Publication Date:
1995-04-28
Description:
Three archaeological sites at Katanda on the Upper Semliki River in the Western Rift Valley of Zaire have provided evidence for a well-developed bone industry in a Middle Stone Age context. Artifacts include both barbed and unbarbed points as well as a daggerlike object. Dating by both direct and indirect means indicate an age of approximately 90,000 years or older. Together with abundant fish (primarily catfish) remains, the bone technology indicates that a complex subsistence specialization had developed in Africa by this time. The level of behavioral competence required is consistent with that of upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens. These data support an African origin of behaviorally as well as biologically modern humans.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Yellen, J E -- Brooks, A S -- Cornelissen, E -- Mehlman, M J -- Stewart, K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1995 Apr 28;268(5210):553-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA 22230, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7725100" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Archaeology
;
*Behavior
;
Democratic Republic of the Congo
;
History, Ancient
;
*Hominidae
;
Humans
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
