Papers in the Prehistory of the Western Cape, South Africa, Parts i and ii 9781407388397, 9781407388403, 9780860544258, 9781407346045

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Papers in the Prehistory of the Western Cape, South Africa ·

edited by

John Parkington and Martin Hall

Part i

BAR International Series 332 1987

B.A.R.

5, Centremead, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 ODQ, England.

GENERAL EDITORS

A.R. Hands, B.Sc., M.A., D.Phil. D.R. Walker, M.A.

�- S332 (I), 1987: 'Pape rs in the Pre history of the We ste rn Cape , South Africa' Part I © The Indi viduc1l Authors, 1987. The authors’ moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher. ISBN 9781407388397 (Volume I) paperback ISBN 9781407388403 (Volume II) paperback ISBN 9780860544258 (Volume set) paperback ISBN 9781407346045 (Volume set) e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9780860544258 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Table of Contents P ART O NE

Acknowledgements List

of

Preface MARTI N

contributors

ii

HALL

1

Changi ng vi e ws of pr e hi s t o ri c settlement in the Western Cape JOHN PARKINGTON

4

Holocene and Pleistocene palaeoclimates in the Western Cape JANETTE DEACON

24

The evol ution of the continental terrace between St Hel ena Bay and Lambert' s Bay J . ROGERS

35

Geoarchaeology at Verlorenvlei DUNCAN MILLER

46

Dynamics and origins of defl ation hol l ows in the Eland 's Bay area, Cape Province, South Africa N . LANCASTER

78

The ecology and biological history of Verlorenvlei J . R. GRINDLEY & S . A. GRINDLEY

9 7

Review of some new concepts ecology EUGE NE MOLL

in

" Fynbos" 120

Large mammal and tortoise bones from El and' s Bay Cave and nearby sites, Western Cape Province, South Africa RICHARD G . KLEIN & KATHRYN CRUZ-URIBE

1 32

Coastal birds western cape GRAHAM AVERY

1 64

and

prehistory

Calories in prehistory W . F. BUCHANAN

in

the

1 92

T he i m p lic a tions of fi sh b one assembla ges from Eland's Bay Cave, Tortoise Cave and Diepkloof for changes i n t he Hol oc e ne hi s t o ry of the Verlorenvlei C.A. POGGENPOEL

.................................

Botanical remains from archaeolo gical sites in the Western Cape

. C. LIENGME

.•.......••......•...•..........•......

Stable carbon isotopes, Later Stone A ge diet s and seasonal mobility in the south-western Cape J.C. SEALY & N.J. VAN DER MERWE

212 237

262

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Spatial Archaeology Research Unit greatly appreciates the contributions of participants to the workshop on Environments and Prehistory in the Western Cape, hel d at the Department of Archaeology , University of Cape Town in October 1 984 . Thanks are due to Dave Halkett, Tony Manhire, Tina Coombes, Mike Herbert and Christene Liengme for the very capable organization . The editors of this volume woul d like to thank the f ollowing people for their assistance: Dawn Fourie for the transcription of manuscripts; Jean Mullins for proofreading; and Mary Patrick and Royden Yates for editorial assistance and production of camera-ready copy. F inancial support from the Harry Oppenheimer Institute of African Studies at the University of Cape Town for both the workshop and production of this volume is greatfull y acknowledged. The Spatial Archaeology Research Unit is substantially funded by the Human Sciences Research Council and the University Research Committee of the University Of Cape Town . We have also received regular grants towards f ieldwork from the Swan Fund in Oxford.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Avery ,

G ., PO

Department of Archaeology , South African Museum , Box 61, CAPE TOWN, 8000, RSA.

Buchanan,

Dr

W . F.,

Spatial

Archaeol ogy

Research

Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity Town , Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA .

of

Unit, Cape

Cr uz - U ri be, Dr K ., De p a rt me nt of Ant h ro pol o g y, Uni versit y of Chicago, 1126 East 59t h Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA . Deacon,

Dr J ., Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity Stellenbosch , STELLENBOSCH, 7600, RSA .

of

Grindley , Assoc Prof J .R ., Department of Environmental and Geographic Scie nce, Uni versity of Cape Town, Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA . Grindley , S .A ., Department of Environmental Science, Uni versity of Cape Town, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA . Halkett,

D .,

of Bag ,

Spatial

Archaeology

Research

Archaeology , University RONDEBOSCH , 7700, RSA .

of

and Geographic Pri vate Bag,

Unit,

Cape

Department

Town,

Private

Hall,

Dr M ., Spatial Archaeology Research Unit, Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity of Cape Town, Pri vate Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA.

