Full size imagePlaced in the wider context of dated MSA stone tool assemblages from West Africa (n = 31; Fig. Retouched tools are reported from 17 of the 31 dated West African MSA assemblages, half of which include a single tool type. Indeed, remarkably close comparability can be observed in the oldest (Bargny 1) and youngest (Saxomununya) MSA stone tool assemblages in West Africa. Relict populations of Avicennia still occupy brackish mangroves in infrequently inundated backwaters fringing the West African coastline as far as 19° N (ref. As new data emerge, we must consider that from at least the end of the Middle Pleistocene, West Africa may have been a source of behavioural and biological diversity, enabling regionally distinct patterns of human evolution through the Late Pleistocene.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 04, 2023 16:55 UTC