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Changing Gradients of Climate Change in Southern Africa during the Past Millennium: Implications for Population Movements |
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| Authors: | P D Tyson J Lee-Thorp K Holmgren J F Thackeray |
| Institution: | (1) Climatology Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;(2) Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa;(3) Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden;(4) Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, South Africa |
| Abstract: | Climates of equatorial East Africa and subtropical Southern Africa have varied inversely over long periods of time. The high-resolution  18O stalagmite record from Cold Air Cave in the Makapansgat valley in South Africa and a similar resolution lake-level record for Lake Naivasha in Kenya have been in anti-phase for much of the last thousand years. A similar relationship is evident in the twentieth century meteorological record. The changes in rainfall in the two regions on multi-decadal to centennial scales have influenced both settlement patterns and livelihoods of Iron Age agriculturalists. The resulting latitudinal gradient of change may have been a significant factor in promoting southward migration of Sotho-Tswana speaking people from equatorial East Africa during the first few centuries of the last millennium and earlier. This would have occurred at times when environments in the north were deteriorating and those to the south were ameliorating. |
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