Hart,

T . G., Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity of Cape Town , Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA .

Kapl an, J ., Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity of Cape Town , Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA . Kl ei n,

Pr of R . G., Uni versit y of Chicago,

Lancaster, Dr N ., Science,

De pa rt me nt of Ant h ro pol o g y, Chicago, 1126 East 59 t h Street,

Illinois,

60637,

USA .

Department of Environmental Uni versity of Cape Town,

RONDEBOSCH ,

7700,

and Geographic Pri vate Bag,

RSA .

present address: Pl anetary Geol ogy Group, Department of Geol ogy, Arizona State University, TEMPE, AZ 85287, USA. Liengme,

C .,

Town ,

Department Private

of

Bag,

Archaeology , RONDEBOSCH,

i i

University

7700,

RSA .

of

Cape

Manhire, A ., Spatial Archaeology Research Unit, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag , RONDEBOSCH , 7700, RSA . Mazel,

E ., Loop

Departme nt Street,

of

Archaeol ogy,

Pietermaritzburg,

Natal

3201,

Museum,

R . S. A.

Mil l er, Dr D ., Department of Archaeol ogy (archaeometry), University of Cape Town, Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH , 7700, RSA. Moll,

Assoc Cape

Prof E .J ., Department of Botany , Town, Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH ,

Parkington,

Prof J .E.,

of

Cape

Town ,

N ., Department of History, Uni versity of Private bag, RONDEBOSCH , 7700, RSA .

Cape

Town,

Poggenpoel, Cape Robey,

C .A ., Department of Archaeology , Town, Private Bag , RONDEBOSCH,

Dr

J .,

of

Department

Cape

Town ,

Schrire, Prof C ., University , Seal y,

of

J ., 7700,

Department

der

Marine Bag ,

Geoscience, RONDEBOSCH,

University 7700,

RSA .

of

Cape

Archaeol ogy

Town,

Pri vate

(archaeometry), Bag,

RONDEBOSCH,

RSA.

Assoc Prof University of 7700,

of

Private

Department of Human Ecol ogy, Rutgers P .O . Box 231, NEW BRUNSWICK, 08903, USA.

Uni versity of

Smi t h,

University 7700, RSA .

T .S., Department of Archaeol ogy, Uni versity of the Witwatersrand , 1 Jan Smuts Av., JOHANNESBURG, 2000, RSA.

Rogers,

Van

of

Spatial Archaeol ogy Research Unit,

Department of Archaeology , University Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH, 7700, RSA . Penn,

University 7700, RSA .

A . B., Cape

Departme nt of Archaeol ogy, Town, Private Bag, RONDEBOSCH ,

RSA.

Merwe,

Prof

(archaeometry),

N . J.,

Department

Uni versity

iii

of

of

Cape

Archaeol ogy Town,

Pri vate

ATL ANTI C

OCE A N

PREFACE

Martin Hall

This collection of papers had its origin in a workshop, held in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town in October 1 984. For more than a decade, members of the Department had been carrying out intensive research on the later prehistory of the Western Cape - an area particularly rich in archaeological sites and in palaeoecological evidence . Since 1 981, these investigations have formed the core of the acti vities of the Spatial Archaeololgy Research Unit ( SARU), supported by the Human Sciences Research Council within the Department . We felt that a workshop was the appropriate vehicle for an interim re view of progress, bringing together summaries of completed research, progress reports of ongoing work and ideas for future direction. We were also anxious to invol ve colleagues, working on similar problems in the same area from other institutions, both to learn from their research and to seek their advice on our programme.

In the event, the workshop evol ved into a larger review meeting than we intended, as many people outside the Research Unit offered valuable contributions. It also became clear that many of the papers deserved distribution beyond the workshop group itself, and that the proceedings offered a first synthesis of the Western Cape in prehistory. Therefore, and with the support and encouragement of British Archaeological Reports, we have brought this collection to publication . Most of the papers have been revised by their authors, taking into account both the comments of workshop participants and research results that have become available since late 1 984, and several additional contributions have been included to provide a more comprehensive overview . The result is, we hope, a valuable contribution to the history of one part of southern Africa .

