• PEARL S.N.O. LAMPTEY, PH.D.

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Humans cope with their environment through Cultural
• Culture has three distinct
adjustments.
.
but interconnected aspects
1. Behavioural of life:
2. Developed parallel to the evolution of anatomical Cognitive structures
characteristics Behavioral patterns
•Behavioral patterns were made possible by complex brains, bipedalism Material relics
& changes in the form and structure of the hand.
3. Produce distinct cultures across time/space/species.

•This cultural dynamism is imbued with changes & continuities in

aspects like technology, subsistence patterns, adaptive
strategies, art forms & language..
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 BEGINNINGS OF CULTURE

1. Manipulation of objects (tool making),

2. Subsistence patterns (diet),
3. Adaptive strategies (making of fire, site modification, art,
language, and ritual).

These are necessary for survival in constantly evolving environments in

the Stone (Paleolithic, Mesolithic & Neolithic), Metal, and Computer
Ages noted at different African sites.

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PALEOLITHIC (OLD STONE AGE) CULTURES

 From 3/2.5 m.y.a to 12,000 y.a. Based on stone tools used by

humans. Further divided into the following:
 Lower paleolithic (Early paleolithic age)– dating 3/2.5 m.y.a to
300,000 y.a.
 Middle paleolithic – dating 300,000 to 30,000 y.a.
 Upper Paleolithic – dating 30,000 to 12,000 y.a.

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 TOOL MAKING/TECHNOLOGY

• Darwin identified Africa as the place where our pre-human ancestors

first took a significant step resulting in tool making.

Raymond Dart suggested the Osteodontokeratic

culture/tools as an earlier evidence of human culture
and technology.
This tool tradition suggests that early australopiths
made tools of/from bone, teeth, horn, ivory & antler
(digging tools).
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 CONT'D

 Unaltered stones to crack nuts and bones for bone marrow.

It could have also been some of the potentially deadly hand-
thrown 'missiles' for defense/offense.
 Non-lithic materials: hide, ostrich eggshells or tortoise
carapaces (containers), branches as clubs and sharpened
wooden shafts as spears.
 Unaltered stones may be difficult to interpret as tools because of the possibility of geological
activities.

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 OLDUWAN CULTURE
 More concrete evidence of culture in the early palaeolithic (early
stone age) period (3.0 –1.7mya) with the emergence of the
Olduwan Culture/ Tool Industry, widespread throughout Southern
& Eastern Africa.

Site of discovery:
-Olduwan tools from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in the 1930s
(2.9mya).
-Lomekwian tools from Lomekwi 3 in Kenya in 2011 ( 3.3mya).

 Tool type: Core tools (simple & unstandardized): nodules of

rocks from which flakes have been removed.
 Materials: basalt, quartzite.
 Knapping & Function: struck in one/two directions on the same
edge to form tools capable of chopping/ cutting.

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 ACHEULEAN CULTURE/ TOOL INDUSTRY

 Around 2-1.7mya, the Acheulean Tool Industry (more standardized) emerged.

 Spanned the latter part of the lower Paleolithic to the early Middle Paleolithic.
 Became the most frequent cultural manifestation of that period in Africa and
much of Asia & Europe.
-Site of discovery: Saint-Acheul in Northern France in 1859.
-Associated with H. ergaster/erectus & H. heidelbergensis.

 Tool type: oval/pear-shaped hand axe (biface)

 Knapping & Function: Flakes were removed from both sides of the core with a
hammerstone or bone hammer. The hand axes were used as scrapers, awls and knives
for butchering, woodworking, bone cracking and digging for roots.
 The Acheulian hand axes in Africa:
-Konso Formation (Ethiopia) = 1.5mya.
-West Lake Turkana (Kenya) in 2003 = 1.76mya.
-Melka Kunture (Ethiopia) in 2023 = 1.95mya.

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MOUSTERIAN CULTURE

 Spanned the Middle Paleolithic, 300,000 – 30,000

y.a. Mousterian sites combined the lithic and bone
industries.
 Increase in the number and variation of flake tools due
to geographically distinct human behavior that require different tool types.
 Associated with H. neanderthalensis/rhodesiensis and early forms of archaic
homo sapiens.

 Tool type: variable flakes.

