The Geometric Grammar of 60,000-Year-Old Ostrich Eggshells What engraved fragments from southern Africa reveal about the deep roots of structured visual thought

60,000-year-old engraved ostrich eggshells from southern Africa weren’t random scratches. New analysis finds a shared geometric grammar: right angles, parallel bands, nested grids. Structured visual thought, deep in deep time. #Paleoanthropology #MiddleStoneAge #HumanEvolution

Homo heidelbergensis and The Origins of The Middle Stone Age: The Kabwe (Broken Hill) Lithic Assemblage - African Archaeological Review The Middle Stone Age (MSA) saw the emergence of novel behaviours in the archaeological record and is generally associated with our own species, Homo sapiens. Yet, most archaeological assemblages contain no fossil remains, with those rare assemblages with a fossil association giving a less than clear-cut picture. Here, we describe the lithic assemblage from Kabwe, Zambia, a cave site that was originally discovered in the early twentieth century and is most famous for the Kabwe cranium, an exceptionally well-preserved Middle Pleistocene Homo fossil. The nature of the assemblage’s excavation means that it is not well-provenanced. To address this issue, we draw on archival data related to the original excavations and discoveries during the 1920s and use the remains of original matrix still adhering to several of the lithic artefacts to separate out the assemblage stratigraphically. This indicates no significant difference in technological strategies across the assemblage. Whilst there is an Early Stone Age component to the assemblage in the form of spheroids, it is generally consistent with MSA technological strategies, including notably Levallois-like and laminar modes of production evident from cores and debitage. We thus interpret the Kabwe assemblage as a transitional ESA/MSA industry. Due to the possible association with Homo heidelbergensis sensu lato fossils in the form of both the Kabwe cranium and postcranial remains, this hints that the early MSA could have included other members of our clade rather than just Homo sapiens, complicating current models of MSA origins.

The #Kabwe lithic assemblage in #Zambia

#Hheidelbergensis and the origin of the #MiddleStoneAge

#archaeology #Africa #MiddlePleistocene

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-0...

Ngalue Cave, Mozambique (~105 ka): microscopic starch granules—including wild sorghum—on grinders and scrapers = early plant foods in the MSA. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #MiddleStoneAge #StarchResidues
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Essaouira’s Bizmoune Cave Yields New Clues to Early Humans Morocco’s National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage has launched a month-long field season at Bizmoune Cave to refine the story of early humans in North Africa.

#Bizmoune Cave, Morocco, one of the most advanced of our entire species lifespan.

#MiddleStoneAge #Africa #NorthAfrica #shells #jewellery #ochre

www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/11/267737/essaouira...

Sibudu Cave (≥70 ka): compound hafting glue—plant gum + red ochre (often with coarse grit) mixed and heated near hearths to set—made stone points stick. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #Sibudu #MiddleStoneAge
Paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Blombos Cave, S. Africa (~100 ka): two abalone shells held an ochre-rich compound (ground ochre, bone, charcoal + liquid)—a stored pigment mix and early chemistry. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #Blombos #MiddleStoneAge
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Pinnacle Point, South Africa (≥164 ka): early H. sapiens heated silcrete in hearths to improve flaking—pyrotechnology for better blades. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #MiddleStoneAge #PinnaclePoint
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Katanda, DRC (~90 ka): uniserial barbed bone points from a Middle Stone Age fishery—among the earliest known harpoons. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #MiddleStoneAge #Katanda
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Blombos Cave (~73 ka): silcrete flake L13 bears nine red-ochre lines (3 parallel, crossed by 6)—the oldest known drawing by Homo sapiens. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #Blombos #MiddleStoneAge
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Networking before cities. Olorgesailie (Kenya) MSA sites dated ≥295–320 ka show nonlocal obsidian (≥25–50 km), prepared points, and ochre—evidence for early social exchange and technology. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #MiddleStoneAge #Olorgesailie doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Stone Age drip: shell beads as identity + belonging. New evidence from Bizmoune Cave (Morocco) pushes it ≥142k years. Read: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #SymbolicBehavior #MiddleStoneAge

Original post on c.im

Exciting new article here on the uses of #Blombos #MiddleStoneAge #ochre:
'ochre tools from Blombos Cave, South Africa, found in Still Bay to pre–Still Bay layers dated 90 to 70,000 years ago. Seven ochre pieces were deliberately modified into lithic retouchers, showing clear use-wear patterns […]

Really looking forward to heading to my first Society of African Archaeologists conference next week, talking about our group’s research out in the Namib Sand Seaz

#SANDS
#PANS
#archaeology
#safaconference2025
#lithics
#NamibSandSea
#EarlierStoneAge
#MiddleStoneAge

Original post on c.im

Anyone who wants to know about the #archaeology and #anthropology of how we became human, follow my colleague @ochrewatts

He's a world expert on our earliest #symbolic record in the #African #MiddleStoneAge -- specifically the red #ochre pigment record -- and has encyclopedic knowledge of […]

Climate, Chaos, and Cooperation: How Shifting Environments May Have Forged Early Human Solidarity New simulations suggest that environmental instability—not predictability—may have driven the evolution of human cooperation

How did chaos make us human? New research suggests environmental instability during the Middle Stone Age fostered cooperation across groups. #HumanEvolution #Anthropology #MiddleStoneAge #ClimateAdaptation

Lecture: A Cultural Turning Point – Join Viola Schmid on Feb 14, 2025, at 11:00 at ULiège - Musée de la Préhistoire to explore the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa. Discover cultural shifts and innovations from Bushman Rock Shelter, Rose Cottage Cave, and Sibudu Cave. #Archaeology #MiddleStoneAge

We just published together with a large team of colleagues a report paper on the fantastic Rose Cottage Cave (Free State, South Africa) #SouthAfricanArchaeologicalBulletin #MiddleStoneAge #LaterStoneAge

Earliest evidence for ochre processing in #WestAfrican #MiddleStoneAge #Senegal c.37 Ka

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030...

[HUMS Bicentenary PhD] Down by the river: reconstructing environmental conditions at two stone age archaeological sites along the former Tsondab River in the Namib Sand Sea. at The University of Manch... PhD Project - [HUMS Bicentenary PhD] Down by the river: reconstructing environmental conditions at two stone age archaeological sites along the former Tsondab River in the Namib Sand Sea. at The Unive...

🚨another #PhD opportunity 🚨

Involving working with a fabulous team of #Quaternary scientists & #archaeologists
#NamibSandSea #MiddleStoneAge #luminescencedating

This is a competition for funding with University of Manchester via the Bicentenary Scholarship

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Recent article in The Conversation by @abistone.bsky.social & colleagues of the S.A.N.D.S. research project

#archaeology #desert #NamibSandSea #Namibia #MiddleStoneAge #luminescencedatinf

African archaeology has neglected Namibia’s deserts, but scientists now know when an ancient lake supported human life in the Namib Sand Sea New research provides the foundation for larger, regional-scale analyses of early human adaptive strategies in the Namib Sand Sea, Namibia.

What was Narabeb like 230,000 years ago, when our #MiddleStoneAge ancestors were there?
Our #luminescencedating shines light on this blind spot in #archaeology

theconversation.com/african-arch... [theconversation.com]

@us.theconversation.com @quaternaryra.bsky.social #LeakeyFoundation

Irini Sifogeorgaki defending her #PhD tomorrow on South African geoarchaeology. Today we are having a symposium with international guests Profs Nicholas Conard and Marlize Lombard.

Great discussions on #African #MiddleStoneAge #Archaeology.

Plus: Jackson Pollock decorated our Christmas tree 🥲