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Map of Kalahari Desert boundary, major cities, annual rainfall, and significant archaeological sites. Major hydrologic features also shown from the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (Lehner et al. 2006). Survey areas 1 and 2 indicated with red boxes, White Paintings Rockshelter indicated with red triangle
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Humans occupy a wide range of environments, including those that experience water stress. Our species has a long history of mitigating arid and semi-arid environmental risk through cultural and technological behaviors. Identifying Pleistocene foraging behaviors in water-stressed environments is particularly instructive for understanding the develop...
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This paper presents the results of the analysis of a late Acheulean horizon from the EDAR 135 site, which was discovered in the Eastern Desert, Sudan, in an area heavily transformed by modern mining activity. A lithic assemblage was discovered there, within a layer of gravel sediments formed by a paleostream in a humid period of the Middle Pleistoc...
Citations
... The most likely interpretation of these data is that the Sitwe 23 locality was produced by mobile hunter-foragers employing individual provisioning strategies. Although provisioning of individuals is usually associated with larger amounts of retouch on tools, this may have been mitigated by the local abundance of lithic raw materials (Riel-Salvatore & Barton, 2004;Schoville et al., 2022;Varoner et al., 2022). ...
This paper describes the lithic aggregates from Sitwe 23 (SW23), a Stone Age locality in a previously unstudied region of the northern Luangwa Valley, Zambia. This area yielded two surface lithic scatters containing abundant artifacts derived from Pleistocene sediments on uplifted terrain and exposed by recent erosion on two adjacent terraces. The scatters are time-averaged palimpsests formed by deflation, but most of the lithics lack evidence of significant fluvial transport or post-depositional damage, indicating minimal horizontal displacement. Typological and attribute analyses of samples from both spurs reveal predominantly simple and expedient core and flake technologies, as well as sophisticated biface manufacture and Levallois technique producing flakes and points that are differentially distributed between the terraces. The artifacts identified in this analysis include types conventionally considered diagnostic of the Acheulean, Sangoan, and Middle Stone Age, suggesting that the collections may document one or more temporal windows during the Chibanian age (770–126 ka). Whether artifacts in these samples were originally deposited sequentially or concurrently is not yet known and alternative hypotheses are presented and discussed. The collections are compared to sites in Zambia and the northern Lake Malawi basin and found to be similar technologically but typologically different. Given the paucity of previously known Ston Age archaeological sites in the region, our work now demonstrates that northern Luangwa has significant archaeological potential and deserves further study.
... Nevertheless, the Umgeni River and several tributaries are only 2-3 km away from the site and those would have flowed throughout the year. In general, arid conditions are no hindrance for hunter gatherers to survive, as indicated by multiple ethnographic but also archaeological studies (Kelly, 1995;Lee, 1968;Schoville et al., 2022;Woodburn, 1968). Hunter-gatherers also prepare for and react to periods of harsh conditions that bring along subsistence and reproductive risk via the formation of exchange networks and social bonds or migration (Kelly, 1995;Wadley, 1996;Wiessner, 1977;Wiessner, 1982). ...
... Such an organization of mobility, bringing resources to people, would encompass special purpose locations and rather short-term (from seasonal to overnight) occupations that could be reflected in the lithic and faunal assemblages. Concerning lithic technology, ethnographic observations and modelling approaches provide the expectation of small and low-density assemblages that are highly curated, featuring high proportions of retouch (e. g., Barton and Riel-Salvatore, 2014;Tryon and Faith, 2016;Clark and Barton, 2017;Schoville et al., 2022) but also anticipatory caching of raw materials at the sites (i.e., provisioning of place; Kuhn, 1992Kuhn, , 1995. The stone tool assemblages from AVA and BIB fit such a picture of high logistical mobility and low sedentariness quite well (e.g., see Strategy 3 in Schoville et al., 2022, Fig. 1): comparatively low number and density of lithics, high proportion of retouched tools and fragmented reduction sequences with an emphasis on the final stages such as tool resharpening and recycling of objects such as transforming blades into burin cores for bladelet production. ...
... Concerning lithic technology, ethnographic observations and modelling approaches provide the expectation of small and low-density assemblages that are highly curated, featuring high proportions of retouch (e. g., Barton and Riel-Salvatore, 2014;Tryon and Faith, 2016;Clark and Barton, 2017;Schoville et al., 2022) but also anticipatory caching of raw materials at the sites (i.e., provisioning of place; Kuhn, 1992Kuhn, , 1995. The stone tool assemblages from AVA and BIB fit such a picture of high logistical mobility and low sedentariness quite well (e.g., see Strategy 3 in Schoville et al., 2022, Fig. 1): comparatively low number and density of lithics, high proportion of retouched tools and fragmented reduction sequences with an emphasis on the final stages such as tool resharpening and recycling of objects such as transforming blades into burin cores for bladelet production. While there is no obvious evidence for caching of raw materials at Holley Shelter, the occupants did have access to the sandstone shelter walls and large blocks of roof spalling on the surface, which they repeatedly flaked while at the location. ...
