Geoarchaeology in semi-arid landscapes
type: CreativeWork
description: Pleistocene research from southern Africa has provided evidence for significant milestones in human evolution, such as pigment use. Research has focused on cave and rock shelter sites with fine stratigraphy and good preservation, often overlooking the potential of open-air sites in the semi-arid interior. Research at open-air sites poses analytical difficulties, such as poor preservation of organic materials, which has led to an oversight of the archaeological potential of open-air sites. This creates a knowledge gap regarding human adaptations to semi-arid landscapes in the Late Pleistocene. One such region is the southern Kalahari Basin, previously regarded as too arid to support human habitation for extended periods. New research suggests that the Pleistocene environment in the Kalahari was fluctuating with periods of aridity as well as increased moisture availability, and that humans were not only present during these wetter periods. Geoarchaeology has been used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental conditions that humans had to navigate and adapt to, as well as to identify site formation processes that impacted the behavioural evidence left behind. This thesis combines field and lab-based approaches to examine the site formation processes and paleoenvironmental contexts of pans (seasonal water bodies) and associated archaeological materials in the southern Kalahari Basin of Botswana, near the town of Tsabong. Pans are important geoarchives that act as sediment catchment areas and would have offered humans a temporary source of water. Abundant lithic surface scatters provide evidence of human presence in the landscape. These lithic scatters are often found near quartzite outcrops and on the pan surfaces. The results presented in the three scientific articles contribute to a growing body of geoarchaeological knowledge surrounding the adaptation of humans during the late Pleistocene in the under-researched semi-arid interior of southern Africa.
abstract: Pleistocene research from southern Africa has provided evidence for significant milestones in human evolution, such as pigment use. Research has focused on cave and rock shelter sites with fine stratigraphy and good preservation, often overlooking the potential of open-air sites in the semi-arid interior. Research at open-air sites poses analytical difficulties, such as poor preservation of organic materials, which has led to an oversight of the archaeological potential of open-air sites. This creates a knowledge gap regarding human adaptations to semi-arid landscapes in the Late Pleistocene. One such region is the southern Kalahari Basin, previously regarded as too arid to support human habitation for extended periods. New research suggests that the Pleistocene environment in the Kalahari was fluctuating with periods of aridity as well as increased moisture availability, and that humans were not only present during these wetter periods. Geoarchaeology has been used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental conditions that humans had to navigate and adapt to, as well as to identify site formation processes that impacted the behavioural evidence left behind. This thesis combines field and lab-based approaches to examine the site formation processes and paleoenvironmental contexts of pans (seasonal water bodies) and associated archaeological materials in the southern Kalahari Basin of Botswana, near the town of Tsabong. Pans are important geoarchives that act as sediment catchment areas and would have offered humans a temporary source of water. Abundant lithic surface scatters provide evidence of human presence in the landscape. These lithic scatters are often found near quartzite outcrops and on the pan surfaces. The results presented in the three scientific articles contribute to a growing body of geoarchaeological knowledge surrounding the adaptation of humans during the late Pleistocene in the under-researched semi-arid interior of southern Africa.
author: Faul, Inèz
keywords: Geoarchaeology, Pleistocene, Kalahari
date published: 2026-01-19
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:35:31Z
provider: Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel