By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and ...Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization's decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population. The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.
Modern human behavioral innovations from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) include the earliest indicators of full coastal adaptation evidenced by shell middens, yet many MSA middens remain poorly dated. We ...apply
Th/U burial dating to ostrich eggshells (OES) from Ysterfontein 1 (YFT1, Western Cape, South Africa), a stratified MSA shell midden.
Th/U burial ages of YFT1 OES are relatively precise (median ± 2.7%), consistent with other age constraints, and preserve stratigraphic principles. Bayesian age-depth modeling indicates YFT1 was deposited between 119.9 to 113.1 thousand years ago (ka) (95% CI of model ages), and the entire 3.8 m thick midden may have accumulated within ∼2,300 y. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of OES indicate that during occupation the local environment was dominated by C
vegetation and was initially significantly wetter than at present but became drier and cooler with time. Integrating archaeological evidence with OES
Th/U ages and stable isotopes shows the following: 1) YFT1 is the oldest shell midden known, providing minimum constraints on full coastal adaptation by ∼120 ka; 2) despite rapid sea-level drop and other climatic changes during occupation, relative shellfish proportions and sizes remain similar, suggesting adaptive foraging along a changing coastline; 3) the YFT1 lithic technocomplex is similar to other west coast assemblages but distinct from potentially synchronous industries along the southern African coast, suggesting human populations were fragmented between seasonal rainfall zones; and 4) accumulation rates (up to 1.8 m/ka) are much higher than previously observed for dated, stratified MSA middens, implying more intense site occupation akin to Later Stone Age middens.
The North African Middle Stone Age (NAMSA, ∼300-24 thousand years ago, or ka) features what may be the oldest fossils of our species as well as extremely early examples of technological ...regionalization and 'symbolic' material culture (d'Errico, Vanhaeren, Barton, Bouzouggar, Mienis, Richter, Hublin, McPherron, Louzouet, & Klein, ; Scerri, ; Richter, Grün, Joannes-Boyau, Steele, Amani, Rué, Fernandes, Raynal, Geraads, Ben-Ncer Hublin, McPherron, ). The geographic situation of North Africa and an increased understanding of the wet-dry climatic pulses of the Sahara Desert also show that North Africa played a strategic role in continental-scale evolutionary processes by modulating human dispersal and demographic structure (Drake, Blench, Armitage, Bristow, & White, ; Blome, Cohen, Tryon, Brooks, & Russell, ). However, current understanding of the NAMSA remains patchy and subject to a bewildering array of industrial nomenclatures that mask underlying variability. These issues are compounded by a geographic research bias skewed toward non-desert regions. As a result, it has been difficult to test long-established narratives of behavioral and evolutionary change in North Africa and to resolve debates on their wider significance. In order to evaluate existing data and identify future research directions, this paper provides a critical overview of the component elements of the NAMSA and shows that the timing of many key behaviors has close parallels with others in sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia.
Border Cave (BC) has accumulated over 200,000 years of archaeological deposits that document remarkable evidence of human behaviour during the Middle and Later Stone Age. For nearly fifty years, ...researchers have relied on the stratigraphic framework established by Peter Beaumont in 1973, in which the deposits are lithostratigraphically categorized into a sequence of alternating ‘Brown Sand’ (BS) and ‘White Ash’ (WA) members. Geoarchaeological work in the 1970s focused on stratigraphic sequencing of the anthropogenic assemblages, and proposed broad correlations between autogenic contributions and environmental conditions. The research presented here was undertaken as part of a new excavation campaign at Border Cave started in 2015 under the direction of Backwell at al. Re-examining the stratigraphic context of the deposits and assessing site formation processes are among the key goals of this project; this will enable finer-scale intra- and inter-member comparative analyses of the artefacts and ecofacts recovered at the site. In this paper, we apply a facies and allostratigraphic approach to assess the stratigraphic sequence exposed through the Backwell et al. excavations. We also provide an initial assessment of the prevailing site formation processes active in the deposition and modification of the sediments. The geoarchaeological data are integrated with new zooarchaeological and taphonomic evidence in order to explore inter- and intra-unit patterns throughout the sequence. Results of this work are: (1) exposed sediments can be broadly correlated to members of the Beaumont sequence; (2) we clearly define member boundaries, reassess member stratigraphic complexity and recognise finer intra-member layering; (3) geoarchaeological and taphonomic studies demonstrate that the sediments have been subjected to greater post-depositional disturbance than was previously recognised and affect all levels of the sequence; (4) overall, faunal density at BC appears to be much lower than that at other Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos and Sibudu; (5) multiproxy analysis suggests that WA and BS members have distinctive taphonomic histories that cross-cut the identified archaeological industries. As such, caution is warranted when combining BS and WA members for analysis of artefacts and ecofacts.
