Sediments containing ancient mattresses at Sibudu Caves. Photo
by Lyn Wadley.(View Larger) Archaeologist Lyn Wadley of the
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and
team, published "Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and
Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa," Science , 9
December 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6061 pp. 1388-1391 DOI:
10.1126/science.1213317. The abstract of this paper published in
Science is unusually accessible and informative, thus I quote
verbatim: "The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is associated with early
behavioral innovations, expansions of modern humans within and
out of Africa, and occasional population bottlenecks. Several
innovations in the MSA are seen in an archaeological sequence in
the rock shelter Sibudu (South Africa). At ~77,000 years ago,
people constructed plant bedding from sedges and other
monocotyledons topped with aromatic leaves containing
insecticidal and larvicidal chemicals. Beginning at ~73,000
years ago, bedding was burned, presumably for site maint