The
Aterian
Aterian is a Middle
Stone Age
Stone Age (or Middle Palaeolithic) stone tool
industry centered in North Africa, but also possibly found in
Oman
Oman and
the Thar Desert.[1] The earliest
Aterian
Aterian dates to c. 145,000 years
ago, at the site of Ifri n'Ammar in Morocco.[2] However, most of the
early dates cluster around the beginning of the Last Interglacial,
around 130,000 years ago, when the environment of
North Africa
North Africa began
to ameliorate. The
Aterian
Aterian disappeared around 30,000 years ago and it
is currently not thought to have influenced subsequent archaeological
cultures in the region.
The
Aterian
Aterian is primarily distinguished through the presence of tanged
or pedunculated tools,[3] and is named after the type site of Bir el
Ater, south of Tébessa.[4] Bifacially-worked, leaf-shaped tools are
also a common artefact type in
Aterian
Aterian assemblages, and so are
racloirs and Levallois flakes and cores. Items of personal adornment
(pierced and ochred
Nassarius
Nassarius shell beads) are known from at least one
Aterian
Aterian site, with an age of 82,000 years.[5] The
Aterian
Aterian is one of
the oldest examples of regional technological diversification,
evidencing significant differentiation to older stone tool industries
in the area, frequently described as Mousterian. The appropriateness
of the term
Mousterian
Mousterian is contested in a North African context,
however.
Contents
1 Description
2 Associated behaviour
3 Locations
3.1 North Africa
4 See also
5 References
Description[edit]
Aterian
Aterian nosed point.
Aterian
Aterian nosed end-scraper.
The technological character of the
Aterian
Aterian has been debated for almost
a century,[3] but has until recently eluded definition. The problems
defining the industry have related to its research history and the
fact that a number of similarities have been observed between the
Aterian
Aterian and other North African stone tool industries of the same
date.[6] Levallois reduction is widespread across the whole of North
Africa throughout the Middle Stone Age, and scrapers and denticulates
are ubiquitous. Bifacial foliates moreover represent a huge taxonomic
category and the form and dimension of such foliates associated with
tanged tools is extremely varied.[3] There is also a significant
variation of tanged tools themselves, with various forms representing
both different tool types (e.g., knives, scrapers, points) and the
degree tool resharpening.[7]
More recently, a large-scale study of North African stone tool
assemblages, including
Aterian
Aterian assemblages, indicated that the
traditional concept of stone tool industries is problematic in the
North African Middle Stone Age. Although the term
Aterian
Aterian defines
Middle
Stone Age
Stone Age assemblages from
North Africa
North Africa with tanged tools, the
concept of an
Aterian
Aterian industry obfuscates other similarities between
tanged tool assemblages and other non-
Aterian
Aterian North African
assemblages of the same date.[8] For example, bifacial leaf points are
found widely across
North Africa
North Africa in assemblages that lack tanged tools
and Levallois flakes and cores are near ubiquitous. Instead of
elaborating discrete industries, the findings of the comparative study
suggest that
North Africa
North Africa during the Last Interglacial comprised a
network of related technologies whose similarities and differences
correlated with geographical distance and the palaeohydrology of a
Green Sahara.[8] Assemblages with tanged tools may therefore reflect
particular activities involving the use of such tool types, and may
not necessarily reflect a substantively different archaeological
culture to others from the same period in North Africa. The findings
are significant because they suggest that current archaeological
nomenclatures do not reflect the true variability of the
archaeological record of
North Africa
North Africa during the Middle
Stone Age
Stone Age from
the Last Interglacial, and hints at how early modern humans dispersed
into previously uninhabitable environments. This notwithstanding, the
term still usefully denotes the presence of tanged tools in North
African Middle
Stone Age
Stone Age assemblages.
Tanged tools persisted in
North Africa
North Africa until around 30,000 years ago,
with the youngest sites located in Northwest Africa. By this time, the
Aterian
Aterian lithic industry had long ceased to exist in the rest of North
Africa due to the onset of the Ice Age, which in North Africa,
resulted in hyperarid conditions. Assemblages with tanged tools, 'the
Aterian', therefore have a significant temporal and spatial range.
