METHOD Reid (1978) discusses in detail the field methods used in the project. The somewhat friable nature of the floors and hearths dictated the sampling methods. Using a commercial masonry cutter, slots were cut into the material so that... more
METHOD Reid (1978) discusses in detail the field methods used in the project. The somewhat friable nature of the floors and hearths dictated the sampling methods. Using a commercial masonry cutter, slots were cut into the material so that a square aluminium ...
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When Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd interviewed Xam (San) informants in Cape Town in the 1870s they established an archive of unparalleled significance for pre-colonial historical studies in Southern Africa. The near... more
When Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd interviewed Xam (San) informants in Cape Town in the 1870s they established an archive of unparalleled significance for pre-colonial historical studies in Southern Africa. The near verbatim records of stories told by ...
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Radiocarbon-dated elevated marine deposits and the record of anthropogenic and natural debris in archaeological deposits on the west coast of South Africa indicate that significant coastal remodelling has taken place in the past 4300... more
Radiocarbon-dated elevated marine deposits and the record of anthropogenic and natural debris in archaeological deposits on the west coast of South Africa indicate that significant coastal remodelling has taken place in the past 4300 years in response to sea level change. Geological and archaeological investigation of elevated deposits of sub-fossil shell, abandoned lagoons, and washover bars has shown that many
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Men, Women, and Eland: Hunting and Gender among the San of Southern Africa John Parkington THEMES IN SAN EXPRESSIVE CULTURE In the 1870s,//kabbo (fig. 7.1) was a middle-aged man serving a sentence at the Breakwater Prison in Cape Town and... more
Men, Women, and Eland: Hunting and Gender among the San of Southern Africa John Parkington THEMES IN SAN EXPRESSIVE CULTURE In the 1870s,//kabbo (fig. 7.1) was a middle-aged man serving a sentence at the Breakwater Prison in Cape Town and dictating his ...
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... The majority of the papers (Hiscock, Mulvaney, Ulm et al.) are within the Australian context, with a strong emphasis on the social mechanisms underlying the various processes and their ... Brian Fagan Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek,... more
... The majority of the papers (Hiscock, Mulvaney, Ulm et al.) are within the Australian context, with a strong emphasis on the social mechanisms underlying the various processes and their ... Brian Fagan Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 2006, 175pp, ISBN 1-59874-005-9 ...
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Elands Bay Cave has been episodically occupied for many tens of thousands of years, but apparently always in fairly brief visits. It therefore contains an intermittent but sequentially organized record of environmental and behavioural... more
Elands Bay Cave has been episodically occupied for many tens of thousands of years, but apparently always in fairly brief visits. It therefore contains an intermittent but sequentially organized record of environmental and behavioural events over a time period of perhaps 150 000 years. Here I look at the later Holocene record and assess what it reveals about marine food exploitation by hunter gatherers and later pastoralist groups. Because we have similar records from several other small caves, rock shelters and open sites around the Verloren Vlei and the associated shoreline, we can recognise periods of common use and disuse and understand the intermittent and changing use of the local shoreline resources over the past 5000 years.
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Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambridge Journals Online as a search option in your browser toolbar. What is this? ... RECENT HISTORICAL CONTEXT, EXTINCT CULTURAL EXPRESSION Der... more
Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambridge Journals Online as a search option in your browser toolbar. What is this? ... RECENT HISTORICAL CONTEXT, EXTINCT CULTURAL EXPRESSION Der Mond als Shuh: ...
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... In this paper I challenge what I take to be the most widely promoted view of the age of HP assemblages, particularly at Border Cave (Beaumont et al. 1978; Butzer et al. ... Sehonghong; 25. Ha Soloja; 26. Rose Cottage; 27. Border Cave;... more
... In this paper I challenge what I take to be the most widely promoted view of the age of HP assemblages, particularly at Border Cave (Beaumont et al. 1978; Butzer et al. ... Sehonghong; 25. Ha Soloja; 26. Rose Cottage; 27. Border Cave; 28. Lion Cavern; 29. Heuningneskrans; 30. ...