We have ordered the contributions to this volume, as far as has been possibl e, by their subj ects and in a rough chronological sequence. John Parkington 's essay places research in the Western Cape in historiographical context an important basis for understanding why particul ar

1

questions have been pursued by researchers through the years. The foll owing six contributions review pertinent geological, geomorphological, environmental and ecological evidence. Janette Deacon and John Rogers have written complementary overviews of the palaeoclimates and geology of the research area, identifying both what is known, and what still remains to be investigated . Duncan Miller 's and John Grindley 's papers concentrate more specifically on the area of Verlorenvlei and Elands ' Bay , a region particularly rich in archaeological residues and the focus of much of the SARU's research effort. Nick Lancaster's study of deflation hollows is central to understanding the taphonomy of surface scatters of artefacts in the Western Cape, and indeed in other parts of southern Africa. Eugene Moll concludes this f irst part of the volume with an overview of studies of fynbos vegetation - the key element in the biome which embraces the whole research area, and about the history of which there is still considerable controversy .

The second group of papers describe specific aspects of the archaeological and palaeoecological evidence on an intersite basis. Thus Richard Klein and Cathy Cruz-Uribe describe the large mammals and tortoises from excavated sites in the area of Eland 's Bay, while Graham Avery 's paper is a similar review of the avian faunas - important contributors to prehistoric diets and palaeoenvironmental indicators . Bill Buchanan has concentrated on shellfish , buil ding models for calorific yiel d and prehistoric diet from samples of coastal shell middens . Cedric Poggenpoel re views the evi dence of fish bones reco vered from archaeol ogical sites, showing how marine resource avail abil ity can be reconstructed from these data. Christine Liengme 's paper describes excavated plant remains - a particularly rich category of evidence in the Western Cape - while Judy Seal y and Nick van der Merwe summarise the results of isotopic anal ysis of skeletal material; a technique that promises to provide, independent of faunas and floras, considerable evidence for prehistoric diet .

In the third section of this volume are descriptions of specific sites or groups of sites . Together , these reports provide a compl ementary impression of prehistoric settlement in the different ecological zones that together comprise the Western Cape. John Parkington and Cedric Poggenpoel describe excavations at Diepkloof Rock Shelter , and Jonathan Kapl an reports on work at Renbaan Cave. Diepkloof is situated in a near coastal environment whereas Renbaan lies in the Cape Fold Belt Mountains that comprise the high backbone of the research area; both shelters contain comparable late Holocene deposits . Dave Halkett 's work in the Putsl aagte is adding a further dimension to knowledge of these mountain areas by elucidating site patterning in a marginal Karoo region . Equally rich i s the archaeol ogy of the Sandvel d, separating mountains from coastline. Here, Tony Manhire has carried out extensive

2

survey of open-station s ites - scatters of s tone tools that mark the locations of temporary camp sites. Tim Robey 's research at Tortoise Cave, with its detailed and complex s tratigraphy , has proved central to the interpretation of the general Sandveld s equence . Central to the Western Cape sequence as a whole, but not reported in this volume, is the site of Elands' Bay Cave. Analysis of the voluminous cultural and ecological evidence from these deposits i s in the f inal stage , and will be the subject of a separate s et of reports. Another topic not fully covered in this collection of papers is the study of rock paintings. A substantial effort has been made to locate and record the numerous rock paintings in the research area, but again these results will be the result of a f uture volume .

A key process in the history of the Western Cape was the introduction and incorporation of domestic stock some two thousand years ago . Although a s ignificant number of s ites in the Western Cape have excavated and dated domestic f aunas, few have been claimed as pastoralist settlements, despite the numerous descriptions of such camps in the seventeenth century historical documents. Tim Hart 's Portervil l e survey demonstrates this probl em of archaeological visibility , describing the archaeology of an area in which evidence for pastoralist settlement should have been prominant, yet is not apparent in the archaeological record. Andy Smith 's paper tackles the herder probl em from a different angl e, buil ding a predictive model for pastoral ist distributions from ecological and historical evidence .

Finally, Carmel Schrire and Nigel Penn write about the period after Dutch settlement and penetration into the hinterland beyond early Cape Town . Carmel Schrire 's paper provides a comprehensive summary of historical archaeology in the western Cape - a vital area of inquiry which is rapidly gaining the attention that i t deserves. Nigel Penn writes about the expanding colonial f rontier in the Western Cape, resistence and the steady destruction of Khoisan society in the s eventeenth and eighteenth centuries .

