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A Context for Connectivity: Insights to Environmental Heterogeneity in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of Southern Africa Through Measuring Isotope Space and Overlap

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Abstract

Southern Africa is characterized by the development of varied Middle and Later Stone Age techno-complexes and behaviors against a backdrop of complex climatic conditions during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. While much work has been devoted to reconstructing regional environmental patterns, site-specific ecological and habitat contexts have primarily focused on a single site or small area. The local manifestations of regional climatic conditions are analyzed here by compiling faunal enamel stable isotope data from 13 sites across South Africa, Lesotho, and Zambia. Measuring isotope space and overlap reveals distinct on-the-ground habitat circumstances across regions and even variability within some regions, especially in the period ~ 36,000–5000 years ago. This analytical framework aims to test whether sites within the same environmental zones overlap in isotope space and finds that there is greater intra-regional environmental heterogeneity than expected. Patterns of contracting and expanding isotope space, especially along the oxygen axis, may provide insight to shifts in rainfall seasonality and, perhaps, sources of precipitation. This increased understanding of the local manifestations of regional climatic conditions through time and space will be a critical component of models of population movement and interactions in the late Pleistocene and Holocene of southern Africa.

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Data Availability

The dataset compiled and analyzed during the current study are included in this published article and its supplementary online resources.

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Acknowledgements

Stable isotope characterization of the Kalemba and Makwe rockshelter fauna was supported by a National Science Foundation Archaeology Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (BCS – 1245803) to J.R.R. and Dietrich W. Stout. Research and export permits in Zambia were issued by the National Heritage Conservation Commission and the National Museums Board of Zambia (awarded 16 May 2013). I thank Terry Nyambe, Maambo Bwanjelela, and Chipo Simunchembu for access to the archaeological collections of the Livingstone Museum, and Taisa Kamwi and MacMillon Mudenda with the National Heritage Conservation Commission for their support in the research and export permitting process. Characterization of samples from Sibhudu was supported by a Rust Family Foundation Research Grant (RFF-2017-31). The Rust Family Foundation played no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, or writing of this manuscript. Sampling and export permissions for the Sibhudu material were granted by a permit (#1899) from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). I thank Lyn Wadley for her support and permission to access and sample the Sibhudu material in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Stable isotope sample preparation and characterization were performed with the assistance of John Krigbaum and Jason Curtis in the Department of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences and the Light Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of Florida. I thank the three anonymous reviewers who provided thoughtful and insightful comments on the initial draft of this manuscript, helping craft it into a stronger contribution. I also thank Teresa Steele for being the handling editor of this manuscript and for prompt replies and guidance throughout the submission process. Finally, I wish to thank the many researchers who have worked at the study sites and analyzed the zooarchaeological collections from these sites. Without the years of work of those researchers, multi-site compilation studies such as this one would not be possible.

Funding

New data presented here from Kalemba and Makwe rockshelters were supported by a National Science Foundation Archaeology Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (BCS – 1245803) to J.R.R. and Dietrich W. Stout. New data from Sibhudu were supported by a Rust Family Foundation Research Grant (RFF-2017–31).

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    Joshua R. Robinson

  2. Geography-Anthropology Program, University of Southern Maine, 300 Bailey Hall, Gorham, ME, 04038, USA

    Joshua R. Robinson

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Robinson, J.R. A Context for Connectivity: Insights to Environmental Heterogeneity in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of Southern Africa Through Measuring Isotope Space and Overlap. J Paleo Arch 6, 34 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-023-00160-0

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