 Knapping & Function: The Levalloisian stone-flaking technique, produced
large flakes from a prepared core (shaped much like an inverted tortoise
shell). The flakes were seldom further trimmed & had sharp cutting
edges.
 They were used as skinning knives, points

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 UPPER PALEOLITHIC CULTURE

 Dates 30,000 to 12,000 years ago.

 Upper Paleolithic was marked by a higher
level of complexity in technology and
subsistence patterns.
 High frequency of the use of blades & flakes
from flint used as scrapers.
 Mainly hunter-gatherers who lived a nomadic
lifestyle (in small groups).
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SUBSISTENCE PATTERN: FORAGING

 Our earliest human ancestors relied on foraging

or hunting & gathering and sometimes scavenging as a
means of subsistence.
 More dedicated to gathering, hunting and scavenging.
 Hunting contributed about 20% of the total diet, while
gathering provided 80%.

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EVIDENCE OF FORAGING

 H. ergaster was well-adapted to foraging in

highly seasonal environments.
 Plant tissues have been found in Zambia to
shed light on early human diets.
 Pitted stones found at Olduvai Gorge and Melka
Kunture informs nut cracking and eating.
Pitted stones @ Olduvai Gorge Beds.
 Animal bones (buffalo, antelope, deer) have
been found associated with H. ergaster artefacts
at Olduvai Gorge and some sites in South Africa.
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 The San /First people (Bushmen) across Botswana,
Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South
Africa until recently lived as hunter-gatherer societies.

 Other examples of hunter-gatherer cultures include the

Mbuti pygmies of the Congo and the Hadza of Tanzania.

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 ADAPTATION STRATEGY: FIRE BUILDING

 A tremendous feat in the evolution of culture is the control

and use of fire by our early human ancestors in the early
Stone Age period.
 Evidence of the control and use of fire was found at
-Koobi Fora site in Kenya, dating to about 1.5mya.
-Middle Awash River Valley in Ethiopia.
-Other sites in Kenya & South Africa

 Associated with Homo ergaster/erectus.

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ADAPTATION STRATEGY: SITE
 Simple structures of perishable materials.
MODIFICATION & ART
 An evidence of architectural feature in the
Olduwan is a suggested hut structure from a
stone circle of lava pebbles at site DK in Bed
I.
 Animal skin for clothing.
 Arc-shaped stone walls as windbreaks
 Intentional burials
 The presence of fragments of orcher with Acheulian
artefacts and animal bones in Kenya and South Africa
is an indication of art (cave painting/body painting).
 Figurines.
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ADAPTATION STRATEGY: RITUAL & LANGUAGE

 Developed religious beliefs depicted in cave

paintings as Animism/Shamanism
 Communication started among primates as facial
expressions made possible by the differentiation of
the facial muscles.
 Development of symbolic communication system and
consonant articulation (made possible by the larger and complex
brains & changes in the vocal tracts in H. habilis shortly after 2mya).

 Communication facilitated foraging and promoted the

diversification and innovation of technologies.
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ADVANCES IN TOOL TECHNOLOGY AND CONTROL OF FIRE

These were critical in the evolutionary trajectory (both physiologically and

culturally).
 Facilitated the geographic spread of our early ancestors (migrating into Europe, Asia,
Australia, Americas).
 Changes in diet (refinement and variety): emphasis on meat and new ways of preparing it.

 Reduction of the dentition.

 Fire provided a source of light, source of warmth, enabling adaptation to colder

environments.
 Protection from predators, hence, greater reproductive success.

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MESOLITHIC (MIDDLE STONE AGE) CULTURE

 Dating from the Last glacial period till the final period of hunter-gatherer
culture.
 Use of microliths: fine, small and more efficient tools from flint & quartz
 With these, various highly specialized compound tools could be manufactured.
E.g. flakes were hafted on wood to make harpoons, spears, and arrows.
 Hunting exclusive animals like red deer & wild pigs.
 Intense exploitation of aquatic resources (shells & fish).
 Intense exploitation of plant resources facilitated by grinding stones, mortar
and pestles.
 Intense utilization of land.
 Rock arts and terracotta figurines.
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 NEOLITHIC (NEW STONE AGE) CULTURE
 The beginning of the Neolithic period
(12,000- 6500 ya), the beginning of the
Holocene epoch (end of the last ice age) –
10,000ya
 Homo sapiens had spread through most
parts of the earth.
 The Neolithic period holds
evidence of the emergence of
farming and sedentism.
 The period is also characterised by
crafts specialization such as
polished stone tools, terracotta
crafts & potting, obsidian mirrors,
composite tools, and food
processors (use of grinders).
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 SUBSISTENCE PATTERN: FOOD PRODUCTION

