EGU21-8123
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8123
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Investigating the impact of Pleistocene climate change on early humans in the southern Kalahari

Jayne Wilkins1,2, Robyn Pickering2,3, Jessica von der Meden2,3, Luke Gliganic4, Kyle S Brown5, Irene Esteban6, Wendy Khumalo2,3, Precious Chiwara2,5, Yonatan Sahle2,5, Kelly Kirsten3, and Benjamin J Schoville7
Jayne Wilkins et al.
  • 1Griffith University, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Australia
  • 2Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • 3Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • 4Department of Geology, University of Innsbruck, Austria
  • 5Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • 6Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
  • 7School of Social Science, University of Queensland, South Africa

Homo sapiens exhibit extreme behavioural plasticity, mediated by culture and technology, that permits us to adapt rapidly to new environments and situations. Understanding the role that past climate change played in selecting for Homo sapiens’ adaptability is a key question in human evolution research. The arid and semi-arid Kalahari Basin in southern Africa is an ideal region for addressing this question because fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence supports an early origin for Homo sapiens in southern Africa. The growing archaeological record of the Kalahari Basin reveals that significant behavioural innovations accumulated in the region over the course of the Middle and Late Pleistocene, including ochre use, hafted hunting weapons, fishing, and figurative paintings. Here, we report the results of interdisciplinary investigations at two locales in the southern Kalahari; Ga-Mohana Hill and Witberg 1. The archaeological and palaeoenvironmental record (based on U-Th dating of tufas) at Ga-Mohana Hill reveals that site occupation correlated with a previous period of increased effective precipitation ~110-100 ka, and preliminary results suggest a more complicated relationship between occupation and precipitation after that time. At Witberg 1, Middle Stone Age archaeology is associated with the shoreline of a previously unidentified palaeolake. Current investigations are focused on dating the Witberg deposits, analysing the lithic technology, and generating palaeoenvironmental archives using phytoliths and diatoms. Collectively, this research provides a rare opportunity to evaluate Middle Stone Age occupation across a changing landscape from both stratified rockshelters and sealed open-air sites, to explore the complex interactions between past climate change and early human behaviors, and to better understand the origins of Homo sapiens extreme adaptability.

How to cite: Wilkins, J., Pickering, R., von der Meden, J., Gliganic, L., Brown, K. S., Esteban, I., Khumalo, W., Chiwara, P., Sahle, Y., Kirsten, K., and Schoville, B. J.: Investigating the impact of Pleistocene climate change on early humans in the southern Kalahari, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8123, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8123, 2021.

Displays

Display file