Susan Pfeiffer
University of Toronto, Anthropology, Faculty Member
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There is a growing literature on the topic of interpersonal violence during the Later Stone Age of southern Africa. The cases reported to date can be placed into three categories, which may or may not be aspects of the same phenomenon.... more
There is a growing literature on the topic of interpersonal violence during the Later Stone Age of southern Africa. The cases reported to date can be placed into three categories, which may or may not be aspects of the same phenomenon. There are instances of women and children with trauma to fresh bone that almost certainly documents the causes of their deaths (Morris and Parkington 1982; Pfeiffer et al. 1999; Pfeiffer and Van der Merwe 2004; Morris 2012). There are two instances of adult skeletons buried with bone points as the only grave inclusions that may represent death from poison arrows (Dewar 2010; Pfeiffer, in press), one woman and one man. There are instances of blows to the head that were healed or healing at the time an adult died (Morris et al. 1987; Pfeiffer 2010; Morris 2012). In this latter category, two crania are from men and the other is too fragmented for a sex to be determined.
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This paper documents and attempts to explain patterns of interpersonal violence that are evident in the human skeletal remains of South African hunter-gatherers dating to ca. 2400-3000 BP. The extrapolated behaviour of hunter-gatherers is... more
This paper documents and attempts to explain patterns of interpersonal violence that are evident in the human skeletal remains of South African hunter-gatherers dating to ca. 2400-3000 BP. The extrapolated behaviour of hunter-gatherers is important in the context of reconstructing the lives of our ancestors over the many millennia that precede the domestication of plants and animals. On the one hand, it is obvious that our ancestors were good at foraging because we are still here. On the other hand, there surely must have been some strategies that worked better than others, and the evidence for success or failure may be accessible to us through the skeletal remains. Documentation of the health and behavior of living or historically documented hunter-gatherers from recent years offers useful information that can be applied to earlier populations, with caution (Binford 2001; Eaton and Eaton 1999; Jenike 2001; Kelly 1995; Truswell and Hanson 1976). However, study of recent peoples cann...
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This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The... more
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in eastern Africa, Lake Turkana (NW Kenya) shrank dramatically. Shoreline retreat coincided with an expansion of open plains, creating new ecological conditions and potential opportunities for early herders in the basin. In this changing landscape, economies shifted from food procurement (fishing/hunting aquatic resources) to food production (herding), likely through both in-migration by pastoralists and adoption of herding by local fishers. Early pastoralists also built at least seven megalithic pillar sites that served as communal cemeteries ...
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This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15-5 ka). The... more
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15-5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in eastern Africa, Lake Turkana (NW Kenya) shrank dramatically. Shoreline retreat coincided with an expansion of open plains, creating new ecological conditions and potential opportunities for early herders in the basin. In this changing landscape, economies shifted from food procurement (fishing/ hunting aquatic resources) to food production (herding), likely through both in-migration by pastoralists and adoption of herding by local fishers. Early pastoralists also built at least seven megalithic pillar sites that served as communal cemeteries during this time. Recent research has shown that local environmental dynamics-both during and after the AHP-were complex, demanding a more careful interrogation of the notion that post-AHP life entailed new and/or heightened risks. Risk-buffering strategies might include mobility, diversification, physical storage, and exchange. Archaeologists working around Lake Turkana have proposed that economic shifts from fishing to pastoralism entailed increased mobility as a risk-buffering strategy to deal with aridity and resource unpredictability, and that pillar sites-as fixed landmarks in an unstable landscape-provided settings for congregation and exchange amongst increasingly mobile herding communities. However, recent research has shown that local environmental dynamics in the Lake Turkana basin-both during and after the AHP-were more complex than previously thought, necessitating re-evaluation of the notion that post-AHP life entailed new and/or heightened risks. Here, we explore risk buffering strategies (e.g. mobility, diversification, physical storage and/or exchange) as only one category of potential explanation for the new social practices observed in the region at this time. Gauging their applicability requires us to (a) assess the spatial mobility of communities and individuals interred at pillar sites; (b) evaluate whether and how mobility strategies may have changed as pastoralism supplanted fishing; and (c) examine alternative explanations for social and economic changes.
