Pleistocene environments in the southern Kalahari of South Africa

Abstract

When considering the pan-African process of human evolution in the Pleistocene it is important to review our understanding of climate on a regional scale, including heterogeneity due to regional variability in the relative strengths of forcing mechanisms. Research in the Kuruman Hills at the southern edge of the Kalahari in South Africa has recently provided new insights into the complexity and distinctiveness of southern African palaeoclimate. Here we compare these records, obtained from Kathu Pan, Wonderwerk Cave, and Mamatwan Mine, focusing on the presence of water bodies from c. 2 million years before present to the end of the Pleistocene. Through the synthesis of multiple proxies we create a picture of localized water availability as it would have affected hominin adaptation. These records are then framed within a larger discussion of regional climate and environmental change. The emerging record from the southern Kalahari suggests that the distribution of zones of rainfall seasonality varied significantly throughout the Pleistocene and a hominin presence is particularly found in association with wetter phases which supported lakes, springs and pans.