<P> LSA sites also greatly outnumber MSA sites in Africa, a trend that could indicate an increase in population numbers . The greater number of LSA sites could also result from bias towards better preservation of younger sites which have had fewer chances to be destroyed . </P> <P> Differences in stone tool technologies are often used to distinguish between the Middle Stone Age and the Later Stone Age . The larger prepared platform flake - based stone tool industries of the Middle Stone Age, such as Levallois were increasingly replaced with industries that focused on producing blades and bladelets on cores with simple platforms . African stone tool technologies are divided into modes as proposed by Grahame Clark in 1969 and outlined by Lawrence Barham and Peter Mitchell as follows: </P> <Ul> <Li> Mode 1: Oldowan tool industries, also known as pebble tool industries </Li> <Li> Mode 2: Tools made through bifacial reduction produced from large flakes or cores </Li> <Li> Mode 3: Flake tools from prepared cores </Li> <Li> Mode 4: Punch - struck blades that are adapted into a variety of different tools </Li> <Li> Mode 5: Microlith portions of composite tools that may include wood or bone, often abruptly retouched or backed </Li> </Ul> <Li> Mode 1: Oldowan tool industries, also known as pebble tool industries </Li>

Indicators of early food production in africa during the late stone age period