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Peterson, Jane. SEXUAL REVOLUTIONS: GENDER AND LABOR AT THE DAWN OF AGRICULTURE, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002, Cloth 0-7591-0256-2 $75.00; Paper 0-7591 -0257-0 $29.95.Drawing on a feminist orientation, Jane Peterson has... more
Peterson, Jane. SEXUAL REVOLUTIONS: GENDER AND LABOR AT THE DAWN OF AGRICULTURE, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002, Cloth 0-7591-0256-2 $75.00; Paper 0-7591 -0257-0 $29.95.Drawing on a feminist orientation, Jane Peterson has organized data on the emergence of agriculture in the Near East to explore questions of sex-specific behavior and division of labor in human groups transforming themselves from hunting-gathering to horticulture and village life. She rejects a simplistic model of a uniform, developmental trajectory of social change from foraging to farming but tries to construct a more nuanced picture from the available data, based upon secondary analysis of skeletal and archaeological studies.A relatively junior scholar, Peterson is to be congratulated for tackling questions from a time and place that has been under a strong anthropological lens for many years. The place is a portion of modern Israel, Palestine and Jordan, where there is evidence for plant domestication around 10,000 B.P. The time she studies is roughly 12,500 to 5,000 B.P. She has integrated a substantial literature that includes both field- and theory-based contributions, and the focus on Western Asia will assure that her work reaches a substantial readership. The problem is that the small amounts of data available to her can only support so much analysis. She can't be blamed for using too few skeletons to carry out her study, as there are only so many useable sites (she uses 14) and individuals found as exemplars of life at these sites (she uses 158 individuals, 65 female and 93 male). But whether the data is adequate to support any generalizations more than a suggestion is doubtful.She focuses on the results of research that show markers of occupational stress on skeletons. Noting that physical activity can influence the size, shape and robusticity of bones, and adding observations of joint modification as a response to habitual movement, teeth ware, and the effects of trauma, Peterson reanalyzes the 158 skeletons to assess any gender differences found as evidence for similar or different activities and occupations. Musculoskeletal analysis of many kinds of work activities is developed, looking for lateral and bilateral effects of chopping, throwing, digging, walking, weaving, carrying and many other activitiesAfter explaining the methods and showing the statistical analyses of the results of the tabulations (mostly by non-parametric methods appropriate for these small numbers) Peterson presents the theoretical conclusions of her study in the form of a series of drawings of life in a typical village of the period, showing male and female individuals carrying out activities supported by study of the skeletons of that period. The drawings are charming, and effective tools of communication of her results. But worries remain.In the research of biological anthropologists, musculoskeletal markers (MSM) are a subset of markers of occupational stress (MOS), the latter being all changes in the skeleton and teeth that were ostensibly caused by physical activities during life. …
Research Interests: Sociology and Demography
Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience - edited by Daniel H. Temple December 2018
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Modern humans originated between 300 and 200 ka in structured populations throughout Africa, characterized by regional interaction and diversity. Acknowledgment of this complex Pleistocene population structure raises new questions about... more
Modern humans originated between 300 and 200 ka in structured populations throughout Africa, characterized by regional interaction and diversity. Acknowledgment of this complex Pleistocene population structure raises new questions about the emergence of phenotypic diversity. Holocene Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) skeletons and descendant Khoe-San peoples have small adult body sizes that may reflect long-term adaptation to the Cape environment. Pleistocene Southern African adult body sizes are not well characterized, but some postcranial elements are available. The most numerous Pleistocene postcranial skeletal remains come from Klasies River Mouth on the Southern Cape coast of South Africa. We compare the morphology of these skeletal elements with globally sampled Holocene groups encompassing diverse adult body sizes and shapes (n = 287) to investigate whether there is evidence for phenotypic patterning. The adult Klasies River Mouth bones include most of a lumbar vertebra,...
