Stone Age Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (2 ed.)
... Age Popular term for the Palaeolithic , Mesolithic , and Neolithic , the earliest periods of prehistory , i.e. the Old, Middle, and New Stone Ages...
Stone Age Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Age Period of human evolution defined by the use of stone tools. The Stone Age dates from the earliest identifiable broken‐pebble tools made by human ancestors c .2.5 million years ago. The period is generally considered to have ended when metal tools first became widespread during the Bronze Age . The Stone Age usually subdivides into the Palaeolithic , Mesolithic , and Neolithic...
Stone Age Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History
... Age . Popular term for the Palaeolithic , Mesolithic , and Neolithic , the earliest periods of...
Stone Age ([CP]) Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (3 ed.)
... Age [CP] The most ancient of the three subdivisions of the ancient past in the Three Age System . Characterized by the use of stone for the manufacture of tools and...
stone age Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Internet (4 ed.)
... age Used to describe the period starting with the invention of the first computer in the 1940s up to the...
Stone Age Quick reference
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation (3 ed.)
... Age The prehistoric period of human culture in Europe that lasted up to about 2000 bce (up to the dawn of the Bronze Age), during which stone was the main material used for making tools and weapons. Archaeologists usually divide the Stone Age into four periods: the eolithic , the Palaeolithic , the Mesolithic , and the Neolithic...
late Stone Age ([CP]) Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (3 ed.)
...Stone Age [CP] The final stage of the stoneworking industries in sub‐Saharan Africa dating to the period from about 30 000 years ago down into historical...
Southern African Stone Age Reference library
Nuno Bicho
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
... Wadley, L. 1993. “The Pleistocene Later Stone Age South of the Limpopo River.” Journal of World Prehistory 7: 243–296. Wadley, L. 2010. “Were Snares and Traps Used in the Middle Stone Age and Does It Matter? A Review and a Case Study from Sibudu, South Africa.” Journal of Human Evolution 58: 179–192. Wadley, L. 2014. “South African Middle and Later Stone Age Research: A Retrospective.” South African Archaeological Bulletin 69: 208. Wadley, L. 2015. “Those Marvelous Millennia: The Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa.” Azania: Archaeological...
Eastern African Stone Age Reference library
Yonatan Sahle
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...Framework and Nomenclature Stone Age studies are fast-paced; new lines of evidence and methodological advances persistently change prevailing understanding. This is particularly the case in eastern Africa, owing to the richness of its Stone Age record and growing research attention it continues to receive. Central to current knowledge of the Stone Age are research framework and nomenclature. The eastern African Stone Age has been variously recognized, organized, and interpreted, often conditioned by the theoretical and methodological backgrounds of researchers....
Northeastern African Stone Age Reference library
Alice Leplongeon
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...African nomenclature, with Earlier and Middle Stone Age being nowadays widely used in the literature, as a sometimes explicit way to stress the links between the Stone Age in northeastern Africa and in other African regions (e.g., Van Peer et al. 2003 ; Garcea 2004b ; Wurz and Van Peer 2012 ; Garcea 2020a ; Kleindienst 2020a ; Masojć 2021 ). The situation is more complex for the later periods for which European terminologies are still very much in use. “Upper Paleolithic” (rather than Later Stone Age) is, for example, used to describe late...
Stone Tools, Bronze and Iron Age Reference library
Yorke M. Rowan
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology
...Ground-stone tools from the Iron Age II seem to share similar types as those of the preceding Bronze Age, although a new subtype of the tripod bowl includes a central leg or support, attached with horizontal bars to the three or four outer legs. Stone Vessels. Typically, descriptive reports of ground-stone assemblages emphasize the finer items, such as stone vessels. In the southern Levant, locally manufactured vessels utilize a variety of immediately available rocks such limestone, basalt, sandstone, or flint. Despite the emphasis on stone vessels,...
The African Middle Stone Age Reference library
Alexander F. Blackwood and Jayne Wilkins
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...African Middle Stone Age Defining the Middle Stone Age The Middle Stone Age ( Figure 1 ) was first defined by Goodwin and van Riet Lowe ( 1929 ) in The Stone Age Cultures of South Africa . Prior to this, there were only two divisions, the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) and the Later Stone Age (LSA). The presence of the coup-de-poing (i.e., hand-axes) in ESA assemblages was the main distinguishing feature. Recognizing the need to account for the variation they observed in assemblages that did not contain hand-axes, Goodwin and van Riet Lowe ( 1929 ) proposed...
The West African Stone Age Reference library
Philip Allsworth-Jones
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
.... 2011. “The Later Stone Age Calvaria from Iwo Eleru, Nigeria: Morphology and Chronology.” PLoS One 6 (9): e24024, 1–8. Sanchez-Mazas, A. , A. Mayor , E. Poloni , K. Douze , E. Huysecom , M. Currat , N. Dlamini , A. Langaney , and N. H. van Blijenburgh . 2019. Afrique: 300’000 ans de diversité humaine: Catalogue de l’exposition . Genève, Suisse: Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle et Université de Genève. References Allsworth-Jones, P. 1986. “Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic: The Evidence from Nigeria and Cameroun.” In Stone Age Prehistory ,...
