TY - JOUR
T1 - Landscape evolution and hydrology at the Late Pleistocene archaeological site of Narabeb in the Namib Sand Sea, Namibia
AU - Stone, Abi
AU - Leader, George
AU - Stratford, Dominic
AU - Marks, Theodore
AU - Efraim, Kaarina
AU - Bynoe, Rachel
AU - Smedley, Rachel
AU - Gunn, Andrew
AU - Marais, Eugene
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by a Leakey Foundation Grant (GL). Funding towards travel for AS was obtained from a Quaternary Research Association small grant, and the University of Manchester SEED New Horizons Research Simulation Fund. The latter was also used for the costs of collaborative luminescence dating sample preparation and analysis with RS at the Liverpool Luminescene Laboratory, for which Dr Kaja Fenn and Luke Glascott are thanked for their help. Thanks to Dr Tom Bishop in the Geography Laboratories at the University of Manchester for guidance in analysis of laser granulometry raw datasets. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources and services from the National Computing Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government, through grant NCMAS-2024-105 to AG. Thanks to Nick Lancaster for providing raw data for particle size distributions of samples across the Namib.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by a Leakey Foundation Grant (GL). Funding towards travel for AS was obtained from a Quaternary Research Association, UK, small grant, and the University of Manchester SEED New Horizons Research Simulation Fund. The latter was also used for the costs of collaborative luminescence dating sample preparation and analysis with Dr Kaja Fenn and Luke Glascott from the Liverpool Luminescence Laboratory, who are thanked for their help. Thanks to Tom Bishop in the Geography Laboratories at the University of Manchester for guidance in analysis of laser granulometry raw datasets. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources and services from the National Computing Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government, through grant NCMAS-2024-105 to AG. Thanks to Nick Lancaster for providing raw data for particle size distributions of samples across the Namib.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - The Namib Sand Sea (NSS) in Namibia is known to preserve a wide variety of Pleistocene-age archaeological sites. However, few Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in this region have been systematically investigated and basic questions around chronology and technological organization remain open. Here we examine Narabeb, an open air MSA surface site exposed in an interdune pan, ∼30 km into the northern NSS. Narabeb was first documented in the 1970s, and then re-examined in 2021 and 2022 by members of this team. Lithic technological analysis combined with a geomorphological description of the site, palaeoenvironmental interpretation of fine-grain water-lain sediments, and luminescence ages from northern and southern locations on the Narabeb pan provide some of the first understanding of human-environmental interactions and estimates of chronology from the later-Middle and Late Pleistocene in the NSS. In addition, we apply a quantitative approach to aeolian linear dune accumulation and extension to explore possible scenarios for landscape development at this site, in order to better understand the former water course(s) affecting the area. The new chronology suggests this site contained standing water at, or just after, the MIS 7/6 transition, and again at, or just after, the end of MIS 6 into early MIS 5. The timing of greater phases of water availability have some overlap with the speleothem growth record at Rössing Cave, situated ∼90 km north of the NSS (and ∼135 km north of Narabeb). Our results provide the foundation for larger, regional-scale analyses of early human adaptive strategies in this unique environment within Southern Africa.
AB - The Namib Sand Sea (NSS) in Namibia is known to preserve a wide variety of Pleistocene-age archaeological sites. However, few Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in this region have been systematically investigated and basic questions around chronology and technological organization remain open. Here we examine Narabeb, an open air MSA surface site exposed in an interdune pan, ∼30 km into the northern NSS. Narabeb was first documented in the 1970s, and then re-examined in 2021 and 2022 by members of this team. Lithic technological analysis combined with a geomorphological description of the site, palaeoenvironmental interpretation of fine-grain water-lain sediments, and luminescence ages from northern and southern locations on the Narabeb pan provide some of the first understanding of human-environmental interactions and estimates of chronology from the later-Middle and Late Pleistocene in the NSS. In addition, we apply a quantitative approach to aeolian linear dune accumulation and extension to explore possible scenarios for landscape development at this site, in order to better understand the former water course(s) affecting the area. The new chronology suggests this site contained standing water at, or just after, the MIS 7/6 transition, and again at, or just after, the end of MIS 6 into early MIS 5. The timing of greater phases of water availability have some overlap with the speleothem growth record at Rössing Cave, situated ∼90 km north of the NSS (and ∼135 km north of Narabeb). Our results provide the foundation for larger, regional-scale analyses of early human adaptive strategies in this unique environment within Southern Africa.
KW - Arid environment archaeology
KW - Luminescence dating
KW - Middle stone age
KW - Namib Sand Sea
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192146139&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100190
DO - 10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100190
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85192146139
SN - 2666-0334
VL - 14
JO - Quaternary Science Advances
JF - Quaternary Science Advances
M1 - 100190
ER -