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Abstract Environmental isotopes can provide information about the composition of groups and the movement of people across landscapes. The archaeological record of Huron-Wendat communities in south-central Ontario is one of numerous... more
Abstract Environmental isotopes can provide information about the composition of groups and the movement of people across landscapes. The archaeological record of Huron-Wendat communities in south-central Ontario is one of numerous drainage-based sequences of small villages among which families or larger population segments moved. These villages amalgamated in the early to mid-sixteenth century into fewer, larger communities. Strontium isotope values (87Sr/86Sr) are used to test hypotheses about these early localized interactions and later amalgamations. There is little prior information about strontium values from this region which was recently glaciated and receives ample precipitation. From the late thirteenth century onward, ancestral Huron-Wendat communities had distinct burial practices of primary burial followed by secondary, collective ossuary burial. Strontium values from tooth enamel of 118 human first permanent molars from 15 archaeological contexts spanning four centuries are interpreted in a framework of archaeologically derived deer (N = 34), small (N = 35) and other large (N = 7) mammals. Reflecting their local origins, 87Sr/86Sr values of small mammals from three geological substrates differ significantly from one another. Each small mammal group clusters more tightly than those of deer. Most human 87Sr/86Sr values agree with small mammal values, by region. Three sites, out of six with more than 10 data points, show mean human 87Sr/86Sr values that differ significantly from the small mammal values of their geological substrate, signaling community movement and individual in-migration. Interpretation of individual human values outside local ranges is informed by information from dietary isotopes. Environmental isotopes substantiate and enhance our prior understandings of the ancestral Huron-Wendat.
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Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can... more
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well-studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground-penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monumental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) constructed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa's earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by...
Research Interests: Ancient History, Geography, Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Pastoralism in Africa, and 13 moreIndian ancient history, Megalithic Monuments, Kenya, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Pastoralism (Archaeology), Mortuary archaeology, Humans, Eastern Africa, Turkana, Monumentality, Pastoralism, and Funeral Rites
The Late Archaic in northeastern North America (4500-2800 B.P.) pre-dates reliance on pottery and domesticated plants. It is thought to reflect a highly mobile, seasonal migratory foraging/hunting regimen. A juvenile skeleton with... more
The Late Archaic in northeastern North America (4500-2800 B.P.) pre-dates reliance on pottery and domesticated plants. It is thought to reflect a highly mobile, seasonal migratory foraging/hunting regimen. A juvenile skeleton with pervasive bone wasting and fragile jaws from the Hind Site (AdHk-1), ca. 3000 B.P., southwestern Ontario, provides evidence of the social context of her family group, including aspects of mobility and food management. The well-preserved bones and teeth are considered in bioarchaeological context. Radiographic, osteometric and cross-sectional geometric approaches to assessing musculoskeletal function are presented, plus differential diagnosis of the bone wasting condition. All bones of the probable female (aged approx. 16yr) show stunting and wasting. Wedged lower vertebral bodies, porous trabeculae, undeveloped bicondylar angles (femur) and abnormally low cortical long bone mass are consistent with chronically reduced ambulation. Few teeth remain in the dr...
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Archaeological evidence of the ancestral Huron-Wendat Nation of Southern Ontario, Canada, shows a population increase from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, suggesting high fertility. Birth timing and infant survival are... more
Archaeological evidence of the ancestral Huron-Wendat Nation of Southern Ontario, Canada, shows a population increase from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, suggesting high fertility. Birth timing and infant survival are influenced by mothers' decisions about weaning. This study explores trophic enrichment of δ15N in horizontal dentine slices from 35 deciduous molars (n = 33 dm1, n = 2 dm2) and 39 permanent first molars (M1) representing five Huron-Wendat ossuaries, dating from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Weaning was normally incomplete at the end of dm formation, at an age of about 2.5 years. Post-weaning dentine values appear by the end of crown formation of M1. The weaning process began between 8 and 18 months and was complete in all cases by 3.5 years. Timing of the weaning process does not support the idea that Huron-Wendat population increase was associated with early weaning of infants. Communities from the sixteenth century and thereafter show...
