Editing History of Botswana (section)

=== Prehistory ===
[[File:Tsodilo Hills rock paintings4.jpg|thumb|Prehistoric [[cave painting]]s at [[Tsodilo]]]]
Present-day Botswana was primarily forest ten million years ago and the rivers were much larger than they are in the present, flowing into the massive [[paleolake]], [[Lake Makgadikgadi]].{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=10}} ''[[Homo erectus]]'' lived in the region during the [[Early Stone Age]].{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=14}} Stone tools in present-day Botswana, such as [[Acheulean]] axes, date back to two million years ago.{{Sfn|Denbow|Thebe|2006|p=26}}{{Sfn|Klehm|2021|p=6}} Hominin migration to the [[Kalahari Desert]] is estimated to have happened prior to [[Marine Isotope Stage 6]], 186,000 years ago.{{Sfn|Klehm|2021|p=6}} Lake Makgadikgadi began to shrink approximately 50,000 years ago.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=17}}

The ancestors of the [[Khoekhoe|Khoe]] and [[San people|San]] peoples—unrelated peoples who are referred to collectively as the ''[[Khoisan]]'' or ''Sarwa'' peoples—lived in present-day Botswana by approximately 40,000 to 30,000 years ago. They may have been the first humans to enter the [[Late Stone Age]].{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|pp=18, 23}} They established themselves around rivers during drier periods of history but spread throughout the region during wetter periods.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=24}} They are known to have inhabited the areas around Lake Makgadikgadi, as well as [[Tsodilo]] and [[≠Gi]].{{Sfn|Denbow|Thebe|2006|p=xv}} Other peoples such as the [[Nata people|Nata]], [[Shua people|Shua]], and [[Xani people|Xani]] are believed to have arrived after the Khoe and San.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=23}} [[Rock art]] dates back to approximately 30,000 years ago,{{Sfn|Denbow|Thebe|2006|p=58}} and virtually all permanent water supplies were associated with early humans 20,000 years ago.{{Sfn|Denbow|Thebe|2006|p=xv}} More detailed study of southern Africa in the [[Stone Age]] has been limited.{{Sfn|Klehm|2021|p=6}}

The various peoples of the region were [[hunter-gatherer]]s who remained in small groups and engaged in trade with one another.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=23}} It is believed that each groups was a collection of related families holding a specific territory, led by the eldest man of its head family.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=25}} Men hunted large animals, while women gathered plants and caught small animals.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|pp=24–25}} The groups intermarried and practiced a [[dowry]] system, ''xaro''.{{Sfn|Tlou|Campbell|1997|p=26}}