Structure and Variability in the Eastern African Middle Stone Age

Stone tool technologies attributed to the African Middle Stone Age (MSA; ~300 to <35 ka)
exhibit high variability and coincide with major evolutionary events, such as the origins and dispersals of Homo sapiens, as well as a period of high morphological diversity in the hominin fossil record. This doctoral dissertation combines data from excavation with comparative lithic analyses at different spatial scales to tease out patterns in eastern African MSA technology over time and space and to investigate the role of raw material and reduction intensity in shaping technological patterns. In the eastern Lake Victoria Basin (eLVB), I test differences in raw material use, core reduction intensity, and assemblage fragmentation to infer differences in raw material provisioning and landscape use within the eLVB. I also conduct a comparative analyses of 15 MSA assemblages from Kenya and Ethiopia and use multivariate statistical modelling of lithic attributes to identify the main dimensions of variability in the eastern African MSA and to test both technological patterns over time and the influence of raw material and reduction intensity on technological diversity.

I demonstrate temporal patterns and raw material and reduction influences on MSA
technology that are overlain by considerable technological heterogeneity. Results from the Nyanza Rift also indicate more diversity in a single place and period (e.g. the Late Pleistocene eLVB) than previously appreciated. Regional temporal trends include a decline in prepared core technologies (bifacial hierarchical technology sensu Shea, 2020) and increase in blade technology from MIS 7 to MIS 3. These patterns align with changes associated with the MSA–LSA (Late Stone Age) transition, but begin deeper in the MSA. Raw material procurement and management are also associated with variability in these technological clusters and also influence assemblage variability in the eLVB. This dissertation lays a methodological foundation for comparative regional analysis of MSA technology at the resolution of lithic attributes and is a preliminary attempt at uniting approaches rooted in cultural transmission theory and the organisation of technology in the study of technological variability.