Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What Stimulated Rapid, Cumulative Innovation After 100,000 Years Ago?

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Imagination and innovation are likely stimulated through the intersection of brain power, motor skill and social need. Through time, escalating creativity may have influenced cognition and social interactions, creating a feedback situation that also implicated demography. Such reciprocal interactions between technology, cognition and society may have motivated the accumulation of innovations that are particularly visible in the archaeological record after 100,000 years ago (not as a revolution, but incrementally). Raw materials also played a role because they are not passive; intense interaction with objects reflexively stimulates human imagination and creativity. Archaeological evidence for material culture items that appear to embody imagination is present before the appearance of Homo sapiens. The implication is that imagination is not the sole preserve of people like us; nonetheless, H. sapiens took imaginative expressions to new heights after about 100,000 years ago. Perforated and ochre-covered marine shells were found in early modern human burials and living sites and thereafter more material culture items convey imagination. Shell beads were strung to form a variety of patterns, and engraved ostrich eggshells, engraved ochre, worked bone and hundreds of pieces of utilised ochre have been widely found. Innovation, imagination and complex cognition are also conveyed in the manufacture of everyday objects used for subsistence activities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agnati, L. F., Guidolin, D., Battistin, L., Pagnoni, G., & Fuxe, K. (2013). The neurobiology of imagination: possible role of interaction-dominant dynamics and default mode network. Frontiers of Psychology, 24 May 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00296.

  • Alperson-Afil, N. (2008). Continual fire-making by hominins at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27(17-18), 1733–1739.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2010). Coevolution of composite-tool technology, constructive memory, and language implications for the evolution of modern human behavior. Current Anthropology, 51 (Supplement 1), S135–S147.

  • Armitage, S. J., Jasim, S. A., Marks, A. E., Parker, A. G., Usik, V. I., & Uerpmann, H.-P. (2011). The southern route “out of Africa”: evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia. Science, 331(6016), 453–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ash, J., & Gallup, G. G. (2007). Paleoclimatic variation and brain expansion during human evolution. Human Nature, 18(2), 109–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Backwell, L., & d’Errico, F. (2005). The origin of bone tool technology and the identification of early hominid cultural traditions. In F. d’Errico & L. Backwell (Eds.), From tools to symbols: From early hominids to modern humans (pp. 238–275). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Backwell, L., McCarthy, T. S., Wadley, L., Henderson, Z., Steininger, C. M., de Klerk, B., et al. (2014). Multiproxy record of late Quaternary climate change and Middle Stone Age human occupation at Wonderkrater, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 99, 42–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. S. (2002). Backed tools in Middle Pleistocene Central Africa and their evolutionary significance. Journal of Human Evolution, 43(5), 585–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. S. (2013). From hand to handle: the first industrial revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. S., & Mitchell, P. J. (2008). The first Africans: African archaeology from the earliest tool makers to most recent foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. S., Pinto Llona, A. C., & Stringer, C. (2002). Bone tools from Broken Hill (Kabwe) Cave, Zambia, and their evolutionary significance. Before Farming [Online Version] 2002/2: Article 3.

  • Barkai, R., Rosell, R., Blasco, R., & Gopher, A. (2017). Fire for a reason: barbecue at Middle Pleistocene Qesem Cave, Israel. Current Anthropology, 58(Supplement 16), S314–S328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry, D. N., Barnes, G. R., Clark, I. A., & Maguire, E. A. (2019). The neural dynamics of novel scene imagery. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(22), 4375–4386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef Mayer, D. E., Vandermeersch, B., & Bar-Yosef, O. (2009). Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution, 56(3), 307–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaty, R. E., Kenett, Y. N., Christensen, A. P., Rosenberg, M. D., Benedeke, M., Chen, Q., et al. (2018). Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 115(5), 1087–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belfer-Cohen, A., & Hovers, E. (1992). In the eye of the beholder: Mousterian and Natufian burials in the Levant. Current Anthropology, 33(4), 463–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belfer-Cohen, A., & Hovers, E., (2020). Prehistoric perspectives on “others” and “strangers” Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 3063. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03063.

