Investigating lithic scatters in arid environments: The Early and Middle Stone Age in Namibia

Abstract

Surface lithic scatters are relatively common in arid environments worldwide and attest to human occupation and use of desert environmental resources over long (104–106-year) time scales. A recent paper by Hardaker (2020) describes Early to Middle Stone Age lithic scatters in desert environments in Namibia, and deduces their spatial patterns and the relative age of individual lithic artifacts. Here, we challenge the results of Hardaker’s study based on (1) the methodology that was employed to map the scatters and analyse lithic age, and (2) the spatial interpretation applied to the lithic scatters and the derived ages of individual artifacts. This re-evaluation of Hardaker’s study provides a better conceptual basis for documenting and interpreting lithic scatters worldwide, which should apply established geoarchaeological methods and be set in the context of desert geomorphological processes and environments during the Quaternary.