The Dunefield Midden site, located on the Atlantic coast of South Africa, contains abundant, well-preserved animal bones and other archaeological materials believed to reflect multiple short occupations by hunter-gatherer peoples several... more
The Dunefield Midden site, located on the Atlantic coast of South Africa, contains abundant, well-preserved animal bones and other archaeological materials believed to reflect multiple short occupations by hunter-gatherer peoples several centuries ago. The bones of small mammals, constituting a subset of a large assemblage of vertebrate remains, present intriguing patterns with respect to spatial distributions of bones and of cutmarked bones. Pronounced differences in the spatial distributions of bones between small carnivores and small noncarnivores probably indicate differences in how the site occupants used the carcasses of these animals.
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Skip to the content. You are in: University home; University of Salford Institutional Repository. University of Salford - A Greater Manchester University. ...
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The late Holocene was a period of cultural change along the west coast of South Africa, with widespread archaeological evidence for shifts in settlement patterns and economic activity. With these changes, we expect variability in the... more
The late Holocene was a period of cultural change along the west coast of South Africa, with widespread archaeological evidence for shifts in settlement patterns and economic activity. With these changes, we expect variability in the movement patterns of resident populations. In this proof-of-concept paper, we use lithic assemblages from Spring Cave near Verlorenvlei to evaluate changes in mobility during the late Holocene. These assemblages are dominated by bipolar-reduced quartz, which is notoriously difficult to assess using geometric approaches given high levels of fragmentation and variability in product dimensions. We use measures of curvature on cortical pieces to estimate original nodule size, and then use this to calculate the cortex ratio, a measure of mobility. Ratios indicate differences in mobility and place use through time that mirror earlier observations about shifts in land use. These observations warrant more extended analysis of other late Holocene contexts throughout the west coast.
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Despite advances in our understanding of the geographic and temporal scope of the Paleolithic record, we know remarkably little about the evolutionary and ecological consequences of changes in human behavior. Recent inquiries suggest that... more
Despite advances in our understanding of the geographic and temporal scope of the Paleolithic record, we know remarkably little about the evolutionary and ecological consequences of changes in human behavior. Recent inquiries suggest that human evolution reflects a long history of interconnections between the behavior of humans and their surrounding ecosystems (e.g., niche construction). Developing expectations to identify such phenomena is remarkably difficult because it requires understanding the multi‐generational impacts of changes in behavior. These long‐term dynamics require insights into the emergent phenomena that alter selective pressures over longer time periods which are not possible to observe, and are also not intuitive based on observations derived from ethnographic time scales. Generative models show promise for probing these potentially unexpected consequences of human‐environment interaction. Changes in the uses of landscapes may have long term implications for the ...
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n: Program & Abstracts of the 19th Biennial Conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, Frankfurt, Germany, September 8-11, 2008, Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) (Dir.), Calgary, p. 122- (Nyame Akuma ; 70)
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Proteins persist longer in the fossil record than DNA, but the longevity, survival mechanisms and substrates remain contested. Here, we demonstrate the role of mineral binding in preserving the protein sequence in ostrich (Struthionidae)... more
Proteins persist longer in the fossil record than DNA, but the longevity, survival mechanisms and substrates remain contested. Here, we demonstrate the role of mineral binding in preserving the protein sequence in ostrich (Struthionidae) eggshell, including from the palaeontological sites of Laetoli (3.8 Ma) and Olduvai Gorge (1.3 Ma) in Tanzania. By tracking protein diagenesis back in time we find consistent patterns of preservation, demonstrating authenticity of the surviving sequences. Molecular dynamics simulations of struthiocalcin-1 and -2, the dominant proteins within the eggshell, reveal that distinct domains bind to the mineral surface. It is the domain with the strongest calculated binding energy to the calcite surface that is selectively preserved. Thermal age calculations demonstrate that the Laetoli and Olduvai peptides are 50 times older than any previously authenticated sequence (equivalent to ~16 Ma at a constant 10°C).
