Surface lithic scatters are relatively common in arid environments worldwide and attest to human occupation and use of desert environmental resources over long (10⁴–10⁶-year) time scales. A recent paper by Hardaker (2020) describes Early to Middle Stone Age lithic scatters in desert environments in Namibia, and deduces their spatial patterns and the relative age of individual lithic artifacts. Here, we challenge the results of Hardaker’s study based on (1) the methodology that was employed to map the scatters and analyse lithic age, and (2) the spatial interpretation applied to the lithic scatters and the derived ages of individual artifacts. This re-evaluation of Hardaker’s study provides a better conceptual basis for documenting and interpreting lithic scatters worldwide, which should apply established geoarchaeological methods and be set in the context of desert geomorphological processes and environments during the Quaternary.

在世界范围内的干旱环境中，表面石屑散布相对普遍，证明了人类长期以来对沙漠环境资源的占领和使用（10 ⁴ –10 ⁶-年）的时间范围。Hardaker（2020）的最新论文描述了纳米比亚沙漠环境中石器时代的早期到中石器散布，并推论了它们的空间格局和单个石器物的相对年龄。在这里，我们对基于（1）用来绘制散点图和分析石器时代的方法，以及（2）适用于石器散点的空间解释和单个工件的导出年龄的Hardaker研究结果提出挑战。对Hardaker研究的重新评估为记录和解释世界范围内的岩屑散布提供了更好的概念基础，应采用既定的地质考古方法，并在第四纪期间沙漠地貌过程和环境的背景下进行设置。