The Horn of Africa, located at the crossroads of two main ‘routes' Out of and Back into Africa, i.e., the Nile Valley and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, is a key region for the history of human dispersals. Most of the data on these dispersals come from fossil evidence and genetic studies, but archaeological data for these dispersals remains scarce. Although the Horn of Africa has yielded some of the oldest known modern human remains, few are dated to the end of the Pleistocene and there is limited information on population dynamics in this region before the Holocene. In order to question the value of the distinction between the MSA and the LSA and their respective chronology, we aim to review current archaeological evidence in the Horn of Africa for the end of the Pleistocene (75‑12 ka). We use this evidence to discuss the impact of the Big Dry on the techno-cultural changes occurring during this timeframe, and to evaluate hypotheses of population dynamics.To better highlight patterns of technological change and persistence over time, we have divided the archaeological record of the Horn of Africa into three main periods: before, during and after the Big Dry.