Early humans living in South Africa made cultural and industrial leaps in periods of wetter weather, according to a study released yesterday. The study compared the archaeological record of man's evolution with that of climate change.
Homo sapiens first made their appearance in Africa during the Middle Stone Age, which lasted from about 28 0000BC to 30000BC .
Evidence indicates that a notable period of human advancement occurred in South Africa between 71500 and 59000 years ago .
These advances include the use of symbols in engravings, which suggest the development of a complex language, the manufacture and use of stone tools, and personal adornment with shell jewellery.
"We show for the first time that the timing of these periods of innovation coincided with abrupt climate change," said study co-author Martin Ziegler, of the Cardiff University School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
"We found that South Africa experienced wetter conditions during these periods of cultural advance.
"At the same time, large parts of sub-Saharan Africa experienced drier conditions, so that South Africa potentially acted as a refuge for early humans."
Ziegler and a team reconstructed the South African climate over the past 100000 years using a sediment core drilled out from the country's east coast.
The core shows changes in river discharge and rainfall.
"It offers for the first time the possibility to compare the archaeological record with a record of climate change over the same period and thus helps us to understand the origins of modern humans," Ziegler said by e-mail.
Co-author Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum said the findings supported the view that population growth fuelled cultural advancement through increased human interactions.
"Such climate-driven pulses in southern Africa were probably fundamental to the origin of keyelements of modern human behaviour in Africa and to the subsequent dispersal of Homo sapiens from its ancestral homeland," concluded the study.
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