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THIS PAPER DESCRIBES SOME EVIDENCE OF shellfish gathering from what are arguably among the earliest shell middens in human history. What makes this evidence interesting for scientists involved in explaining human evolutionary events is... more
THIS PAPER DESCRIBES SOME EVIDENCE OF shellfish gathering from what are arguably among the earliest shell middens in human history. What makes this evidence interesting for scientists involved in explaining human evolutionary events is the fact that it may register a ...
Very large and homogenous open air shell middens rc(megamidden~~ along a stretch ofAt-lantic coastline in the sw Cape reflect hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies dramatically different from those employed before and after the... more
Very large and homogenous open air shell middens rc(megamidden~~ along a stretch ofAt-lantic coastline in the sw Cape reflect hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies dramatically different from those employed before and after the megamidden phase. Presented here are the ...
Research Interests: Archaeology, Technology, Conservation, Ethnology, Field Archaeology, and 4 moreMethod, Fauna, Field, and Experimentation
... A distributional approach to the inter-pretation of rock art in the south western Cape. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series4: 29-33. ... In Schrire, C. ed. Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies: 151-74. ... The... more
... A distributional approach to the inter-pretation of rock art in the south western Cape. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series4: 29-33. ... In Schrire, C. ed. Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies: 151-74. ... The Later Prehistory of Eastern and Southern Africa. ...
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Hilary and Janette Deacon have persuasively argued (Deacon, HJ 1972, 1976; Deacon, J. 1972, 1974, 1978) that the 'Wilton' is best regarded as a technological tradition manifested in the production of... more
Hilary and Janette Deacon have persuasively argued (Deacon, HJ 1972, 1976; Deacon, J. 1972, 1974, 1978) that the 'Wilton' is best regarded as a technological tradition manifested in the production of certain kinds of stone tools. The formally patterned tools of these ...
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R??sum??/Abstract The Atlantic coast of the Western Cape is host to a vast quantity of archaeological sites of the past 100,000 years. Ecological studies of Middle and Late Stone Age sites provide opportunities to explore the development... more
R??sum??/Abstract The Atlantic coast of the Western Cape is host to a vast quantity of archaeological sites of the past 100,000 years. Ecological studies of Middle and Late Stone Age sites provide opportunities to explore the development of behavioural patterns. The ...
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ABSTRACT
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We have excavated and mapped just over 850 m² of late precolonial campsites at Dunefield Midden some 2 km north of the mouth of the Verloren Vlei, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Dated to between 1000 and 500 years ago, these... more
We have excavated and mapped just over 850 m² of late precolonial campsites at Dunefield Midden some 2 km north of the mouth of the Verloren Vlei, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Dated to between 1000 and 500 years ago, these scatters of shell, bone and ...
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... a reluctance to shed nineteenth-century orthodoxies of evolutionary development with their bias towards land-based models of hunting ... subsistence economies; (2) a measure of the degree to which available resources were actually... more
... a reluctance to shed nineteenth-century orthodoxies of evolutionary development with their bias towards land-based models of hunting ... subsistence economies; (2) a measure of the degree to which available resources were actually made use of, and integrated within a ...
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In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still... more
In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that help unravelling the cultural processes at work. This unit yields one of the oldest abstract engraving so far discovered in Africa, in the form of a rhomboid marking on the cortical surface of an ungulate long bone shaft. The comprehensive analysis of the lithic artefacts and ochre pieces found in association with the engraved bone documents the transport of rocks over long distance (>20km), the heat treatment of silcrete, the coexistence of seven lithic reduction strategies (including the production of bladelets and the manufacture of unifacial and bifacial points), the use of adhesives and the processing of ochre. At Diepkloof, the appearance of engraving practices take place in a context that demonstrates a shift in rock procurement and a diversification in lithic reduction strategies, suggesting that these behavioral practices acted as a cultural answer to cope with new environmental and/or socioeconomic circumstances. We argue that the innovations later found during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort were already in the making during the MIS5 pre-Still Bay, though not all the benefits were yet taken advantage of by the populations.
