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Environmental influences on human innovation and behavioural diversity in southern Africa 92–80 thousand years ago

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 361–369 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Africa’s Middle Stone Age preserves sporadic evidence for novel behaviours among early modern humans, prompting a range of questions about the influence of social and environmental factors on patterns of human behavioural evolution. Here we document a suite of novel adaptations dating approximately 92–80 thousand years before the present at the archaeological site Varsche Rivier 003 (VR003), located in southern Africa’s arid Succulent Karoo biome. Distinctive innovations include the production of ostrich eggshell artefacts, long-distance transportation of marine molluscs and systematic use of heat shatter in stone tool production, none of which occur in coeval assemblages at sites in more humid, well-studied regions immediately to the south. The appearance of these novelties at VR003 corresponds with a period of reduced regional wind strength and enhanced summer rainfall, and all of them disappear with increasing winter rainfall dominance after 80 thousand years before the present, following which a pattern of technological similarity emerges at sites throughout the broader region. The results indicate complex and environmentally contingent processes of innovation and cultural transmission in southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age.

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Fig. 1: Location and biogeographic context of Varsche Rivier 003.
Fig. 2: East section of deep sounding with key artefact type and location of geochronology samples.
Fig. 3: Comparison of primary factors determining long-term regional climate dynamics with VR003 phytolith data.
Fig. 4: Flaked OES fragments from the Lower Deposits.
Fig. 5: A selection of silcrete cores from the Lower Deposits.

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Data availability

The spatial, lithic, faunal and pigment data used in this paper are included as Supplementary Data. Phytolith data are provided in tables in the Supplementary Information. The VR003 collections are curated at the University of Cape Town and Iziko Museums Cape Town, and can be accessed by arrangement with the corresponding authors. All data used in the present study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the following US National Science Foundation programmes: High-Risk Anthropology (T.E.S.), Archaeology (T.E.S.) and Archaeometry; the Leakey Foundation (T.E.S.); the University of California, Davis (T.E.S.); the Australian Research Council (A.M.); the Australian National University (A.M.); Max Planck Society (M.C.S.); the University of Wollongong (A.M.); and the Research Council of Norway Centers of Excellence project number 262618 (S.J.A.). Fieldwork was conducted under Heritage Western Cape Permit X120417JL07; P. and L. Visser (2008–2011) and I. Zaaiman (2014 to present) kindly provided access to the Varsche Rivier 260 Farm. We thank colleagues at the University of Cape Town Department of Archaeology, Iziko South African Museum and at ACO Associates; R. G. Klein, T. Weaver, A. Welz, M. Shaw, M. Young, and our student volunteers and workers for valuable support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Alex Mackay, Kelsey C. Boyd & Corey A. O’Driscoll

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Upper Campus, Rondebosch, Western Cape, South Africa

    Alex Mackay

  3. Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

    Simon J. Armitage

  4. SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Simon J. Armitage

  5. Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Elizabeth M. Niespolo & Warren D. Sharp

  6. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Elizabeth M. Niespolo

  7. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Elizabeth M. Niespolo

  8. Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Elizabeth M. Niespolo & Alexander F. Blackwood

  9. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    Mareike C. Stahlschmidt & Teresa E. Steele

  10. Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Alexander F. Blackwood

  11. Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution-Montpellier (ISEM), University of Montpellier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Brian M. Chase

  12. Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Upper Campus, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Brian M. Chase

  13. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Susan E. Lagle, Naomi L. Martisius, Patricia J. McNeill & Teresa E. Steele

  14. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Susan E. Lagle

  15. Vredehoek, Cape Town, South Africa

    Chester F. Kaplan

  16. Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia

    Marika A. Low

  17. Department of Anthropology, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Naomi L. Martisius

  18. Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia

    Ian Moffat & Rachel Rudd

  19. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Rachel Rudd

  20. Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of South Africa, Unisa, South Africa

    Jayson Orton

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  1. Alex Mackay
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Contributions

T.E.S. and A.M. directed excavations at VR003; S.J.A. performed luminescence, and E.M.N. and W.D.S. uranium-series dating; M.C.S. conducted geoarchaeology (micromorphology), I.M. and R.R. sedimentology, A.F.B. fabric analysis, and M.A.L. lithic refit studies; K.C.B. prepared and analysed the phytolith samples with environmental context provided by B.M.C.; T.E.S. and S.E.L. conducted faunal analysis; T.E.S. and P.J.M. analysed the ostrich eggshell, and C.F.K. analysed the Iziko comparative sample; N.L.M. analysed the pigments; A.M. and C.A.O’D. analysed the stone artefacts; A.M., T.E.S., S.J.A., E.M.N., W.D.S., M.C.S., A.F.B., K.C.B., B.M.C., S.E.L., N.L.M., P.J.M., I.M. and J.O. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alex Mackay or Teresa E. Steele.

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Nature Ecology and Evolution thanks Irene Esteban, Marlize Lombard, Peter Mitchell and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Discussion, Figs. 1–25 and Tables 1–24.

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Supplementary Data

Spatial, lithic, faunal and pigment data.

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Mackay, A., Armitage, S.J., Niespolo, E.M. et al. Environmental influences on human innovation and behavioural diversity in southern Africa 92–80 thousand years ago. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 361–369 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01667-5

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