The Archaeology Lunchtime Seminar presents: The Empty Desert Interior: Impacts of Late Quaternary hydrological shifts on human mobility and landscape use in the Kalahari Desert by Prof. David Thomas (Oxford University).

Formerly one of Africa’s largest lakes, today’s Makgadikgadi pans of northern Botswana comprise one of the most remarkable landscapes on Earth. A seasonally dry and intensely harsh environment for life, these extensive salt pans not only withhold a fascinating story of landscape transformation, tectonic shifts and extreme climate changes but are beginning to provide an extraordinary window into the world of Stone Age humans in the Kalahari. This talk considers more than a decade of scientific research that pieces together the remarkable story of the Makgadikgadi and its ancient human inhabitants. 

David Thomas is Professor of Geography at The University of Oxford and a geomorphologist. He specialises in environmental change, past, present and future, in the world’s dryland regions, focusing on records and indicators of long term climate and hydrological change, aeolian systems, and human-environment interactions at a range of timescales. He has authored/co-authored 200  peer reviewed papers and 11 books. He has twice been Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society and has chaired the UK’s Geography panel in the Research Excellence Framework assessment.

• Date: Thursday, 18 September 2019 at 13:20
• Venue: Archaeology Lecture Theatre (Rm 105), 1st Floor Origins Centre Building, Wits