This book addresses the question of variability in backed bladelet-based technologies. It also examines the role of LSA microlithic industries as adaptive strategies for coping with paleoenvironmental changes in North Africa. The multidisciplinary research activities conducted in caves and open-air sites in North Africa over the past two decades have highlighted the importance of this region for understanding the development of LSA microlithic technologies in Africa. This book, therefore, enriches the debate of origin and the spread of Late Pleistocene microlithic technologies in North Africa and beyond. Previously published in African Archaeological Review Volume 37, issue 3, September 2020

Master of Research A qualified in Prehistory at the National Center for Prehistoric, Anthropological and Historical Research of Algiers (CNRPAH). Member of the office of the North Africa Commission of the UISPP since 2017 and of the Pan-African Association of Archaeology, Prehistory and Associated Disciplines (PanAf) since 2018. Having always been interested in prehistoric lithic industries and human evolution , she obtained a Magister in prehistory at the Institute of Archeology of Algiers and subsequently enrolled at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre la Défense in Paris to prepare a doctoral thesis defended in 2012 on the industries lithics from the Iberomaurusian of Algeria (final Pleistocene culture of the Maghreb and which coincides with many microlaminar technocomplexes of the North of the Mediterranean such as the Epigravettian and the Azilian). His thesis represents the first evaluation of the variability of the Iberomaurusian lithic industries based on the technological approach which owes much to the impetus of Jacques Tixier. Giuseppina Mutri is currently Post Doc Fellow at the Cyprus Institute, where she is in charge of the study of dental calculus from different periods. Her previous research background focused on lithic technology and use-wear. Her experience on North African Prehistory began with her graduate dissertation on the lithic technology of the Upper Later Stone Age of Jebel Gharbi (Libya), where she also conducted extensive surveys for her PhD, working on the sourcing and characterization of lithic raw material for the same period.