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Determining the appropriate approach to calibrating radiocarbon dates is challenging when unknown and variable fractions of the carbon sample are derived from terrestrial and marine systems. Uncalibrated dates from a large number of human... more
Determining the appropriate approach to calibrating radiocarbon dates is challenging when unknown and variable fractions of the carbon sample are derived from terrestrial and marine systems. Uncalibrated dates from a large number of human skeletons from Western Cape and Southern Cape locales, South Africa (n = 187), can be used to explore alternate approaches to the marine carbon correction. The approach that estimates theoretically expected minimum and maximum values for marine carbon (“expected”) is compared to the approach that estimates observed minimum and maximum values (“observed”). Two case studies are explored, wherein skeletons interred together have non-overlapping conventional 14C ages. The case from the Western Cape is explored through carbon isotope values; the case from the Southern Cape uses nitrogen isotope values. In both cases, the approach using observed endpoints yields better date calibration results. Analysis of the large sample shows that mean values for esti...
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Purpose Skeletons sampled for ancient human DNA analysis are sometimes complete enough to provide information about the lives of the people they represent. We focus on three Later Stone Age skeletons, ca. 2000 B.P., from coastal... more
Purpose Skeletons sampled for ancient human DNA analysis are sometimes complete enough to provide information about the lives of the people they represent. We focus on three Later Stone Age skeletons, ca. 2000 B.P., from coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, whose ancient genomes have been sequenced (Schlebusch et al., 2017). Methods Bioarchaeological approaches are integrated with aDNA information. Results All skeletons are male. Dental development shows that the boy, with prominent cribra orbitalia, died at age 6--7 years. Two men show cranial and spinal trauma, extensive tooth wear, plus mild cribra orbitalia in one. Conclusions Dental wear and trauma of the adults are consistent with hunter-gatherer lives. Even partial aDNA evidence contributes to sex determination. Parasitic infection such as schistosomiasis is the best-fit cause for the child's anemia in this case. Contribution to knowledge The convergence of genomic and bioarchaeological approaches expands our knowledge of the past lives of a boy and two men whose lives as hunter-gatherers included episodes of trauma and disease. Limitations The skeletons are incomplete, in variable condition, and from poorly characterized local cultural contexts. Suggestions for further research Thorough osteobiographic analysis should accompany paleogenomic investigations. Such disciplinary collaboration enriches our understanding of the human past.
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The purpose of this study was to provide bone histomorphometric reference data for South Africans of the Western Cape who likely dealt with health issues under the apartheid regime. The 206 adult individuals (female = 75,male = 131,... more
The purpose of this study was to provide bone histomorphometric reference data for South Africans of the Western Cape who likely dealt with health issues under the apartheid regime. The 206 adult individuals (female = 75,male = 131, mean = 47.9 ± 15.8 years) from the Kirsten Skeletal Collection, U. Stellenbosch, lived in the Cape Town metropole from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. To study age-related changes in cortical and trabecular bone microstructure, photomontages of mid-thoracic rib cross-sections were quantitatively examined. Variables include relative cortical area (Rt.Ct.Ar), osteon population density (OPD), osteon area (On.Ar), bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), and trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp). All cortical variables demonstrated significant relationships with age in both sexes, with women showing stronger overall age associations. Peak bone mass was compromised in some men, possibly reflecting poor nutritional quality an...
