Out of Africa: The Dispersal of the Earliest Technical Systems Reconsidered

• Published in: Journal of anthropological archaeology 1999-06, Vol.18 (2), p.119-136
• Main Authors: Carbonell, Eudald, Mosquera, Marina, Rodrı́guez, Xosé Pedro, Sala, Robert, van der Made, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa; Archaeology; Human evolution; Lithic industry; Methodology and general studies; Prehistory and protohistory; Technological change; Typology, technology and attribute analysis
• ISSN: 0278-4165; 1090-2686
• DOI: 10.1006/jaar.1998.0331

This paper deals with the question of human dispersals out of Africa. Some hypotheses concerning dispersals for both Mode 1 and Mode 2 technologies are presented. We suggest that early humans were technically split into at least two groups, those producing Oldowan (Mode 1) and those producing the more advanced Acheulean (Mode 2). Environmental changes caused a major faunal dispersal at around 1 my, which may have facilitated the first human dispersal toward Eurasia. However, this first dispersal involved only Mode 1 technology, although Mode 2 was already well developed. Therefore, we suggest that the main cause for this dispersal must have involved differential subsistence strategies, such as the competition for resources between Mode 1- and Mode 2-producing populations, which drove the former, but not the latter populations out of the Rift System to other areas. Although Mode 1 technology was highly effective in successfully facing the new Eurasian environments, when the African areas with Mode 2 became saturated, this technical system started to spread, replacing Mode 1 technology in Eurasia long after its initial settling.