Sourcing Etendeka Dolerites in the Stone Age of Namibia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Basalts and dolomites, associated with the Etendeka Large Igneous Province (ELIP), in northwestern Namibia, often make up the bulk of lithic raw materials present in archaeological assemblages from the region. Different igneous formations within the ELIP can readily be distinguished from one another by various geochemical means, but their huge geographic extent and complex networks of exposures forces us to consider various spatial scales of geochemical variability in inferring patterns of human activities from sourcing data. At the site of Erb Tanks Rockshelter in the Central Namib desert, dolerite in assemblages, dated ca. 17-19 ka BP, derives, exclusively, from sources distributed in a band along the Welwitschia Lineament Structure (WLS), while dolerite from later phases (ca. 8-12 ka BP), can be linked to a variety of likely sources in the ELIP. Combining these patterns from sourcing data with technological analyses, suggest shifts in the spatial scale and diversity of human land use and foraging practices in the region, from a more bounded inland/upland pattern (17-19 ka), to a wider-ranging pattern centered in the coastal deserts (8-12 ka).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24821