Emergence de l’Homme Anatomiquement Moderne en Afrique Sub-Saharienne au cours du Middle Stone Age : apports chronologiques – Emergence

Geochronological methods have already played a major role in our understanding of the Middle Stone Age in Africa. Once believed to be in a late position when compared to the European Upper Paleolithic, it is now considered to have been broadly contemporaneous with the Middle Paleolithic and to have been coincident with the appearance of the anatomically modern human and the onset of modern behaviour. Meanwhile, the time framework of this technological and cultural evolution is still very sparse. Therefore, we intend to develop both luminescence dating methods and data in order to focus on questions about the timing of the change in human behaviour and to identify eventual connections with the environmental changes. We will more particularly focus on Southern Africa (sites of Blombos Cave, Pinnacle Point, Diepkloof Rock shelter, Sibudu, all in South Africa) and on West Africa (sites in the Dogon Country, Mali). This project, supported by a freshly set up team, will allow the development of the OSL method in France at an international level, notably thanks to the introduction of the Single grain technique.