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1 results

  • 4 - The cultures of the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 248-341

  • Summary

    The 'Middle Palaeolithic', or the 'Middle Stone Age', is part of the prehistoric cultural record that follows the Lower Palaeolithic or Earlier Stone Age, and precedes the Upper Palaeolithic or Later Stone Age. The Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age makes its first appearance more than 100000 years ago during the Last Interglacial, in Africa a time of somewhat increased rainfall, warmer climate, and transgressive sea level. The Middle Palaeolithic of the Maghrib and Sahara is usually divided into two broad complexes, the Mousterian and the Aterian, though at many sites it is not always possible to be certain which of the two is represented. The Middle Stone Age in Ethiopia and the Horn resembles in general, therefore, the typical Mousterian of Levallois facies of Europe though there are, in addition to the Levallois cores, an important percentage of core forms for the production of non-Levallois flakes.