Chapter 4. Middle Stone Age engravings and their significance to the debate on the emergence of symbolic material culture
Christopher S. Henshilwood | Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion, University of Bergen | Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand
Francesco d'Errico | Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion, University of Bergen | CNRS-UMR 5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux
Archaeological evidence associated with modern cognitive abilities provides important insights into when and where modern human behaviour emerged. Modern human behaviour here means the thoughts and actions spontaneously shaped by minds equivalent to those of Homo sapiens today. Key among these is the use of symbols. Three models for the origins of behavioural modernity are current: (i) a late and rapid appearance at ~ 40–50 ka associated with the European Upper Palaeolithic and the Later Stone Age (LSA) of sub-Saharan Africa, (ii) an earlier and more gradual evolution rooted in the African Middle Stone Age (MSA ~ 300–40 ka), (iii) a discontinuous evolution rooted in both the African Middle Stone Age and the Mousterian of Eurasia. Material evidence for modern behaviour before 40 ka in Africa was, until a few years ago, relatively rare and often regarded as ambiguous compared to evidence from the Upper Palaeolithic or LSA. However, in sub-Saharan Africa archaeological evidence for changes in technology, economy and social organization and the emergence of symbolism in the Middle Stone Age contradicts the first model. Examples of these changes include standardized formal lithic tools, shaped bone implements, innovative subsistence strategies, evidence for personal ornaments and the deliberate engraving of abstract designs on ochre, ostrich eggshell and bone. In this chapter we review the earliest evidence for purposely made engravings from southern Africa and discuss their significance for arguments favouring early advances in human cognition.
2018. Global perspectives on the impact of drastic environmental changes in hunter‐gatherer technologies. Journal of Quaternary Science 33:3 ► pp. 255 ff.
Botha, Rudolf
2020. Neanderthal Language,
Coss, Richard G.
2017. Drawings of Representational Images by Upper Paleolithic Humans and their Absence in Neanderthals Reflect Historical Differences in Hunting Wary Game. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 1:2 ► pp. 15 ff.
Culley, Elisabeth V. & Iain Davidson
2021. Art, Sign, and Representation. In Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, ► pp. 331 ff.
Dapschauskas, Rimtautas, Matthias B. Göden, Christian Sommer & Andrew W. Kandel
2022. The Emergence of Habitual Ochre Use in Africa and its Significance for The Development of Ritual Behavior During The Middle Stone Age. Journal of World Prehistory 35:3-4 ► pp. 233 ff.
Davies, Stephen
2021. Behavioral Modernity in Retrospect. Topoi 40:1 ► pp. 221 ff.
Froese, Tom, Alexander Woodward & Takashi Ikegami
2013. Turing instabilities in biology, culture, and consciousness? On the enactive origins of symbolic material culture. Adaptive Behavior 21:3 ► pp. 199 ff.
2013. Neanderthal Graphic Behavior. Journal of Anthropological Research 69:3 ► pp. 397 ff.
García-Diez, Marcos & Blanca Ochoa
2020. Art Origins: The Emergence of Graphic Symbolism. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ► pp. 1 ff.
García-Diez, Marcos & Blanca Ochoa
2020. Art Origins: The Emergence of Graphic Symbolism. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ► pp. 986 ff.
Garofoli, Duilio & Antonis Iliopoulos
2019. Replacing Epiphenomenalism: a Pluralistic Enactive Take on the Metaplasticity of Early Body Ornamentation. Philosophy & Technology 32:2 ► pp. 215 ff.
Henshilwood, Christopher S.
2012. Late Pleistocene Techno-traditions in Southern Africa: A Review of the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, c. 75–59 ka. Journal of World Prehistory 25:3-4 ► pp. 205 ff.
Iliopoulos, Antonis & Lambros Malafouris
2021. Symbols and Material Signs in the Debate on Human Origins. In Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, ► pp. 369 ff.
Joordens, Josephine C. A., Francesco d’Errico, Frank P. Wesselingh, Stephen Munro, John de Vos, Jakob Wallinga, Christina Ankjærgaard, Tony Reimann, Jan R. Wijbrans, Klaudia F. Kuiper, Herman J. Mücher, Hélène Coqueugniot, Vincent Prié, Ineke Joosten, Bertil van Os, Anne S. Schulp, Michel Panuel, Victoria van der Haas, Wim Lustenhouwer, John J. G. Reijmer & Wil Roebroeks
2015. Homo erectus at Trinil on Java used shells for tool production and engraving. Nature 518:7538 ► pp. 228 ff.
Majkić, Ana, Francesco d’Errico, Stefan Milošević, Dušan Mihailović & Vesna Dimitrijević
2018. Sequential Incisions on a Cave Bear Bone from the Middle Paleolithic of Pešturina Cave, Serbia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 25:1 ► pp. 69 ff.
Moffett, Mark W.
2013. Human Identity and the Evolution of Societies. Human Nature 24:3 ► pp. 219 ff.
Roberts, Patrick, James Blinkhorn & Michael D. Petraglia
2018. A transect of environmental variability across South Asia and its influence on Late Pleistocene human innovation and occupation. Journal of Quaternary Science 33:3 ► pp. 285 ff.
Schott, G D
2014. Engraved hexagons on an Ice Age ivory: a neurological perspective on an anthropological debate. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 85:10 ► pp. 1174 ff.
Straffon, Larissa Mendoza
2019. Evolution and the Origins of Visual Art: An Archaeological Perspective. In Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology, ► pp. 407 ff.
Wadley, Lyn
2015. Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 50:2 ► pp. 155 ff.
Wadley, Lyn
2016. Technological Transformations Imply Cultural Transformations and Complex Cognition. In The Nature of Culture [Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, ], ► pp. 57 ff.
Wagner, Patrycja
2023. Sztuka epoki paleolitu w świetle hipotezy mózgu społecznego. Folia Praehistorica Posnaniensia 28 ► pp. 315 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.