An Acheulean industry with Elephas recki fauna from Namib IV, South West Africa (Namibia)

Abstract

Namib IV is located in the linear dune sea of the central Namib Desert (Fig. 1), where different generations of fossil calcrete have been exposed by sand shift in an interdune flat. Mid-Pleistocene faunal remains (including Elphas recki) were scattered over 62,500 m2 of the valley floor, some bearing residual traces of red calcrete. The industry may be closely paralleled from certain East African sites (Olorgesailie1, Kilombe2, PDK and HEB 1/2 and 3, Olduvai Bed IV (ref. 3)), suggesting a date between 400 and 700 kyr BP. I show here that Namib IV provides the first dated evidence for the presence of Acheulean man in South West Africa, the earliest Pleistocene faunal remains from the Namib Desert and a terminus post quem for the ecological change from savannah to sand desert.