Shellfish exploitation during the Oakhurst at Klipdrift Cave, southern Cape, South Africa

Klipdrift Cave in the southern Cape, South Africa, provides new insights into shellfish harvesting during the Later Stone Age (14–9 ka) period associated with the Oakhurst techno-complex. Two shellfish species dominate: Turbo sarmaticus and Dinoplax gigas. An abrupt shift in the relative frequencies of these species occurs in the middle of the sequence with T. sarmaticus almost completely replacing D. gigas. The shift in dominant species is likely due to environmental change caused by fluctuating sea levels rather than change in sea surface temperatures. The shellfish assemblage shows that local coastal habitats at Klipdrift Cave were somewhat different from those of contemporaneous sites in the southern Cape. Although the shellfish specimens are smaller at Klipdrift Cave than those from Middle Stone Age localities such as Blombos Cave, there is no robust indication that larger human populations at Klipdrift Cave during the Oakhurst period might have caused this change in size. Environmental or ecological factors could have restricted shellfish growth rates as some experimental works have suggested, but this possibility also remains to be further explored.

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Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Journal of Human Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.09.010 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 67 ◽

pp. 33-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Jessica C. Thompson ◽

Christopher S. Henshilwood

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Behaviour ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Nutritional Values ◽

Blombos Cave

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Human Skeletal Remains from the Southern Cape Province and Their Bearing on the Stone Age Prehistory of South Africa

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(78)90069-8 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 219-230 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

G. P. Rightmire

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

River Mouth ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Later Stone Age ◽

Human Skeletal Remains ◽

Upper Pleistocene ◽

Skeletal Samples ◽

Source Of Information ◽

Cave Sediment

Substantial numbers of human skeletons have been recovered from caves and shelters of the southern Cape Province, South Africa, and these constitute a valuable source of information about evolutionary change and population movement during Upper Pleistocene and Holocene times. A few fragments from Klasies River Mouth and Die Kelders are firmly associated with Middle Stone Age cultural assemblages, but most of the material is probably linked with the Later Stone Age Albany and Wilton industries. Unfortunately the largest collections of relatively well-preserved remains have come from earlier excavations (Matjes River Shelter, Oakhurst), and the stratigraphic provenance of these burials is frequently in doubt. Other skeletal samples are small, and paleodemographic approaches are diffcult to apply. However, Bushman- or Hottentot-like individuals can certainly be identified, and this is important to the questions of Bushman antiquity or origins. Other problems concerning early Cape populations can also be examined, and this work on the human skeletons should complement ongoing cave sediment and other geological studies, faunal and plant analyses, and archaeological investigations of associated cultural remains.

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Rock Hyraxes (Procavia capensis) from Middle Stone Age Levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa

African Archaeological Review ◽

10.1007/s10437-014-9154-7 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 25-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Shaw Badenhorst ◽

Karen L. van Niekerk ◽

Christopher S. Henshilwood

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Procavia Capensis ◽

Blombos Cave

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Geoarchaeological investigation of occupation deposits in Blombos Cave in South Africa indicate changes in site use and settlement dynamics in the southern Cape during MIS 5b-4

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2020.75 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-54

Author(s):

Magnus M. Haaland ◽

Christopher E. Miller ◽

Ole F. Unhammer ◽

Jerome P. Reynard ◽

Karen L. van Niekerk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Time Frame ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Sea Levels ◽

