Professor Lamya Khalidi

Fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University

Human Adaptation to Climatic Fluctuations in the Afar Lowlands Of Ethiopia During the Early to Late Holocene (12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago)

Friday, Jan. 27, 2023; 4:10 PM 963 Schermerhorn Extension

Abstract

Since 2014, research conducted in the Lower Awash Valley, northern Lake Abhe basin has provided the first Early to Late Holocene human occupation sequence in the Ethiopian Afar. Later Stone Age sites inhabited by fisher-hunter-gatherers cover the African Humid Period from the end of the Younger Dryas arid event (~12,900 – 11,700 years Before the Present BP) to the Middle Holocene (until ~4,400 years BP) during which humid conditions were interrupted by a hyperarid event (8,200 years BP). By the Late Holocene (4,200 years BP) herding and impressed pottery are integrated into hunter-gathering and fishing lifestyles in the region.

Correlation of new archaeological and geomorphological data, and radiocarbon dates, have provided a precise reconstruction of fluctuating Abhe Lake levels in association with human occupations. We observe continuity and ruptures in material culture and resource economies of Early to Middle Holocene human groups and discuss these in relation to changing paleo-shorelines.

We evaluate effects of Holocene hydro-climatic oscillations (controlled by the African Monsoon) on littoral formation processes, site preservation, settlement strategy, and subsistence economies at the height and at the end of the African Humid Period. Finally, we discuss how societies may have been affected by aridity and reduced precipitation, but also the impact that societies began to have on the environment and climate as they turned to intensive agriculture and pastoralism, namely in the highlands of Ethiopia 3000 years ago.

Keywords

Later Stone Age; potter pastoralists; Early Holocene; Middle Holocene; Late Holocene; Lake Abhe; African Humid Period; lake-level fluctuations; human adaptation