However, the exact geographical distribution of this lithic industry
is uncertain. The Aterian's spatial range is thought to have existed
in
North Africa
North Africa up to the Western Desert,[9] with no
Aterian
Aterian sites
known from the Nile Valley.[10] Possible
Aterian
Aterian lithic tools have
also been discovered in Middle
Paleolithic
Paleolithic deposits in
Oman
Oman and the
Thar Desert.[1]
Associated behaviour[edit]
The
Aterian
Aterian is associated with early Homo sapiens at a number of sites
in Morocco.[3] Some studies of comparative skeletal morphology have
suggested that these people exist on the same morphological continuum
as the
Jebel Irhoud
Jebel Irhoud specimens, currently thought to date to 160,000
years ago. The 'Aterian' fossils also display similarities to the
earliest modern humans found out of Africa at Skhul and Qafzeh in the
Levant, and they are broadly contemporary to them.[11] Apart from
producing a highly distinctive and sophisticated stone tool
technology, these early North African populations also seem to have
engaged with symbolically constituted material culture, creating what
are amongst the earliest African examples of personal
ornamentation.[5] Such examples of shell 'beads' have been found far
inland, suggesting the presence of long distance social networks.[12]
Studies of the variation and distribution of the
Aterian
Aterian have also now
suggested that associated populations lived in subdivided populations,
perhaps living most of their lives in relative isolation and
aggregating at particular times to reinforce social ties.[8] Such a
subdivided population structure has also been inferred from the
pattern of variation observed in early African fossils of Homo
sapiens.[13]
Associated faunal studies suggest that the people making the Aterian
exploited coastal resources as well as engaging in hunting.[14] It has
so far been difficult to estimate whether
Aterian
Aterian populations further
inland were exploiting freshwater resources as well. Studies have
suggested that hafting was widespread, perhaps to maintain flexibility
in the face of strongly seasonal environment with a pronounced dry
season.[3] Scrapers, knives and points all seem to have been hafted,
suggesting a wide range of activities were facilitated by
technological advances. It is probably that plant resources were also
exploited. Although there is no direct evidence from the
Aterian
Aterian yet,
plant processing is evidenced in
North Africa
North Africa from as much as 182,000
years ago.[15]
Locations[edit]
North Africa[edit]
Ifri n'Ammar[2] (Morocco)
Contrebandiers (Morocco)
Taforalt[16] (Morocco)
Rhafas (Morocco)
Dar es Soltan I[17] (Morocco)
El Mnasra (Morocco)
Kharga Oasis
Kharga Oasis (Egypt)
Uan Tabu (Libya)
Oued el Akarit[18](Tunisia)
Adrar Bous
Adrar Bous (Niger)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
^ a b Gwen Robbins Schug, Subhash R. Walimbe (2016). A Companion to
South Asia in the Past. John Wiley & Sons. p. 64.
ISBN 1119055474.
^ a b Richter, Daniel; Moser, Johannes; Nami, Mustapha; Eiwanger,
Josef; Mikdad, Abdeslam (2010-12-01). "New chronometric data from Ifri
n'Ammar (Morocco) and the chronostratigraphy of the Middle
Palaeolithic in the Western Maghreb". Journal of Human Evolution. 59
(6): 672–679. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.024.
PMID 20880568.
^ a b c d e Scerri, Eleanor M. L. (2013-06-25). "The
Aterian
Aterian and its
place in the North African Middle Stone Age". Quaternary
International. The
Middle Palaeolithic
Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert. 300: 111–130.
doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.09.008.
^ Langer, William L., ed. (1972). An Encyclopedia of World History
(5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 9.
ISBN 0-395-13592-3.
^ a b Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil; Barton, Nick; Vanhaeren, Marian;
d'Errico, Francesco; Collcutt, Simon; Higham, Tom; Hodge, Edward;
Parfitt, Simon; Rhodes, Edward (2007-06-12). "82,000-year-old shell
beads from
North Africa
North Africa and implications for the origins of modern
human behavior". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104
(24): 9964–9969. doi:10.1073/pnas.0703877104. ISSN 0027-8424.
PMC 1891266 . PMID 17548808.
^ Dibble, Harold L.; Aldeias, Vera; Jacobs, Zenobia; Olszewski,
Deborah I.; Rezek, Zeljko; Lin, Sam C.; Alvarez-Fernández, Esteban;
Barshay-Szmidt, Carolyn C.; Hallett-Desguez, Emily (2013-03-01). "On
the industrial attributions of the
Aterian
Aterian and
Mousterian
Mousterian of the
Maghreb". Journal of Human Evolution. 64 (3): 194–210.
doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.10.010. PMID 23399349.