  • Benoit, R. G., Szpunar, K. K., & Schacter, D. L. (2014). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex supports affective future simulation by integrating distributed knowledge. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 111 (46), 16550–16555.

  • Berna, F., Goldberg, P., Horwitz, L. K., Brink, J. S., Holt, S., Bamford, M., et al. (2012). Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 109(20), 1215–1220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloch, M. (2013). In and out of each other’s bodies: theory of mind, evolution, truth and the nature of the social. New York: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E., Connan, J., Dessort, D., Muhesen, S., Mercier, N., Valladas, H., & Tisnérat, N. (1996). Bitumen as a hafting material on Middle Palaeolithic artefacts. Nature, 380(6572), 336–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouzouggar, A., Barton, N., Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Collcutt, S., Higham, T., et al. (2007). 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104(24), 9964–9969.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouzouggar, A., Humphrey, L. T., Barton, N., Parfitt, S. A., Balzan, L. C., Schwenninger, J.-L., et al. (2018). 90,000 year-old specialised bone technology in the Aterian Middle Stone Age of North Africa. PLoS One, 13(10), e0202021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brain, C. K., & Shipman, P. (1993). The Swartkrans bone tools. In C. K. Brain (Ed.), Swartkrans: A cave’s chronicle of early man (pp. 195–215). Pretoria: Transvaal Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bräuer, G. (2001). The KNM-ER 3884 hominid and the emergence of modern anatomy in Africa. In P. V. Tobias, M. A. Raath, J. Moggi-Cecchi, & G. A. Doyle (Eds.), Humanity from African naissance to coming millennia (pp. 191–197). Florence: Florence University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Deino, A. L., & Leslie, D. E. (2018). Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science, 360(6384), 90–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K., Marean, C. W., Herries, A. I. R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Braun, D., et al. (2009). Fire as an engineering tool of early modern humans. Science, 325(5942), 859–862.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, E. in prep. Evolving human brains: paleoneurology and the fate of Middle Pleistocene. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

  • Cabeza, R., Becker, M., & Davis, S. W. (2020). Are the hippocampus and its network necessary for creativity? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 117(25), 13870–13872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cârciumaru, M., Ion, R. M., Niţu, E. C., & Ştefânescu, R. (2012). New evidence of adhesive as hafting material on Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from Gura Cheii-Râşnov Cave (Romania). Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(7), 1942–1950.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charrié-Duhaut, A., Porraz, G., Cartwright, C. R., Igreja, M., Connan, J., Poggenpoel, C., & Texier, P. J. (2013). First molecular identification of a hafting adhesive in the late Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(9), 3506–3518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chermahini, S. A., & Hommel, B. (2010). The (b)link between creativity and dopamine: Spontaneous eye blink rates predict and dissociate divergent and convergent thinking. Cognition, 115(3), 458–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D., & Brown, K. S. (2001). The Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia: stratigraphy, fauna, and artefact assemblages from the 1954 and 1956 excavations. Journal of Archaeological Science, 28(3), 305–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R. J. (1985). A new reconstruction of the Florisbad cranium, with notes on the site. In E. Delson (Ed.), Ancestors: the hard evidence (pp. 301–305). New York: Alan Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R. J. (2012). The history of research in human evolution in Africa and what lessons have been learned. In N. Sanz (Ed.), Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Africa (pp. 44–67). Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cnuts, D., Tomasso, S., & Rots, V. (2017). The role of fire in the life of an adhesive. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-017-9361-z.

  • Colclough, G. L., Smith, S. M., Nichols, T. E., Winkler, A. M., Sotiropoulos, S. N., Glasser, M. F., et al. (2017). The heritability of multi-modal connectivity in human brain activity. eLife 2017; 6:e20178. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20178.

