M Will

Biographic Data

ID28605
NAMEM Will
GIVEN NAMESM
FAMILY NAMEWill
SIGNATUREWILL M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Tübingen
ORCID0000-0001-8116-2543
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS35
TOTAL CITATIONS393
AUTHOR COUNT35
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1973
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2027
H-INDEX10

  • Blowing Leaves in Archaeology—The Multidimensionality of Technological Complexity in Human Origins Research

    Open AccessMatthias A Blessing, M WillARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Method…2027

    Technological complexity has been a continuous trope in archaeological research from its beginnings in the nineteenth century. Based on a concept of unidirectional cultural evolution, archaeological material was ordered along a linear progression from simple to complex. While creating hierarchies of extant populations based on the complexity of their tools is not overtly practiced in archaeology anymore, the same is not true for the deep past. Th…

  • The Tool Systems Approach

    Open AccessJ Desmond Clark, L Timbrell et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Method…2026

    Measuring technological complexity across species, as well as across temporal and spatial scales, is an ongoing challenge among authors who work on primatological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic questions. Researchers in these individual fields have developed a number of innovative ways of approaching this issue that reflect the specific affordances of their data with a known set of limitations. However, comparability between these approache…

  • Revisited and Revalorised

    Open AccessGunther Möller, Aron Mazel et al.ARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2025References: 87

    The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa is mainly known from rock shelters and caves. How early modern humans interacted with their landscapes remains comparatively understudied. The site of Jojosi 1, situated north of Nquthu in north central KwaZulu-Natal, is set within erosional badlands known locally as ‘dongas’. This locality offers a rare opportunity to study MSA technology and settlement dynamics in an open-air context. G. Botha initi…

  • No One Home? New Evidence for MIS 3 Occupations in the Western Cape (South Africa) from Mertenhof Rock Shelter

    Open AccessM Will, Zenobia Jacobs et al.ARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2024Cited by: 1References: 69

    Southern Africa features an intensively studied Stone Age sequence, though one with geographical and temporal gaps. The archaeology of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 remains understudied, particularly between ~ 50 and 25 ka. This period encompasses important ecological, demographic and cultural changes, most notably the transition from Middle Stone Age (MSA) to Later Stone Age (LSA) technologies. In western South Africa, previous research postulate…

  • The Jojosi Dongas

    Open AccessM Will, Matthias A Blessing et al.ARTICLESouthern African Field Archaeology2024Cited by: 3References: 46

    Hunter-gatherer groups conduct most of their activities in open landscapes as they provide drinking water, food, and raw materials, and offer spaces for social gatherings. The remains left behind at such sites allow for unique archaeological insights into the spatial patterning of prehistoric behaviour. The Stone Age record in southern Africa remains best-known from sheltered sites. A paucity of stratified open-air localities precludes understand…

  • Experimental Investigation of Knapping Characteristics of Dolerite and Implications for the Interpretation of Middle Stone Age Technologies

    Open AccessElena T Moos, Gregor D Bader et al.ARTICLELithic Technology2024Cited by: 2References: 24

  • The Current Phyto-Scape and Foodplants of Holley Shelter, KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and Its Potential for Past Foragers

    Open AccessM Lombard, Gregor D Bader et al.ARTICLEAfrican Archaeological Review2024References: 5

    Current phyto-scapes (plant populations in their geo-spatial context) are not exact replicas of past foraging potential, yet they provide valuable data about the carrying capacity or potential of a foraging-scape. Knowledge about contemporary micro-ecologies and ethno-historical plant use can inform on behavioral aspects, should such plants be found in archaeological deposits. It is in this context that we explore existing information (data and l…

  • The generic Middle Stone Age

    M Will, Eleanor M L ScerriARTICLEAzania Archaeological Research in…2024Cited by: 4References: 91

    Recent decades have seen a surge of interest in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) as it constitutes the archaeological background to the early evolution of Homo sapiens. Research primacy has been given to rare regional and temporal signatures of MSA technological diversity and material culture, typically in open grassland or sparse savanna regions. These include, for example, the Still Bay, Howiesons Poort, Lupemban and Aterian, all of which can be seen…

  • The revolution that still isn't

    Open AccessEleanor M L Scerri, M WillARTICLEJournal of Human Evolution2023Cited by: 54References: 241

    The behavioral origins of Homo sapiens can be traced back to the first material culture produced by our species in Africa, the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Beyond this broad consensus, the origins, patterns, and causes of behavioral complexity in modern humans remain debated. Here, we consider whether recent findings continue to support popular scenarios of: (1) a modern human 'package,' (2) a gradual and 'pan-African' emergence of behavioral complexi…

  • Replicability in Lithic Analysis

    Open AccessJ Pargeter, Alison S Brooks et al.ARTICLEAmerican Antiquity2023Cited by: 28References: 42

