Abstract

The Middle to Later Stone Age (MSA-LSA) transition is the most pronounced archaeological change in the history of Homo sapiens in Africa prior to ceramics and animal and plant domestication, but its nature, timing, and tempo is obscure. Kisese II is a painted rock shelter in the Kondoa District of Tanzania that, unique for the region, preserves a 6-m-deep artifact-rich sequence with 20 radiocarbon dates. The Kisese II sequence shows surprising complexity in the timing and pattern of changes across the MSA -LSA transition, likely the outcome of the interplay between changes in the environment, human population growth, and cultural choice in Late Pleistocene Africa, an important reservoir of human biological and behavioral diversity during an important period of population expansion. New results from reinvestigation of the lithic industry, faunal remains, ostrich-egg-shell beads, human remains, contextual information about the site, and their implications for understanding the MSA -LSA transition in Eastern Africa will be presented.