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23 - Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers and herders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Peter Mitchell
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

No sharp divide exists between the makers of Later Stone Age artefacts and their Middle Stone Age (MSA) predecessors. When initially coined, only the former was paired with anatomically modern people and material culture resembling that of contemporary Bushmen, but both associations now extend back into the MSA. The phrase ‘Later Stone Age’ nevertheless remains useful as a ready reference for the hunter-gatherers (and stone-using pastoralists) who inhabited southern Africa over the past 25,000 years. This chapter provides an overview of what archaeologists have learned about these people over this period and identifies several areas of current research.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 385 - 396
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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