  • Coolidge, F. L. (2019). The enhanced working memory model: its origin and development. In K. A. Overmann & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Squeezing minds from stones: Cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind (pp. 406–431). Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Coolidge, F. L., Thede, L. L., & Young, S. E. (2000). Heritability and the comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with behavioural disorders and executive function deficits: a preliminary investigation. Developmental Neuropsychology, 17(3), 273–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corballis, M. C. (2017). The truth about language, what it is and where it came from. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cutts, R. B., Hlubik, S., Campbell, R., Muschinski, J., Akuku, P., Braun, D. R., et al. (2019). Thermal curved-fragments: a method for identifying anthropogenic fire in the archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Science, 106, 10–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., & Backwell, L. R. (2016). Earliest evidence of personal ornaments associated with burial: the conus shells from Border Cave. Journal of Human Evolution, 93, 91–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., & Henshilwood, C. S. (2007). Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 142–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., & Nowell, A. (2000). Origins of symboling in the Near East: a new look at the Berekhat Ram figurine. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 10(1), 123–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., & Wadley, L. (2008). Possible shell beads from the Middle Stone Age layers of Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 2675–2685.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Barton, N., Bouzouggar, A., Mienis, H., Richter, D., et al. (2009). Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 16,051–16,056.

  • d’Errico, F., Salomon, H., Vignaud, C., & Stringer, C. (2010). Pigments from the Middle Palaeolithic levels of Es-Skhul (Mount Carmel, Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, 3099–3110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., & Wadley, L. (2012a). Identifying regional variability in Middle Stone Age bone technology: the case of Sibudu Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39, 2479–2495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., García Moreno, R., & Rifkin, R. F. (2012b). Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Cave 1, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39, 942–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, I., & Noble, W. (1989). The archaeology of perception: traces of depiction and language. Current Anthropologv, 30(2), 125–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delagnes, A., Schmidt, P., Douze, K., Wurz, S., Bellot-Gurlet, L., Conard, N. J., et al. (2016). Early evidence for the extensive heat treatment of silcrete in the Howiesons Poort at Klipdrift Shelter (Layer PBD, 65 ka), South Africa. PLoS ONE, 11(10), e0163874. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, P. H. G. M., Berger, L. R., Roberts, E. M., Kramers, J. D., Hawks, J., Randolph-Quinney, P. S., et al. (2015). Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife, 4, e09561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar, R., & Shultz, S. (2007). Evolution in the social brain. Science, 317, 1344–1347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egeland, C. P., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Pickering, T. R., Menter, C. G., & Heaton, J. L. (2018). Hominin skeletal part abundances and claims of deliberate disposal of corpses in the Middle Pleistocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 115(18), 4601–4606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontana, F., Moncel, M.-H., Nenzioni, G., Onorevoli, G., Peretto, C., & Combier, J. (2013). Widespread diffusion of technical innovations around 300,000 years ago in Europe as a reflection of anthropological and social transformations? New comparative data from the western Mediterranean sites of Orgnac (France) and Cave dall’Olio (Italy). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 32, 478–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamble, C., Gowlett, J., & Dunbar, R. (2014). Thinking big: The evolution of social life and the human mind. London: Thames and Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, N. E., Wadley, L., & Williamson, B. S. (2004). Microscopic residues as evidence of hafting on backed tools from the 60 000 to 68 000 year-old Howiesons Poort layers of Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. Southern African Humanities, 16, 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith, D. I., & Ilani, S. (2004). Past thermal history of goethite and haematite fragments from Qafzeh Cave deduced from thermal activation characteristics of the 1100C TL peak of enclosed quartz grains. Revue d’ Archéométrie, 28, 185–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, J., & Spikins, P. (2020). Not just a virtue: the evolution of selfcontrol. Time and Mind, 13, 117–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696X.2020.1747246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grine, F. E. (2016). The Late Quaternary hominins of Africa: The skeletal evidence from MIS 6–2. In S. Jones & B. A. Stewart (Eds.), Africa from MIS6–2: Population dynamics and paleoenvironments (pp. 323–381). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Grün, R., Brink, J. S., Spooner, N. A., Taylor, L., Stringer, C. B., Franciscus, R. G., et al. (1996). Direct dating of Florisbad hominid. Nature, 382, 500–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haidle, M. N., Garofoli, D., Scheiffele, S., & Stolarczyk, R. E. (in prep.) Fooling around with a piece of scoria – towards a process-oriented perspective in artefact studies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

