Although many important prehistoric sites are known from South Africa, few comparable contexts have been discovered and documented in the northern Namibia and southern Angola borderlands. During a geomorphic assessment of riparian corridors in Namibia’s Kaokoveld region, Middle Stone Age (MSA in Africa; broadly correlative with European Paleolithic) lithic artifacts were found preserved in unstratified plein air sites located atop a terrace adjacent to the perennial Cunene River. These remains attest to hominin activities along the northern edge of the modern hyperarid Namib Desert, which receives less than 100 mm of rainfall in a year. The location of the archaeological site is quite remote, and is along the eastern perimeter of the hyperarid Cunene erg (sandsea), and downstream of the Marienfluss–Hartmann Valley near Serra Cafema, At the Cafema site (as it is known), more than 30 lithic artifacts are preserved in the Cunene River valley, in context of a former river terrace. The artifacts discovered by a walking survey include quartzite flakes, cores, and points with some edge abrasion and varnish, including the first Levallois-Mousterian points found in this region of Africa. Since the archaeology of this area is poorly known, these cultural assemblages enable initial correlations across the continent, and provide a basis for reconstructing provenience, procurement and tool manufacture during the Middle Pleistocene, the time frame marked by the first appearance and the dispersal of the modern human species Homo sapiens. To assess the potential source areas for lithic raw materials in this region, pebble counting methods and compositional assessment were conducted on the artifacts and Quaternary alluvium (Qal) of the relict river terrace at Cafema. Based on the composition of the artifacts found on the surface, siliceous rock was an important resource for lithic manufacture during the MSA; this is reflected in the observation that quartzite was overwhelmingly the dominant material used in the stone tool manufacture. Quartzite is generally known to be a preferred material for making tools of consistent size, ease of knapping, quality of form-shape, and persistence of edge retention. To define regional procurement areas where hominin may have acquired quartzite raw materials at local (0-5 km), regional (6-20 km) and supra-regional (21-100 km) scales, we examined the geological outcrops in the region to identify potential sources. Due to its remoteness, the geology of this region of southern Africa is not well known, and the available maps are only available at coarse scales of resolution. Geologic outcrops along the Cunene River include some of the world’s oldest rocks dating to the Vaalian ~1760 Ma, and comprise part of a Large Igneous Province (LIP) that stretches across the African continent. The local bedrock outcrops near Cafema include a medium-to-high grade metamorphic complex, granitoids, and surrounding country rock -- these rocks comprise the rugged mountainous terrain incised by the Cunene River. Since quartzite is the dominant clast type occurring as raw material in the river terrace where the MSA artifacts themselves were found, we can conclude that river terrace materials (Qal) themselves were among the likely raw material sources exploited during antiquity. Rounded quartzite boulders and cobbles are present as surface lag, along with the artifacts in the Qal within the relict river terrace at the plein air site. The river terrace itself is the closest source to the observed artifacts. If the raw material source was alluvial (i.e., within the Qal unit), quartzite river cobbles may have been derived from outcrops located further upstream the Cunene system, which is a large river network that drains a diversity of geologic units. Although it is not possible to identify the precise formation and procurement area of origin, we offer some relative assessments about likely source areas within the region, based on the geology. The specific geologic units that may have contributed quartzite clasts to the Qal river terrace include the (1) Damara Sequence (Nda); and (2) lithologies within the undifferentiated Mokolian unit, which are not well mapped in detail. The closest potential primary sources of quartzite raw materials in Nda rock outcrops (i.e., not alluvium within the Qal terrace at the site) are located within 2 km of the Cafema site. However, confirmed source locales in the past could not be specifically identified in the field. The hypothesis offered is that the Qal alluvial components within the relict terrace of the Cunene River was a preferred source for quartzite lithic raw materials used by mobile hunter-gatherers to make tools during the MSA, sometime after ~225 kya. Cafema is the first MSA site in northern Namibia that is in direct stratigraphic context with a securely dated unit. A replicate OSL-SAR date ~220 kyr has provided initial age constraints on a sandy unit preserved within the cobble-boulder Qal terrace fill, and constrains the maximum age for the overlying archaeological assemblage. These findings advance the reconstruction of this cultural landscape through a geoarchaeological lens, and form a basis for understanding the relict Pleistocene landscape and environment, its plant resources, and proximity to raw material sources within the riparian corridor of the perennial Cunene River.

中文翻译：

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秘鲁通货膨胀的情况，里约热内卢的壁画，安哥拉和纳米比亚的边境

尽管从南非已知许多重要的史前遗址，但在纳米比亚北部和安哥拉南部边界地区却没有发现和记载可比的情况。在对纳米比亚的考科维尔德地区的河岸走廊进行地貌评估期间，发现了中石器时代（非洲的MSA；与欧洲旧石器时代广泛相关）的石器物保存在多年生库宁河附近阶地上的未分层普莱因空中。这些遗迹证明了现代超干旱纳米布沙漠北部边缘的人为活动，该沙漠一年的降雨量不足100毫米。考古遗址的位置非常偏远，位于高干旱地区库内内尔·埃尔格（Sandsea）的东周，以及塞拉·卡玛（Serra Cafema）附近的玛里恩弗斯–哈特曼河谷（Marienfluss-Hartmann Valley）的下游，在卡法玛遗址（众所周知）上，库内内河谷中有30块石器物，以前是河流阶地。通过步行调查发现的文物包括石英岩薄片，岩心和带有一些边缘磨损和清漆的点，包括在该非洲地区发现的第一个Levallois-Mousterian点。由于该地区的考古学知识鲜为人知，这些文化组合使得整个大陆具有初步的相关性，并为重建中更新世期间的物产，采购和工具制造提供了基础，其时间范围以首次出现和散布为特征。现代人类智人。为了评估该地区潜在的片状原材料来源地区，对Cafema遗迹河阶地的文物和第四纪冲积层（Qal）进行了卵石计数方法和成分评估。根据表面上发现的伪影的成分，硅质岩是MSA期间岩性生产的重要资源；这反映在以下观察中：石英岩是绝大多数用于石材工具制造的主要材料。通常已知石英岩是用于制造尺寸一致，易于打折，形状形状质量和边缘保持力持久的工具的优选材料。为了定义人均可能在本地（0-5 km），区域（6-20 km）和超区域（21-100 km）规模获取石英岩原料的区域采购区域，我们检查了该地区的地质露头确定潜在来源。由于地处偏僻，南部非洲该地区的地质情况并不为人所知，因此可用的地图仅在较粗的分辨率下可用。库内纳河沿岸的地质露头包括一些世界上最古老的岩石，可追溯到瓦利安〜1760 Ma，是大火成岩省（LIP）的一部分，该省遍布非洲大陆。Cafema附近的当地基岩露头包括中高品位的变质岩体，花岗岩和周围的乡村岩石-这些岩石构成了库内内河（Cunene River）切割的崎mountain山地。由于石英岩是在MSA文物本身被发现的河流阶地中作为原料出现的主要碎屑类型，因此我们可以得出结论，河流阶地材料（Qal）本身是上古时期开采的可能的原材料来源之一。圆形的石英岩巨石和卵石以表面滞后的形式存在，在普林航空场的遗迹河阶地内的Qal中也有人工制品。河阶地本身是最接近观察到的文物的来源。如果原料来源是冲积物（即在Qal单元内），则石英岩河卵石可能来自Cunene系统上游更远的露头，Cunene系统是一个排泄各种地质单元的大型河网。尽管无法确定确切的原产地和采购区域，但我们会根据地质情况对区域内可能的来源区域进行一些相对评估。可能对Qal河阶地贡献石英岩碎屑的特定地质单元包括：（1）Damara层序（Nda）；（2）未区分的Mokolian单元内的岩性，没有得到详细的映射。Nda岩石露头中最接近的潜在石英岩原料主要来源（即，现场的Qal阶地内没有冲积物）位于Cafema现场2公里以内。但是，过去在该字段中无法具体确定已确认的源语言环境。提出的假设是，库内内河遗迹阶地中的Qal冲积层成分是MSA期间（约225 kya之后的某个时间）移动狩猎采集者用来制作工具的石英岩片状原材料的首选来源。Cafema是纳米比亚北部第一个MSA场址，它处于直接地层环境中，拥有安全的日期单元。大约220年的OSL-SAR日期复制为鹅卵石Qal阶地填充物内保存的一个沙质单元提供了初始年龄限制，并限制了上层考古组合的最大年龄。这些发现通过地球考古学的视角推进了这一文化景观的重建，并为了解遗迹更新世的景观和环境，其植物资源以及多年生库宁河沿河走廊内的原材料来源提供了基础。