Cultural Innovations in the Middle and Later Stone Age of East Africa: Panga Ya Saïdi, Kenya - Preliminary results

Our knowledge of the cultural innovations associated with the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the Later Stone Age (LSA) in Africa has significantly increased over the last twenty years, mainly thanks to the excavations carried out in Southern Africa and Morocco. We do not have information of the same quality for Eastern Africa. The archaeological cave site of Panga Ya Saïdi (PYS), in Kenya, offers a great opportunity to address this issue. I will present preliminary results of a joint, multi-authored study of beads, bone tools, engraved bones, and pigment lumps recovered during recent excavation at PYS, and discuss their significance for the emergence and evolution of new cultural practices within the MSA and the LSA of this region.