PANS Namib Sand Sea Project

Enjoyed every word of Dr @abistone.bsky.social ‘s Wiley Lecture today at Day 1 of #QRA2026ADM in Brighton. On a cold winter’s day she took us to the warmth of the Namib to search for ancient hominin landscapes.

and look at this dream team that conducts this research…

@uomhums.bsky.social

#fieldworkfriday
Digging holes at the site of Narabeb West.

We’ll test whether the timing of water here aligns with it’s neighbouring interdune ‘Narabeb’, where the earliest preserved phase is 230 to 220 thousand years ago.

👀 on Narabeb➡️ doi.org/10.1016/j.qs...

Watch this space for Narabeb West…

More #FieldworkFriday
The site of Khommabes in the north of the #NamibSandSea, which contains a palimpsest of ESA, MSA & LSA #archaeology

This view looks northeast from a patch of nebkah dunes. Off to the left of the photo is a calcrete-capped interdune pan that used to hold water

#FieldworkFriday

Looking back at some ‘by head torch’ navigation planning…

Sands & pan sediments are being measured here at the Geography Department @uomseed.bsky.social

Field team, parts 1 & 2 during June 2025 field season, with the wonderful launching off point of the Gobabeb Namib Research Institute

#NamibSandSea #archaeology #lithics #pans #gobabeb

Alma Nankela’s enlivening #keynote here at #SafA2025 talking about Namibia’s Archaeological Heritage,putting operational frameworks in place, and showing us many beautiful sites in Namibia.

#archaeology
#Namibia
#rockart
#rockshelters

Thank you!
Alexandra Karamitrou (Southampton) has so far been using PALSAR-2 (following Paillou et al., 2020) to identify former river channels.
I’ll pass this on to her!

Thank you @agunn.bsky.social !
(and do you want to tackle the chains of star dunes further northeast with us next?)

And yes, Andrew Gunn’s approaches are awesome! And he worked with us on the Narabeb site. It’s possible to envisage a site without those large complex linear dunes when the lake was first present
doi.org/10.1016/j.qs...
See section 6.1.2. Landscape evolution at Narabeb

Great question!
Palaeolakes/pans: we started with those reported in Shackley (1985) & those noted ‘lithics’ in Teller et al. (1990). Plus small green dots (no outline) are sites George & Dom noted MSA lithics on their long survey walk in 2023… ‘Ridgey Pan’ to south was a ‘let’s go & have a look’

Really looking forward to heading to my first Society of African Archaeologists conference next week, talking about our group’s research out in the Namib Sand Seaz

#SANDS
#PANS
#archaeology
#safaconference2025
#lithics
#NamibSandSea
#EarlierStoneAge
#MiddleStoneAge

Next up in our #SAFA session 28 will be @abistone.bsky.social who is introducing us to the @pans-river-namib.bsky.social project that she is running with colleagues in the Namib Sand Sea 🦣 🏺 Days to go: 4️⃣

@abistone.bsky.social @uomseed.bsky.social
@uomhums.bsky.social

Rachel Bynoe is an archaeologist with expertise in human origins, Quaternary landscape & environmental change. She either spends time under the North Sea, or in the quite the opposite - the Namib Sand Sea - as project co-I.

www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5x7nb...

trowelblazers.com/2016/10/03/r...

Tess is talking today to the at the Yorkshire Palaeo Group network meeting…

You can find her on BlueSky @abistone.bsky.social

Abi's staff profile picture from her academic page at the University of Manchester, where she is a Reader in Physical Geography https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/abi.stone

Abi in the Namib Sand Sea, at the site of Namib IV, sitting on a dune, with the sun setting. She wears a dusty top and is smiling at the camera.

A photo taken looking down at Abi in a geotrench, sampling for luminescence dating. There is an opaque tube in the sediment and a hammer in her right hand. She wears a black cap, shorts and t-shirt.

Abi is operating a Dormer Engineering hand-operated sand auger on a dune flank at Namib IV. She is twisting the auger with a silly look on her face. She wears walking boots and shorts and t-shirt, with sunglasses. The sky is blue and the sand very orange, with tufts of grass less than a meter tall.

Abi Stone is a dryland Quaternary scientist & geochronologist interested in long-term landscape & environmental change, based at @uomseed.bsky.social @uniofmanchester.bsky.social
She's worked in the Namib on & off since ~2005, & range of other deserts.

research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/a...

Dominic's profile picture on his academic profile in the Anthropology Faculty of Stony Brook University https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/anthropology/faculty-and-staff/stratford-d.php He wears a light blue shirt and blue patterned tie

Dom digs a small geotrench at the site of Narabeb. Wearing cargo pants, a green fleece and a blue beanie, he digs with a spade into the bright orange sands of the Namib Sand Sea, beneath a lighter layer of sediment

Dom sitting on a dune at Narabeb in a beanie, with wind blowing the sand and the sun setting.

A photo of Dom taken by NS90 degrees (check out their instagram https://www.instagram.com/teamns90/). He walks across a sandy surface with mega-ripples and smaller ripple features. There are arcuate dunes in the background. He wears a red cap, cargo pants and holds a walking pole. From his rucksack hangs two large water containers.

Dominic Stratford is a geoarchaeologist focusing on stratigraphy & site formation processes in southern African archaeological sites. He & George adventured on a long E-W survey across the Namib Sand Sea in 2022, which revealed some key sites for the team.

www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/anth...

The photo from George's staff profile at the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. He wears a long sleeved blue shirt, with cuffs rolled up, in front of a semi-arid landscape.

Photo taken by NS90 degrees (check out their instsgram @teamsns90) of George walking down a sand dune on his trek. He wears shorts, with waking boots, sun hat and glasses and holds a walking pole. On his backpack hangs water containers, a first aid kit and GPS

George Leader is an archaeologist, who initially brought the team together. An expert in lithic technology, with widespread field experience in southern Africa & an explorer at heart, trekking for 2 weeks across the Namib Sand Sea with Dom Stratford in 2022
anthropology.sas.upenn.edu/people/georg...

Brief intros to the research team to follow... watch this space.

A circular badge with pan landscape behind and project title around the circle and yellow circle background.

Same circular badge with pan landscape behind and project title around the circle, but this time a blue circle background.

Rectangular logo version with pan landscape and dunes in background with project title overlain

Similar rectangular logo but with an Acheulean hand axe also overlain iun the image

First up... we need to select a logo... Here's some ideas from Tess Spano, project post-doc. Which one do you prefer?

Hello! An account for @leverhulme.bsky.social "PANS: Palaeoenvironmental context of Palaeolithic Archaeology in the Namib SandSea" & @rgsibg.bsky.social Thesiger-Oman "RiVER: Routes into Vleis: Environmental Reconstruction of conditions facilitating hominin occupation in the Namib SandSea" projects