Landscape archaeology of the Kalahari: How did major hydrological shifts affect Stone Age mobility and landscape use in the late Quaternary?

Context
This project addresses a fundamental gap in the landscape archaeology of dryland central southern Africa. The region has experienced major climatic and hydrological changes during the last 250,000 years. These included the waxing and waning of a 90,000 km² palaeolake, Makgadikgadi, in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Scatters of archaeological stone tools on the dry lake floor, and in association with ancient shorelines marking the margins of the palaeolake, indicate that Makgadikgadi was used extensively by our human ancestors. The project combined archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, geochronological and geochemical methods to test hypotheses about ancient human interactions with changing environmental and hydrological conditions. It aimed to establish a framework for Stone Age landscape use and mobility, with implications for wider theories about early human interactions with changing environments.

Objectives
The main objectives of the project were to:
1. Characterise and classify the extensive lithic industries of the Makgadikgadi basin and its feeder fluvial systems;
2. Identify the source locations of lithic material used by ancestral humans, by comparing artefact geochemical data against similar data for silcrete outcrops sampled from around the basin and a database of silcrete outcrop geochemistry;
3. Generate new palaeoenvironmental data for the Late Quaternary, focusing on hydrological changes pertinent to the region's occupation;
4. Test a series of hypotheses to enhance both archaeological understanding in southern Africa and contribute to wider debates about early human behaviour.

Key findings, to date, have been published in a Special Issue of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews:

Thomas, D.S.G. & Bynoe, R.D. (2023) Life on the edge or living in the middle? New perspectives on southern Africa's Middle Stone Age. Quaternary Science Reviews 303: 107965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.107965
Coulson, S.D., Staurset, S., Mothulatshipi, S., Burrough, S.L., Nash, D.J. & Thomas, D.S.G. (2022) Thriving in the Thirstland: new Stone Age sites in the Middle Kalahari, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews 297: 107695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107695.
Staurset, S., Coulson, S.D., Mothulatshipi, S., Burrough, S.L., Nash, D.J. & Thomas, D.S.G. (2022) Making points: the Middle Stone Age lithic industry of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews 301: 107823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107823.
Staurset, S., Coulson, S.D., Mothulatshipi, S., Burrough, S.L., Nash, D.J. & Thomas, D.S.G. (2022) Post-depositional disturbance and spatial organization at exposed open-air sites: examples from the Middle Stone Age of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews 301: 107824. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107824.
Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G., Allin, J., Coulson, S.D., Mothulatshipi, S., Nash, D.J. & Staurset, S. (2022) Lessons from a lakebed: unpicking hydrological change and early human landscape use in the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews 291: 107662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107662
Nash, D.J., Ciborowski, T.J.R., Coulson, S.D., Staurset, S., Burrough, S.L., Mothulatshipi, S. & Thomas, D.S.G. (2022) Mapping Middle Stone Age human mobility in the Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana) through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts. Quaternary Science Reviews. 297: 107811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107811.
Thomas, D.S.G., Burrough, S.L., Coulson, S.D., Mothulatshipi, S., Nash, D.J. & Staurset, S. (2022) Lacustrine geoarchaeology in the central Kalahari: implications for Middle Stone Age behaviour and adaptation in dryland conditions. Quaternary Science Reviews 297: 107826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107826.

Data from the geochemical provenancing component of the project are archived at the Brighton Research Data repository: https://doi.org/10.17033/DATA.00000286