Cultural change at high resolution in the MSA in South Africa: News from investigations at Sibudu and Umbeli Belli

SEMINAR ON THE MIDDLE STONE AGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

PROF. NICHOLAS CONARD

Tübingen-Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Tübingen, Germany

LUNEDI 14 OTTOBRE 2019 - h. 11,00

Cultural change at high resolution in the MSA in South Africa: News from investigations at Sibudu and Umbeli Belli

Il seminario si terrà nell’ Aula 3A del Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici - C.so Ercole I d’Este 32

La lezione sarà tenuta in INGLESE

Since the 1980s the Middle Stone Age (MSA) has been a main focus of international research in paleoanthropology in Southern Africa. Thuis is a heading region with many high-profile excavations yielding results that have helped to shape the debates on the origins of modern humans and innovative behaviors that have triggered the expansion of populations into Eurasia. The seminar presents the exceptionally detailed record disclosed at Sibudu and Umbeli Belli (90 to 30 ka), spanning the “Pre-Still Bay”, Still Bay, Howiesons Poort, Sibudan, Late MSA and Final MSA cultural complexes. We examine when and why marked cultural changes are documented in these sequences using multiple lines of evidence.