  • Henshilwood, C. S., d’Errico, F., Marean, C. W., Milo, R. G., & Yates, R. (2001). An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution, 41, 631–678.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C. S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G. A. T., et al. (2002). The emergence of modern human behaviour: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science, 295, 1278–1280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C. S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., & Jacobs, Z. (2004). Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science, 304, 404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C. S., d’Errico, F., & Watts, I. (2009). Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 57, 27–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C. S., d’Errico, F., van Niekerk, K. L., Coquinot, Y., Jacobs, Z., Lauritzen, S.-E., et al. (2011). A 100,000-year-old ochre processing workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 334, 219–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood, C. S., van Niekerk, K. L., Wurz, S., Delagnes, A., Armitage, S. J., Rifkin, R. F., et al. (2014). Klipdrift Shelter, southern Cape, South Africa: preliminary report on the Howiesons Poort layers. Journal of Archaeological Science, 45, 284–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hershkovitz, I., Weber, G. W., Quam, R., Duval, M., Grün, R., Kinsley, L., et al. (2018). The earliest modern humans outside Africa. Science, 359, 456–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzlinger, G., Wynn, T., & Goren-Inbar, N. (2017). Expert cognition in the production sequence of Acheulian cleavers at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel: a lithic and cognitive analysis. PLoS ONE, 12(11), e0188337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, K. R., Wood, B. M., Baggio, J., Hurtado, A. M., & Boyd, R. T. (2014). Hunter-gatherer inter-band interaction rates: Implications for cumulative culture. PLoS One, 9(7), e102806. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102806.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodgskiss, T. (2013). Ochre use in the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa: grinding, rubbing, scoring and engraving. Journal of African Archaeology, 11, 75–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hovers, E., Ilani, S., Bar-Yosef, O., & Vandermeersch, B. (2003). An early case of color symbolism: ochre use by modern humans in Qafzeh Cave. Current Anthropology, 44, 491–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hublin, J.-J., Ben-Ncer, A., Bailey, S. E., Freidline, S. E., Neubauer, S., Skinner, M. M., et al. (2017). New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature, 546, 289–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, E. (2010). Enaction, imagination, and insight. In J. Stewart, O. Capenne, & E. A. di Paolo (Eds.), Enaction: Towards a new paradigm for cognitive science (pp. 425–450). Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Irish, J. D., Bailey, S. E., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Delezene, L. K., & Berger, L. R. (2018). Ancient teeth, phenetic affinities, and African hominins: another look at where Homo naledi fits in. Journal of Human Evolution, 122, 108–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J., Roberts, R. G., & Nespoulet, R. (2012). Single-grain OSL chronologies for Middle Palaeolithic deposits at El Mnasra and El Harhoura 2, Morocco: implications for Late Pleistocene human environment interactions along the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 62, 377–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaminski, J. A., Schlagenhauf, F., Rapp, M., Awasthi, S., Rugger, B., Deserno, L., et al. (2018). Epigenetic variance in dopamine D2 receptor: a marker of IQ malleability? Translational Psychiatry, 8169. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0222-7.

  • Kanwisher, N., & Yovel, G. (2006). The fusiform face area: a cortical region specialized for the perception of faces. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B Biological Science, 361(1476), 2109–2128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lombard, M. (2006). Direct evidence for the use of ochre in the hafting technology of Middle Stone Age tools from Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal. Southern African Humanities, 18(1), 57–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lombard, M. (2007). The gripping nature of ochre: the association of ochre with Howiesons Poort adhesives and Later Stone Age mastics from South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 53, 406–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lombard, M., & Haidle, M. N. (2012). Thinking a bow-and-arrow set: cognitive implications of Middle Stone Age bow and stone-tipped arrow technology. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 22(2), 237–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, A., & Welz, A. (2008). Engraved ochre from a Middle Stone Age context at Klein Kliphuis in the Western Cape of South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 1521–1532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, A., Stewart, B. A., & Chase, B. M. (2014). Coalescence and fragmentation in the late Pleistocene archaeology of southernmost Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 72, 26–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malafouris, L. (2008). Beads for a plastic mind: the “blind man’s stick” (BMS) hypothesis and the active nature of material culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 18(3), 401–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malafouris, L. (2013). How things shape the mind: a theory of material engagement. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Malafouris, L. (in prep.) How do humans become? Marks as creative gestures in human evolution. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

