Prehistoric Exploitation of Marine Resources in Southern Africa with Particular Reference to Shellfish Gathering: Opportunities and Continuities.

Este artículo se centra en la discusión de tres casos de estudio en los cuales los recursos marinos desempeñaron un rol importante en el desarrollo humano del sur de África desde hace 164 ka. La capacidad de los humanos modernos de emigrar fuera de África se ve, en parte, como una expansión en la capacidad de forrajeo inicialmente expresada en el litoral rocoso para incluir más tarde las costas de playas de arena. La selección de un hábitat cercano a la costa, donde se congregaban grupos diversos dentro de un marco de bajas densidades poblacionales inmediatamente después de la última glaciación, permitió que esos grupos pudieran cumplir con sus necesidades sociales básicas y así asegurar la supervivencia de la población. Del mismo modo, durante el Holoceno observamos un consumo significativamente alto de recursos marinos como consecuencia del considerable incremento demográfico de los grupos humanos. Otros temas relacionados y un poco más generales son igualmente discutidos.This paper discusses three case studies in which marine resources played an important role in human development in southern Africa over the last 164 ka: the ability of modern humans to exit successfully from Africa is seen partly as the result of a foraging expansion from rocky shores to sandy beaches; the location of an aggregation site close to the coast in the context of low human densities during post-glacial times allowed people to meet social needs and ensure population survival; and a heavy reliance on marine resources supported highest populations levels during the late Holocene. Broader and related issues are also discussed.Este artículo se centra en la discusión de tres casos de estudio en los cuales los recursos marinos desempeñaron un rol importante en el desarrollo humano del sur de África desde hace 164 ka. La capacidad de los humanos modernos de emigrar fuera de África se ve, en parte, como una expansión en la capacidad de forrajeo inicialmente expresada en el litoral rocoso para incluir más tarde las costas de playas de arena. La selección de un hábitat cercano a la costa, donde se congregaban grupos diversos dentro de un marco de bajas densidades poblacionales inmediatamente después de la última glaciación, permitió que esos grupos pudieran cumplir con sus necesidades sociales básicas y así asegurar la supervivencia de la población. Del mismo modo, durante el Holoceno observamos un consumo significativamente alto de recursos marinos como consecuencia del considerable incremento demográfico de los grupos humanos. Otros temas relacionados y un poco más generales son igualmente discutidos

A Reply to comments by D. Bar-Yosef M. Stiner on "Prehistoric exploitation of marine resources in Southern Africa with particular reference to shellfish gathering: opportunities and continuities"

I am very grateful to Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer and Mary Stiner for their comments on an article I published in the previous issue of Pyrenae. Having spent many years working with coastal sites in South Africa and now settling in the Mediterranean academic landscape, I value the feedback from these two well-known archaeologists who have dedicated years of hard work in this later part of the world. Their opinions are very much appreciated for they allow me to bring new contexts to some of the (old) questions I have pursued in South Africa, an exercise that would help me with the process of broadening my research interests to the Mediterranean region

Changing social landscapes of the Western Cape coast of southern Africa over the last 4500 years

Bibliography: pages 177-205.This thesis presents a reinterpretation of the late-Holocene hunter-gatherer archaeology of the Eland's Bay and Lambert's Bay areas of the western Cape. Marked changes in settlement, and subsistence over the last 4500 years had been previously suggested as having resulted from external factors, such as the environment and contact with incoming pastoralist groups. In contrast, this thesis presents hunter-gatherers as active role players in the transformation of their society and history. This was proposed as a result of an excavation and dating programme, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions with better resolved time sequences, and the use of an interpretative framework that emphasises possible changes in population numbers and in modes of production, as well as the consequences of these processes. Between 3500 and 2000 BP, population densities increased and residence permanence became more sedentary, both of which were easily accommodated by a productive environment. Solutions to social stress, resulting from landscape infilling, were not sought through migration, but through the formalization of ritual gatherings at Steenbokfontein Cave. During these gregarious occasions, proper codes of conducts were reinforced, inter- and intra-group conflict was mediated and peoples' identity with the local landscape was also asserted. Coinciding with the increase in population numbers after 3500 BP, subsistence was reorganized around the intensive collection of highly predictable and productive species, such as shellfish, tortoises and plants. Frequent snaring of small and territorial bovids almost completely replaced the hunting of large mobile game. A system of delayed returns was also central to coastal hunter-gatherer economy between 3000 and 2000 BP, whereby the collection, processing and storage of large quantities of shellfish meat was undertaken. The large-scale effort of this activity is attested by the massive build up of large shell middens termed "megamiddens". It seems likely that hunter- gatherers at this time obtained most of the necessary protein from marine resources. In addition to the pervasive and high levels of social stress, ecological stress became palpable as environmental conditions began to deteriorate after 2400 BP. Ritual intensification no longer provided a solution, and aggregation phases at Steenbokfontein Cave came to an end. Social networks amongst hunter-gatherer groups broke down as a consequence of their fission into smaller social units and withdrawal of some of them to the periphery of the study area. The arrival of stock-owning groups around 2000 BP triggered a series of different responses by hunter-gatherers. These varied from cooperative behaviour, assimilation, avoidance and/or conflict. It is argued that these differences were shaped to a large extent by variable socio- economic configurations amongst pre-contact hunter-gatherer groups. The diet of the newly reconfigured and diverse hunter-gatherer society became overall more mixed after 2000 BP. Shellfish gathering became less important, some hunting of large game was practiced, with most of the diet provided by plant collection, snaring of small antelopes and the capture of tortoises

