Abstract:
Long-held views of high-altitudes as natural ecosystems characterized by late anthropogenic transformation processes have recently been challenged by studies carried out on the world’s high plateaus. This is all the more relevant in light of the demanding question where prehistoric populations retreated to, especially during arid intervals, when lowlands may have become uninhabitable.
In this presentation we introduce an interdisciplinary approach for the reconstruction of Quaternary abiotic, biotic and cultural changes in African model highland environments of southern Ethiopia. The Bale Mountains represent the largest afro-alpine ecosystem of the continent. They are characterized by a very high biodiversity including a large number of endemic species and they host relevant archives to reconstruct the coupled landscape and human history. First results of a joint Ethio-European research unit (“The Mountain Exile Hypothesis”, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) summarized here, comprise archeological, archeozoological, soil biogeochemical and glacial chronological studies and concentrate on the earliest human occupation and persistent use of the available resources.
The Bale Mountains feature the oldest evidence for humans in high-altitudes. Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers must have been very familiar with the then glaciated environment. In immediate vicinity to valley glaciers, high-quality obsidian was regularly and repeatedly extracted from primary outcrops located above 4200 m asl, the highest known occurrences in Ethiopia. Settlement and subsistence activities concentrated on the ice-free areas with access to melt-water. Prehistoric foragers were moreover capable of developing unique subsistence strategies for sustainable and continuous survival and to satisfy the higher caloric demands of living in these altitudes. The associated Middle Stone Age material culture shows the existence of networks to lowlands, but at the same time exhibit the development of distinctive and independent technological traditions.
