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Over 600 luminescence ages have to date been published from southern Africa’s continental dunefields and isolated dunes, providing a rich record of aeolian system dynamics during the Late Quaternary. The majority of records come from sites within the five linear dune-dominated dunefields of the Kalahari, with lesser representation of other major dune areas, including the Namib and West Coast dunefields, and of other dune types, including lunettes and transverse forms. Dune database records are analysed not only in terms of the evidence they provide for Late Quaternary environmental changes over the last 190 ka, the purpose for which most ages have been produced, but in terms of the analytical techniques used, data quality and data presentation, as these all impact on how dune luminescence ages have been, or should be, interpreted as a tool for palaeoenvironmental and dune development studies.

It is concluded that, even despite the number of dated dune records from southern Africa, there is a marked spatial unevenness within and between dunefields in the data available for assessing dune depositional ages and conditions. However, this is not a situation that can simply be improved upon by adding more and more ages to the full set of records. It is both necessary to appreciate the spatial differences in dune sensitivities to activation and relationships to potential changes in hydrological and other activity controls, and to establish better tools and approaches for analysing a rich but presently environmentally ambiguous record of dune accumulation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.