The Singida Region, located in the central plateau of Tanzania, offers a unique opportunity to study the interactions between human activity and environmental change from the Early to Middle Stone Age (ESA–MSA) through to the present. This landscape, shaped by aridification, intense weathering, and active seismotectonic processes along the northeastern branch of the Tanzanian Rift, provides a compelling backdrop for understanding long-term human adaptation.

Between 2021 and 2024, over 30 archaeological sites were documented in Ikungi District, including the discovery of previously unrecorded Acheulean sites. These findings help bridge a long-standing gap in the archaeological record between northern and southern Tanzania, particularly regarding early human technologies and settlement patterns. Despite these advances, there has been little focused investigation into the relative influence of environmental and socio-technological drivers that led to major transitions in human livelihoods; such as the shift from hunting and gathering to agropastoralism, and from stone to metal tool use, over the past 6,000 years. A major limitation remains the lack of precise chronological constraints on both environmental and cultural developments in the region.

As part of this pilot study, we excavated two open-air sites (Nkungi and Ifoneo) and one rock-shelter site (Itramuka). These excavations yielded a rich assemblage of stone tools, charcoals, pottery, in situ hearths, and human remains, which offer strong potential for absolute and relative dating using multiple analytical techniques. Beyond traditional paleoenvironmental reconstruction, this project also aims to reconstruct past and present relative humidity by analyzing the 17O excess in phytoliths.

The research focuses on early human settlement patterns across Singida's rock shelters from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, a period critical for understanding socio-economic transformations related to land use, increasing aridification, and human resilience in the face of extreme climatic stress. The expected long-term outcome is to inform future models of climate adaptation by drawing from past examples of innovation and resilience.

Methodologically, this project proposes a multidisciplinary geoarchaeological approach, integrating archaeological and environmental proxies. A central objective is to evaluate the feasibility of constructing a multipurpose regional timescale by cross-calibrating isotopic and archaeomagnetic data.