Aron Mazel offers in the final paper an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the largel y ecol ogical perspective which has guided Western Cape research, and indeed, that of much of the region.

3

CHANGI NG VI EWS OF PREHISTORI C SETTLEMENT IN THE WESTERN CAPE

John Parkington

A H ISTORY OF RESEARCH Until 1 968 the region of the western Cape between the mouths of the Berg and Olifants ri ver was largel y uncharted archaeological territory ( Figure 1 ). P ioneer surveys by Jalmar and lone Rudner a long the coastline had revealed a string of near-shore shell middens, many with ceramics or stone tools of various kinds ( Rudner 1 968). Further inland the surveys of the Rudners, Godfrey Hoehn , Bill Trew, Tim Maggs, Hyme Rabinowitz, Townley Johnson and Percy Sieff had illustrated the enormous number of rock paintings and the occasional large scatters of stone tools ( Johnson, Rabinowitz and Sieff 1 959; Maggs 1 967a, 1 967b). But beyond this we knew little of prehistoric human settlement in the area and nothing of the sequence of change . Guided by the experience of these investigators, Cedric Poggenpoel, Graham Avery and I set off for the northern Cape Fold Belt in May 1 968 bent on excavating a sequence which woul d give us a window on prehistoric settlement. We chose the site of De Hangen because we believed, quite wrongl y as it turned out, that it might have some depth of deposit . What i t lacked in sequence, howe ver, it made up for with good preservation ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971). Strewn in and among patches of well preserved grass bedding and ash were quantities of plant food remains, animal bones and fragments of artefacts made from a host of organic material s. We recognised that we had exca vated an assemblage very similar to those being described by Hilary and Janette Deacon in the eastern Cape ( Deacon and Deacon 1 963, Deacon 1 969) and were soon d iverted f rom the hope of sequence to the potential of a spatial reconstruction of movement strategies. A pre vailing infl uence at this time was the research of Eric Higgs and his associates in various parts of the Mediterranean basin ( Higgs and Vita F inzi 1966; Higgs et al 1 967; Higgs 1 972, 1 975; Vita Finzi and Higgs 1 970). Without actually using their concept of

4

0

4 0 kms

2 0

LAND ABOVE 3 05 METRES

WESTERN CAPE

COASTAL P LA IN AND R IVER VALLEYS Figure

1 .

Research i n t ext.

area with

5

s ites mentioned

site catchments we nevertheless began to envisage in the western Cape the possibility of seasonal movement strategies geared to the f luctuating availabilities of key resources . The suggestion of seasonal mobility was inf l ue nce d by se ve ral se ts of obse r v atio ns. Ethnographically , there appeared to be good grounds for hypothesizing mobility as a strategy among southern African San, and for seeing resource patterns as influential contexts. Local ecological patterning was used to infer movement between coast and mountainous interior. In the specific context of De Hangen the seasonal arguments referred to the presence of newborn dassies (the rock rabbit, Proca via capensis), the abundance of tortoises, the presence of inflorescences on grasses used as bedding and the superabundance of corm casi ngs among pl ant food residues (Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971). In each of these cases it was suggested that the archaeological observations were consistent with summer occupation. Marine shells in the site were regarded as evidence for coastal contact . The reconstruction was expanded soon after this ( Parkington 1972) to include excavated material from El and 's Bay Cave. During 1970 and 1972 excavations at this site were specifical l y designed to test the hypothesis of seasonal movement and our expectation was that indications of coastal occupations during winter woul d result. It certainl y seemed to us at the time that coastal levels contemporary with those from De Hangen ( 2000 yrs ol d) showed complementary patterns. There were very few corm casings, few tortoises, dassies of different ages and few grass inflorescences . The marine foods eaten all owed us to add other indicators to the list and we noted the predominantly yearling seals, most of which seemed to have been killed between Jul y and November , and the regular presence of black mussels which may be toxic in the summer months. In the earl y 1970's we were confident we had a transhumant pattern with peopl e moving seasonall y between coast and inland resource zones ( Parkington 1977a), spending winters at the coast . The opportunity to spend some time in England writi ng up this material as a thesis led to some stimulating criticisms from outside . It became clear that it was hardl y likel y that any such settlement system would have remained unchanged through the Holocene, the period covered by the uppermost 1 ,5 metres of the Eland 's Bay Cave deposits. Some shifts through time woul d have to be envisaged . Another suggestion was that perhaps it might be worthwhile trying to identify the interior boundary of coastal systems, east of which woul d be adj acent systems with no regul ar access to marine resources. Thirdl y, al though we had excavated at Diepkloof in 1 973 as an intermediate locality along the Verlorenvlei, we clearly needed observations from many more

sites

and

a more

substantial

6

spatial

view

of

the

inter-site

variability .

