Landscape Technological Strategies in the Southern Kalahari Basin: North of Kuruman Archaeological Survey, South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances and Debates in the Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The southern Kalahari Basin in the northern interior of South Africa has provided evidence for early use of fire, Mode 3 technological developments, early stone-tipped spears and pigment use. Innovations seen in the southern Kalahari Basin early in the Middle Stone Age may represent changes in how human populations were able to adapt to changing environments. Excavations at the new site of Ga-Mohana Hill are developing a stratified rockshelter sequence to contextualize the open-air archaeological discoveries in the region. However, here we report on an initial survey of archaeological occurrences and carbonate formations (calcrete, tufa, and breccia) in the region north and west of Gamohana Hill in the Korannaberg and Kuruman Hills out on the landscape. The survey targeted rockshelters along the dolomite and banded ironstone formation contact zones where brecciated carbonates and tufa features were identified. Access to limited water resources may influence social behaviors in many ways that influence technological organization including reduced levels of group fluidity. Identifying how MSA foragers adapted to these environments provides context for identifying potential drivers of technological innovations that developed in the southern Kalahari Basin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Recent Advances and Debates in the Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23365