The Middle Stone Age site of GOT10, Gotera, southern Ethiopia, in its cultural, chronological, and environmental contexts

This research reports new data on the GOT10 site, located within the Gotera area, southern Ethiopia. The site is characterised by robust evidence of high-density human exploitation during the MIS3, where the presence of human groups is scattered in an area of more than 2 km2. The Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 3 in East Africa is a period of critical technological changes within the Homo sapiens groups. From the archaeological point of view, this period is significant for the presence of a transitional phase, reflected in the progressive decrease of MSA technological traits and the increase of elements characterising the Later Stone Age (LSA). The discovery of the GOT10 site, an open-air stratified sequence with the evidence of lithic artefacts and faunal remains in situ discovered in 2018, shed new lights on an almost unknown area, which is placed far away from the Rift border, where the primary archaeological evidence is located. The spatial analysis of the association between lithic artefacts and faunal remains with fireplaces allows determining the nature of the site occupation. These new data constitute the basis for a regional-scale study to be integrated within the general pattern of human occupation and dispersal dynamics in the Horn of Africa during the MIS3. Through comparative analysis with other archaeological contexts using quantitative multivariate statistics, it will be possible to better understand the causes and modalities of the MSA/LSA transition in the Horn of Africa region.