 The earliest evidence for the

domestication of plants is dated to
between 12000 – 8000 BCE.
 The methods or know-how
(cultivation) may have been
unconscious, auto, then conscious.
 Conscious food production began
with the creation of backyard
gardens.
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 SUBSISTENCE PATTERN: FOOD PRODUCTION

 Emergence of sedentism.
 Population increase.
 Change in material culture (pottery, bead making, textiles and
amulets).
 Kintampo Complex: diagnostic pottery, polished hand axes,
microliths & terracotta cigars.
 Emergence of cities.

 The earliest plant domesticates in Africa, dating to

about 7000 – 6000 ya.
 Pearl millet, Sorghum, Cowpea (Kintampo, Birimi,
Jenne Jenno), Wheat, Barley.
 Tef (native to Ethiopia & Eritrea)
 Finger millet (native to Ethiopia & Uganda)
 Palm fruit • Okra
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 EVIDENCE OF DOMESTICATION OF PLANTS

 Coprolites.
 Pollen remains.
 Silica /Starch residues on
grinding stones and
harvesting tools.
 Paintings.
 Fauna remains.
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SUBSISTENCE PATTERN: ANIMAL HUSBANDRY & PASTORALISM
Another subsistence strategy for our human ancestors was animal husbandry:
the rearing /caring for animals, and pastoralism: the herding of livestock.
 The earliest pieces of evidence of domesticated animals date to about 7000
BCE.
 Domestication of animals was unconscious, auto, then conscious.
 Over the course of time, domesticated animals developed traits quite
different from their wild progenitors.
 Domesticated animals and livestock include • Dogs, Cats, Sheep, Goats,
Pigs, Cattle, Guinea fowl, etc.
 Some present-day pastoral people of Africa include the Fulani of West Africa,
the Nuer of Sudan, and the Massai of Kenya
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 EVIDENCE FOR THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

 Faunal remains- Bovids & Ovicaprids.

• Zooarchaeological analysis and comparisons of wild
specimens to domesticated ones.
 Traces of holding pens.
 Rock/ Cave paintings and engravings depicting
pastoral scenes.
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ADAPTATION STRATEGY:  Sophisticated architectural
SITE MODIFICATION & ART styles.
6th-14th C AD.  Stone walls as defense systems.
16th C.

 Intentional burials
 Middens.
 Representative or abstract art:
rock arts, figurines & stylistic
pottery.

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ADAPTATION STRATEGY: RITUAL & LANGUAGE

 Shrines.
 Intentional burials with grave goods.
 Complex verbal & symbolic
communication among diverse groups.
 Communication facilitated farming,
harvesting, and crafts making.
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 METAL (COPPER, BRONZE, IRON) AGE CULTURES
 In Africa, evidence of metal-working has been found in
Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Gabon, Mauritania,
Senegal, etc, dating from as early as 1st millennium BCE. In
Ghana, dates range between AD 1000- AD 1700 @
Ntereso, Bui, Buipe, Begho & Yendi Dabari.
 Craft specialisations
Iron smelting /smithing, bronze casting & trade.
Writing also evolved during the Metal Ages. In Africa, Egyptian
hieroglyphic writing emerged around 3200 BCE.
 Advancement in technology
Increased exploitation of natural resources.
Better agricultural practices.
Population growth and social complexity.
Formidable armies for warfare.
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 Computer, Machine learning, AI, Plastic
and Nanotechnologies.

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USEFUL LINKS

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59SXzl0uF7s
 https://youtu.be/e0fl-a3KZVI?si=YV9Q1Pcbqxt2wc3a
 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/early-
humans/how-did-first-humans-live/a/foraging
 Scarre, C. (Ed.). (2009). The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human
Societies (p. 784). London: Thames & Hudson.
 Unconscious Domestication: The Origins of Agriculture & Genetic - Course Sidekick
https://www.coursesidekick.com/anthropology/3472011

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