Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert, by Beatrice H. Sandelowsky

Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert, by Beatrice H. Sandelowsky. Windhoek, Namibia 2013. ISBN 9789994572359 / ISBN 978-99945-72-35-9

Throughout the history of our species the Namib Desert has been inhabited by us and the ancestors of our kind. Particularly during arid conditions the oasis-like character of rivers such as the Kuiseb were critical. Underground aquifers could be accessed although surface wafer had subsided. During recent times this extraction of underground water has taken on unprecedented proportions. This could be the final chapter in the history of the Kuiseb River as an artery for life. Find more in Beatrice H. Sandelowsky's study Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert.

Beatrice Sandelowsky  

Introduction to Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert

In 1972 the Namib Palaeo-Ecology Project became part of the programme of the Desert Ecological Research Unit (DERU). This magnificently equipped Research Institute had been established in 1963 at Gobabeb in the Namib Desert Park (now the Namib Naukluft Park). The results of the first phase of the archaeological project (Sandelowsky 1977a) presented a model suggesting the protection of the environment in the park and envisaged the cooperation of everyone interested in preserving the park. The following paper is based on the unpublished report about the work done during 1977/8. More evidence was sought on past climatic change and the prehistory of the Kuiseb River area. The information gained at the main site, Mirabib, was to be verified and elaborated on. The results have here been summarized under the following headings: Finds of Early and Middle Stone Age tool sites Sites relating to Mirabib and the Later Stone Age Stone structures indicating herding Settlement Sites - past and present Oral traditions Archaeo-botany at Mirabib

Early and Middle Stone Age sites

During the seventies Gudrun Corvinus ( 1978) discovered fossils of large, previously unknown animal species, at Arris Drift close to the Orange River. Such creatures would not have been able to survive in the present arid environment. Similarly Myra Shackley (1980) found an Acheulian Industry with Elephas recki fauna in the dunes south of the Kuiseb River. Early Stone Age tools made by our ancestors were found in the sand dune desert of the central Namib where now-a-days we can only get by in four-wheel-drive vehicles with lots of food and drink. Additional finds of Early and Middle Stone Age tools confirmed the pattern of distribution reported on in the Mirabib report (Sandelowsky 1977a). In the dunes and along the edges of the dune field Later Stone Age materials where conspicuously absent. The handaxes, cleavers, choppers, points and cores we saw were made of materials occuring in the catchment area of the Kuiseb River. The most common raw materials were quartzite, quartz and different types of magmatite. This situation contrasts with the one in the area of the Zebra River futher south where Terry Hardaker has found Early and Middle Stone Age material closely associated with the source of the naturally occuring raw material (Hardaker 2011). A few more Early and Middle Age artefacts were found near Gobabeb on the southern bank of the Kuiseb River. In one case a few chips could be relocated onto a core. About 2 km further south across the river from the Sout Rivier Village an assemblage of artefacts was eroding out of the side of the dune. It was described as a butcher site (Sandelowsky 1976b). Yet a little further on at !nara Valley Early or Middle Stone Age choppers, blades, points and flakes were eroding out of the sandy hummocks overgrown with the !nara bushes. During intermittent visits to the !Nara valley these artefacts were covered and uncovered by windblown dune sand. In the dune valley south of the Swartbank settlement blades and points were found with a sheen of desert varnish. Another isolated artefact was found during a hasty visit to a small depression amongst high dunes south-west of Swartbank. Here freshwater is seeping through the ground, probably a result of a succession of good rain years (Blom personal communication). [...]

This is an extract from the study Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert, by Beatrice H. Sandelowsky.

Title: Prehistory in the Central Namib Desert
Author: Beatrice H. Sandelowsky
Genre: History, Archaelogy
Publisher: Dr. B. H. Sandelowsky
Windhoek, Namibia 2013
ISBN 9789994572359 / ISBN 978-99945-72-35-9
15 x 21 cm, 92 pages, several colour photographs