Integrating lithic analysis in tracking migrations out of Africa: new data from Jebel Gharbi, Libya.

The history of human peopling of Europe and Asia originates in Africa. We now know that the earliest modern fossils come from East Africa and date to approximately 160 to 190kya (Clark et al. 2003; Stringer 2003; McDougall et al. 2005). The beginning of the MSA in this region is dated from around 300kya (McBrearty 2001). Moreover, some of the earliest recorded collections of African MSA and LSA artifacts were made in the Horn of Africa, which is considered a major area of aggregation and dispersal of early Homo sapiens (Brandt 1986, Brandt et al. 2008). In the context of this debate, the archaeological record of North Africa is becoming increasingly important for several reasons. It seems clear already that in the non-lithic component the Aterian cultural complex shares some characteristics that are considered to be hallmarks of modern behavior: the new dates place Aterian innovations such as bone tools and pierced shells as early (or even earlier) than similar finds in South Africa (Bouzouggar et al. 2007, d’Errico et al. 2009). Moreover, the presence of anatomically modern humans is attested to in North Africa by at least 160 kya (Hublin 1993, Barton et al. 2001, Barton et al. 2005, Barton et al.2009). However, new explanations are needed to fit this important North African archaeological record into evolutionary models for modern human origins (Stringer and Barton 2008). The purpose of this work is to examine the Aterian complex in the context of modern human origins through the analysis of its lithic industries from a geographically strategic area, the Jebel Gharbi (Libya). Furthermore, from a chronological point of view, the Aterian would exactly fit in the time period of the Out of Africa dispersal.During geoarchaeological surveys of the Jebel Gharbi, carried out by the Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission, directed by B.E. Barich and E.A.A. Garcea, 25 Aterian sites were found (Garcea 2004; Barich and Giraudi 2005; Barich et al. 2006; Garcea and Giraudi, 2006).

The technology of the Aterian lithic industries from the Jebel Gharbi shows affinities both with classical Aterian industries from Morocco and with the coeval industries from Egypt, such as Taramsa (Van Peer et al. 2010). In this sense, these industries could be - technologically, not culturally- compared to the “Initial Upper Palaeolithic” (sensu Khun 2003) industries, showing an important laminar component, togheter with some more “Middle Stone Age” elements. Therefore, North-eastern Africa and the Levant seem a realistic corridor for the out-of-Africa dispersal of Aterian groups (Garcea 2007). The affinities between contemporary Libyan Aterian industries, Egyptian industries and some series from the Levant and the Arabian peninsula (Spinapolice, Delagnes and Jaubert in press), open new perspectives on the possible models of contact and displacement of human groups in a key period for the history of humankind.