The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African Prehistory between Early Stone Age and Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50-25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550-500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. It was once considered roughly equivalent to the European Middle Paleolithic, but recent discoveries of evidence for art and symbolic culture in the MSA have forced a reassessment of this idea. The MSA is associated with both anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) as well as archaic Homo sapiens, sometimes referred to as Homo helmei. Early physical evidence comes from the Gademotta Formation in Ethiopia, The Kapthurin Formation in Kenya and Kathu Pan in South Africa.
Read more about Middle Stone Age: Middle Stone Age Artifacts, Early Development, Human Change and Replacement, Behaviour and Cognitive Innovation, Brain Change, Pattern of Change, Sites
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