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LSA

The Later Stone Age (or LSA) is a period in African Prehistory which follows the Early Stone Age and Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age along with the Early Stone Age and Middle Stone Age are often confused with the Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and Upper Paleolithic In the 1920's it became clear to archaeologists that the existing chronological system of Upper, Middle and Lower Paleolithic were not a suitable correlate to the prehistoric past in Africa. The terms Early, Middle, and Later Stone Age were developed to address this issue. Although some view these two chronologies as parallel stating that they both represent the development of behavioral modernity. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa (see behavioral modernity) although the definitions of the concept and means of studying it are up for debate. The transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Later Stone Age is thought to occur first in east Africa between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago. It is also thought that diffusion and migration may have caused it to spread out of Africa over the next several thousand years.

Origins

Originally, the Later Stone Age was defined as several stone industries and/or cultures which included other evidence of human activity, such as ostrich eggshell beads and worked bone implements, and lacked Middle Stone Age stone tools other than those recycled and reworked. LSA people were directly linked with biologically and behaviorally modern populations of hunter gatherers, some being directly identified as Bushmen. This definition has changed since its creation with the discovery of ostrich eggshell beads and bone harpoons in contexts which predate the LSA by tens of thousands of years. Although one portion still remains true through simple logic, the LSA is characterized by a lacking of MSA artifacts.

Lithic Technology

Differences in stone tool technologies are often used to distinguish between the Middle Stone Age and the Later Stone Age. The larger prepared platform flake-based stone tool industries of the Middle Stone Age, such as Levallois were increasingly replaced with industries that focused on producing blades and bladelets on cores with simple platforms. African stone tool technologies are divided into modes as proposed by Grahame Clark in 1969 and outlined by Lawrence Barham and Peter Mitchell as follows:

• Mode 1:Oldowan tool industries also known as pebble tool industries
• Mode 2:Tools made through bifacial reduction produced from large flakes or cores
• Mode 3: Flake tools from prepared cores
• Mode 4: Punch-struck blades that are adapted into a variety of different tools
• Mode 5: Microlith portions of composite tools that may include wood or bone, often abruptly retouched or backed

The lithic technologies of the Later Stone Age often fall into modes 4 and 5. They have been further broken into four stages within the LSA.

1. Microlithic industries dated to between ca. 40,000 and ca. 19,000 B.P. labeled early LSA (ELSA), or as late MSA, or as MSA/LSA transitions or interfaces
2. Nonmicrolithic, bladelet-poor industries with dates between ca. 40,000 B.P. and ca. 19,000 B.P.
3. Microlithic industries with bladelets dated between ca. 18,000 and ca. 12,000 B.P.
4. Nonmicrolithic, bladelet-poor industries dating between 12,000 and 8000 B.P.

Modern Human Behavior

Modern human behavior includes planning, sophisticated and efficient use of technologies and resources, creation of art, the practice of symbolic behaviors, and the existence of other abstract thought. This is clearly evident in the African LSA according to Mcbrearty and Brooks. Yet, no morphological change of humans occurred within the LSA, anatomically modern humans existed long before it began. Instead the development of any new behaviors was due to culture change.

Transition from MSA to LSA

The Later Stone Age was long distinguished from the earlier Middle Stone Age as the time in which modern human behavior developed in Africa. This definition has become more tenuous as evidence for such modern human behaviors is found in sites which predate the LSA significantly.

LSA sites greatly outnumber MSA sites in Africa, a trend that could be indicative of an increase in populations. Although this could also be due to the bias towards better preservation of these younger sites which have had fewer chances to be destroyed.

Potential problems

The model of the "human revolution" is no longer favored by archaeologists working in Africa due to the increasing evidence for development of modern human behavior earlier than 40,000-50,000 years ago. The end of the Later Stone Age takes place when groups adopt technologies to replace the use of stone tools such as metallurgy. Which is something that happened at different rates across the continent. With evidence for the diagnostic technologies of the LSA and modern human behavior being discovered earlier into the MSA the question arises: Is the term still relevant?

Tiya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Soddo Region of Ethiopia is remarkable for its thirty-six large stone pillars, thirty-two of which bear some form of decoration. “Ethiopia hosts numerous geoheritages and geotourisitc sites, some of which have been granted UNESCO World Heritage status, though defined as cultural and or natural heritage sites when registered These include the stelae of Axum (granted World Heritage status in 1980); the rock – hewn churches of Lalibela (1978); the Semien Mountains National Park (1978); the Fasiledes Castle in Gondar (1979); the prehistoric sites of Tiya (1980); the lower Valley of the Awash River (1980); the lower Valley of the Omo (1980); the Muslim Holy city of Harar (2006); and the Konso Landscape (2011).” Unfortunately, the archaeology of Ethiopia is somewhat lacking, it has been called “…at best weak…” by Andrew Smith in “.” In particular, there are two difficulties in understanding these types of sites from an archaeological standpoint. “First, certain groups are likely to have been responsible for a range of monumental forms, but delineations of individual group traits will therefore not be apparent simply on the basis of structural equivalency” and “Second, an examination of the archaeological literature illustrates a continued preponderance towards pre-colonial traditions of ethnic reconstruction, primarily constructed through oral historical accounts.”

Surface finds at Tiya contained a selection of Middle Stone Age tools (MSA) they are technologically similar to tools found at Gademotta and Kulkuletti and because of the unique production process that uses what are called “tranchet blows,” Tiya tools might also belong to the same time span as these other two sites. Some use the presence of these remarkable decorated megalithic pillars at Tiya is used as evidence for the rise of social complexity in the region.