BLADE AND MICROBLADE INDUSTRIES IN NORTHERN, EASTERN, AND CENTRAL ASIA 1. AFRICAN ORIGIN AND SPREAD TO THE NEAR EAST1

Being the first in a series, this study addresses the place of the blade industry among those of Africa and Eurasia, and its origin and evolution in southern, eastern and northern Africa. The blade technology first appeared in the Kapturin Formation some 500 ka BP. The Middle Stone Age industries of southern, eastern, and northern Africa were mostly based on the Levallois technique, which included points, blades, and flakes; and on radial flaking. In the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene, two principal technologies, Aterian and Nubian, emerged in northern and northeastern Africa; whereas the principal industries of southern and partly eastern Africa were Howieson's Poort (whose primary reduction technique was basically Upper Paleolithic), and an industry on predominantly geometric tools. Both were associated with anatomically modern humans, who migrated to Eurasia at various stages of the Upper Pleistocene.