The Olifants river valley appeared to be a good candidate for the role of internal boundary ( Parkington 1 977b), and again resources were proposed as significant factors. I suggested ( Parkington 1977b) that with substantial supplies of freshwater, large communities of permanentl y visible geophytes with edible corms and visibl y impressive spawning migrations of indigenous freshwater fish in the summer months, the river and its immediate surrounds woul d present logical aggregation opportunities in the drier months. The suggestion was that groups operating east and west of the river in the wetter months coul d camp close together when water availability was most constrained and use this as an occasion for exchange of information, communal rituals and interchange of personnel. The concept of aggregation and dispersal behaviour was added to the model of seasonal movement and some specific tests of the model ( incidence of painting, use of specific species of geophytes, concentration on fish resources, seasonal indicators of summer visits) were suggested . It was, in effect, an attempt to translate the Kalahari observations made on San people into the context of the western Cape , and it recognised the importance of social mechanisms in determining settlement patterns . One implication of this re-statement was that De Hangen was no longer considered part of a regular coastal round, but was seen as Karoo-orientated ( Parkington 1 977b). We determined to excavate a series of sites in the Olifants river valley as a test of the model, and to expand our operations so as to record al l sites, including paintings, rather than excavate, somewhat myopicall y, in onl y one at a time. Andriesgrond and Renbaan were excavated in 1977, 1 978 and 1979 and a programme of rock painting research was begun . The expectation of finding quantities of freshwater fish bones was never met, and the most substantial result was the repetition of the De Hangen pattern of abundant iridaceae plant food waste, dassies and tortoise bones in a depositional context of little depth but with very coherent spatial arrangement . These kinds of deposits we came to recognise as " Bedding and Ash" sites and we find them in even very small overhangs and shelters . Meanwhile renewed excavations at Eland 's Bay Cave in 1976 and 1978 allowed us a more substantial view of the stratigraphic sequence and a clearer picture of system changes through time ( Parkington 1 976, 1980a, 1 981). The most obvious observation was that there appeared to be a substantial hiatus in occupation at the cave between 7 800 and 3 800 years ago. Although other alternati ves were possible, we hypothesized that this period was one in which there was minimal coastal settlement along the Atlantic shores of the Cape and that the expl anation lay, as proposed by Janette Deacon for

7

the interior at this time, in harsher climate ( Deacon 1 974). Larger samples allowed us to subdivide the faunal assemblages by level and to suggest substantial changes in the timing of prehistoric visits . Prior to the hiatus there appeared to be an interesting sequence of change between about 1 2 000 and 7 800 years ago which I argued reflected consistent rescheduling of site visits from summer through spring to late winter ( Parkington 1 981). What struck me as surprising about the terminal Pleistocene levels here was the apparent signal of continuous modification of behaviour as witnessed in sequential changes in stratigraphy, faunal remains and artefacts . There seemed little doubt that that segment of people's behaviour reflected at Eland 's Bay Cave was changing over the millennia , whether or not the overall settlement system of which the segments were parts was also changing. I eventuall y decided that both the overall system and that part of it represented in the cave were being systematical l y modified by the participants. The most drastic decision, taken some 7 800 years ago, was not to come back. I did not think th a t th i s se q u e n c e wa s am e n a b l e to th e Robberg/Albany/Wilton model of adapti ve pl ateaux and rapid bursts of change then on offer ( Deacon J . 1 978; Deacon H .J. 1976). More specificall y, there seemed to me to be no intrinsic differences between beha vioural units superimposed stratigraphically on one another at a s ingle s ite and those excavated from different sites. Time and space were sampling dimensions in which we coul d chart changing human behaviour . The concept of place - space given meaning by people - seemed much more attracti ve than the concept of ' cul ture' or even ' industry'. Cedric Poggenpoel and I thus decided to embark on a series of exhausti ve surveys in different parts of the western Cape so as to discover for successive time periods where people chose to stay and where they did not. We believed that with such distributions we coul d begin to write an historical ( in this case largel y prehistorical) account of human settlement along the lines suggested earlier by Ray Inskeep ( 1967). We saw the si te as an esse ntial bui l di ng bl ock for archaeologists because it reflected a point in space intentionall y used by people in preference to other places . Such a perspective also defined a clear role for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction f or only with a clear understanding of prior circumstances at the site could we translate space into place. Here we were thinking more of the resource characteristics of sites ( Parkington 1 980b) and should perhaps have been more aware already of social factors . Like a pair of Sauls on the road to Damascus we were enlightened at the same t ime by another realisation . The excavations at De Hangen had taken place literal l y

