Journal of Archaeological Science (2000) 27, 1085–1113 doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0597, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Archaeology, Palaeoenvironment, and Chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, Northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana L. H. Robbins and M. L. Murphy Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, U.S.A. G. A. Brook Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 36082, U.S.A. A. H. Ivester Department of Geosciences, State University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30118, U.S.A. A. C. Campbell P.O. Box 306, Crocodile Pools, Gaborone, Botswana R. G. Klein Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2145, U.S.A. R. G. Milo Department of Geography, Economics, and Anthropology, Chicago State University, 9501 South King Drive, Chicago, IL 60629, U.S.A. K. M. Stewart Canadian Museum of Nature, P.O. Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada W. S. Downey Department of Physics, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana N. J. Stevens Department of Anthropology, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364, U.S.A. (Received 3 February 2000, revised manuscript accepted 6 June 2000) Excavations conducted at the White Paintings Rock Shelter (WPS) have uncovered 7 m of deposits ranging in age from the historic period to at least 100,000 years at the base. Eleven stratigraphic units are described in relation to palaeoenvironmental conditions inferred from sediments and other data. These units contain seven major divisions in 1085 0305–4403/00/111085+29 $35.00/0 2000 Academic Press 1086 L. H. Robbins et al. the cultural sequence highlighted by a lengthy record of Later and Middle Stone Age deposits. A wide variety of mammals as well as other animals were found in the upper 3 m. Numerous fish bones, wetland mammals and barbed bone points make this site especially interesting because of its desert location. The highest frequencies of fish bones are found between c. 80/90–130 cm (Upper Fish deposits) and between 210–280 cm below the surface (Lower Fish deposits). Most of the barbed bone points were recovered in the Upper Fish deposits. The Lower Fish deposits contain extinct Equus capensis and a microlithic industry as well as some bone points. A large blade industry is found beneath the Lower Fish deposits. This blade industry shows continuity with the underlying Middle Stone Age. 2000 Academic Press Keywords: TSODILO, KALAHARI, PALAEOENVIRONMENT, FISH EXPLOITATION, BARBED BONE POINTS, OSTRICH EGGSHELL, LATER AND MIDDLE STONE AGE. Introduction Murphy, 1999; Robbins et al., 1996a, 1996b, 1998a). The WPS, with an overhang of approximately 6 m, is he White Paintings Rock Shelter (WPS) is the most prominent natural shelter at Tsodilo. There located in the Tsodilo Hills to the west of the are three main hills at Tsodilo known as Male, Female, Okavango River in the Kalahari Desert of and Child, and the shelter is situated at the base of Tnorthwest Botswana (Figure 1). Tsodilo is well known Male Hill within one km of a Zhu San village that was for its wealth of rock art, Early Iron Age (EIA) recently abandoned. villages, rock shelters, and caves containing Later Excavations at the site have uncovered the longest Stone Age (LSA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sequence yet documented for a single deposits and prehistoric specularite mines (Campbell locality in the Kalahari extending from about 60/70 et al., 1994; Denbow & Wilmsen, 1986; Robbins, 1990; years ago, through much of the LSA and into the MSA. The entire sequence is estimated to have spanned approximately 100,000 years. In all, 7 m of deposits were excavated resulting in the recovery of ZIM • over 100,000 archaeological specimens. The shelter Tsodilo BABW Hills proved to be especially interesting because of the long Okavango E record of fish exploitation and the first finds of barbed N bone points in southern Africa which are similar to BOTSWANA those found far to the north, in East Africa (Robbins et al., 1994; Yellen, 1998). This paper presents an Gaborone overview of the archaeological sequence, fauna, NAMIBIA • Child Hill paleoenvironmental information and dating. SOUTH AFRICA 0 200 km The White Paintings The shelter takes its name from the numerous (about 98) white paintings on the wall. A small sample of the white pigment from WPS has been identified as calcrete Female Hill which is readily available in the nearby area (D. Sibley, pers. comm.). While there are also a few red paintings it should be noted that red paintings are actually much more abundant at Tsodilo as a whole in relation to the Divuyu total number of paintings and the number of painted • sites that have been