Maïlys Richard

MAILYS RICHARD, University of Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France, was approved funding in April 2023 to aid research on “Framing the Middle Stone Age of the Lake Eyasi Basin, Tanzania, from the Kohl-Larsen Collection.” This research aimed at filling the chronological gap for the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Mumba Rock Shelter and Njarasa Cave, Lake Eyasi, Northern Tanzania, which are strategically located on the migration path of modern humans out of Africa. It contributes to the research on how modern humans responded to climate change, in terms of adaptation to their environment, regional expansion, and migrations. To do so, an integrative approach combining dating using trapped-charge methods and characterisation techniques on both sediment and fossil teeth was applied. The results show that the preservation state differs from one tooth to the other, and that for the least preserved samples, only minimum ages can be obtained. The ages allow framing MSA occupations at Njarasa ca. 72-60 ka, and at Mumba from ca. 106 ka (base of the MSA) to 54 ka (top of the MSA). These results suggest that modern humans may have inhabited these two sites during the same period, i.e., during Marine Isotopic Stage 4, between ca. 72 and 60 ka, and that changes in lithic material at Mumba, where the transition between MIS 5 and 4 is recorded, may be interpreted as an adaptation to new climatic and environmental conditions.