Innovative technological and subsistence responses to marginal environments indicate complex cultural dynamics in southern Africa ~90 000 years ago

Abstract Evidence for complex behaviours appears sporadically through the Middle Stone Age of Africa, leaving unclear the major factors shaping the evolution of human behaviour. Here we present evidence for a novel suite of adaptations in the arid Knersvlake region of southern Africa that were deployed during a specific set of environmental conditions dating 90-80 000 years before present, at the archaeological site Varsche Rivier 003 (VR003). This includes the earliest production of artefacts from ostrich eggshell, long-distance transportation of economic marine molluscs, and stone tool technologies focussed on manufacture of small flakes and blades from deliberately heat fractured blocks of silcrete. Similar evidence is absent from coeval assemblages at sites in less arid areas immediately to the south, and subsequently disappears from VR003 with the onset of more humid conditions. The results indicate complex cultural dynamics in southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age, and suggest that marginal subsistence conditions fostered distinctive technological and subsistence innovations.