Current models of early hominin biological and cultural evolution are shaped almost entirely by the data accumulated from the East African Rift System (EARS) over the last decades. In contrast, ...little is known about the archaeological record from the high-elevation regions on either side of the Rift. Melka Wakena is a newly discovered site-complex on the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands (SEH) (>2300 m above mean sea level) just east of the central sector of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), where eight archaeological and two paleontological localities were discovered to date. Nine archaeological horizons from three localities were tested so far, all dated to the second half of the early Pleistocene (∼1.6 to >0.7 Ma). All the lithic assemblages belong to the Acheulian technocomplex. Here we report on geochronological, stratigraphic, paleontological and lithic technological aspects of the tested localities and contextualize them in the broader framework of hominin cultural evolution in eastern Africa. Findings from Melka Wakena, assessed against the backdrop of the few other highland sites (Melka Kunture and Gadeb), support a scenario of expansion rather than dispersal from the Rift to the highlands. When considered in the context of the Rift-highlands interface, results of the first-phase research at Melka Wakena help to parse existing general models into archaeologically testable hypotheses and demonstrate the site’s potential to contribute to research of early prehistory and to understanding the dynamics of early Pleistocene hominin populations in eastern Africa.
•Initial investigations at the new early Pleistocene site-complex Melka Wakena, southeastern Ethiopian Highlands (>2300 m above sea level).•Several stratified Acheulian localities on a dynamic flood plain, dated by 40Ar/39Ar between 1.6 Ma and >0.7 Ma.•Lithic production consists of locally-made small flakes, large flakes. Spatially segmented reduction and shaping of Large Cutting Tools.•Reconstruction of extensive Acheulian land-use of the floodplain, based on fauna, sedimentology and material culture evidence.•This addition to the few known early Pleistocene highland sites contributes to understanding highland-Rift Valley occupation dynamics.
Analyses of the distance over which lithic raw materials were transported for use in stone tool production provide important insights into early human mobility through prehistoric landscapes. This ...study combines the use of geochemical provenancing, chaîne opératoire analysis and geochronology to examine patterns of lithic raw material procurement at five single-use open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites in Ntwetwe Pan, part of the Makgadikgadi Pans complex in north-central Botswana. Maximum ages of the five sites ranged from 106 ± 3 to 69 ± 7 ka, with site formation thought to have occurred before and after a lake high stand dated to c. 72-57 ka. Tool manufacture at all sites was largely confined to the production of MSA points, with silcrete used exclusively as the raw material. Geochemical provenancing investigations aimed to identify the specific silcrete outcrops used as lithic raw material sources. Analysis of contemporary pan floor deposits show that sediment (and hence silcrete) geochemistry in Ntwetwe is determined by the proportional sediment input into the pan from fluvial systems with different catchment geologies. Immobile trace element signatures for 46 waste manufacturing flakes were compared against equivalent data for 321 silcrete samples collected at outcrops within and beyond Ntwetwe Pan. Waste flakes were chosen to be representative of the main silcrete raw material types present within the artefact assemblage at each site. Fifteen waste flakes were shown to match specific outcrops on the basis of their geochemical signatures and petrographic properties; all matching outcrops were within Ntwetwe Pan, at distances ranging from 7 to 55 km from individual sites. Multi-site analysis of procurement patterns identifies common silcrete source areas, revealing a preference for silcrete from particular locations within Ntwetwe Pan. Given that the five archaeological sites were likely occupied at different times, this resource preference may have been a longer-term behavioural feature of MSA populations in the Ntwetwe region. The distances over which silcrete was transported in Ntwetwe Pan are smaller than identified in investigations at similar-aged MSA sites in northwest Botswana. The reasons for the different silcrete procurement ranges in the two regions are likely related to silcrete availability and/or raw material preference, but this requires further investigation.