8

surrounded by rock paintings which we effectively ignored in our report. By the late 1970s it was clear that such paintings were an integral part of the archaeological record, needed to be recorded and were undoubtedly informative on matters of subsistence and settlement. Some places on the landscape ' became painted ', others did not; some places had lots of paintings, others few ; the kinds of paintings varied from place to place . The result was that in 1977 Tim Maggs, Cedric Poggenpoel and I began the f irst of our attempts to f ind and plot all traces of archaeological remains in a small piece of the landscape, in this case the middle Olifants ri ver val ley near C 1anwi 1 1iam . We continued this programme in 1978 and 1979, recording several hundred rock painting sites as well as we excavating the shallow deposits of Andriesgrond and Renbaan rock shelters and examining the stone tool scatters at numerous sites in the river valley and beyond . Perhaps the most unexpected result at the time was the recognition that al most all surface assemblages of LSA character in the mountains either s ide of the valley were dominated by adzes, tools by then recognised as essentially woodworking gear ( Mazel and Parkington 1 978, 1 981). The reason for surprise was that these assemblages, presumably Wilton in the culture model, ought to have been dominated by small convex scrapers . The superabundance of underground plant food parts and wood shavings and the presence of digging stick fragments at excavated s ites with adzes seemed to us good evidence that such places saw frequent manufacture and maintenance of plant food collecting gear . Aron Mazel took up this question in detail and sampled a series of locations between the mountains and the coast (Mazel 1978). His model was that as people moved west out of the plant food rich mountains they may have had less need of plant gathering gear and would thus have engaged less in wooden tool maintenance activities . The sites of the Sandvel d then shoul d, and did, have f ewer adzes . These sandveld s ites were all large surface assemblages of stone tools in deflation hollows and were characterised by large numbers of convex scrapers and backed bl adelets. What we did not appreciate at the time, although others did ( Deacon J . 1980, Sampson 1980), was that we were not looking at sets of contemporary sites . We needed to learn more of the time d imension. The opportunity came from two research projects initiated in 1981. Tim Robey ( 1984, this vol ume) excavated in, and in front of, the small cave site we called Tortoise Cave, some 5km up the Verlorenvlei from its mouth. We chose this site because it was the furthest large shell midden ( that we knew of) from the coast and thus shoul d inform us on the place to place variability we shoul d expect between neighbouring coastal

sites

in

slightl y

9

different

pl aces.

The

radiocarbon dates from the site were significant in confi rming a maj or earl y Hol ocene gap in local settlement, but the more positive discovery was a clear change in stone tool assemblage composition apparentl y coinciding with the appearance of sheep and ceramics. Prior to this the assemblages resembled those of the deflation bays in having lots of backed bladelets and f ew adzes, whereas after the appearance of ceramics the assemblages looked very much like those of Andriesgrond or Renbaan . It now became clear that what we had taken as a reflection of spatial patterning in human behaviour ( adze and backed bladelet frequences across space) was in fact a spatiall y uneven change through time. Tony Manhire 's work in the sandveld ( 1984, this volume) fully established this point . Whereas Aron Mazel and I had ignored small scatters of stone tools as being not substantial enough to sample, Tony Manhire specifically counted the different kinds of tools in small and large assemblages, in deflation hollows and in rock shelters . The result was a patterned distinction that made sense of many of our previous observations. Small assemblages with high frequencies of adzes came from in front of, or inside, rock shelters, whereas much larger assemblages with f ew adzes and lots of backed pieces came from deflation holl ows. Putting this pattern together with the dated assembl ages from Tortoise Cave all owed us to document quite distinct settlement patterns in the sandveld before and after the appearance of pastoralists ( Manhire et al. 1 984). Before pastoralists appeared in the area, the places chosen by people to site their camps were open bays in the sandy plains; later they chose relativel y secluded rocky kopjes with more commanding views over the plains below . We felt that the later pattern reflected a reorganisation of settlement by residual hunter gatherers related to the presence of stock herders . The same pattern emerged , along with others, from a detailed study of coastal sites use by Liora Horwitz ( 1979) and later, Bill Buchanan ( 1986). Realising that the El and's Bay Cave excavations gave onl y a slice of information about coastal settlement, we decided to sampl e several others nearby . Eland 's Bay South, or "Mike Tayl or's Midden", is a very large megamidden opposite Mussel Point, a kilometer or so south of EBC; Eland 's Bay Open is a small shell mound located some 60 metres north west of EBC in amongst a jumble of very large boul ders; " Connie's Limpet Barnis a thin lens of limpets in a sand spit at the mouth of the Verlorenvlei . Smaller samples were excavated ( Parkington 1979) from other sites and subsequently Bill Buchanan estimated the volumes of all visible shell middens and sampled a number of them to gauge shellfish and artefact compositions ( Buchanan 1 986, this volume). A number of

