A geoarchaeological investigation of Middle Stone Age human response to environmental change on the shores of Lake Malawi

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The Middle Stone Age of Africa, generally dated between 280,000 and 30,000 years ago, is a key period in human evolution when people began exhibiting behavioral characteristics similar to our own. Recent paleoenvironmental research from Lake Malawi suggests that the time period corresponding to the Middle Stone Age was marked by extended periods of extreme drought, which may have induced changes in human foraging strategies, settlement behavior, and demography. Here we propose to investigate the influence of extreme environmental change on Middle Stone Age people by studying a well-preserved paleolandscape along the shores of Lake Malawi. Using various geoarchaeological analyses and dating methods, we will construct a detailed and chronologically robust history of site formation and landscape development that we will compare with the high-resolution lacustrine records. Our landscape development model will allow us to directly link paleoenvironmental, paleolandscape, and archaeological datasets, in order to investigate how Middle Stone Age humans responded to extreme environmental change.