... Nevertheless, the Umgeni River and several tributaries are only 2-3 km away from the site and those would have flowed throughout the year. In general, arid conditions are no hindrance for hunter gatherers to survive, as indicated by multiple ethnographic but also archaeological studies (Kelly, 1995;Lee, 1968;Schoville et al., 2022;Woodburn, 1968). Hunter-gatherers also prepare for and react to periods of harsh conditions that bring along subsistence and reproductive risk via the formation of exchange networks and social bonds or migration (Kelly, 1995;Wadley, 1996;Wiessner, 1977;Wiessner, 1982). ...
... Such an organization of mobility, bringing resources to people, would encompass special purpose locations and rather short-term (from seasonal to overnight) occupations that could be reflected in the lithic and faunal assemblages. Concerning lithic technology, ethnographic observations and modelling approaches provide the expectation of small and low-density assemblages that are highly curated, featuring high proportions of retouch (e. g., Barton and Riel-Salvatore, 2014;Tryon and Faith, 2016;Clark and Barton, 2017;Schoville et al., 2022) but also anticipatory caching of raw materials at the sites (i.e., provisioning of place; Kuhn, 1992Kuhn, , 1995. The stone tool assemblages from AVA and BIB fit such a picture of high logistical mobility and low sedentariness quite well (e.g., see Strategy 3 in Schoville et al., 2022, Fig. 1): comparatively low number and density of lithics, high proportion of retouched tools and fragmented reduction sequences with an emphasis on the final stages such as tool resharpening and recycling of objects such as transforming blades into burin cores for bladelet production. ...
... Concerning lithic technology, ethnographic observations and modelling approaches provide the expectation of small and low-density assemblages that are highly curated, featuring high proportions of retouch (e. g., Barton and Riel-Salvatore, 2014;Tryon and Faith, 2016;Clark and Barton, 2017;Schoville et al., 2022) but also anticipatory caching of raw materials at the sites (i.e., provisioning of place; Kuhn, 1992Kuhn, , 1995. The stone tool assemblages from AVA and BIB fit such a picture of high logistical mobility and low sedentariness quite well (e.g., see Strategy 3 in Schoville et al., 2022, Fig. 1): comparatively low number and density of lithics, high proportion of retouched tools and fragmented reduction sequences with an emphasis on the final stages such as tool resharpening and recycling of objects such as transforming blades into burin cores for bladelet production. While there is no obvious evidence for caching of raw materials at Holley Shelter, the occupants did have access to the sandstone shelter walls and large blocks of roof spalling on the surface, which they repeatedly flaked while at the location. ...
... High retouch frequencies and artifact densities are consistent with assemblages formed by foragers with low residential and low logistical mobility. Less retouch and lower artifact densities in context 5 suggest, in contrast, that foragers moved more frequently and occupied the site for shorter periods (Schoville et al., 2021). It is notable that chip frequencies are relatively low in both contexts, and especially in contexts 6-8, which, as mentioned, underwent particularly significant taphonomic changes. ...
... Other differences between contexts 6-8 and 5 can be attributed to shifts in mobility patterns, as expected during a period of resource restructuring. Contexts 6-8, with higher artifact densities, higher retouch frequencies, more bipolar reduction (especially in 6-8:2), and hyperlocal raw materials, suggest less frequent residential and logistical movement (Hiscock, 1996;Parry & Kelly, 1987;Schoville et al., 2021). Schoville et al. (2021, p. 10) suggest that residentially mobile foragers employing individual provisioning can move infrequently only if "people are essentially located on top of resources." ...
... Variation likely represents differences in mobility, site use, and provisioning patterns, all contingent on local environments and landscape structures (cf. Marean, 2016;Schoville et al., 2021), as well as taphonomic processes biasing the assemblage towards larger artifacts. Retouch frequencies aside, borers are site-specific and clearly comprise a critical part of the Table 9 Intersite comparisons for Sehonghong, Boomplaas, and Melikane (Deacon, 1984b;Mitchell, 1994Mitchell, , 1995Mitchell, , 1996Pargeter et al., 2018;Pargeter & Faith, 2020 Melikane toolkit (Pazan et al., 2022). ...
