ARIMAS - ARId environments and Modern humans' Adaptation Strategies

• Applicant: Dr. Matthias Blessing
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567427630

Even though other hominins adapted to different ecological conditions as well, it appears that the capability of modern humans to quickly adapt to even extreme environments is unparalleled. This probably like a part of the explanation of our evolutionary success. Current research converges to show that this capacity to adapt to novel or changing environments quickly is rooted in behavioural rather than genetic plasticity. This entails the construction and maintenance of intra- and inter-group social networks among non-kin and the enhanced efficiency of information transfer such networks allow. These capacities are already visible in the course of the 'Out of Africa' dispersals of Homo sapiens, suggesting that their cognitive and social prerequisites had developed in Africa prior to the expansion of our species already. The archaeological record from extreme environments in Africa therefore offers ideal conditions to investigate human adaptive strategies in such ecological conditions. Also for later human expansions such as the spread of pastoralism, extreme environments provide great potential to illuminate the mechanisms of information and technology transmission. Southern Namibia is an extremely arid area, where case studies concerning human adaptive strategies will provide novel information on the uniquely human capacity to quickly adapt to new and extreme environments and thus grant new insights into the evolutionary success of our species. Previous archaeological research in the area has provided some insights into the human past, especially for the Late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age. Most interpretations, however, are grounded in only one site: Apollo 11. The Holocene archaeological assemblages from this site have never been comprehensively studied at all. The proposed project entails the excavation of newly discovered rock shelter (Perseverance Shelter), located during a survey in 2024, as well as the systematic sampling of open-air lithic scatters on the farm Arimas in southern Namibia. The excavation of a novel site in the area allows to cross-reference the Late Pleistocene assemblages of Apollo 11 and will yield the region's first comprehensive culture stratigraphic study of the Holocene archaeological record. The archaeological analyses will be integrated into robust geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental frameworks to better contextualize the archaeological assemblages. The expected results from this project in an extremely arid environment are of regional and supra-regional interest and will advance our understanding of human adaptive strategies to extreme environments, thus contributing to our knowledge about what makes us human.

• DFG Programme: Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Groups