- The late Stone Age emerged in South Africa about the same time
modern humans moved to Europe. - The large differences between
regions show they chose very different paths to technology and
society. The late Stone Age may have had an earlier start in
Africa than previously thought — by some 20,000 years. A new
analysis of artifacts from a cave in South Africa reveals that
the residents were carving bone tools, using pigments, making
beads and even using poison 44,000 years ago. These sorts of
artifacts had previously been linked to the San culture, which
was thought to have emerged around 20,000 years ago. "Our
research proves that the Later Stone Age emerged in South Africa
far earlier than has been believed and occurred at about the
same time as the arrival of modern humans in Europe," study
researcher Paola Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado
Museum of Natural History, said in a statement. The Later Stone
Age in Africa occurred at the same time as Europe's Upper
Paleolithic Period, when modern