    The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions of human behavioral variability. Despite their importance, lithic artifacts can be problematic to study because lithic analysts differ widely in their theoretical approaches and the data they collect. The extent to which differences in lithic data relate to prehistoric behavioral variability or differences between archaeologists today remains incomple…

  • Transformation Analysis

    Open AccessYvonne Tafelmaier, Guido Bataille et al.CHAPTERMethods for the Analysis of Stone…2022

  • Working Stage Analysis

    Open AccessYvonne Tafelmaier, Guido Bataille et al.CHAPTERMethods for the Analysis of Stone…2022

  • Chaîne opératoire Approach

    Open AccessYvonne Tafelmaier, Guido Bataille et al.CHAPTERMethods for the Analysis of Stone…2022

  • Microscopic Use-Wear Analysis

    Open AccessYvonne Tafelmaier, Guido Bataille et al.CHAPTERMethods for the Analysis of Stone…2022

  • Lithic Standardization and Behavioral Complexity in the Middle Stone Age – A Case Study From Sibhudu, South Africa

    Matthias A Blessing, N J Conard et al.ARTICLELithic Technology2022Cited by: 3References: 39

    The concept of standardization has been applied in archaeological research as a proxy measure for cognitive and behavioral complexity since the late nineteenth century. Here we evaluate these issues in the context of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) examining microlithic technology and laminar blanks and their corresponding core reduction and tool assemblages from the Howiesons Poort (HP) and Sibhudan from Sibhudu (South Africa). We find both standardi…

  • What do spatial data from Sibhudu tell us about life in the Middle Stone Age

    Open AccessN J Conard, M Brenner et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2022Cited by: 2References: 65

    For the last 10 years, we have been carefully excavating rich, well-stratified Middle Stone Age (MSA) horizons from Sibhudu in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This work has provided a great abundance of numerous classes of cultural material from well-controlled contexts dating to between > 90 and 36 ka that is relevant for documenting the Late Pleistocene cultural evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa. In this paper, we look more closely at intra-site…

  • Investigating the 1930s Kohl-Larsen collection from the Lake Eyasi Basin, Tanzania

    Open AccessGregor D Bader, Gregor Bader et al.ARTICLEMitteilungen der Gesellschaft für…2021

    Since more than 80 years, the University of Tübingen hosts the archaeological collections excavated by Margit and Ludwig Kohl-Larsen between 1934 and 1939 in modern-day Tanzania. Despite the great scientific relevance of these collections, most of them were never published on an international scale and were thus unavailable for the broader Africanist archaeological community. In the light of new excavations around Lake Eyasi, conducted jointly by…

  • Luminescence dating estimates for the coastal MSA sequence of Hoedjiespunt 1 (South Africa)

    Open AccessChantal Tribolo, N Mercier et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science…2021Cited by: 6References: 30

  • The Role of Different Raw Materials in Lithic Technology and Settlement Patterns During the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

    Open AccessM WillARTICLEAfrican Archaeological Review2021Cited by: 16References: 52

    The study of raw materials is an essential step in lithic analysis, regardless of the age, provenance, and technology of the assemblages. As in many other contexts of the Paleolithic, researchers of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in southern Africa have often focused their attention on fine-grained, non-local rock types, such as silcrete. Here, I spotlight raw materials considered to be of lower suitability for knapping and frequently acquired from l…

  • A Matter of Space and Time

    Open AccessM Will, A MackayCHAPTER2020

  • Materiality, Agency and Evolution of Lithic Technology

    Open AccessShumon T Hussain, M WillARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Method…2020Cited by: 13References: 159

    Considerations of materiality and object-oriented approaches have greatly influenced the development of archaeological theory in recent years. Yet, Palaeolithic archaeology has been slow in incorporating this emerging body of scholarship and exploring its bearing on the human deep past. This paper probes into the potential of materiality theory to clarify the material dynamics of the Plio-Pleistocene and seeks to re-articulate the debate on the e…

  • Comparative analysis of Middle Stone Age artifacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)

    Open AccessM Will, Paolo Castelnovi et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Anthropology Issues…2019

  • Sibudan

    M WillCHAPTER2019Cited by: 2

    The Sibudan is a technocomplex within the cultural stratigraphy of the southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA), first formulated in 2012. The term was introduced as a working concept to organize the spatio-temporal variability in material culture among the archaeological record following the Howiesons Poort during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; ~59–24 ka). In contrast to the more widely used name “post-Howiesons Poort” (“post-HP”)—an umbrella ter…

  • Midden or Molehill

    Open AccessM Will, Andrew W Kandel et al.ARTICLEJournal of World Prehistory2019Cited by: 47References: 96

  • Human teeth from securely stratified Middle Stone Age contexts at Sibudu, South Africa

    Open AccessM Will, Sireen El-Zaatari et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2019Cited by: 3References: 48