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Science 28 February 1975:
Vol. 187. no. 4178, pp. 740 - 742
DOI: 10.1126/science.187.4178.740
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Articles

Dates for the Middle Stone Age of East Africa

Fred Wendorf 1, R. L. Laury 2, C. C. Albritton 2, Romauld Schild 3, C. Vance Haynes 4, Paul E. Damon 5, Mohammed Shafiqullah 5, and Robert Scarborough 5

1 Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275
2 Department of Geology, Southern Methodist University
3 Institute for the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
4 Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721
5 Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, University of A rizona, Tucson

Three potassium-argon age determinations on sanidine from crystalrich pantellerite and volcanic ash in the Main Rift Valley of central Ethiopia indicate that the Middle Stone Age of East Africa began prior to 180,000 years ago. This suggests that the technological developments which characterize the Middle Stone Age have a far greater antiquity than previously estimated.


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