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Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) individuals and their contemporary descendants, the KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa, have small adult body sizes and gracile builds [1]. These unique proportions are documented from historic times... more
Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) individuals and their contemporary descendants, the KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa, have small adult body sizes and gracile builds [1]. These unique proportions are documented from historic times through to the early Holocene [1]. Genetic analyses of contemporary KhoeSan groups in southern African indicate that they diverged from non-Khoesan groups approximately 110 – 160 kya [2]. This divergence dates to the Middle Stone Age (MSA), where skeletal remains are scarce in southern Africa. While postcranial skeletal elements are available from De Kelders Cave 1 (Klipgat), Border Cave, and Cave of Hearths, the most diverse group of MSA postcranial fragments come from the Klasies River Main Site (KRM) on the southern Cape coast near Knysna, with relatively firm dates to MIS 5 [3]. This region features a temperate Mediterranean climate. The KRM materials include a lumbar vertebra, a left clavicle, a left proximal radius, a right proximal ulna, and left first metatarsal [3]. Studies across multiple sites suggest that a range of body sizes existed in the MSA [4]. However the KRM postcrania were noted as appearing similar in size to LSA southern Africans [5].
A substantial number of southern African LSA skeletal elements are available for comparison. This paper compares the external linear dimensions, shape characteristics, and cross-sectional geometric properties (CSGP) of the KRM postcrania to those of LSA southern Africans to assess if distinctive small body sizes are evident in the MSA. This will clarify if small adult size may represent an early, presumably adaptive, trait in the KhoeSan lineage. Discriminant function analyses (DFAs) are used to compare each of the KRM elements to adult LSA southern African individuals (n=108) as well as to other Holocene groups that encompass a range of body sizes (Andaman Islanders, n=32; northeastern Native Americans, n=23; eastern African LSA groups, n=31; Iberomaurusian individuals, n=52; and Australian Aborigines, n=11). This approach differentiates individuals based on assumed and predicted group membership.
All of the DFAs are statistically significant (α < 0.01), and the dimensions of the KRM materials consistently overlap with LSA southern Africans. All DFA models group the KRM elements with LSA southern Africans when predicting group membership. The first discriminant function is highly significant in all DFAs for the groups analysed, so the similarities between KRM and LSA southern African materials are likely driven by size. Despite the similarities in size and shape, those KRM elements where CSGP can be assessed (clavicle, metatarsal) have greater torsional and compressive strength properties than analogous elements from the LSA southern Africans.
These results demonstrate that small southern African adult body sizes may have great temporal depth. This paper provides further evidence for biological continuities between MSA and LSA southern Africans, consistent with genomic studies. These comparisons extend the presence of small body sizes associated with contemporary KhoeSan peoples into the Pleistocene.
A substantial number of southern African LSA skeletal elements are available for comparison. This paper compares the external linear dimensions, shape characteristics, and cross-sectional geometric properties (CSGP) of the KRM postcrania to those of LSA southern Africans to assess if distinctive small body sizes are evident in the MSA. This will clarify if small adult size may represent an early, presumably adaptive, trait in the KhoeSan lineage. Discriminant function analyses (DFAs) are used to compare each of the KRM elements to adult LSA southern African individuals (n=108) as well as to other Holocene groups that encompass a range of body sizes (Andaman Islanders, n=32; northeastern Native Americans, n=23; eastern African LSA groups, n=31; Iberomaurusian individuals, n=52; and Australian Aborigines, n=11). This approach differentiates individuals based on assumed and predicted group membership.
All of the DFAs are statistically significant (α < 0.01), and the dimensions of the KRM materials consistently overlap with LSA southern Africans. All DFA models group the KRM elements with LSA southern Africans when predicting group membership. The first discriminant function is highly significant in all DFAs for the groups analysed, so the similarities between KRM and LSA southern African materials are likely driven by size. Despite the similarities in size and shape, those KRM elements where CSGP can be assessed (clavicle, metatarsal) have greater torsional and compressive strength properties than analogous elements from the LSA southern Africans.
These results demonstrate that small southern African adult body sizes may have great temporal depth. This paper provides further evidence for biological continuities between MSA and LSA southern Africans, consistent with genomic studies. These comparisons extend the presence of small body sizes associated with contemporary KhoeSan peoples into the Pleistocene.
