Abstract
This chapter examines the Pleistocene archaeology of three sites in the Tsodilo Hills located in the Kalahari Desert, about 45 km west of the Okavango River in NW Botswana (Fig. 1). The sites are White Paintings Shelter (WPS; 18.769 S, 21.749 E), Depression Shelter (DS; 18.738 S, 21.745 E), and Rhino Cave (RC; 18.735 S, 21.731 E). Tsodilo is the only area in the Kalahari of Botswana that has dated rock shelter sequences containing Pleistocene archaeological deposits that can be related to regional and global-scale paleoclimatic events. New OSL and radiocarbon chronologies are presented for DS and WPS and the data from all three sites are re-examined to determine how paleoenvironmental factors may have influenced their occupation and use over the last 100 kyr. There are three main hills at Tsodilo known as Male, Female, and Child and another hill called North Hill (Campbell et al., 2010). White Paintings Shelter is located at the base of Male Hill, while the other two sites are on Female Hill (Fig. 2). Thus far, the oldest stone artifacts date to the Middle Stone Age (MSA). While Early Stone Age Acheulean artifacts have not yet been found at Tsodilo, they do occur elsewhere in Botswana (Robbins et al., 2016; Robbins & Murphy, 1998). The current inhabitants of Tsodilo include two communities; Ju/’hoansi San and Hambukushu, both of whom we gratefully acknowledge for their friendship and help. Oral traditions also indicate that another group of people known as the Ncaekhoe, lived at Tsodilo prior to the arrival of the current inhabitants in the mid-1800s (Taylor, 2010).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brooks, A. S., Hare, P. E., Kokis, J. E., Miller, G. H., Ernst, R. D., & Wendorf, F. (1990). Dating archaeological sites by protein diagenesis in ostrich eggshell. Science, 248, 60–64.
Brook, G. A., Robbins, L. H., & Campbell, A. C. (2003). Forty thousand years of environmental change in the Kalahari as evidenced by sediments in the Depression Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Nyame Akuma, 59, 2–10.
Brook, G. A., Railsback, B., Campbell, A. C., Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L., Hodgins, G., & McHugh, G. (2010). Radiocarbon dating of cupules ground in quartzite at Rhino Cave in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, and Paleoclimatic implications. Geoarchaeology, 26(1), 2–22.
Burrough, S. (2016). Late Quaternary environmental change and human occupation of the southern African interior. In S. C. Jones & B. A. Stewart (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2: Population dynamics and paleoenvironments (pp. 161–174). Dordrecht.
Burrough, S., Thomas, D. S. G., & Bailey, R. M. (2009). Mega-lake in the Kalahari: A Late Pleistocene record of the Palaeolake Makgadikgadi system. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 1392–1411.
Campbell, A. C., & Robbins, L. H. (2010). Rock art at Tsodilo. In A. Campbell, L. Robbins, & M. Taylor (Eds.), with J. Workman, Tsodilo Hills, copper bracelet of the Kalahari (pp. 94–115). MSU Press and Botswana Society.
Campbell, A. C., Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L. (2010a). Cupules and grooves. In A. Campbell, L. Robbins, M. Taylor (Eds), with J. Workman, Tsodilo Hills, Copper Bracelet of the Kalahari (pp. 64–71). MSU Press and Botswana Society.
Campbell, A. C., Robbins, L. H., & Taylor, M. (Eds.), with Workman, J. (2010b). Tsodilo Hills, copper bracelet of the Kalahari. MSU Press and Botswana Society.
Cohen, A. S., Stone, J. R., Beuning, K. R. M., Park, L. E., Reinthal, P. N., Dettman, D., Scholz, C. A., Johnson, T. C., King, J. W., Talbot, M. R., Brown, E. T., Ivory, S. J. (2007). Ecological consequences of Early Late Pleistocene megadroughts in tropical Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104, 16422–16427.