Technological Advances ◽

The Social ◽

Settlement Dynamics ◽

Site Use ◽

Regional Settlement ◽

Blombos Cave

Abstract The archaeological assemblage recovered from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels in Blombos Cave, South Africa, is central to our understanding of the development of early modern humans. Here, we demonstrate that the cultural and technological innovations inferred from the Blombos Cave MSA record also correlate with significant shifts in site use and occupational intensity. Through a comprehensive geoarchaeological investigation of three MSA occupation phases, we identified distinct diachronic trends in the frequency of visits and the modes of occupation. During the earliest phases (ca. 88–82 ka), humans inhabited the cave for more extended periods, but cave visits were not frequent. During the later phases (ca. 77–72 ka), the cave was more regularly visited but for shorter periods each time. We argue that these changes in local occupational intensity, which also coincide with shifts in vegetation, sea levels, and subsistence, can best be explained by broader changes in hunter-gatherer mobility strategies and occupation patterns. Fundamental changes in regional settlement dynamics during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 5b-4 would have significantly affected the nature and frequency of social interaction within and between prehistoric populations living in the southern Cape, a scenario that ultimately may explain some of the social and technological advances that occurred there during this time frame.

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U-Th dated late Pleistocene tufas linked to human occupation in the semi-arid southern Kalahari

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8644 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica von der Meden ◽

Jayne Wilkins ◽

Benjamin Schoville ◽

Kyle Brown ◽

Robyn Pickering

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Summer Rainfall ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Annual Rainfall ◽

Human Populations ◽

Stone Age ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Cape Coast ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Semi Arid

Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter (GHN) in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa is situated within the Summer Rainfall Zone, in the semi-arid (~300-400mm mean annual rainfall) southeastern edge of the Kalahari Basin. This location is significant as the dominant narrative for the evolution of modern humans has focused on Middle Stone Age archaeological sites along the southern cape coast of South Africa, with coastal resources and favourable climate conditions argued as key factors in driving the evolution of Homo sapiens. Semi-arid regions in the interior of South Africa, such as the southern Kalahari Basin, are often considered to have been too dry to sustain significant human occupation and activity, and have thus been overlooked. However, GHN does indeed preserve rich stratified Middle and Later Stone Age deposits, as well as abundant large relict tufa deposits that cover the surrounding hillside. These tufas, which are ambient temperature, freshwater calcium carbonate deposits, are indicative of past periods of flowing surface waters and shallow pools on the hillside. Laser ablation trace element mapping was used to pre-screen the tufa samples to target layers with high 238U and little to no 232Th concentration for U-Th dating. The resultant ages show that the tufa system at Ga-Mohana was active during five distinct intervals over the last 110 ka, three of which closely coincide with the timing of human occupation at the site, itself dated via OSL. The coincidence of tufa formation and human occupation suggests that the tufa-forming waters were a critical resource to human populations living in the area. This hitherto undiscovered source of fresh water, more than 600 km inland and as far back as 110 ka, stands to challenge the notion of an empty and arid interior.

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Bone Artefacts from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa

Current Anthropology ◽

10.1086/204678 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 38 (5) ◽

pp. 890-895 ◽

Cited By ~ 82

Author(s):

Christopher Henshilwood ◽

Judith Sealy

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Blombos Cave

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Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa

Journal of Human Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.005 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 27-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 284

Author(s):

Christopher S. Henshilwood ◽

Francesco d'Errico ◽

Ian Watts

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Blombos Cave

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On the Soundness of Inferring Modern Language from Symbolic Behaviour

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774310000454 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 345-356 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Rudolf Botha

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Material Culture ◽

Expressive Power ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Stone Age ◽

Modern Language ◽

Blombos Cave ◽

Linguistic Means

At issue in this article is the soundness of archaeological inferences which proceed stepwise from data about the material culture of Middle Stone Age humans, via assumptions about their symbolic behaviour, to the conclusion that they had modern language. Taking as paradigmatic the inference that the humans who inhabited Blombos Cave in South Africa some 75,000 years ago had fully syntactical language, the article argues that the inferential step from symbolic behaviour to modern language lacks the required warrant. This step, it is shown, is not underpinned by an adequate bridge theory of the putative links between symbolic behaviour and modern language. The bridge theories invoked to date to shore up the Blombos inference are flawed, for instance, in that they incorporate untenable assumptions about language, including an incorrect view of the expressive power of relatively simple linguistic means.

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