patterns

emerged .

1 0

Al most

all

sites,

for example, contained some potsherds, reflecting the f act that post ceramic settlement tended to take people to many places on the landscape - a pattern of very high residential mobility . By contrast f ew sites penetrated back into earlier times and of these by far the largest were the megamiddens. From our different vantage points Tim Robey, Bill Buchanan and I had noticed that the dates from Mike Tayl or's Midden fell into a pronounced gap in the date list from the two substantial cave excavations at Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave . With the help of John Vogel at the CSIR we pursued this point by sampling other megamiddens and excavating a small but carefull y designed window in a third cave site, Spring Cave. Encouragingly , the dates from the three cave sites do not show occupation between about 2 900 and about 1 700 years ago, whereas all dates from megamiddens except two come from this time interval ( Figure 2 ). Once again change in the choice of place - in this case the place to leave behind shell refuse - is in evidence . People exclusively visited isolated rocky points in the millennium before pastoralists appeared . Here they left massive volumes of shell and apparently did little else . When pastoralists appeared, residual hunter gatherers left much smaller volumes of shell refuse scattered at many points in the landscape, in and out of caves . Other patterns were associated with this . Limpets, for example, are al most completel y absent from shell accumulations before 1 700 years ago , both those prior to 2900 years ago in caves such as El and 's Bay Cave, Tortoise Cave and Spring Cave, and in the megamiddens. They are, though, as common as mussels in many post ceramic s ites and seem to have been more regularly on the menu in the later period . There are associated changes in the frequencies of other marine food organisms. Crayfish, sea birds, seal s and fish are rare in megamiddens but occur, along with terrestrial animals, in larger numbers in the levels with ceramics. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that once pastoralists were present, people made much more extensive use of the range of foods available near the mouth of the vlei although the frequencies vary from site to site . Whilst the food items reflected at megamiddens look too restricted , too monospecific, to comprise the complete diet of groups for a millennium or so , those in the smaller ceramic levels are more comprehensi ve and balanced. We are certainly looking at drastic changes in coastal diet and, I would argue, in the integration of inland and coastal food gathering Some

strategies . of

the

shell

accumulations we

have

sampled do

not look like shell middens. The most significant of these is part of a beach complex which demonstrates that • the rel ative sea level in the bay some 3 800 years ago was about 2m above that of the present (Yates et al. 1986). We had suspected that this shoul d have been the case for some time, because Tim Robey had found large

1 1

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

a

X 100 Y EARS B .P

1

2

a •

3

a

4

IGFg E E BC I TC 1Sc I EBO IF ISM ICLB EC 5 BS PR 1 CAVE D EPOS ITS

SMALL OPEN SHELL M IDDENS

Figure

Distribution from coastal

2 .

1 2

KB L B ID IGFb I GFd

L ARGE OPEN SHELL M IDDENS

of radiocarbon s ites.

