Late Pleistocene and Holocene Lithic Variability at Goda Buticha (Southeastern Ethiopia): Implications for the Understanding of the Middle and Late Stone Age of the Horn of Africa

• Published in: Journal of African archaeology Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 202 - 233
• Main Authors: Leplongeon, Alice, Pleurdeau, David, Hovers, Erella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands Brill 01.01.2017; Frankfurt a. Main : Africa-Magna-Verl
• Subjects: Archaeology and Prehistory; Humanities and Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1612-1651; 2191-5784; 1612-1651
• DOI: 10.1163/21915784-12340010

Abstracts The Late Pleistocene is a key period to understand the shift from the Middle (msa) to the Late Stone Age (lsa) in Africa. More generally, it is also a crucial time for elucidation of changes in the technological behaviours of human populations in Africa after the main Out of Africa event of modern humans ca. 60-50 thousand years ago. However, the archaeological record for this period is relatively poor, particularly for the Horn of Africa. Here we present a detailed analysis of the lithic assemblages from Goda Buticha (gb), a cave in southeastern Ethiopia, which has yielded a long stratigraphic sequence including Late Pleistocene and Holocene levels. This study (1) contributes to a better knowledge of the late msa in the Horn of Africa; (2) documents a late Holocene lsa level (gb - Complex i); (3) highlights the presence of msa characteristics associated with lsa features in the Holocene (gb - Layer iic). This adds to the emerging record of great lithic technological variability during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in this region.