In the upper Hoanib River catchment area, northwestern Namibia, fine-grained silty deposits are widespread. Accumulated as river-end deposits they form excellent geomorphological archives of a highly sensitive desert-margin area. Different sedimentary complexes are separated sedimentologically and by luminescence dating. The deposits give evidence of climate oscillations at the eastern margin of the Namib Desert during the past 50,000 years. Keywords: Namibia, Namib Desert, Hoanib River, Dryland geomorphology, OSL-dating, Quaternary.