English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Released

Journal Article

The Middle Stone Age archaeology of the Senegal river valley

MPS-Authors
There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available
External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Scerri, E. M. L., Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H. S., & Niang, K. (2016). The Middle Stone Age archaeology of the Senegal river valley. Quaternary International, 408, 16-32. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.025.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0003-F41F-8
Abstract
The importance of Africa in human origins is widely recognised, yet knowledge remains strongly biased towards certain regions of the continent at the expense of others. West Africa in particular is a vast area with extremely limited archaeological, environmental and fossil records. In this paper, we contribute towards redressing this imbalance though a summary of the state of knowledge of the West African Middle Stone Age (MSA), and the presentation of preliminary analyses of ten newly discovered MSA archaeological sites situated along the Senegal River. Archaeological, fossil and genetic data relevant to the West African MSA, a period currently thought to span from at least similar to 150 ka until the Terminal Pleistocene, are first discussed. Technological analyses of newly discovered MSA assemblages in Senegal are then presented and contextualised with the ecology and environmental evolution of West Africa. Our preliminary findings suggest an overall high level of technological diversity along the Senegal River, but identify common technological features between assemblages in northern Senegal. These include an emphasis on centripetal methods of Levallois reduction (both preferential and recurrent). The discovery of tools in northern Senegal with basal modifications consistent with tanging may also suggest some form of connection with North African assemblages and is commensurate with the role of Senegal as a transitional zone between sub-Saharan and Saharan Africa. Although preliminary, the emerging results demonstrate the potential of the region to contribute to debates on intra-African dispersals, including population persistence and turnovers.