The project focused on two main case-studies: technological variability in eastern Africa during the Late Pleistocene and technological variability in the Nile Valley and the Levant between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago.
Dr Leplongeon relied on an innovative approach to comparative stone tool analysis, based on the combination of the ‘Anglo-American’ and ‘French’ approaches to stone tool analysis, complemented by the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) and exploratory multivariate statistics. She reinforced her expertise in stone tool analysis and acquired the skills relevant to the application of this methodological approach by attending trainings and attending and organising seminars and discussion groups at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at the University of Cambridge. She organised a three-day workshop on methods in lithic analysis at the McDonald Institute, which brought together researchers from different institutions and ‘schools’ of lithic analysis.
The study relied on data collected during previous research, as well as new data collected during study visits at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, the British Museum in London where Late Palaeolithic lithic assemblages from Egypt are stored (the ‘Wendorf Collection’) and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. This led to the constitution of a large database including 12 sites from these regions.
The main results of this project (1) reinforced the model of a non-linear shift from the MSA to the LSA, (2) highlighted the importance of the use of various approaches to stone tool analysis, as well as the consideration of results of all other related fields (palaeoenvironments, palaeoanthropology, genetics, geology) in the discussion of large geographical scale research questions such as testing dispersal hypotheses and (3) applied these approaches to test the hypothesis of a Back to Africa dispersal at the end of the Pleistocene between the Levant and the Nile Valley. Results are detailed in four papers in peer-reviewed journals (published or in press). One paper has also been submitted and two others are in preparation. In addition, results were presented at seven international conferences and workshops (with two abstracts published in conference proceedings).
Results were disseminated towards the wider public through the organisation and participation in several events, such as the Festival of Ideas, the Science Festival and participation in three public seminars in Cambridge, as well as one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and one in Nairobi, Kenya.
