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(Forthcoming)
year: 2025
isbn: 9789042954199
pages: XVI-398 p.
Kobs, Aurochs and Clams
Human Behavior in Late Pleistocene Sub-Saharan Africa. The Middle Stone Age in the Affad Basin, Sudan
auteurs:
Résumé:
Kobs, aurochs and clams… even for professional archaeologists dealing with the Middle Stone Age (MSA) these names can be a mystery. Yet they were most likely the center of interest and most important target of members of Nile communities in the late Pleistocene. People focused on hunting and gathering these animals and they adapted their tools to do it as efficiently as possible. They used fire, made stone tools to cut the meat, and constructed wooden shelters and installations, but all of this was dedicated to hunting the kob or auroch and collecting clams. Stone by stone and bone by bone, the authors of this volume discover the world of these people, man’s role in this world and how this reflects on modern realities.
The monograph is designed primarily as a presentation of archaeological material. At the same time, however, it is a source of data for the debate on the adaptive capabilities of Northeastern African MSA human groups. Behavioral adaptation is a complex system of interaction of humans as social beings and their environment. The refitting of worked chert nodes gives an idea of learning processes by replicating these processes, but it also showcases the tools. Preferences for specific rock to make a given tool also reflects seasonal availability of the raw material. This comes across clearly also as access to diverse sources of animal protein. The authors’ research has given insight into the adaptive behavior of human groups from the PaleoAffad microregion over a relatively homogeneous timespan between 45 and 55 ka. This specific focus assures much better grounds for proposing hypotheses about the nature of the MSA than hitherto studies of collections from multiple sites considered out of context, independently of each other.
This book is published open access. It can be downloaded here.
The monograph is designed primarily as a presentation of archaeological material. At the same time, however, it is a source of data for the debate on the adaptive capabilities of Northeastern African MSA human groups. Behavioral adaptation is a complex system of interaction of humans as social beings and their environment. The refitting of worked chert nodes gives an idea of learning processes by replicating these processes, but it also showcases the tools. Preferences for specific rock to make a given tool also reflects seasonal availability of the raw material. This comes across clearly also as access to diverse sources of animal protein. The authors’ research has given insight into the adaptive behavior of human groups from the PaleoAffad microregion over a relatively homogeneous timespan between 45 and 55 ka. This specific focus assures much better grounds for proposing hypotheses about the nature of the MSA than hitherto studies of collections from multiple sites considered out of context, independently of each other.
This book is published open access. It can be downloaded here.