^ Iovita, Radu (2011-12-27). "Shape Variation in
Aterian
Aterian Tanged Tools
and the Origins of Projectile Technology: A Morphometric Perspective
on Stone Tool Function". PLoS ONE. 6 (12): e29029.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029029. PMC 3246439 .
PMID 22216161.
^ a b c Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Drake, Nick A.; Jennings, Richard;
Groucutt, Huw S. (2014-10-01). "Earliest evidence for the structure of
Homo sapiens populations in Africa". Quaternary Science Reviews. 101:
207–216. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.019.
^ Scerri, Eleanor M. L. (2017-05-01). "The North African Middle Stone
Age and its place in recent human evolution". Evolutionary
Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 26 (3): 119–135.
doi:10.1002/evan.21527. ISSN 1520-6505.
^ Scerri, Eleanor (2012). "A new stone tool assemblage revisited:
reconsidering the 'Aterian' in Arabia". Proceedings of the Seminar for
Arabian Studies 42.
^ Hublin, J.-J.; Verna, C.; Bailey, S.; Smith, T.; Olejniczak, A.;
Sbihi-Alaoui, F. Z.; Zouak, M. (2012-01-01). Hublin, Jean-Jacques;
McPherron, Shannon P., eds. Dental Evidence from the
Aterian
Aterian Human
Populations of Morocco. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology.
Springer Netherlands. pp. 189–204.
doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2929-2_13. ISBN 978-94-007-2928-5.
^ d'Errico, Francesco; Vanhaeren, Marian; Barton, Nick; Bouzouggar,
Abdeljalil; Mienis, Henk; Richter, Daniel; Hublin, Jean-Jacques;
McPherron, Shannon P.; Lozouet, Pierre (2009-09-22). "Additional
evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle
Paleolithic
Paleolithic of
North Africa". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106
(38): 16051–16056. doi:10.1073/pnas.0903532106. ISSN 0027-8424.
PMC 2752514 . PMID 19717433.
^ Gunz, Philipp; Bookstein, Fred L.; Mitteroecker, Philipp; Stadlmayr,
Andrea; Seidler, Horst; Weber, Gerhard W. (2009-04-14). "Early modern
human diversity suggests subdivided population structure and a complex
out-of-Africa scenario". Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. 106 (15): 6094–6098. doi:10.1073/pnas.0808160106.
ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2669363 . PMID 19307568.
^ Stoetzel, Emmanuelle; Marion, Lucile; Nespoulet, Roland; El
Hajraoui, Mohammed Abdeljalil; Denys, Christiane (2011-01-01).
"Taphonomy and palaeoecology of the late Pleistocene to middle
Holocene small mammal succession of El Harhoura 2 cave (Rabat-Témara,
Morocco)". Journal of Human Evolution. 60 (1): 1–33.
doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.016.
^ Van Peer, P; Fullagar, R; Stokes, S; Bailey, R. M; Moeyersons, J;
Steenhoudt, F; Geerts, A; Vanderbeken, T; De Dapper, M (2003-08-01).
"The Early to Middle
Stone Age
Stone Age Transition and the Emergence of Modern
Human Behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan". Journal of Human
Evolution. 45 (2): 187–193. doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00103-9.
^ Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil; Barton, R. Nicholas E.; Igreja, Marina De
Araujo (2007-01-01). "A brief overview of recent research into the
Aterian
Aterian and Upper Palaeolithic of northern and eastern Morocco".
^ Barton, R. N. E.; Bouzouggar, A.; Collcutt, S. N.; Schwenninger, J.
-L.; Clark-Balzan, L. (2009-09-01). "OSL dating of the
Aterian
Aterian levels
at Dar es-Soltan I (Rabat, Morocco) and implications for the dispersal
of modern Homo sapiens". Quaternary Science Reviews. 28 (19–20):
1914–1931. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.03.010.
^ "El Akarit : un site archéologique du paléolithique moyen
dans le sud de la Tunisie in SearchWorks". searchworks.stanford.edu.
Retrieved 2016-08-04.
Wikimedia Commons has media related
