Making Points: The Middle Stone Age lithic industry of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana

Abstract

Studies of early human occupation of Africa over recent decades have profoundly changed how we understand our early ancestors, their inventiveness and adaptability. The spread of Homo sapiens to new environmental settings, the expansion of diet breadth, the development of more complex technology and the use of personal ornaments have all been recognized at well-documented Middle Stone Age (MSA) cave and shelter sites, particularly along the South African coast. This paper addresses two under-represented aspects of MSA research: open-air sites and the African interior. We present here recent surveys and excavations in Ntwetwe Pan, Botswana, a remote, open landscape, that formerly contained a vast palaeolake. The five excavated sites yielded assemblages composed exclusively of silcrete, a locally available raw material. The lithic industry at these sites was deposited during dry periods following palaeolake high stands dating to c.128–81 ka and c. 72–57 ka. This industry, characterized by a limited toolkit dominated by highly retouched unifacial and bifacial points, is not previously documented but shows similarities to dated MSA sites of equivalent age in north-western Botswana and Zimbabwe. Combined, these exposed open-air sites document the successful MSA adaptation to a hydrologically dynamic, interior landscape and arguably display MSA behavioural patterns that complement and balance the more well-documented perspectives from coastal cave and shelter sites.