Late Quaternary palaeoclimates and human-environment dynamics of the Maloti-Drakensberg region, southern Africa

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

卷:196

Article

Stewart, Brian A.^1,2,3  Mitchell, Peter J.^4,5 

[1] Univ Michigan, Museum Anthropol Archaeol, 1109 Geddes Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[2] Univ Michigan, Dept Anthropol, 1109 Geddes Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[3] Univ Witwatersrand, Rock Art Res Inst, PO Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

[4] Univ Oxford, St Hughs Coll, Sch Archaeol, Oxford OX2 6LE, England

[5] Univ Witwatersrand, Sch Geog Archaeol & Environm Studies, PO Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

关键词: Quaternary;    Palaeoclimatology;    Southern Africa;    Glacial geomorphology;    Stable isotopes;    Maloti-Drakensberg;    Archaeology;    Human-environment dynamics;    Later Stone Age;    Middle Stone Age;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.014

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains are southern Africa's highest and lie at a crucial interface between the sub-continent's drier, colder, more seasonal interior and its perennially productive sub-tropical coastal belt. Their location, high elevation, and topography make them ideal for exploring human responses to late Quaternary climatic change. This paper reviews and synthesizes palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data from the Maloti-Drakensberg region over the past 50,000 years. It then employs 325 calibrated radiocarbon dates to examine human occupational trends across the region and its component parts, discuss human-environment dynamics over this time-span, and explore patterning between particular phases of climatic change and the timing, mode, and motives of its exploitation by people. Key findings are that the region's Lesotho core may have served as a refugium for human populations during drier, more unstable climatic periods and that intensified exploitation of freshwater fish likely helped address resource stress in cooler ones. An agenda for future palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research is also mapped out. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free