Traces of territories? Silcrete procurement strategies and behavioural evidence suggest the presence of territories in the Middle Kalahari, Botswana, during the later Middle Stone Age

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal">Territories, defined here as areas of prehistoric resource acquisition, are difficult to identify in the remote past, particularly for the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) where assemblages are dominated by lithics. This study aims to (a) introduce a new protocol for the identification of territories in the archaeological record, and (b) using this protocol, investigate whether territories were present in the Middle Kalahari during the later MSA. We achieve this through a comparison of silcrete procurement patterns and provisioning strategies across eight excavated sites in northwest and central Botswana. Applying a mathematical approach to geochemical data (verified through petrography) shows that silcrete was moved c.220 km to Rhino Cave, c.210 km to ≠Gi and c.45 km to White Paintings Shelter in northwest Botswana during the later MSA. This contrasts with distances of &lt;55 km for five later MSA sites on Ntwetwe Pan in the Makgadikgadi Basin. Reconstructed zones of silcrete procurement for the two regions do not overlap. Targeted <i>c</i><i>haîne opératoire</i> analyses identify distinct approaches to silcrete provisioning: specific forms of long-distance acquisition and some direct procurement at the sites in northwest Botswana and an expanded version of local acquisition on Ntwetwe Pan. Silcrete movement has previously been constrained to c.82–67 ka and/or c.58–56 ka for the sites on Ntwetwe Pan. Bayesian age-depth modelling for securely provenanced artefacts from ≠Gi and White Paintings Shelter suggests that silcrete was moved to these sites during the earlier of these periods. The silcrete acquisition strategies we identify were therefore likely coeval across our sites and continued at c.58–56 ka for selected sites on Ntwetwe Pan. From this evidence, we propose that at least two spatially non-overlapping territories may have existed in the Middle Kalahari during the later MSA. Rhino Cave and ≠Gi were potentially part of one expansive territory, with populations sharing silcrete sources around Lake Ngami. White Paintings Shelter may have been part of this territory or could represent a smaller range within this territory. The sites on Ntwetwe Pan either formed part of a second smaller territory, or the western limit of a larger territory. Differences in silcrete types present at other recorded MSA sites in the Middle Kalahari support these interpretations. Our proposal can be viewed as a working hypothesis to guide future research in the Middle Kalahari.