This is how the first modern humans in Tanzania made their tools

The National Center for Investigation on Human Evolution Spain (Cenieh) carried out the first lithic study of level VI-B from the Tanzanian site of Mumba, which brought to light how they made their tools the first modern humans in that area.

This is a set that can be considered “Sanzano industry”, one of the first cultures of the Middle Stone Age in that country.

This is an unpublished technotypological study of one of the most important sites from that period of the Middle Stone Age in Northern Tanzania, which allows us to better understand the activity of human groups in said region, as explained by the Cenieh. this Tuesday in a statement.

It was Irene Solano Megías, a predoctoral researcher at Cenieh, who has just published in the journal African Archaeological Review that first techno-typological study of the oldest lithic industry of level VI-B of the Mumba shelter, a site located in the region of Lake Eyasi ( Tanzania).

It is one of the most important sites in Northern Tanzania from the period known as Middle Stone Age (MSA), which was excavated in the 1930s and whose level IV-B was excavated between 1977 and 1981, but for which there were no data so far.

According to this study, the Mumba level VI-B lithic assemblage is the result of settlements by Homo sapiens groups present in the Lake Eyasi region between 109,000 and 131,000 years ago.

The combination of analyzes such as taphonomy, technology and lithic typology has provided revealing data on how the first modern humans made their stone tools and reached the conclusion that this set can be considered, as previously defined, Sanzako industry. , one of the earliest defining cultures of the MSA of Northern Tanzania.

“This study confirms that the Mumba level VI-B industry belongs to the Sanzako industry, being, therefore, an industry with a character typical of that period in that region”explained Irene Solano, who is a member of the project The first Modern Humans in Northern Tanzania: Olduvai Gorge, Angata Kiti and Lake Ndutu, led by José Manuel Maíllo-Fernández, from the University of Distance Education of Spain (UNED). .

In Mumba they used local raw materials, such as quartz, although a small proportion of obsidian has been found whose origin is in the Lake Naivasha basin in Kenya, about 320 kilometers from the site, which suggests the existence of exchange networks between groups. humans at long distance already in that period.

“It was a recurring location for hominin groups in the region for 130,000 years, spanning the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, Pastoralist Neolithic and Iron Age,” the researcher detailed.

Tool carving methods were predetermined methods such as discoid, Levallois and, to a lesser extent, the more expeditious bipolar type. This scenario aligns with the MSA Sanzako type industry, as this lithic assemblage had been defined.

However, it presents some characteristics that would not be completely similar to those described until now in the collections of the 1930s, such as a high presence of the Levallois method and Heavy Duty tolos, that is, large stone tools.

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