Backed tools in Middle Pleistocene central Africa and their evolutionary significance

The fashioning of stone inserts for composite tools by blunting flakes and blades is a technique usually associated with Late Pleistocene modern humans. Recent reports from two sites in south central Africa (Twin Rivers and Kalambo Falls) suggest that this backed tool technology originated in the later Middle Pleistocene with early or "archaic" Homo sapiens. This paper investigates these claims critically from the perspective of the potential mixing of Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at the two sites and the possible creation of misleading assemblages. The review shows that backed tools form a statistically minor, but technologically significant feature of the early Middle Stone Age of south central Africa. They first appear in the Lupemban industry at approximately 300 ka and remain an element of the Middle Stone Age technological repertoire of the region. Comparisons are made with early backed tool assemblages of east Africa and with the much younger Howiesons Poort industry of southern Africa. The paper concludes that Lupemban tools lack the standardization of the Howiesons Poort backed pieces, but form part of a regionally distinctive and diverse assemblage of heavy and light duty tools. Some modern-like behaviours appear to have emerged by the later Middle Pleistocene in south central Africa.