Bone Tool Technology in the Stone Age of Africa Reference library
Justin Bradfield
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...Tool Technology in the Stone Age of Africa The Place of Bone Tool Studies in Archaeology The Stone Age, as the name suggests, refers to a period of time in which stone tools are thought to have dominated the technological repertoire of humankind. The way archaeologists have historically framed their understanding of Stone Age societies has been dominated by information derived from stone tools. Technocomplex subdivisions within the Stone Age are largely defined by changes in stone tools, with other artifact categories subordinate (e.g., see Goodwin and van...
Ochre Use in the Middle Stone Age Reference library
Tammy Hodgskiss
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...Stone Age Mastics from South Africa.” Journal of Human Evolution 53 (4): 406–419. Lombard, Marlize . 2008. “Finding Resolution for the Howiesons Poort through the Microscope: Micro-residue Analysis of Segments from Sibudu Cave, South Africa.” Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 26–41. Lombard, Marlize . 2012. “Thinking through the Middle Stone Age of Sub-Saharan Africa.” Quaternary International 270: 140–155. Lombard, Marlize and Miriam N. Haidle . 2012. “Thinking a Bow-and-Arrow Set: Cognitive Implications of Middle Stone Age Bow and Stone...
The Early Middle Stone Age in South Africa Reference library
Sarah Wurz
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...Early Middle Stone Age in South Africa The Early Middle Stone Age The Paleolithic period is grouped into “Ages” based on distinctive sets of stone tools or lithics. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) generally refers to the period between 300,000 years ago (300 ka) and 40–20 ka, with the Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) encompassing the earliest period, 300–130 ka. The EMSA falls within the Middle Pleistocene epoch (780–126 ka) and covers Marine Isotope Stages 6–8. Pioneer archaeologists Goodwin and van Riet Lowe ( 1929 ) distinguished the MSA by faceted platforms and...
The Middle Stone Age of South Africa Reference library
Gregor D. Bader, Viola C. Schmid, and Andrew W. Kandel
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...Middle Stone Age of South Africa Characterizing the Middle Stone Age: Background and Definitions The African MSA began at least three hundred thousand years ago ( Brooks et al. 2018 ; McBrearty and Tryon 2006 ; Richter et al. 2017 ) and lasted until about thirty thousand years ago ( Bader, Tribolo, and Conard 2018 ; Wadley 2005 ). In the Stone Age sequence of sub-Saharan Africa, the MSA follows the Early Stone Age (ESA) and precedes the Later Stone Age (LSA). During the MSA, anatomically modern humans (AMH) who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle first...
The Stone Age of the Middle Nile Valley Reference library
Elena A. A. Garcea
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...inevitably traversed Sudan (e.g., Beyin 2021 ; Beyin, Hall, and Day 2019 ). At the same time, Sudanese technological traditions appear across the Red Sea in the Arabian Peninsula as well and seemingly spread via the southern route. The Early Stone Age Very few records document the earliest period of the Early Stone Age (ESA), Oldowan, in Sudan. A cluster of large choppers and chopping tools made on quartz pebbles was observed at 8-B-11 on Sai Island ( Van Peer, Rots, and Vroomans 2004 ). This assemblage was redeposited but was spatially concentrated,...
Ostrich Eggshell Beads in Later Stone Age Contexts Reference library
Benjamin Collins
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
..., and Karen Van Niekerk . 2005. “Nassarius Kraussianus Shell Beads from Blombos Cave: Evidence for Symbolic Behaviour in the Middle Stone Age.” Journal of Human Evolution 48 (1): 3–24. D’Errico, Francesco , Africa Pitarch Martí , Ceri Shipton , Emma Le Vraux , Emmanuel Ndiema , Steven Goldstein , Michael D. Petraglia , and Nicole Boivin . 2020. “Trajectories of Cultural Innovation from the Middle to Later Stone Age in Eastern Africa: Personal Ornaments, Bone Artifacts, and Ocher from Panga Ya Saidi, Kenya.” Journal of Human Evolution 141:...
Hafting Technology in the Stone Age of Southern Africa Reference library
Margaret-Ashley Veall
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Archaeology
...adhesive and composite tool construction models in southern Africa. Table 2. A Summary of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) Hafting Adhesive Finds 1 in Southern Africa, Including the Cultural Association, the Type of Finds, and the Type of Techniques Employed to Identify the Adhesive (Where Available). Site, location Associated technocomplex and date (before present [BP]) Find type and details of adhesive identification Reference Middle Stone Age Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia Late MSA, 27–25,000 Visual description of extent of adhesive trace Wendt...