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Within the animal kingdom, carnivores occupied a unique place in prehistoric societies. At times predators or competitors for resources and shelters, anthropogenic traces of their exploitation, often for non-nutritional purposes, permeate... more
Within the animal kingdom, carnivores occupied a unique place in prehistoric societies. At times predators or competitors for resources and shelters, anthropogenic traces of their exploitation, often for non-nutritional purposes, permeate the archaeological record. Scarce but spectacular depictions in Palaeolithic art confirm peoples' fascination with carnivores. In contrast with the European record, research on hominin/carnivore interactions in Africa has primarily revolved around the hunting or scavenging debate amongst early hominins. As such, the available information on the role of carnivores in Anatomically Modern Humans' economic and cultural systems is limited. Here, we illustrate a particular relationship between humans and carnivores during the MIS5-4 Still Bay and Howiesons Poort techno-complexes at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. The recovery of numerous felid remains, including cut-marked phalanges, tarsals and metapodials, constitutes direct evidence for carnivore skinning and, presumably, pelt use in the southern African Middle Stone Age. Carnivore exploitation at the site seems to have focused specifically on nocturnal, solitary and dangerous felines. the lines of evidence presented here suggest the capture and fur use of those felines in the context of highly codified and symbolically loaded cultural traditions. Interactions with felids are deeply rooted in the evolutionary trajectory of hominins; they manifest themselves in terms of competition, predation and/or exploitation (e.g. 1-7). In Europe, the identification of carnivore tooth marks on hominin bones points towards a predominantly predator/prey type of relationship between felids and Middle Palaeolithic populations (e.g. 6). A rare case of Middle Pleistocene hominin exploitation of a large felid (Panthera leo fossilis) is documented at the Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, in Spain 2. Coinciding with the cultural bourgeoning associated with the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe, these interactions seem to take on a new form, with felids occupying a significant role within symbolic practices of modern human groups. Exploitation of medium (lynx Lynx lynx) and large (cave lion Panthera spelaea) felids by Upper Palaeolithic people is well documented across Western Europe: canines, either perforated and worn as personal ornaments 8-11 or used as retouchers 7 , have been recovered from several archaeological assemblages. Felid bones exhibiting cut-marks consistent with skinning and possible fur use are also known from various sites in that region (e.g. 5,11,12). Felid representations attest to the symbolic value attributed to these predators by Upper Palaeolithic societies. Remarkable examples include the magnificent felid depictions from Chauvet Cave in France 13 and the therianthropic Löwenmenschen ivory figurines recovered from sites in the Swabian Jura 4,14,15. At La Garma in Spain, the recovery of cut-marked distal phalanges of cave lion Panthera spelaea illustrates the use of pelts from this dangerous animal, interpreted in the light of ritual activities during the Magdalenian 5 .
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Stone Age surface assemblages are all too often neglected in favour of stratified, datable cave sequences, thus overlooking important insights into changing behavioural patterns at a broader scale. The Olifants River Valley (Clanwilliam,... more
Stone Age surface assemblages are all too often neglected in favour
of stratified, datable cave sequences, thus overlooking important
insights into changing behavioural patterns at a broader scale.
