90,000 year-old specialised bone technology in the Aterian Middle Stone Age of North Africa

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 3;13(10):e0202021. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202021. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The question of cognitive complexity in early Homo sapiens in North Africa is intimately tied to the emergence of the Aterian culture (~145 ka). One of the diagnostic indicators of cognitive complexity is the presence of specialised bone tools, however significant uncertainty remains over the manufacture and use of these artefacts within the Aterian techno-complex. In this paper we report on a bone artefact from Aterian Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits in Dar es-Soltan 1 cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It comes from a layer that can be securely dated to ~90 ka. The typological characteristics of this tool, which suggest its manufacture and use as a bone knife, are comparatively similar to other bone artefacts from dated Aterian levels at the nearby site of El Mnasra and significantly different from any other African MSA bone technology. The new find from Dar es-Soltan 1 cave combined with those from El Mnasra suggest the development of a bone technology unique to the Aterian.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Africa, Northern
  • Animals
  • Archaeology
  • Artifacts*
  • Bone and Bones / chemistry
  • Bone and Bones / ultrastructure*
  • Caves
  • Cognition
  • Fossils / ultrastructure*
  • Humans
  • Mammals
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Ribs / chemistry
  • Ribs / ultrastructure*

Grants and funding

Excavations at Dar es-Soltan were supported by Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimloine, Rabat, Morocco, University of Oxford (Fell Fund) and Calleva Foundation. The study of the bone tool was supported by the Calleva Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.