What is Stone Age in southern Africa?

The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) from South Africa occurred, broadly, between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. This is a crucial phase in the history of Homo sapiens, as genetic and fossil evidence increasingly indicate that the roots of Homo sapiens reach back to this time.

What is the South African equivalent of the Middle Paleolithic?

The Stellenbosch and Fauresmith together constitute what is called the South African Older Stone Age, a period roughly corresponding to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic stages of Europe.

Why is it important to study Stone Age?

Stone artifacts tell anthropologists a lot about early humans, including how they made things, how they lived and how human behavior evolved over time.

What is the most important aspect of the Old Stone Age?

Overview. Paleolithic groups developed increasingly complex tools and objects made of stone and natural fibers. Language, art, scientific inquiry, and spiritual life were some of the most important innovations of the Paleolithic era.

What is also known as the Old Stone Age?

Paleolithic Period, also spelled Palaeolithic Period, also called Old Stone Age, ancient cultural stage, or level, of human development, characterized by the use of rudimentary chipped stone tools.

Why is the Middle Stone Age important?

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of eastern Africa has a long history of research and is accompanied by a rich fossil record, which, combined with its geographic location, have led it to play an important role in investigating the origins and expansions of Homo sapiens.

Why the Stone Age is important?

The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools. During the Stone Age, humans shared the planet with a number of now-extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Why study the Stone Age in South Africa?

However, throughout its early history, the study of the Stone Age in South Africa was tied to international developments in archaeology and strong links existed withmanyof the world’s leading authorities.

What is the oldest culture in Africa?

The earliest known African culture was the Oldowan, which flourished around 2.5 million-years-ago and appears, for the first time, in East Africa. Oldowan culture refers to the types of stone implements made by an early human species called Homo habilis.

What are the three periods of the Stone Age?

The Stone Age began about 2.6 million years ago, when researchers found the earliest evidence of humans using stone tools, and lasted until about 3,300 B.C. when the Bronze Age began. It is typically broken into three distinct periods: the Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period and Neolithic Period.

What materials were used in the Stone Age?

Not all Stone Age tools were made of stone. Groups of humans experimented with other raw materials including bone, ivory and antler, especially later on in the Stone Age. Later Stone Age tools are more diverse. These diverse “toolkits” suggest a faster pace of innovation—and the emergence of distinct cultural identities.