The Olifants River Valley (Clanwilliam, Western Cape Province,
South Africa) presents a rich surface lithic record alongside
excavated rockshelter occupations from the early Middle Stone
Age (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA). Surface surveys in the
Olifants River Valley mapped temporally diagnostic artefacts and
their association with different topographic features in order to
investigate past landscape use. Our approach refers to a
hypothesis proposed by Hilary Deacon, framing the MSA within
the context of earlier and later patterns of behaviour. Based on
observations from sites across South Africa, Deacon described
Earlier Stone Age (ESA) landscape use as ‘stenotopic’, with a
narrow focus on permanent water sources, and LSA landscape use
as ‘eurytopic’, using a much broader range of habitats but
specifically occupying rockshelters as domestic sites. Deacon
suggested that the intervening MSA, in its later stages, shows a
pattern that anticipated LSA landscape use. We apply Deacon’s
model to the study area, observing distinctive preferences for
certain locations and raw materials and approaching changing
patterns of artefact discard from a technological perspective.
of stratified, datable cave sequences, thus overlooking important
insights into changing behavioural patterns at a broader scale.
The Olifants River Valley (Clanwilliam, Western Cape Province,
South Africa) presents a rich surface lithic record alongside
excavated rockshelter occupations from the early Middle Stone
Age (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA). Surface surveys in the
Olifants River Valley mapped temporally diagnostic artefacts and
their association with different topographic features in order to
investigate past landscape use. Our approach refers to a
hypothesis proposed by Hilary Deacon, framing the MSA within
the context of earlier and later patterns of behaviour. Based on
observations from sites across South Africa, Deacon described
Earlier Stone Age (ESA) landscape use as ‘stenotopic’, with a
narrow focus on permanent water sources, and LSA landscape use
as ‘eurytopic’, using a much broader range of habitats but
specifically occupying rockshelters as domestic sites. Deacon
suggested that the intervening MSA, in its later stages, shows a
pattern that anticipated LSA landscape use. We apply Deacon’s
model to the study area, observing distinctive preferences for
certain locations and raw materials and approaching changing
patterns of artefact discard from a technological perspective.
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Sealy (CA 47:569–95) reports a contrast in nitrogen isotope readings on human skeletons from two neighbouring areas of the southern Cape, South Africa, and draws two conclusions from it. The first is that the contrast reflects a greater... more
Sealy (CA 47:569–95) reports a contrast in nitrogen isotope readings on human skeletons from two neighbouring areas of the southern Cape, South Africa, and draws two conclusions from it. The first is that the contrast reflects a greater consumption of high-trophic-level food, most likely seals, on the Robberg Peninsula between 4,500 and 2,000 years ago than in the nearby Matjes River Rock Shelter, a difference that she believes implies a long-term territorial boundary between the sites. She further suggests that the Holocene hunter-gatherers of this part of the Cape may have been less residentially mobile than hitherto assumed and may have practiced territorial rather than social boundary defence. This implies semi-sedentism and less exchange of personnel between groups. All the available evidence refutes rather than confirms these suggestions. The difference in nitrogen values is more than 4‰, which would imply a massive dietary contrast between the site occupants. Total dietary replacement of shellfish by seal would result in a shift of about 9‰. Given that many other dietary items, including terrestrial foods, are common to the occupants of these sites, 4‰ implies a shift from a shell midden with seal to a seal midden with shell. Yet both sites are dominated by shellfish. Seal bones are no more common at Nelson Bay Cave than at other Cape sites including an admittedly poorly described Matjes River. At Nelson Bay Cave seal bones are no more common after 4,500 years ago than before and about eight times more common after 2,000 years ago than before. Some of the lowest seal bone densities at Nelson Bay Cave are between 3,300 and 2,000 years ago. The archaeological record, such as it is, directly refutes the proposed interpretation. Marean suggests in his response (2006, p. 588) that it might be possible to rescue the main hypothesis by invoking subsidiary ones such as the impact of transport decisions on seal bone frequencies, but these would need to be spelled out and tested. There are changes in seal bone frequencies and densities, but such changes are out of phase with the Sealy hypothesis. The suggestion that increased seal consumption led to a less residentially mobile settlement pattern on the Robberg Peninsula is also not supported by existing observations. There is a substantial amount of occupation deposit in the
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... Shells are also a feature of some Middle Paleolithic sites in Italy (Stiner, 1994 ), at Gibraltar (Stringer et al., 2008 ), and along both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines of North Africa (Stringer and Barton, 2008 ; see also... more
... Shells are also a feature of some Middle Paleolithic sites in Italy (Stiner, 1994 ), at Gibraltar (Stringer et al., 2008 ), and along both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines of North Africa (Stringer and Barton, 2008 ; see also Chapter 7 in this book ). ...