•Silcrete artefacts from 5 open-air MSA sites in Ntwetwe Pan are matched against potential source outcrops using immobile trace element signatures.•Procurement sites are identified at distances ranging from 7–55 km from individual MSA sites, suggesting local raw material acquisition.•Common silcrete source areas are identified, suggesting a preference for silcrete from particular locations by MSA populations.•Combined geochemical and chaîne opératoire analyses confirm that silcrete transport from specific outcrops was an inherent feature of MSA tool production.
We extend the scope of European palaeogenomics by sequencing the genomes of Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,300 years old, 1.4-fold coverage) and Mesolithic (9,700 years old, 15.4-fold) males from ...western Georgia in the Caucasus and a Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,700 years old, 9.5-fold) male from Switzerland. While we detect Late Palaeolithic-Mesolithic genomic continuity in both regions, we find that Caucasus hunter-gatherers (CHG) belong to a distinct ancient clade that split from western hunter-gatherers ∼45 kya, shortly after the expansion of anatomically modern humans into Europe and from the ancestors of Neolithic farmers ∼25 kya, around the Last Glacial Maximum. CHG genomes significantly contributed to the Yamnaya steppe herders who migrated into Europe ∼3,000 BC, supporting a formative Caucasus influence on this important Early Bronze age culture. CHG left their imprint on modern populations from the Caucasus and also central and south Asia possibly marking the arrival of Indo-Aryan languages.
Studies of early human occupation of Africa over recent decades have profoundly changed how we understand our early ancestors, their inventiveness and adaptability. The spread of Homo sapiens to new ...environmental settings, the expansion of diet breadth, the development of more complex technology and the use of personal ornaments have all been recognized at well-documented Middle Stone Age (MSA) cave and shelter sites, particularly along the South African coast. This paper addresses two under-represented aspects of MSA research: open-air sites and the African interior. We present here recent surveys and excavations in Ntwetwe Pan, Botswana, a remote, open landscape, that formerly contained a vast palaeolake. The five excavated sites yielded assemblages composed exclusively of silcrete, a locally available raw material. The lithic industry at these sites was deposited during dry periods following palaeolake high stands dating to c.128–81 ka and c. 72–57 ka. This industry, characterized by a limited toolkit dominated by highly retouched unifacial and bifacial points, is not previously documented but shows similarities to dated MSA sites of equivalent age in north-western Botswana and Zimbabwe. Combined, these exposed open-air sites document the successful MSA adaptation to a hydrologically dynamic, interior landscape and arguably display MSA behavioural patterns that complement and balance the more well-documented perspectives from coastal cave and shelter sites.
•Address two under-represented aspects of Middle Stone Age research: open-air sites and the African interior.•Present recent surveys and excavations in Ntwetwe Pan, Botswana, a remote, open landscape, formerly a vast palaeolake.•Five fully excavated sites yielding assemblages composed exclusively in silcrete, a locally available raw material.•Previously undocumented lithic industry, with a limited toolkit dominated by highly retouched unifacial and bifacial points.•This industry was deposited during dry periods following palaeolake high stands dating to c.128–81 ka and c. 72–57 ka.
•Archival collections are a renewable archaeological resource that are important parts of excavated but under-analyzed sites.•Mumba rockshelter in Tanzania is a key stratigraphic sequence for the ...Late Pleistocene, yet excavations from the 1970s remain unstudied and unpublished.•Our analysis of the obsidian artifacts and ostrich eggshell beads from Mumba provide robust quantitative data confirming long distance transport of raw material and stable bead size across millennia .
Mumba rockshelter in northern Tanzania has served as a key benchmark sequence for understanding Late Pleistocene-Holocene archaeological changes in the region. A complete understanding of the site is complicated by multiple excavations across >90 years, with an unfortunate history of incomplete publication of those results, particularly for some of the older, larger-scale excavations from the 1930s and 1970s. We report here on newly recovered material from the 1977 Mehlman excavations at Mumba. We (1) untangle the complex notation Mehlman used when labeling his artifacts which has led to a misunderstanding of some patterns of change in the past, (2) present the first fully quantitative results of the geochemical analysis and source attribution of obsidian artifacts from Beds III and II at the site, and (3) test and confirm observations about a lack of change in ostrich eggshell bead size at Mumba, a pattern unlike that found at other regional sequences.
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