Recent research on the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa’s central interior underscores the pivotal role played by this region in the emergence and cultural evolution of African Homo sapiens. In the central interior, specifically the Grassland and Savanna Biomes of South Africa’s Free State Province, the earliest southern African Homo sapiens fossil originates from the site of Florisbad. Despite this, archaeological data remain sparse, hindering efforts to integrate cultural evidence and homin...

In southern Africa, Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (~ 130 − 71 ka) is a crucial period in the evolution of Homo sapiens but poorly documented in the central interior of the subcontinent. We report here results from Baden-Baden 2, a newly discovered open-air site in the western Free State grasslands of South Africa that documents Middle Stone Age occupations dated to MIS 5. The lithic assemblage differs from known MIS 5 and post-MIS 5 industries and shows similarities with industries typically date...