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Elands Bay Cave (EBC) is one of the key sites for the analysis of the Late Pleistocene/Holocene record in southern Africa. It typifies an area of study, the West Coast of South Africa, which benefits from a long history of research, from... more
Elands Bay Cave (EBC) is one of the key sites for the analysis of the Late Pleistocene/Holocene record in southern Africa. It typifies an area of study, the West Coast of South Africa, which benefits from a long history of research, from the 1960s until today. The 2011 project of EBC was initiated within the framework of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) research at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS). The objective was to build a local synthesis and a complementary picture on the basis of these two sites located 14 km apart from one another, on the left bank of the Verlorenvlei. The excavation at EBC took place during May 2011 with the aim of clarifying the site formation processes, the chronology of the Late Pleistocene occupations as well as the nature of the technological sequence. Our excavation focused on a 1.2 m deep profile that records two main occupational phases separated by a significant hiatus: (1) the initial phase represents an early MSA technology (previously called ‘MSA 1’ by T. ...
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In 2011 we conducted a field campaign at the site of Elands Bay Cave (EBC), on the West coast of South Africa, with the aim of clarifying the nature and chronology of its human Pleistocene occupations. In the present paper, we present the... more
In 2011 we conducted a field campaign at the site of Elands Bay Cave (EBC), on the West coast of South Africa, with the aim of clarifying the nature and chronology of its human Pleistocene occupations. In the present paper, we present the results of a chronology based on various materials and methods: radiocarbon (C14) dating was applied to 8 fragments of charcoal whereas luminescence dating methods (OSL, IRSL and TL) were applied to quartz and feldspar grains extracted from 5 sediment samples and to 4 burnt fragments of quartzite rock. For the upper part of the sequence, the luminescence ages are either in agreement with or slightly younger than the C14 ages. The results suggest that the upper part of the EBC sequence extends from MIS3 to MIS2, including successively late Middle Stone Age (starting from 38 ± 3 ka), Early Later Stone Age (ending 22 ka ago) and Robberg occupations (starting 19.1 ± 0.3 ka ago). The lower part of the EBC sequence, associated with Early Middle Stone Age...
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Elands Bay Cave provides the opportunity to characterize Holocene technologies and hunter-gatherers adaptations in the West Coast of South Africa. In this paper, we discuss the question of adhesives uses and manufactures by applying a... more
Elands Bay Cave provides the opportunity to characterize Holocene technologies and hunter-gatherers adaptations in the West Coast of South Africa. In this paper, we discuss the question of adhesives uses and manufactures by applying a biomolecular and technological analysis to three unpublished organic artefacts recovered from the 1970s excavation. The first piece is a large handle made of adhesive and with a tear-drop shape (the ‘handle’), the second piece is a kind of pencil grip wrapping a microlithic quartz segment (the ‘grip’), and the last piece takes the form of a macro-residue likely sealing the perforation of an ostrich eggshell flask (the ‘sealant’). The results of our study document the selection and transformation of Podocarpus resin, mixed with quartz sand to produce adhesive. One case study (the sealant) suggests that fat was added to the recipe in order to modify the adhesive’s properties. The paper provides a unique insight into Holocene organic technologies and fuel...