Mega shell middens and hunter-gatherer resource intensification along the West Coast of South Africa

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Variability in late Holocene shellfish assemblages: The significance of large shore barnacles (Austromegabalanus cylindricus) in South African West Coast sites

The archaeological significance of barnacles has been documented in several places around the world, but this remains to be realised for South Africa. In the absence of local ethnographic observations, it was proposed that large barnacles (Austromegabalanus cylindricus) were taken to campsites attached to large black mussels (Choromytilus meridionalis) as part of scavenged beach-stranded fauna. Basic observations available until recently for South African West Coast shell middens showed that the presence of large shore barnacles is chronologically patterned. Some hints regarding transport decisions were also apparent. This paper examines the variability in large barnacle abundance through time and space using mollusc and crustacean shell samples from eight late Holocene sites situated at different distances from rocky shorelines. Modern knowledge on the ecology of collected species is used to interpret interassemblage variability. This study shows that barnacle abundance depends on at least three aspects, namely: the degree of wave exposure from which barnacles and other shellfish were collected, possible shifts in the main season of shellfish collection in the last 1700 years, and field processing before transporting shellfish loads to camps.Funding of various excavations and the analyses of samples was provided by grants from the University of Cape Town, the Centre for Science Development,Wenner-Gren (Gr. 5699, Chicago, Illinois) and the Swan Fund (Oxford).Peer reviewe

Megamiddens

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Excavations at a hunter-gatherer site known as 'Grootrif G' shell midden, Lamberts Bay, Western Cape Province

Since excavations at Elands Bay Cave thirty years ago, a small number of nearby sites were excavated in the late 1970s and early 1980s in order to provide complementary observations to those made from this large shelter (Horwitz 1979; Klein & Cruz-Uribe 1987; Manhire 1987; Noli 1988; Parkington & Poggenpoel 1987; Robey 1987). In the midst of these studies, Parkington et al. (1986) explored the nature of the impact of pastoralism on local hunter-gatherer populations by attempting to integrate various lines of evidence, a topic revived later with a rock art perspective and additional quantified data by Yates et al. (1994)

Stranded rocky shore mussels and their possible procurement during prehistory on the West Coast of South Africa

A number of competing or complementary approaches are often used to understand patterns in shellfish abundance in the archaeological record. The relative importance of environmental, behavioural or taphonomic factors lends support to these different models. In the context of South African West Coast shell middens, the procurement of washed-up (stranded) fauna (vertebrates and invertebrates) has been proposed as a possible subsistence adaptation since the Late Pleistocene. The collection of washed-up rocky shore mussels (Choromytilus meridionalis), particularly, has been suggested to account for shellfish species composition in West Coast sites. The objective of this paper is to test this scenario by means of field observations from natural assemblages (washed-up mussels and storm beach accumulations) and archaeological observations from ten late Holocene assemblages. Metrical observations of C. meridionalis shells are interpreted in terms of updated knowledge on the biology and ecology of this species and used to bring insight into the procurement of this species. This study shows that less than half of stranded mussels are edible, and that considerable search/handling costs are involved when procuring this source. Because of their low returns and unpredictability, mussels are much more likely to have been collected from exposed rocky reefs than from washed-up material.Peer reviewe

Two complementary West Coast Holocene lithic assemblages from Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay: implications for local changes in tool kit and group mobility

TC and SBF lithic assemblages provide additional chronological and geographic detail to the Holocene flaked stone artefact sequence of Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay. This study contributes also to dispelling possible reservations about the integrity of the TC sequence, particularly with regards to the early Holocene levels. Based on studies with good radiocarbon control in the Vredenburg Peninsula and east of the study area, the main chronological patterns described here seem to apply to a wider Western Cape geographic range than the study area alone.Peer reviewe