The Mountain Exile Hypothesis: How Humans Benefited from African High Altitude Ecosystems in Ethiopia

Summary

Although high-altitude mountain habitats are often regarded as unfavorable for human occupation; on the other hand tropical highlands in Africa are suggested as potential refugia during times of environmental stress. The presentation gives a review of new evidence of human occupation in the tropical highlands of Ethiopia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene period. A first correlation of the archaeological data with the climate record suggests a complex interplay between humans and their environment during the last 20 ka. Finally, we speculate about potential land-use patterns on Mount Dendi in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19932