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This article presents the results of the anatomical identification by scanning electron microscopy of wood charcoal from excavations in 2011 at Elands Bay Cave (EBC), South Africa. The samples are from Robberg Group D layers (18/19 ka cal... more
This article presents the results of the anatomical identification by scanning electron microscopy of wood charcoal from excavations in 2011 at Elands Bay Cave (EBC), South Africa. The samples are from Robberg Group D layers (18/19 ka cal BP); the Early Later Stone Age (LSA) Group F layers (22–24 ka cal BP), and the late Middle Stone Age (MSA) Group H-I-J layers (35–39ka cal BP). Noticeable differences in the vegetation are present in LSA layers, which have more diverse thicket elements represented in Groups D and F than in Group H-I-J layers—with their heavier reliance on Afromontane and mesic thicket taxa during the late MSA. Published charcoal results from previous excavations at EBC chart a progressive change over time from xeric thicket and asteraceous shrubland vegetation, through proteoid fynbos and general thicket to mesic thicket, riverine woodland and proteoid fynbos, ultimately to Afromontane forest. Climatic or soil moisture factors may have played a significant part and...
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Elands Bay Cave has been episodically occupied for many tens of thousands of years, but apparently always in fairly brief visits. It therefore contains an intermittent but sequentially organized record of environmental and behavioural... more
Elands Bay Cave has been episodically occupied for many tens of thousands of years, but apparently always in fairly brief visits. It therefore contains an intermittent but sequentially organized record of environmental and behavioural events over a time period of perhaps 150 000 years. Here I look at the later Holocene record and assess what it reveals about marine food exploitation by hunter gatherers and later pastoralist groups. Because we have similar records from several other small caves, rock shelters and open sites around the Verloren Vlei and the associated shoreline, we can recognise periods of common use and disuse and understand the intermittent and changing use of the local shoreline resources over the past 5000 years.
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The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) of southern Africa represents a poorly defined period in terms of chronology, palaeoenvironments, subsistence strategies and technological traditions. This lack of understanding is directly related to the... more
The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) of southern Africa represents a poorly defined period in terms of chronology, palaeoenvironments, subsistence strategies and technological traditions. This lack of understanding is directly related to the low number of EMSA deposits that have been excavated, but concomitantly, it also reflects the poor interest accorded by most of the recent archaeological projects. In this context, the excavation that we undertook at Elands Bay Cave (EBC) in the West Coast of South Africa in 2011 provides a good opportunity to discuss the oldest occupations at the site, which have been assigned to the ‘MSA 1’ by T. Volman (1981) and which purportedly belong to the earliest MSA traditions of southern Africa. In the present paper, we provide a technological study of the ‘MSA 1’ lithic assemblage. Our results demonstrate the near-exclusive use of local quartzite by the inhabitants of EBC. This raw material was preferentially selected in the form of slabs and large fla...
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Elands Bay Cave (EBC) is a key South African site allowing discussion of technological change and adaptations that occurred from the Upper Pleniglacial to the Holocene. In 2011, we set out a new field campaign aiming to clarify the nature... more
Elands Bay Cave (EBC) is a key South African site allowing discussion of technological change and adaptations that occurred from the Upper Pleniglacial to the Holocene. In 2011, we set out a new field campaign aiming to clarify the nature and chronology of the earliest Robberg occupations at the site, a technocomplex whose appearance closely relates to the Last Glacial Maximum. Our results document the appearance of the Robberg technology at ca. 19 398–18 790 cal BP, succeeding a phase commonly referred to as the Early Later Stone Age. In this paper, we further develop the definition of the Robberg by providing a technological and functional study of the MOS1 lithic assemblage at EBC, dated to 14 605–14 278 cal BP. Our results show that EBC occupants dominantly selected local quartz in addition to heat-treated silcrete that was introduced from distances greater than 30 km. Robberg inhabitants applied different reduction strategies combining bipolar/anvil and soft stone hammer percus...
