Dispersals, resilience, and innovation in Late Pleistocene SE Africa

Project Information

DISPERSALS

Grant agreement ID: 101052761

DOI

10.3030/101052761

EC signature date 17 May 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 500 000,00

EU contribution

€ 2 500 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDADE DO ALGARVE
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DISPERSALS (Dispersals, resilience, and innovation in Late Pleistocene SE Africa)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Genetic evidence suggests that successful modern human migration out of Africa is believed to have started c. 70,000 years ago, populating the whole world, at different rates and times. This incredible voyage took place because of human’s unique resilience, versatility, and innovation, both biological and cultural, to external stimuli, including ecological and environmental changes.

The main objective of DISPERSALS is to investigate the migration and dispersal dynamics of early Homo sapiens in Africa and archaeologically evaluate the genetic model that southern African human populations were the genesis of the successful out-of-Africa some 70,000 years ago. This will be accomplished by investigating cultural and biological continuity/discontinuity issues and human population movements in the last c. 100,000 years in the poorly studied Limpopo and the Save river basins, central Mozambique, an area mediating the two key regions of human development, i.e. southern and eastern Africa.

DISPERSALS' main aim is to compare the human occupation and ecology between central Mozambique and eastern and southern Africa using a multi-scale approach based on the study of regional diachronic cultural traits. It will reconstruct regional population patterns, followed by comparative quantitative population genetics combined with GIS computational network analyses. The results will then be integrated through Agent-Based Modeling, based on the incremental creation, elimination, or reorientation of network links to simulate a quantitative framework to study the evolution of population dispersal across southern-eastern Africa. The project will be crucial in providing ground-breaking high-resolution archaeological, chronological, and paleoenvironmental data. DISPERSALS will deliver a fundamental perspective on the key processes that triggered migrations and dispersals within Africa and out-of-Africa which ultimately resulted in the human diaspora over the entire planet.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The DISPERSALS project has 4 main objectives:
1. To discover new Late Pleistocene archaeological and fossil-bearing sites, through survey, testing and excavations carried out to obtain highly precise and multi-proxy data.
2. Develop a precise and robust absolute chronology for the last 100 thousand years.
3. Combine our new data in a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct detailed climatic curves, fire regimes, vegetation, and animal populations as a proxy for regional climatic and ecological evolution.
4. Study human material culture, including aspects related to the evolution of technology, economy, symbolism, and the social adaptations of Homo sapiens.
To reach those goals, the project is organized into 3 Work Packages (WP), each divided in Tasks, and partially sequential:
WP1. Fieldwork is divided into two main tasks, based on archaeological research of the Limpopo and Save River Basins:
• Task 1. Systematic survey on the Machampane and Elephant riRiversLimpopo basin), and the Upper Save river:
• Task 2. Archaeological testing and excavation.
WP2. Regional scale – central Mozambique during the last c. 100 thousand years.
• Task 1. The study of the archaeological macroscopic record.
• Task 2. The study of the archaeological microscopic record.
• Task 3. Study and reconstruction of the paleoenvironment and paleoclimate.
• Task 4. Regional modeling.
WP3. Integration of results at the continental scale – assessing processes of transmission, innovation, coalescence, and convergence
• Task 1. Defining areas of transmission.
• Task 2. Modeling migration in sub-Saharan Africa.
WP 1 and WP2 are fully on the way. Fieldwork was carried out in 2023 and 2024, with a total of close to 16 weeks of work focusing exclusively on the Save basin. The team of around 15 people, include the researchers and MA and doctoral students hired by the project, as well as other specialists from various universities from both Portugal, Mozambique and the US. In addition, it also includes undergraduate students from the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane with the objective of archaeological training.
The survey focused on various areas with the Save basin, namely: Buchane (Inland Inhassoro), Zinave National Park (Mabote), both south of the Save Valley, Coutada 5, immediately north of the Save, and Inhaminga, in the Gorongoza National Park.
We were able to locate a total of 136 new sites, of which 9 are cave sites: 2 in Inhaminga and 7 in Buchane. These will be the focus of DISPERSALS in 2025 because of the importance and biological potential of those caves.
Excavation and testing took place in three locations, Zimuara, Chessungalane, and Buffalo Camp, with great results since at least the two first sites have long Stone Age sequences.
With the collections of a great diversity of archaeological samples, as well as biological samples covering large areas of the landscape, the DISPERSALS team initiated WP2 with analyses of archaeological materials (Task 1) as well as the analyses of the microscopic record (Task 2). Some results are already available, although no dating results have been obtained. Dating samples will be sent out to radiocarbon and OSL labs and expected results will be out by the end of the year. Those results will be used on the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and paleoclimate, taking place mostly during 2025, after starting in the end of 2024. The collection of data is also on the way to developing the first regional models (Task 3), hopefully with the first results ready during 2025.
WP3 will only be carried out starting in 2026.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

DISPERSALS has a clear interdisciplinary perspective of science. Thus, our field work and lab analyses include a series of methods and disciplines that will concur for the success of the project. Some of these are the botanic work carried out both in archaeological contexts and extant settings, recovering and mapping the regional modern vegetation cover. This will make possible the reconstruction of past Pleistocene environments and landscapes in central Mozambique, very much unknown until now. Similarly, the team is also constructing an isotope map of the region, that will enhance the results and botanic data mentioned before. At the same time, biomarkers are being collected and analyzed from both modern and archaeological contexts to allow a more detailed reconstruction of the paleoenvironment and climate of central Mozambique. Finally, although now yet started, the team is preparing to check for the presence of aDNA in the excavated sediments to, hopefully, uncover information on mammal species, including hominins.
The main breakthrough in DISPERSALS has been the identification of cave sites with an archaeological record in two areas in the Save Basin, at Inhaminga and Inhassoro. While one cave and one rockshelter, respectively N’Galue and Chicaza, were known in the north, no cave with Stone Age archaeology was known in central and southern Mozambique. The recently discovered caves have produced Stone Age materials and long sequences as well as great organic preservation. Thus, these sites have a great potential for aDNA preservation as well as biomarkers that will make possible the development of data and subsequent models for the lifeways of Stone People and comparison with other regions. The archaeological potential of these caves may bring a completely new perspective of Stone Age in southern Africa.

DISPERSALS fiedl team at the Zinave National Parl, Save Valley

View of the entry of a cave at Inhaminga region, Gorongosa National Park

General view of the archaeological excavation at the site of Chessungalane, Save Valley