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Follow the Senqu: Maloti-Drakensberg Paleoenvironments and Implications for Early Human Dispersals into Mountain Systems

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Africa from MIS 6-2

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains are southern Africa’s highest and give rise to South Africa’s largest river, the Orange-Senqu. At Melikane Rockshelter in highland Lesotho (~1800 m a.s.l.), project AMEMSA (Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age) has documented a pulsed human presence since at least MIS 5. Melikane can be interrogated to understand when and why early modern humans chose to increase their altitudinal range. This paper presents the results of a multi-proxy paleoenvironmental analysis of this sequence. Vegetation shifts are registered against a background signal of C3-dominated grasslands, suggesting fluctuations in temperature, humidity and atmospheric CO2 within a generally cool highland environment with high moisture availability. Discussing Melikane in relation to other paleoenvironmental and archeological archives in the region, a model is developed linking highland population flux to prevailing climate. It is proposed that short-lived but acute episodes of rapid onset aridity saw interior groups disperse into the highlands to be nearer to the Orange-Senqu headwaters, perhaps via the river corridor itself.

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Acknowledgments

Our work at Melikane was made possible because of an excavation permit generously granted (to BAS) by the Protection and Preservation Committee (PPC) of the Lesotho Department of Culture. We thank the PPC, and especially bo-Mme Moliehi ‘Maneo Ntene, Puseletso Moremi and the late Ntsema Khitsane for their support. The project ‘Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age’ (AMEMSA) is supported by grants from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, the University of Cambridge, the British Academy, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Prehistoric Society, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We also gratefully acknowledge Catherine Kneale for assistance in processing the SOM δ13C samples. Finally, we thank Francis Thackeray, Britt Bousman and a third anonymous reviewer, as well as Peter Mitchell, for helping us substantially improve this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ruthven Museums Building, 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Brian A. Stewart

  2. Human Origins and Palaeoenvironments Research Group, Department Of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK

    Adrian G. Parker

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Scarborough 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada

    Genevieve Dewar

  4. Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Room 268, Building 41, Northfields Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia

    Mike W. Morley

  5. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY, UK

    Lucy F. Allott

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Correspondence to Brian A. Stewart .

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  1. University of Cambridge, McDonald Inst. for Archaeological Rsch, United Kingdom

    Sacha C. Jones

  2. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA

    Brian A. Stewart

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Stewart, B.A., Parker, A.G., Dewar, G., Morley, M.W., Allott, L.F. (2016). Follow the Senqu: Maloti-Drakensberg Paleoenvironments and Implications for Early Human Dispersals into Mountain Systems. In: Jones, S., Stewart, B. (eds) Africa from MIS 6-2. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_14

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