This NSF funded project will study how hunter-gatherers lived in persistent coastal contexts during glacial and interglacial phases. For many years, scholars have studied how people interact with their environment when faced with... more
This NSF funded project will study how hunter-gatherers lived in persistent coastal contexts during glacial and interglacial phases. For many years, scholars have studied how people interact with their environment when faced with ecological pressures. Like modern people, prehistoric hunter-gatherers are known to have adapted their subsistence, technological, and social behaviors in response to changes in their local environments. These adaptations influenced, among other things, what they ate, where they lived, what kinds of tools they made, and also how they interacted with each other. The archaeological sciences are ideally suited to studying the relationship between people and their environment over long timespans – spanning centuries to tens of thousands of years – because these kinds of behavioral changes can be detected in the multivariate archaeological record. Coastal zones are dynamic and rich environments with abundant, diverse, and predictable foods and other resources. Scholars have been intrigued by the way coastal environments may have supported and even protected humans living in these places from larger ecological changes that detrimentally affected human groups living in inland locations. Yet considerable gaps remain in these records due to changes in sea levels during glacial phases that shifted the locations of many coastlines by tens to hundreds of kilometers. Understanding how hunter-gatherers adapted to coastal zones over long timeframes, and how these groups compared to populations living inland, therefore, provides new insights into the ways that humans used subsistence, social and technological strategies to mediate ecological pressures in dynamic environments. It also gives the scientific community a broader point of reference for understanding human impacts on coastal environments, which can inform 21 st century marine and coastal conservation strategies.
South Africa has one of the oldest and richest records of human coastal occupation. This research project focuses on South Africa's East Coast where very narrow continental shelf has limited coastline movements during glacial periods. This prevented large coastline movements and created stable coastal ecosystems. In one these places, known as Pondoland, rare records of coastal occupation and resource use during the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 26,000-19,000 years ago) have already been recovered by the P5 Project. These records provide a unique opportunity to study hunter-gatherers living in stable coastal contexts over long time periods and compare evidence of their behaviors to hunter-gatherer groups living inland. The project synergizes researchers from numerous international universities and disciplines to answer complex questions about the evolution of human behavior in a unique and persistent environment along Pondoland's coastline. Detailed archaeological, zooarchaeological, and paleoenvironmental information from excavations at two coastal archaeological sites will be collected as well as datasets from systematic landscape studies and ethnographic observations of modern plant foods and coastal foraging. The research will generate new evidence to test questions about coastal ecological variability across glacial and interglacial periods and how these changes impacted hunter-gatherer food-choice patterns, social networks, settlement patterns, and technology. Situating these data within the broader southern African paleolandscape will bring renewed focus on hunter-gatherer's use of coastal and inland resources across glacial and interglacial cycles and it will provide a more nuanced understanding of human evolution and social complexity across broad bio-geographical contexts. The project's interdisciplinary
South Africa has one of the oldest and richest records of human coastal occupation. This research project focuses on South Africa's East Coast where very narrow continental shelf has limited coastline movements during glacial periods. This prevented large coastline movements and created stable coastal ecosystems. In one these places, known as Pondoland, rare records of coastal occupation and resource use during the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 26,000-19,000 years ago) have already been recovered by the P5 Project. These records provide a unique opportunity to study hunter-gatherers living in stable coastal contexts over long time periods and compare evidence of their behaviors to hunter-gatherer groups living inland. The project synergizes researchers from numerous international universities and disciplines to answer complex questions about the evolution of human behavior in a unique and persistent environment along Pondoland's coastline. Detailed archaeological, zooarchaeological, and paleoenvironmental information from excavations at two coastal archaeological sites will be collected as well as datasets from systematic landscape studies and ethnographic observations of modern plant foods and coastal foraging. The research will generate new evidence to test questions about coastal ecological variability across glacial and interglacial periods and how these changes impacted hunter-gatherer food-choice patterns, social networks, settlement patterns, and technology. Situating these data within the broader southern African paleolandscape will bring renewed focus on hunter-gatherer's use of coastal and inland resources across glacial and interglacial cycles and it will provide a more nuanced understanding of human evolution and social complexity across broad bio-geographical contexts. The project's interdisciplinary