  • Marean, C. W., Bar-Matthews, M., Bernatchez, J., Fisher, E., Goldberg, P., Herries, A. I. R., et al. (2007). Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature, 449, 905–908.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S. (2001). The Middle Pleistocene of East Africa. In L. H. Barham & K. Robson-Brown (Eds.), Human roots: Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene (pp. 81–97). Bristol: Western Academic and Specialist Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., & Brooks, A. S. (2000). The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution, 39, 453–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., & Tryon, C. (2006). From Acheulean to Middle Stone Age in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. In E. Hovers & S. L. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition: Evolution and stability in the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age (pp. 257–277). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mehlman, M. J. (1987). Provenience, age and association of archaic Homo sapiens crania from Lake Eyasi, Tanzania. Journal of Archaeological Science, 14, 133–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Migliano, A. B., Battiston, F., Viguier, S., Page, A. E., Dyble, M., Schlaepfer, R., et al. (2020). Hunter-gatherer multilevel sociality accelerates cumulative cultural evolution. Science Advances, 6: eaax5913, (28 February 2020).

  • Miller, J. M., & Willoughby, P. R. (2014). Radiometrically dated ostrich eggshell beads from the Middle and Later Stone Age of Magubike Rockshelter, southern Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution, 74, 118–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mithen, S. (1996). The prehistory of the mind. London: Thames & Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morley, M. W., Goldberg, P., Uliyanov, V. A., Kozlikin, M. B., Shunkov, M. V., Derevianko, A. P., et al. (2019). Hominin and animal activities in the microstratigraphic record from Denisova Cave (Altai Mountains, Russia). Scientific Reports 9, 13,785| https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49930-3.

  • Mourre, V., Villa, P., & Henshilwood, C. S. (2010). Early use of pressure flaking on lithic artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 330, 659–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mullally, S. L., & Maguire, E. A. (2014). Memory, imagination, and predicting the future: a common brain mechanism? Neuroscientist, 20(3), 220–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkington, J., Poggenpoel, C., Rigaud, J.-P., & Texier, P.-J. (2005). From tool to symbol: the behavioural context of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from Diepkloof, Western Cape. In F. d’Errico & L. Backwell (Eds.), From tools to symbols: from early hominids to modern humans (pp. 475–492). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Posth, C., Wiẞing, C., Kitagawa, K., Pagani, L., van Holstein, L., Racimo, F., et al. (2017). Deeply divergent archaic mitochondrial genome provides lower time boundary for African gene flow into Neanderthals. Nature Communications, 8, 16,046 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, A., Shennan, S., & Thomas, M. G. (2009). Late Pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior. Science, 324, 1298–1301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, P. (2016). We have never been ‘behaviourally modern’: the implications of Material Engagement Theory and Metaplasticity for understanding the Late Pleistocene record of human behaviour. Quaternary International, 405, 8–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roebroeks, W., & Villa, P. (2011). On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 108(13), 5209–5214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roebroeks, W., Sier, M. J., Nielsen, T. K., De Loecker, D., Parés, J. M., Arps, C. E. S., et al. (2012). Use of red ochre by early Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 109, 1889–1894.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosell, J., Blasco, R., Campeny, G., Díez, J. C., Alonso Alcalde, R., Menéndez, L., et al. (2011). Bone as a technological raw material at the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution, 61, 125–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rots, V., & van Peer, P. (2006). Early evidence of complexity in lithic economy: core-axe production, hafting and use at Late Middle Pleistocene site 8-B-11, Sai Island (Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 360–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rots, V., van Peer, P., & Vermeersch, P. M. (2011). Aspects of tool production, use, and hafting in Palaeolithic assemblages from Northeast Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 637–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahle, Y., Hutchings, W. K., Braun, D. R., Sealy, J. C., Morgan, L. E., Negash, A., et al. (2013). Earliest stone-tipped projectiles from the Ethiopian rift date to >279,000 years ago. PloS One, 8(11), e78092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandgathe, D. M. (2017). Identifying and describing pattern and process in the evolution of hominin use of fire. Current Anthropology, 58(Supplement 16), S360–S370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E. M. L., Lounès Chikhi, L., & Thomas, M. G. (2019). Beyond multiregional and simple out-of-Africa models of human evolution Nature Ecology and Evolution, www.nature.com/natecolevol

