Original version
Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin Behavior, Geography, and Chronology. 2023, 1943-1953, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_125
Abstract
Since the 19th century, scientific studies of ecology and human evolution have been intricately connected. Inextricably overprinted with racist stereotypes and dogmas of the day, early anthropologists and European adventure-explorers sought to situate observed differences in human environments and physical phenotypes within an evolutionary framework that included archaeological findings that were first being made. Over time, Africanist archaeologists, including many from the continent itself, began refining the Pleistocene archaeology of Africa with more nuanced understandings that included radiometric chronologies, geochemical reconstructions of precipitation and temperature and detailed habitat reconstructions. Significant changes in climate and land cover transpired across the continent throughout the Pleistocene, most notably in the Sahara, coastlines of southern Africa and the Rift Valley, all of which are known hotspots of human evolution. In recent years, there is a growing emphasis to see humans as active modifiers of ecological systems rather than passive respondents. As we gain more information on the paleoecology of Africa and the material evidence of human technological evolution, there is a growing understanding that there is much for us to learn about the strategies our ancestors used to adapt and survive through periods of abrupt and profound climate change.