documented (Campbell et al., 1994). Moreover, some sites at Tsodilo contain white • Nqoma paintings that have been superimposed on red paint- ings, indicating that white paintings are more recent White Paintings Shelter (Campbell et al., 1994). The white paintings on the shelter wall include Male Hill one elephant, three possible snakes, one mythological Zhu Village• animal (perhaps an ostrich?), one goat, seven mounted horses, one indeterminate species, 47 geometrics (in- cluding six that resemble the letter ‘‘m’’), 35 humans, including seven on horseback, one wagon and one Kilometers possible wagon wheel (Figure 2). Human figures fre- Figure 1. The locations of the principal sites mentioned in the text. quently have their hands on their hips. The most Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter 1087 Figure 2. Sample paintings on the wall of White Paintings Shelter. prominent painting is of a large male elephant with its were subdivided into the following groups: humans— tail, penis and trunk projecting straight out. hands free, one or both hands on hips, leading an Paintings of horses and riders reveal that some of the animal, riding an animal, human+grid; animals— shelter artwork could not be older than the mid 1800s snake, elephant, horse-like; circles—single, bifurcated, since that is when horses would have first been seen in with interior grid; designs—non-circular grid, resem- the general area. Moreover, local Zhu San traditions bling letter m, indeterminate. Additional variables suggest that a Khoe group, known as the N/aekhwe, included the following brightness categories: scarcely had formerly lived at Tsodilo and that the N/aekhwe visible, faded, distinct and bright. Statistical analysis were responsible for the white paintings. A relatively revealed that there was no relationship between recent age for some of the white paintings at this the types of images and the brightness categories shelter is consistent with evidence from other sites in (R. Lovell, pers. comm.). A chi-square of 15·4421 with central and southern Africa where there are similar df=15 indicates that the relationships are essentially white paintings (Prins & Hall, 1994). However, as random. However, a regression equation revealed that suggested below, some of the paintings could be earlier there is a relationship between the degree of brightness than the historic period. of the paintings and height above the surface of the The majority of the white paintings are concentrated ground. The most faded paintings were closest to the within an 8 m area along the shelter wall. In 1989, ground while brightness increased with height above copies of most of these paintings (N=67) were sketched the floor (2=19·8). This difference may be due to by two artists, S. and M. Hartland-Rowe, and infor- differential weathering, perhaps resulting from more mation was recorded regarding the position on the wall intense heat near the ground and blowing sand. Alter- and the relative degree of brightness. Height of the natively, the faded paintings found closer to the paintings ranges from 30 to 160 cm above the surface. ground may be older and were possibly done at a time The 67 recorded paintings were coded into four when the ground surface was somewhat lower than it is major image categories including humans, animals, at present. Several worn pieces of white calcrete, found circles and other designs. Subsequently, these images buried in the deposits, also suggest that some of the 1088 L. H. Robbins et al. Year Squares Depth cm 1989 1–4 75 Sq. 31, 70–71 m 5 165 Sq. 30, 50–51 m 6 172 7–8 70 Sq. 29, 31–32 m 9 200 1991 10 260 11 480 12 680 26 13 190 14–18 130 1992 19 340 20 430 21–22 620 25 12/23 700 24–29 150 1993 30–31 150 27 24 28 18 17 16 15 14 13 23 12 11 10 22 21 20 19 Overhang N 01 1 2 9 1 m 3 4 8 5 6 7 Shelter wall Figure 3. Site plan showing the major excavation units. paintings could be older than the pictures of horses and sieve for the deposits. Periodically, fine screening was riders. The most convincing specimens include worn done and selected samples were subjected to tub and triangular-shaped pieces found within a metre of the mechanical flotation. heavily painted area in square 5 (33–34 cm below the Initial work by A. Campbell and N. Walker in 1988, surface) and square 6 (90–100 cm). who excavated a 1-m square near the wall to a depth of 80 cm, recovered a small sample of lithics, sherds, fauna and nutshell fragments. In 1989, Campbell and Excavations Robbins excavated nine 1-m squares near the shelter wall, including squares 1–6 in front of the White Thirty-one 1-metre squares have been excavated to Elephant painting and the adjacent heavily painted varying depths at WPS (Figure 3). Excavations were area (Robbins, 1989a, 1991).