  • Schlebusch, C. M., & Jakobsson, M. (2018). Tales of human migration, admixture, and selection in Africa. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 19, 10.1–10.24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, P., Porraz, G., Bellot-Gurlet, L., February, E., Ligouis, B., Paris, C., et al. (2015). A previously undescribed organic residue sheds light on heat treatment in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 85, 22–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwertmann, U., & Cornell, R. M. (1991). Iron oxides in the laboratory: preparation and characterization. Cambridge: VCH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seitz, J. A. (2000). The bodily basis of thought. New Ideas in Psychology, 18, 23–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, R., & Wymer, J. (1982). The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorensen, A., Roebroeks, W., & van Gijn, A. (2014). Fire production in the deep past? The expedient strike-a-light model. Journal of Archaeological Science, 42, 476–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stade, C., & Gamble, C. (2019). In three minds: extending cognitive archaeology with the social brain. In K. A. Overmann & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Squeezing minds from stones: Cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind (pp. 319–331). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C., Gopher, A., & Barkai, R. (2011). Hearth-side socioeconomics, hunting and paleoecology during the late Lower Paleolithic at Qesem Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 213–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, D. (2019). Homo artifex: an extended evolutionary perspective on the origins of the human mind, brain, and culture. In K. A. Overmann & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Squeezing minds from stones: Cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind (pp. 42–58). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, D., & Hecht, E. E. (2017). Evolutionary neuroscience of cumulative culture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 114(30), 7861–7786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, D., Passingham, R., Frith, C., Apel, J., & Chaminade, T. (2011). Technology, expertise and social cognition in human evolution. European Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 1328–1338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, Q., Li, X., Li, A., Zhang, J., Ding, Z., Gong, H., & Luo, Q. (2020). Ventral hippocampal-prefrontal interaction affects social behavior via parvalbumin positive neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. iScience, 23, 100,894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.100894.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Texier P.-J., Porraz, G., Parkington, J. E., Rigaud, J.-P., Poggenpoel, C., Miller, C. E., et al. (2010). Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 107, 6180–6185.

  • Texier, P.-J., Porraz, G., Parkington, J. E., Rigaud, J.-P., Poggenpoel, C., Miller, C. E., et al. (2013). The context, form and significance of the MSA engraved ostrich eggshell collection from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 3412–3431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., Lewis, J. E., Ranhorn, K. L., Kwekason, A., Alex, B., Laird, M. F., et al. (2018). Middle and Later Stone Age chronology of Kisese II rockshelter (UNESCO World Heritage Kondoa Rock-Art Sites), Tanzania. PLoS ONE, 13(2), e0192029. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192029.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Peer, P., Fullagar, R., Stokes, S., Bailey, R. M., Moeyersons, J., Steenhoudt, F., et al. (2003). The Early to Middle Stone Age transition and the emergence of modern human behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. Journal of Human Evolution, 45, 187–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Peer, P., Rots, V., & Vroomans, J. M. (2004). A story of colourful diggers and grinders: the Sangoan and Lupemban at site 8-B-11, Sai island, northern Sudan. Before Farming [Online Version], 2004/3: Article 1.

  • Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Stringer, C., James, S. L., Todd, J. A., & Mienis, H. K. (2006). Middle Paleolithic shell beads in Israel and Algeria. Science, 312, 1785–1788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., van Niekerk, K. L., Henshilwood, C. S., & Erasmus, R. M. (2013). Thinking strings: additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 64, 500–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren, M., Wadley, L., & d’Errico, F. (2019). Variability in Middle Stone Age symbolic traditions: the marine shell beads from Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports, 27, 101,893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villa, P., Pollarolo, L., Degano, I., Birolo, L., Pasero, M., Biagioni, C., et al. (2015). A milk and ochre paint mixture used 49,000 years ago at Sibudu, South Africa. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0131273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogelsang, R. (1998). Middle Stone Age fundstellen in Südwest-Namibia. Köln: Heinrich Barth Institut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadley, L. (2010). Compound-adhesive manufacture as a behavioral proxy for complex cognition in the Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology, 51 (Supplement 1), S111–S119.

  • Wadley, L. (2015). Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 50(2), 155–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wadley, L., Hodgskiss, T., & Grant, M. (2009). Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 9590–9594.

  • Walker, M. J., Anesin, D., Angelucci, D. E., & Avilés-Fernández, A. (2016). Combustion at the late Early Pleistocene site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (Murcia, Spain). Antiquity, 90(351), 571–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, I. (2010). The pigments from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 392–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, I., Chazan, M., & Wilkins, J. (2016). Early evidence for brilliant ritualized display: Specularite use in the Northern Cape (South Africa) between ~500 and ~300 ka. Current Anthropology, 57(3), 287–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welshon, R. (2019). Looking at rocks together: tool production, joint attention, and offline cognition. In K. A. Overmann & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Squeezing minds from stones: Cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind (pp. 59–78). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wendt, W. E. (1972). Preliminary report on an archaeological research programme in South West Africa. Cimbebasia, Series B, 2, 1–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, J., & Chazan, M. (2012). Blade production ~500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: support for a multiple origins hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene blade technologies. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, 269–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, J., Schoville, B. J., Brown, K. S., & Chazan, M. (2012). Evidence for early hafted hunting technology. Science, 338, 942–946.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Will, M., Kandel, A. W., & Conard, N. J. (2019). Midden or molehill: the role of coastal adaptations in human evolution and dispersal. Journal of World Prehistory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-09127-4.

  • Wojcieszak, M., & Wadley, L. (2018). Raman spectroscopy and scanning electronic microscopy confirm ochre residues on 71,000 year old bifacial tools from Sibudu, South Africa. Archaeometry, 60(5), 1062–1076.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn, T., & Berlant, T. (2019). The handaxe aesthetic. In K. A. Overmann & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Squeezing minds from stones: cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind (pp. 278–303). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn, T., Haidle, M., Lombard, M., & Coolidge, F. L. (2017). The expert cognition model in human evolutionary studies. In T. Wynn & F. L. Coolidge (Eds.), Cognitive models in Palaeolithic archaeology (pp. 21–43). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yellen, J. E., Brooks, A. S., Cornelissen, E., Mehlman, M. J., & Stewart, K. (1995). A Middle Stone Age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire. Science, 268, 553–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zipkin, A. M., Wagner, M., McGrath, K., Brooks, A. S., & Lucas, P. W. (2014). An experimental study of hafting adhesives and the implications for compound tool technology. PLoS One, 9(11), e112560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank Profs Lombard and Högberg for inviting me to participate in this special volume even though I was not a participant at the symposium. This paper was inspired by the CARTA symposium Origins of Imagination at the Salk Institute in June 2018, and I am grateful to CARTA for enabling my participation in the symposium.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, PO WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Lyn Wadley

Authors
  1. Lyn Wadley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lyn Wadley.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wadley, L. What Stimulated Rapid, Cumulative Innovation After 100,000 Years Ago?. J Archaeol Method Theory 28, 120–141 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09499-y

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09499-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation