that the Bushman clade has a long evolutionary history in southern Africa. Estimates of more than 100 ka for the continued presence of this population in the region are supported in archaeological investigations of sites with long sequences such as Klasies River main site and Border Cave. Human remains dating to the earlier part of the late Pleistocene have been recovered from these sites and the samples form a morphological series with the Klasies River remains possibly 20 ka older than those from Border Cave. There is no fossil record for the later Pleistocene, however, at a period when selection for a gracile morphology may have been pronounced. The cultural associations in the earlier late Pleistocene are with the Middle Stone Age. Expressions of cultural ‘style’ and the occurrence of similar artefact design types in the Middle and Eater Stone Ages can be interpreted with reference to the ethnographic present. Temporal continuity can be shown in the geographical distribution of stylistic markers and this suggests participation in a shared cognitive system. The inference is that the people in the earlier late Pleistocene had cognitive abilities that are comparable to those shown by their Holocene and modern descendants. The presence of the ancestors of a modern population in the earlier late Pleistocene in this region is perhaps expected if modern people had their origins in Africa.

H. J. Deacon

Papers

Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behavior and Dispersal

Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age

Two Late Pleistocene-Holocene Archaeological Depositories from the Southern Cape, South Africa

Comparative studies of Late Pleistocene human remains from Klasies River Mouth, South Africa

Southern Africa and modern human origins.