Coulson, S., Staurset, S., & Walker, N. (2011). Ritualized behavior in the Middle Stone Age: Evidence from Rhino Cave, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. PaleoAnthropology, 2011, 18–61. https://doi.org/10.4207/PA.2011.ART42
Coulson, S., Segadika, P., & Walker, N. (2016). Ritual in the hunter-gatherer/Early pastoralist period: Evidence from Tsodillo Hills, Botswana. African Archaeologidcal Review, 33, 205–222.
Donahue, R. E, Murphy, M. L., Robbins, L. H. (2002-2004). Lithic microwear analysis of Middle Stone Age artifacts from White Paintings Rock Shelter, Botswana. Journal of Field Archaeology 29, 155-163.
Feathers, J. (1997). Luminescence dating of sediment samples from White Paintings Rockshelter, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews, 16, 321–331.
Galbraith, R. F., Roberts, R. G., Laslett, G. M., Yoshida, H., & Olley, J. M. (1999). Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jinmium rock shelter, northern Australia: Part I, experimental design and statistical models. Archaeometry, 41(2), 339–364.
Goldstein, S., Hildebrand, E., Storozum, M., Lewis, J., Ngugi, C., & Robbins, L. H. (2017). New archaeological investigations at the Lothagam harpoon site at Lake Turkana. Antiquity, 1–5.
Hitchcock, R. K., Crowell, A. L., Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Ebert, J. I., & Osborn, A. J. (2019). The ethnoarchaeology of ambush hunting, a case study of Gi Pan, Western Ngamiland, Botswana. African Archaeological Review, 36, 119–144.
Hogg, A. G., Hua, Q., Blackwell, P. G., Buck, C. E., Guilderson, T. P., Heaton, T. J., Niu, M., Palmer, J. G., Reimer, P. J., Reimer, R. W., Turney, C. S. M., & Zimmerman, S. R. H. (2013). SHcal13 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–50, 000 years Cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 889–1903.
Ivester, A. H., Brook, G. A., Robbins, L. H., Campbell, A. C., Murphy, M. L., & Marais, E. (2010). A sedimentary record of environmental change at Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, Northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana. In J. Runge (Ed.), Palaeoecology of Africa 30, Jubilee edition (pp. 53–78). International Yearbook of Landscape Evolution & Palaeoevironments.
Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R. G., Galbraith, R. F., Deacon, H. J., Grün, R., Mackay, A., Mitchell, P., Vogelsang, R., & Wadley, L. (2008). Ages for the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa: Implications for human behavior and dispersal. Science, 32, 733–735.
Johnson, T. C., Brown, E. T., McManus, J., Barry, S., Barker, P., & Gasse, F. (2002). A high-resolution paleoclimate record spanning the past 25,000 years in southern East Africa. Science, 296(113–114), 131–132.
Joyce, D. A., Lunt, D. H., Bills, R., Turner, G. G., Katongo, C., Duftner, N., Sturmbauer, C., & Seehausen, O. (2005). An extant cichlid fish radiation in an extinct Pleistocene lake. Nature, 435, 90–95.
Konecky, B. L., Russell, J. M., Johnson, T. C., Brown, E. T., Berke, M. A., Werne, J. P., & Huang, Y. (2011). Atmospheric circulation patterns during late Pleistocene climate changes at Lake Malawi, Africa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 312, 318–326.
Lee, R. B. (1979). The !Kung San. Cambridge University Press.
Lombard, M. (2020a). The tip cross-sectional areas of poisoned bone arrowheads from southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 33(102477).
Lombard, M. (2020b). Testing for poisoned arrows in the Middle Stone Age: A tip cross-sectional analysis of backed microliths from southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 34(102630), 1–13.
Murphy, M. L. (1999). Changing human behavior: The contribution of the White Paintings Rock Shelter to an understanding of changing lithic reduction, raw material exchange, and hunter-gatherer mobility in the interior regions of southern African during the Middle and Early Late Stone Age. PhD dissertation, Michigan State University.
Murphy, L. A., Murphy, M. L., Robbins, L. H., & Campbell, A. C. (2001). Pottery from the White Paintings Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Nyame Akuma, 55, 2–7.