Melikane, a large sandstone rockshelter in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho, preserves an 80,000-year-old archaeological sequence including an occupation pulse dated to the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ~27–23 kcal BP. Paleoenvironmental proxies indicate that temperature depressions of ~6 °C below present values provoked changes in vegetation distribution around the site. The onset of the LGM also coincides with a global shift towards microlithization, expressed in southern Africa as the Later Stone Age Robberg bladelet industry. Bousman and Brink’s (Quaternary International 495:116–135, 2018) rapid replacement hypothesis asserts that this technocomplex was adopted nearly simultaneously across the subcontinent ~24 ka cal BP, replacing the Early Later Stone Age technologies that preceded it. An alternative model, which we term the LGM acceleration hypothesis, suggests that the Robberg developed slowly as existing technologies were modified and expanded to function flexibly in a variety of LGM environments. In this paper, we test these hypotheses at Melikane through attribute and morphometric analyses of > 17,000 lithic artifacts. Intrasite continuities and gradual, asynchronous changes in flaking systems are inconsistent with rapid replacement. Instead, the subtle refinement of bladelet reduction strategies alongside climate shifts and a reorganization of mobility and settlement systems supports our LGM acceleration hypothesis. However, Melikane’s combination of highland-specific idiosyncrasies and shared flaking systems with sites in less marginal environments suggests a complex role for cultural transmission. We suggest that periodic isolation throughout the LGM encouraged the development of new flaking systems, the most flexible of which were adopted in a variety of environments when biogeographic barriers to transmission were lifted.
... Recently, the practice of long-distance lithic import was confirmed through geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts from sGi, Rhino Cave, White Paintings Shelter and Corner Cave to source areas as far away as 295 km along the Boteti River and around Lake Ngami (Nash et al., 2013. Acknowledging the limited number of focused investigations, it would appear that in contrast to the ESA, MSA people in northern Botswana established specialized sites and accessed resources from a broader landscape (see Chan et al., 2019;Schoville et al., 2021 for discussion; Thomas et al., 2022). ...
This paper documents the abundance of Stone Age finds in the Middle Kalahari, both through earlier publications and newly documented sites. Results of several decades of Stone Age research are presented through a variety of projects and placed within the context of previous archaeological investigations in the region. We argue for the importance of open-air sites in constructing a more representative picture of prehistoric behaviour in the interior of southern Africa.
... Knowledge of the evolving relationship between ancestral hominins, early humans and the natural environment, and the development of theories of adaptation, is reliant upon robust archaeological and palaeo-landscape data that have strong age control and wide geographical coverage. Given Homo sapiens' African origin, popular debates on the nature and timing of human dispersal across the globe are predicated upon an enriched knowledge of how behavioural patterns and coping strategies first evolved in Africa e principally since c.300,000 kyr during the Middle Stone Age (MSA: c.280 ka-45 ka: Schoville et al., 2022) e where this occurred. Much of the key research that informs these debates has developed from the rich coeval environmental and fossil records of eastern Africa (Potts et al., 2018), and from coastal locations in southern Africa where access to rich marine resources is thought to have contributed to enhanced cognitive behaviour (Marean, 2016;Will et al., 2019). ...
... The crucial role open-air sites can play, especially in understanding dimensions of behavioural and resource use patterns, has been widely demonstrated by research in eastern Africa. It has also sometimes received acknowledgement in southern Africa (Klein, 1976;Kuman, 1989), while a recent assessment has identified the potential contributions that wholeassemblage analyses can bring to interpretations of open landscape use (Schoville et al., 2022). There has, relatively recently, been some redress in open-air site investigation, in coastal situations (e.g. ...
... In southern Africa, by contrast, dry conditions have been conceived to be an obstacle to innovation, and even to occupation, but this view is changing (Wilkins, 2020). Schoville et al. (2022) argue, using evidence from the southern Kalahari margins, that behavioural plasticity, in the form of flexible foraging strategies, was a characteristic of MSA adaptation in the context of variable water availability and water stress. Our research in Makgadikgadi further enriches understanding of MSA behaviours in southern Africa's drylands. ...
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) was a time of great human adaptation and innovation. In southern Africa, coastal locations have been viewed as key places for the development of human resource use and behaviour, with the dryness of the continental interior after c.130 ka regarded as both an obstacle to occupation and a limit on behaviour. Newly excavated MSA sites on the floor of the now-dry palaeolake Makgadikgadi basin, central Botswana, along with accompanying environmental data, have provided a significant opportunity to reassess the nature of MSA adaptation to, and behaviour under, dry conditions. Excavated sites dated to 80–72 ka and post 57 ka reveal purposeful early human use of an extensive 60,000 km² lacustrine basin during dry, as opposed to lake-high, phases, as well as highlighting movement strategies for tool-making resource procurement. Findings have significant implications for theories of early human mobility and innovation, as well as for understanding the drivers, constraints and opportunities for the use of drylands. The deliberate selective movement of lithic raw materials within the basin for artefact manufacture evidences thoughtful adaptation to dry conditions within the lake basin. This research shows that open-air sites in the Kalahari drylands of central southern Africa can make important contributions to debates surrounding the development of human-environment relationships during the MSA, as well as challenging narratives of a hostile and largely empty landscape.
