Abstract
North Africa is quickly emerging as one of the more important regions yielding information on the origins of modern Homo sapiens. Associated with significant fossil hominin remains are two stone tool industries, the Aterian and Mousterian, which have been differentiated, respectively, primarily on the basis of the presence and absence of tanged, or stemmed, stone tools. Largely because of historical reasons, these two industries have been attributed to the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic rather than the African Middle Stone Age. In this paper, drawing on our recent excavation of Contrebandiers Cave and other published data, we show that, aside from the presence or absence of tanged pieces, there are no other distinctions between these two industries in terms of either lithic attributes or chronology. Together, these results demonstrate that these two 'industries' are instead variants of the same entity. Moreover, several additional characteristics of these assemblages, such as distinctive stone implements and the manufacture and use of bone tools and possible shell ornaments, suggest a closer affinity to other Late Pleistocene African Middle Stone Age industries rather than to the Middle Paleolithic of western Eurasia.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 194-210 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Journal of Human Evolution |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Fingerprint
Keywords
- Atero-Mousterian
- Maghrebian Mousterian
- Middle Paleolithic
- Middle Stone Age
- Morocco
- North Africa
- Systematics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Education
Cite this
On the industrial attributions of the Aterian and Mousterian of the Maghreb. / Dibble, Harold L.; Aldeias, Vera; Jacobs, Zenobia; Olszewski, Deborah I.; Rezek, Zeljko; Lin, Sam C.; Alvarez-Fernández, Esteban; Barshay-Szmidt, Carolyn C.; Hallett-Desguez, Emily; Reed, Denné; Reed, Kaye; Richter, Daniel; Steele, Teresa E.; Skinner, Anne; Blackwell, Bonnie; Doronicheva, Ekaterina; El-Hajraoui, Mohamed.
In: Journal of Human Evolution, Vol. 64, No. 3, 03.2013, p. 194-210.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - On the industrial attributions of the Aterian and Mousterian of the Maghreb
AU - Dibble, Harold L.
AU - Aldeias, Vera
AU - Jacobs, Zenobia
AU - Olszewski, Deborah I.
AU - Rezek, Zeljko
AU - Lin, Sam C.
AU - Alvarez-Fernández, Esteban
AU - Barshay-Szmidt, Carolyn C.
AU - Hallett-Desguez, Emily
AU - Reed, Denné
AU - Reed, Kaye
AU - Richter, Daniel
AU - Steele, Teresa E.
AU - Skinner, Anne
AU - Blackwell, Bonnie
AU - Doronicheva, Ekaterina
AU - El-Hajraoui, Mohamed
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - North Africa is quickly emerging as one of the more important regions yielding information on the origins of modern Homo sapiens. Associated with significant fossil hominin remains are two stone tool industries, the Aterian and Mousterian, which have been differentiated, respectively, primarily on the basis of the presence and absence of tanged, or stemmed, stone tools. Largely because of historical reasons, these two industries have been attributed to the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic rather than the African Middle Stone Age. In this paper, drawing on our recent excavation of Contrebandiers Cave and other published data, we show that, aside from the presence or absence of tanged pieces, there are no other distinctions between these two industries in terms of either lithic attributes or chronology. Together, these results demonstrate that these two 'industries' are instead variants of the same entity. Moreover, several additional characteristics of these assemblages, such as distinctive stone implements and the manufacture and use of bone tools and possible shell ornaments, suggest a closer affinity to other Late Pleistocene African Middle Stone Age industries rather than to the Middle Paleolithic of western Eurasia.
AB - North Africa is quickly emerging as one of the more important regions yielding information on the origins of modern Homo sapiens. Associated with significant fossil hominin remains are two stone tool industries, the Aterian and Mousterian, which have been differentiated, respectively, primarily on the basis of the presence and absence of tanged, or stemmed, stone tools. Largely because of historical reasons, these two industries have been attributed to the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic rather than the African Middle Stone Age. In this paper, drawing on our recent excavation of Contrebandiers Cave and other published data, we show that, aside from the presence or absence of tanged pieces, there are no other distinctions between these two industries in terms of either lithic attributes or chronology. Together, these results demonstrate that these two 'industries' are instead variants of the same entity. Moreover, several additional characteristics of these assemblages, such as distinctive stone implements and the manufacture and use of bone tools and possible shell ornaments, suggest a closer affinity to other Late Pleistocene African Middle Stone Age industries rather than to the Middle Paleolithic of western Eurasia.
KW - Atero-Mousterian
KW - Maghrebian Mousterian
KW - Middle Paleolithic
KW - Middle Stone Age
KW - Morocco
KW - North Africa
KW - Systematics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875227364&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84875227364&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.10.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.10.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 23399349
AN - SCOPUS:84875227364
VL - 64
SP - 194
EP - 210
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
SN - 0047-2484
IS - 3
ER -