The Kalahari During MIS 6-2 (190–12 ka): Archaeology, Paleoenvironment, and Population Dynamics

Robbins, Lawrence H.; Brook, George A.; Murphy, Michael L.; Ivester, Andrew H.; Campbell, Alec C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_10

Cited by 19 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…It is worth noting that the northern Kalahari formerly supported an extensive lake (i.e. Makgadikgadi) just before and after the Last Glacial Maximum, as well as the presence of the Okavango Delta and associated river systems; archeological data may suggest high population density nearby the pans, although this likely predates the genetic structure we observe today (Burrough 2016;Robbins et al 2016). Our lack of samples outside of Botswana, Namibia and northern South Africa prevent precise inference of m in Zambia, Limpopo, and Mozambique; but Figure 2 indicates recent extensive gene flow in the east, consistent with the expansion of Bantu-speaking agriculturalists into eastern grasslands and coastal forests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Fine-scale human population structure in southern Africa reflects ecogeographic boundaries

Uren¹,

Kim²,

Martin³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Recent genetic studies have established that the KhoeSan populations of southern Africa are distinct from all other African populations and have remained largely isolated during human prehistory until about 2,000 years ago. Dozens of different KhoeSan groups exist, belonging to three different language families, but very little is known about their population history. We examine new genome-wide polymorphism data and whole mitochondrial genomes for more than one hundred South Africans from the ≠Khomani San and Nama populations of the Northern Cape, analyzed in conjunction with 19 additional southern African populations. Our analyses reveal fine-scale population structure in and around the Kalahari Desert. Surprisingly, this structure does not always correspond to linguistic or subsistence categories as previously suggested, but rather reflects the role of geographic barriers and the ecology of the greater Kalahari Basin. Regardless of subsistence strategy, the indigenous Khoe-speaking Nama pastoralists and the N|u-speaking ≠Khomani (formerly hunter-gatherers) share ancestry with other Khoe-speaking forager populations that form a rim around the Kalahari Desert. We reconstruct earlier migration patterns and estimate that the southern Kalahari populations were among the last to experience gene flow from Bantuspeakers, approximately 14 generations ago. We conclude that local adoption of pastoralism, at least by the Nama, appears to have been primarily a cultural process with limited genetic impact from eastern Africa.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Fine-scale human population structure in southern Africa reflects ecogeographic boundaries

Uren¹,

Kim²,

Martin³

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Maximum, as well as the presence of the Okavango Delta and associated river systems; archeological data may suggest high population density near the pans, although this likely predates the genetic structure we observe today (Burrough 2016;Robbins et al 2016). Our lack of samples outside of Botswana, Namibia, and northern South Africa prevent precise inference of m in Zambia, Limpopo, and Mozambique; but Figure 2 indicates recent extensive gene flow in the east, consistent with the expansion of Bantuspeaking agriculturalists into eastern grasslands and coastal forests.…”

mentioning

confidence: 69%

Fine-Scale Human Population Structure in Southern Africa Reflects Ecogeographic Boundaries

et al. 2016

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Recent genetic studies have established that the KhoeSan populations of southern Africa are distinct from all other African populations and have remained largely isolated during human prehistory until 2000 years ago. Dozens of different KhoeSan groups exist, belonging to three different language families, but very little is known about their population history. We examine new genomewide polymorphism data and whole mitochondrial genomes for .100 South Africans from the 6 ¼Khomani San and Nama populations of the Northern Cape, analyzed in conjunction with 19 additional southern African populations. Our analyses reveal fine-scale population structure in and around the Kalahari Desert. Surprisingly, this structure does not always correspond to linguistic or subsistence categories as previously suggested, but rather reflects the role of geographic barriers and the ecology of the greater Kalahari Basin. Regardless of subsistence strategy, the indigenous Khoe-speaking Nama pastoralists and the N|u-speaking 6 ¼Khomani (formerly hunter-gatherers) share ancestry with other Khoe-speaking forager populations that form a rim around the Kalahari Desert. We reconstruct earlier migration patterns and estimate that the southern Kalahari populations were among the last to experience gene flow from Bantu speakers, 14 generations ago. We conclude that local adoption of pastoralism, at least by the Nama, appears to have been primarily a cultural process with limited genetic impact from eastern Africa.

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“…During the last 1.3 million years of this period, the Lake Malawi basin became increasingly moist with greater climate stability ( Johnson et al, 2016 ). The paleoclimate record for the Kalahari is not as deep, but during the last 200,000 years, this area underwent both arid periods with dune formation and wetter periods with vast paleolakes ( Robbins et al, 2016 ), a pattern that likely held during earlier climate cycles. Hence the subequatorial area that was potentially suitable for hominins varied extensively, but may have been 5–15 times larger than the equivalent habitats in eastern Africa north of the equator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa

Berger

Hawks

Dirks

et al. 2017

eLife

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New discoveries and dating of fossil remains from the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, have strong implications for our understanding of Pleistocene human evolution in Africa. Direct dating of Homo naledi fossils from the Dinaledi Chamber (Berger et al., 2015) shows that they were deposited between about 236 ka and 335 ka (Dirks et al., 2017), placing H. naledi in the later Middle Pleistocene. Hawks and colleagues (Hawks et al., 2017) report the discovery of a second chamber within the Rising Star system (Dirks et al., 2015) that contains H. naledi remains. Previously, only large-brained modern humans or their close relatives had been demonstrated to exist at this late time in Africa, but the fossil evidence for any hominins in subequatorial Africa was very sparse. It is now evident that a diversity of hominin lineages existed in this region, with some divergent lineages contributing DNA to living humans and at least H. naledi representing a survivor from the earliest stages of diversification within Homo. The existence of a diverse array of hominins in subequatorial comports with our present knowledge of diversity across other savanna-adapted species, as well as with palaeoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. H. naledi casts the fossil and archaeological records into a new light, as we cannot exclude that this lineage was responsible for the production of Acheulean or Middle Stone Age tool industries.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24234.001

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The Kalahari During MIS 6-2 (190–12 ka): Archaeology, Paleoenvironment, and Population Dynamics

Cited by 19 publications

References 40 publications

Fine-scale human population structure in southern Africa reflects ecogeographic boundaries

Fine-scale human population structure in southern Africa reflects ecogeographic boundaries

Fine-Scale Human Population Structure in Southern Africa Reflects Ecogeographic Boundaries

Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa

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