Pollen-interpreted palaeoenvironments associated with the Middle and Late Pleistocene peopling of Southern Africa

An investigation of the vegetation and climate from the Middle Pleistocene until the end of the Late Pleistocene reveals a plethora of terrestrial and marine biological, geological and archaeological evidence for marked and complex climate cycles of change, which reflect on past circulation patterns. While acknowledging the usefulness of diverse proxies for detecting these changes, an efficient way to summarize past events is to focus on one of them, viz. fossil pollen, which, although providing scattered and incomplete records, gives fairly direct reflections of past climates and vegetation growth. The findings are structured according to six subregions and reveal distinct changes in temperature and moisture patterns, e.g. during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Younger Dryas. The data suggest an environmental background against which cultural evolution took place, e.g., the appearance of Fauresmith, Still Bay, Howiesons Poort and Later Stone Age lithic industries. The pollen archives can be associated with global climate changes, as recorded in isotopes in marine sequences (Marine Isotope Stages or MISs). The observations show differences between regions, which can serve as a base for improving palaeo-data to eventually simulate past and future climates and to better understand the role of past global climates in relation to human and animal occupation in Southern Africa. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.