Research Interests: Archaeology, Geology, Heat Treatment, Use Wear Analysis, Lithic Technology, and 15 morePleistocene, Cave, Quartz industries, Stone tools, Hafting, Last Glacial Maximum, Silcrete, Blade and Bladelet Production, Projectile, Later Stone Age, Microlithic Technology, Bladelets, Later Stone Age Hunting Technologies, Later Stone Age archaeology, and Bay
Elands Bay Cave is a small coastal rock shelter formed in quartzite that contained up to ca. 3 m of anthropogenic and geogenic deposits with archaeological materials dating to the Middle Stone Age through Later Stone Age. Today, only the... more
Elands Bay Cave is a small coastal rock shelter formed in quartzite that contained up to ca. 3 m of anthropogenic and geogenic deposits with archaeological materials dating to the Middle Stone Age through Later Stone Age. Today, only the lower portion of the sedimentary sequence, comprising ca. 1.2 m of sediment remains. A geoarchaeological study of the remaining deposits was undertaken in conjunction with renewed excavations of the site (2010–2012). A ground penetrating radar survey revealed that the excavation area targeted the deepest portion of the sedimentary infill within the rock shelter. Furthermore, micromorphological analyses of the remaining Middle and Later Stone Age deposits indicate that combustion features are present. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction measurements were used to identify secondary minerals, including taranakite, hydroxylapatite, gypsum, variscite, ardealite, opal, and whitlockite. The distributions of these secondary mineral...
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In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still... more
In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that help unravelling the cultural processes at work. This unit yields one of the oldest abstract engraving so far discovered in Africa, in the form of a rhomboid marking on the cortical surface of an ungulate long bone shaft. The comprehensive analysis of the lithic artefacts and ochre pieces found in association with the engraved bone documents the transport of rocks over long distance (>20km), the heat treatment of silcrete, the coexistence of seven lithic reduction strategies (including the production of bladelets and the manufacture of unifacial and bifacial points), the use of adhesives an...
Research Interests:
Within the animal kingdom, carnivores occupied a unique place in prehistoric societies. At times predators or competitors for resources and shelters, anthropogenic traces of their exploitation, often for non-nutritional purposes, permeate... more
Within the animal kingdom, carnivores occupied a unique place in prehistoric societies. At times predators or competitors for resources and shelters, anthropogenic traces of their exploitation, often for non-nutritional purposes, permeate the archaeological record. Scarce but spectacular depictions in Palaeolithic art confirm peoples’ fascination with carnivores. In contrast with the European record, research on hominin/carnivore interactions in Africa has primarily revolved around the hunting or scavenging debate amongst early hominins. As such, the available information on the role of carnivores in Anatomically Modern Humans’ economic and cultural systems is limited. Here, we illustrate a particular relationship between humans and carnivores during the MIS5-4 Still Bay and Howiesons Poort techno-complexes at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. The recovery of numerous felid remains, including cut-marked phalanges, tarsals and metapodials, constitutes direct evidence for carnivor...
Research Interests:
Much of Lesotho’s cultural heritage has been studied as a result of dam developments. Where dams have been built, heritage studies have provided crucial data for improving our under- standing of local archaeological sequences. Ahead of... more
Much of Lesotho’s cultural heritage has been studied as a result of dam developments. Where dams have been built, heritage studies have provided crucial data for improving our under- standing of local archaeological sequences. Ahead of the con- struction of the Lesotho Highland Development Authority’s (LHDA) new Polihali Dam in Lesotho’s Mokhotlong District and following the recommendations of a heritage assessment (CES 2014), a large-scale five-year cultural heritage management pro- gram was launched in 2018 that seeks to excavate and mitigate a number of heritage sites. Here, we provide the background to one of southern Africa’s largest heritage mitigation contracts by contextualising the current research program. We then present the archaeology of Lesotho’s eastern highlands basalt region using data collected during the inception phase of this program. The findings challenge current preconceived notions about the sparsity of archaeological remains for this region.