Anibtanab: An Earlier and Middle Stone Age Site in the Namib Sand Sea

Abstract

The archaeological site of Anibtanab is an interdunal pan locale on the northern margin of the Namib Sand Sea, situated roughly 1.5 km south of the !Khuiseb River and about 40 km east of Gobabeb. The site was first investigated by Shackley (1985) who reported earlier and middle stone age tools scattered across the approximately 1,500 m x 1,000 m pan. Shackley’s brief mention provides typologies and total number of tools but no additional descriptions of the technology. In 2021, the site was revisited and a new sample of lithics was analyzed. This paper presents the preliminary results of this analysis, which provides a more detailed understanding of the Anibtanab site to inform future studies of the numerous archaeological pan sites in the Namib Sand Sea.