... Nevertheless, where open air sites are being systematically investigated on the margins of the Kalahari basin (e.g. Chazan et al., 2012;Ecker et al., 2021;Helgren and Brooks, 1983;Lukich et al., 2020;Schoville et al., 2022;Papadimitrios et al., 2019;Walker et al., 2014;Wilkins, 2017Wilkins, , 2021 they are beginning to provide glimpses into Stone Age life in landscapes where environmental trends and resource strategies took a different trajectory to those of the southern Cape coastal region. ...
The intersection of archaeological material with the landscape is investigated using OSL dating of landforms associated with Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeology in the Makgadikgadi basin, Botswana. In this study, MSA archaeological sites on the Makgadikgadi pan floor date to two dry periods in the basin during the late Quaternary. Site formation at one site occurred during dry, or seasonally dry conditions that followed a period of high lake levels between 128 ± 18 ka and 81 ± 6 ka. The site was buried by sediments from a subsequent period of high lake levels dating to between 72 ± 5 ka and 57 ± 8 ka. At other investigated sites, the archaeological material was most likely deposited during a second dry period sometime after this. Overlying dunes are much younger (late Holocene) than the late Pleistocene lakebed sediments associated with the archaeological sites. Rapid burial of the archaeological sites by clayey sands has resulted in limited disturbance and weathering of archaeological material which appears to have only been exposed very recently, perhaps in the last 350 years when conditions have been particularly dry and susceptible to deflation. The spatial patterning of both sediment accumulation and deflation strongly influences archaeological visibility both within and around the Makgadikgadi basin.
... A recently published study from the Kalahari in South Africa is also pertinent to the discussion of sampling. Schoville et al. (2021) set out to test a model of lithic provisioning as a proxy for huntergatherer mobility using what they describe as a "whole assemblage behavioral indicator" approach, as applied in several European Paleolithic contexts (Barton et al., 2011;Miller & Barton, 2008;Riel-Salvatore & Barton, 2004). Essentially, this framework uses raw material availability, lithic reduction intensity, and the provisioning of individuals or places with tools as a proxy for identifying logistical or residential mobility strategies. ...
... First, he criticized the failure of many projects to provide detailed methodological accounts of field procedures. This is now standard scientific practice, and many projects thoroughly describe their sampling strategies and in-field decisions (e.g., Cancellieri & di Lernia, 2013;Olszewski et al., 2010a, b); however, transparency and providing clear definitions of terms could still be improved upon (e.g., Schoville et al., 2021;Thompson et al., 2014). Bower also notes that demographic issues were not prominent research goals in the 1980s. ...
Surveys are an important reconnaissance tool in African archaeology, but surface-oriented research is still relatively limited. Thirty years on from John Bower’s “survey of surveys,” this article revisits the state of surface archaeology in Southern Africa and reviews its role in landscape archaeology more broadly. Drawing on examples of Middle Stone Age research in particular, the article considers how archaeologists have addressed Bower’s methodological concerns of site definition, data collection, survey logistics, and interpretation. Recent research in the Tankwa Karoo region of South Africa is presented as a case study to demonstrate the value that surface research holds for understanding past behavioral variability at a landscape scale.
Southern Africa is characterized by the development of varied Middle and Later Stone Age techno-complexes and behaviors against a backdrop of complex climatic conditions during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. While much work has been devoted to reconstructing regional environmental patterns, site-specific ecological and habitat contexts have primarily focused on a single site or small area. The local manifestations of regional climatic conditions are analyzed here by compiling faunal enamel stable isotope data from 13 sites across South Africa, Lesotho, and Zambia. Measuring isotope space and overlap reveals distinct on-the-ground habitat circumstances across regions and even variability within some regions, especially in the period ~ 36,000–5000 years ago. This analytical framework aims to test whether sites within the same environmental zones overlap in isotope space and finds that there is greater intra-regional environmental heterogeneity than expected. Patterns of contracting and expanding isotope space, especially along the oxygen axis, may provide insight to shifts in rainfall seasonality and, perhaps, sources of precipitation. This increased understanding of the local manifestations of regional climatic conditions through time and space will be a critical component of models of population movement and interactions in the late Pleistocene and Holocene of southern Africa.