Nash, D. J., Coulson, S., Staurset, S., Ullyott, J. S., Babutsi, M., Hopkinson, L., & Smith, M. P. (2013). Provenancing of silcrete raw materials indicate long distance transport to Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, during the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 64, 280–288.
Park, L. E., & Cohen, A. S. (2011). Paleoecological response of ostracods to early Late Pleistocene lake-level changes in Lake Malawi, East Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 303, 71–80.
Phillipson, L. (2007). Reassessment of selected Middle Stone Age artefacts from Rhino Cave and from White Paintings Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 62(185), 19–30.
Robbins, L. H. (1999). Direct dating of worked ostrich eggshell in the Kalahari. Nyame Akuma, 52, 11–16.
Robbins, L. H. (2016). Sebilo: 19th century hairdos and ancient specularite mining in southern Africa. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 49(1), 103–131.
Robbins, L. H., & Campbell, A. C. (1989). The Depression Rock Shelter, Tsodilo Hills. Botswana Notes and Records, 20, 1–3.
Robbins, L. H., & Campbell, A. C. (1990). Prehistory of Mongongo nut exploitation. Botswana Notes and Records, 22, 37–42.
Robbins, L. H., & Murphy, M. L. (1998). The Early and Middle Stone Age. In P. Lane & A. Segobye (Eds.), Ditswa mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana (pp. 50–64). Botswana Society.
Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L., Stewart, K. M., Campbell, A. C., & Brook, G. A. (1994). Barbed bone points, paleoenvironment, and the antiquity of fish exploitation in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Journal of Field Archaeology, 21, 257–264.
Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L., Campbell, A. C., & Brook, G. A. (1996). Excavations at the Tsodilo Hills Rhino Cave. Botswana Notes and Records, 28, 23–45.
Robbins, L. H., Murphy, M. L., Brook, G. A., Ivester, A. H., Campbell, A. C., Klein, R. G., Milo, R. G., Stewart, K. M., Downey, W. S., & Stevens, N. J. (2000a). Archaeology, paleoenvironment, and chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 1085–1114.
Robbins, L. H., Brook, G. A., Murphy, M. L., Campbell, A. C., Melear, N., & Downey, W. S. (2000b). Late Quaternary archaeological and paleoenvironmental data for sediments at Rhino Cave, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Southern African Field Archaeology, 9, 17–31.
Robbins, L. H., Campbell, A. C., Brook, G. A., Murphy, M. L., & Hitchcock, R. K. (2012). The antiquity of the bow and arrow in the Kalahari Desert: Bone points from White Paintings Rock Shelter, Botswana. Journal of African Archaeology, 10(1), 7–20.
Robbins, L. H., Brook, G. A., Murphy, M. L., Ivester, A. H., & Campbell, A. C. (2016). The Kalahari during MIS 6-2 (190-12 ka): Archaeology, paleoenvironment, and population dynamics. In S. C. Jones & B. A. Stewart (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2 population dynamics and paleoenvironments (pp. 175–294). Springer, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series.
Scholz, C. A., Johnson, T. C., Cohen, A. C., King, J. W., Peck, J. A., Overpeck, J. T., Talbot, M. R., Brown, E. T., Kalindekafe, L., Amoako, P. Y. O., Lyons, R. P., Shanahan, T. M., Castaneda, I. S., Heil, C. W., Forman, S. L., McHargue, L. R., Beuning, K. R., Gomez, J., & Pierson, J. (2007). East African megadroughts between 135 and 75 thousand years ago and bearing on early-modern human origins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104(62), 16416–16421.
Segadika, P. (2010). The power of intangible heritage: Bottom-up management. In A. Campbell, L. Robbins & M. Taylor (Eds.), with J. Workman, Tsodilo Hills, copper bracelet of the Kalahari (pp. 144–153). MSU Press and Botswana Society.
Silberbauer, G. B. (1981). Hunter & habitat in the central Kalahari desert. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, A. B., & Poggenpoel, C. (1998). The technology of bone tool fabrication in the South-Western Cape, South Africa. World Archaeology, 20(1), 103–105.
Staurset, S., & Coulson, S. (2014). Sub-surface movement of stone artefacts at White Paintings shelter, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana: Implications for the Middle Stone Age chronology of central Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 75, 153–165.
Stewart, K., Stevens, N. J., & Robbins, L. H. (1991). Fish and reptiles from the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, Botswana. Nyame Akuma, 35, 11–17.
Stone, J. R., Westover, K. S., & Cohen, A. S. (2011). Late Pleistocene diatom paleoecology of the central basin of Lake Malawi, Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 303, 51–70.
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P. J., Reimer, P. W. (2020). CALIB 8.2 [WWW program] at http://calib.org. Accessed 30 Nov 2020.
Taylor, M. (2010). The politics of cohabitation: Social history of Tsodilo. In A. Campbell, L. Robbins, & M. Taylor (Eds.), with J. Workman, Tsodilo Hills, copper bracelet of the Kalahari (pp. 116–125). MSU Press and Botswana Society.
Texier, P.-J., Porraz, J., Parkington, J., Rigaud, J.-P., Poggenpoel, C., Miller, C., Tribolo, C., Cartwright, C., Coudenneau, A., Klein, R., & Steele, T. (2010). A Howiesons Poort Tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 107(14), 6180–6185.
Thomas, D., Brook, G., Shaw, P., Bateman, M., Haberyan, K., Appleton, C., Nash, D., Mclaren, S., & Davies, F. (2003). Late Pleistocene wetting and drying in the NW Kalahari: An integrated study from the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Quaternary International, 104, 53–67.
Thomas, D. S. G., Bailey, R., Shaw, P. A., Durcan, J. A., Singarayer, J. S. (2009). Late quaternary highstands at Lake Chilwa, Malawi: Frequency, timing and possible forcing mechanisms in the last 44 ka. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(5–6), 526–539.
Walker, N. (2010). Cups and saucers: A preliminary investigation of the rock carvings of Tsodilo, Botswana. In G. Blundell, C. Chippindale, & B. Smith (Eds.), Seeing and knowing: Understanding rock art with and without ethnography (pp. 55–72). Witwatersrand University Press.
Wiese, R., Kai Hartmann, K., Gummersbach, V. S., Shemang, E. M., Struck, U., & Riedel, F. (2020). Lake highstands in the northern Kalahari, Botswana, during MIS 3b and LGM. Quaternary International, 558, 10–18.
Wiessner, P. (1983). Style and social information in Kalahari San projectile points. American Antiquity, 48(2), 253–276.
Wilmsen, E. N., Campbell, A. C., Brook, G. A., Robbins, L. H., & Murphy, M. (2013). Mining and moving specular haematite in Botswana, ca. 200–1300 AD. In J. Humphris & T. Rehren (Eds.), The world of iron (pp. 35–45). Archetype Publications.
Acknowledgments
Permission to conduct research at Tsodilo was granted by the Office of the President of Botswana. The research was carried out with the National Museum staff, students from MSU and the University of Georgia, local peoples, family members, and volunteers. We are very grateful to all of our field and lab assistants who are listed in the previous publications. Funding was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and Michigan State University. We thank Robert Hitchcock for information on the size of Kalahari San traditional territories. This research would not have been possible without the help of the late Alec Campbell and the Campbell family. Alec was the founding Director of the Botswana National Museum and was the inspirational leader behind all the fieldwork we conducted at Tsodilo. He had a major impact on our grant writing, ideas, and numerous publications. Alec was also the leading expert on Tsodilo rock art. We have quoted parts of one of Alec’s early faxes to one of us that documents the archaeological discovery of Rhino Cave.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Robbins, L.H., Murphy, M.L., Brook, G.A., Yang, L. (2023). Tsodilo Hills, NW Kalahari Desert, Botswana. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20289-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-20290-2
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)