The Pleistocene Prehistory of the Lake Victoria Basin
Quaternary International 404 (2016) 100e114 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint The Pleistocene prehistory of the Lake Victoria basin * Christian A. Tryon a, , J.Tyler Faith b, Daniel J. Peppe c, Emily J. Beverly c, Nick Blegen d, Scott A. Blumenthal e, Kendra L. Chritz f, Steven G. Driese c, David Patterson g, Warren D. Sharp h a Harvard University, Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA b University of Queensland, School of Social Science, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia c Baylor University, Department of Geology, Terrestrial Paleoclimatology Research Group, Waco, TX 76798, USA d University of Connecticut, Department of Anthropology, Storrs, CT 06269, USA e City University of New York, Department of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, New York, NY 10016, USA f University of Utah, Department of Biology, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA g The George Washington University, Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, Washington, DC 20052, USA h Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Rd., Berkeley, CA 94709, USA article info abstract Article history: Late Pleistocene sedimentary, biogeochemical, and fossil data from the Lake Victoria basin (the largest Available online 20 December 2015 lake in Africa) suggest that its reduction or desiccation during periods of increased aridity repeatedly facilitated the dispersal of C4 grassland ecosystems across the basin. Archaeological evidence from Keywords: Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age sites suggest that human groups diffused into the basin during Middle Stone Age intervals of declining lake levels, likely tracking the movement of the dense and predictable resources of Later Stone Age shoreline environments, as well as the dense but less predictable C4 grass grazing herbivores.
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