Editing Middle Paleolithic (section)

{{short description|Archaeological period, part of Stone Age}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Middle Paleolithic
|map         =
|mapcaption  =A model of a [[Neanderthal]] male by modern scientists at the [[Zagros Paleolithic Museum]]
|mapalt      =
|altnames    =
|horizon     =
|region      = 
|period      = [[Stone Age]]
|dates       = 300,000 to 50,000&nbsp;[[Before Present|BP]]
|typesite    = 
|majorsites  = 
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Lower Paleolithic]]
|followedby  = [[Upper Paleolithic]]
}}
{{Paleolithic|middle}}

<mapframe text="Selected Middle Paleolithic sites from the [https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb ROAD database] (CC BY-SA 4.0 ROCEEH)" width="400", height="300">
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The '''Middle Paleolithic''' (or '''Middle Palaeolithic''') is the second subdivision of the [[Paleolithic]]  or Old [[Stone Age]]  as it is understood in [[Europe]], [[Africa]] and [[Asia]]. The term [[Middle Stone Age]] is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology.<ref name=Miller2006>{{cite book |title=Anthropology |last=Miller |first=Barbra |author2=Bernard Wood |author3=Andrew Balansky |author4=Julio Mercader |author5=Melissa Panger |year=2006 |publisher=Allyn and Bacon |location=Boston Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-205-32024-0 |url=http://www.ablongman.com/html/productinfo/millerwood/MillerWood_c08.pdf |page=768 |access-date=2008-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409011937/http://www.ablongman.com/html/productinfo/millerwood/MillerWood_c08.pdf |archive-date=2008-04-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 50,000 years ago. There are considerable dating differences between regions. The Middle Paleolithic was succeeded by the [[Upper Paleolithic]] subdivision which first began between 50,000 and  40,000 years ago.<ref name="Miller2006"/> Pettit and White date the Early Middle Paleolithic in [[Great Britain]] to about 325,000 to 180,000 years ago (late [[Marine Isotope Stage 9]] to late [[Marine Isotope Stage]] 7), and the Late Middle Paleolithic as about 60,000 to 35,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite book|title=The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World|first1=Paul|last1=Pettit|first2=Mark|last2=White|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|location=Abingdon, UK|pages=209, 293|isbn=978-0-415-67455-3}}</ref> The Middle Paleolithic was in the geological [[Chibanian]] (Middle [[Pleistocene]]) and [[Late Pleistocene]] ages.

According to the theory of the [[recent African origin of modern humans]], [[anatomically modern human]]s began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 125,000 years ago and began to replace other ''Homo'' species such as the [[Neanderthal]]s and   ''[[Homo erectus]]''.