The first tools made by men in the Stone Age, 300,000 years ago, were used 20,000 years longer than previously thought by hunter-gatherers in some parts of Africa, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The medieval stone instruments in African records date back to 300,000 to 30,000 years ago, then disappear almost completely.
It has long been thought that these tools were replaced 30,000 years ago by a radically different and miniaturized type of artifact, much more suitable for diversified living strategies and mobility patterns in Africa.
However, a study by Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Germany) and Khady Niang of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal shows that hunter-gatherers in the Senegal area have continued to use technologies from the oldest prehistory of our species until 11,000 years ago.
The study published on Monday thus suggests that the prehistoric cultural phases of humanity did not take place in a clear and universal succession, but could advance in a fractional way and at different times.
“West Africa is a real frontier for the study of human evolution. We know almost nothing about what happened here in deep prehistory. Almost everything we know about human origins is extrapolated from discoveries in small parts of East Africa. and southern, “explains Scerri, the study’s lead author.
To fill these gaps, Scerri and Niang explored various regions of Senegal, from desert edges to the forests and banks of the Senegal and Gambia rivers, where they found several sites from the Stone Age with surprisingly recent data.
“These findings demonstrate the importance of investigating the entire African continent if we really want to understand the deep human past,” says Khady Niang.
The study seeks to explain why the culture of the Middle Stone Age (up to 11,000 years ago) persisted so long in this region of West Africa.
One possible explanation is physical barriers: “In the north, the region meets the Sahara Desert, but in the east, it is the rainforests of Central Africa, which were often isolated from the rest of the rainforests of West Africa during periods of drought and fragmentation. Even the river systems in West Africa form an autonomous and isolated group, “said Jimbob Blinkhorn, co-author of the paper.
“It is also possible that this region of Africa has been less affected by the extremes of repeated cycles of climate change,” Scerri added.
“The only thing we can be sure of is that this persistence is not simply due to the lack of ability to invest in the development of new technologies. These people were smart, they knew how to choose the right stone to make their tools and exploit the landscape in which they lived, “says Niang.
The study agrees with the emerging view that most of the deep prehistory of humanity, populations were relatively isolated from each other, living in groups subdivided into different regions.
And it also “agrees with genetic studies that suggest that Africans who have lived for the last 10,000 years have grouped into highly subdivided populations,” Niang points out.
“We are not sure why, but apart from the physical distance, there may be some cultural limitations. Perhaps the populations that used these different material cultures also lived in slightly different ecological niches.”