dates

numbers of the inter-tidal bival ve Solen capensis in the 3 500 to 4 300 year ol d levels at Tortoise Cave, and we had found substantial quantities of Zostera capensis, an estuarine grass, in 2 900 to 3 800 year ol d levels at El and 's Bay Cave. Neither are features of the modern viel s ituation and neither are found in the levels of the caves dating to the last fifteen hundred years. Cedric Poggenpoel's analysis ( this volume) of the f ish remains from Tortoise Cave also suggested more open conditions in the 3500 to 4 300 time period . In addition, recent global models ( Clark et al. 1978, Clark & Lingle, 1 979) predict the emergence of continental shorelines by about 2 metres since the mid-Holocene as a geoidal response to late Pleistocene melt water loading on the ocean basins . From these data we can now suggest that in the late midHolocene the Verlorenvlei was somewhat more like presentday Langebaan lagoon - a broad mouthed tidal inlet flooding back well into the basin. We believe the changes in site locations, site sizes and site contents are in part a reflection of the different kinds of places available at different times . Meanwhile the rock painting recording programme was extended from the Olifants river valley east into the Pakhuis, Boontjieskloof and Putslaagte areas and west into the sandvel d and coastal areas. The initial suggestion ( Parkington 1977b) was that, if population aggregated seasonall y near the permanent water of the Olifants river , scenes invol ving large groups of people, danci ng scenes and conflict scenes woul d be more f requently painted there than either east or west , where presumably groups were dispersed into family units . This expectation does appear to be met (Manhire et al. 1 983) but more extensive survey suggests that the s ituation is much more compl ex. We have al ways fel t that the paintings of the sandvel d are different in content and ' style' particularl y from those of the Boontjieskloof area . Handprints, for example, are extremely common near the coast whereas therianthropes and a set of other images we see as reflective of complex trance experiences ( Yates, Golson and Hall 1985) are very rare in the sandvel d. We wonder now whether the complex imagery in the mountains east of the Olifants river, when seen in conjunction with the greater incidence of fugitive white paint there, does not reflect a retreating frontier as residual hunter gatherers fell back on the more isolated Boontj esk 1oo f region at about the time Europeans colonised the Cape. It is surel y not coincidental that paintings are juxtaposed to, if not the same sites as, the places chosen for occupation in the rocky areas after the appearance of pastoralists . Our current view ( Parkington et al. 1986) is that the stresses associated with the appearance of stock-keepers may have increased the incidence of painting. Our argument is based on an acceptance of Lewis-Wil liams' ( 1981) suggestion that

1 3

paintings reflect the acti vities and experiences of medicine men in trance, and uses the ideas of d 'Aquili and Laughl i n ( 1979) to link increased stress with increased ritual behaviour, a suggestion also made by Guenther ( 1976) and Katz ( 1982) in reference to the Ghanzi ' farm bushmen'. We believe, then, that many, if not most , of the paintings we now see in the western Cape were painted in the past two mil l ennia by hunter gatherers who saw their subsistence base as well as their val ue system threatened first by the arri val of pastoralists and subsequentl y ( and finall y) by the intrusion of colonists . A qui te ne w opp ortu ni t y to test ide as on prehistoric settlement was presented by Nic van der Merwe 's stable carbon isotope methodology ( van der Merwe and Vogel 1983; for a summary of the methodology see Seal y and van der Merwe, this volume). After Frank Silberbauer 's pioneering research into the reconstruction of LSA diets in the southern Cape ( 1979) the challenge of testing the patterns of mobility I had suggested in the mid-1970s was taken up by Judy Sealy . Her results ( Sealy 1986, Seal y and van der Merwe 1985, this volume) are stil l the subj ect of debate but ha ve added a new dimension to our information on prehistoric settlement . The carbon isotope results seem to show a greater intake of marine foods in many west coast skeletons than we would earlier have predicted . If, however , the collagen readings refer almost exclusively to protein intake and not to overal l diet then it may mean that coastal skeletons with moderatel y enriched readings have an exaggerated marine protein signal. This in turn woul d impl y that they may well have spent some considerable proportion of their time in the interior consuming carbohydrate rich plant foods which had little input into their bone collagen . To sum up, we have accumulated an enormous amount of information since 1968 and can see the emergence of distinct changes in site distributions, faunal and plant food assemblages, rock painting associations and stone tool assemblages during the Holocene millennia. The guiding viewpoint has been ecological in the sense that it has been assumed that the relationship between people and environments is of interest. Such a viewpoint focusses on this relationship but in no way prescribes what form it should take .

A CURRENT

SYNTHESIS

What I think we can show quite clearl y are changes in the kinds of places regularly used by prehistoric peop] e . By pl ace we mean ' space given meaning'. In this way we are able to see the accumulation of debris at some particular 1 4

point in the landscape as the result of sets of decisions by prehistoric groups. The context of the place, the s ize, contents and nature of the accumulation relate back to those decisions, and sets of places are the kinds of obser vations from which we hope to reconstruct prehistoric settlement . Information on former contexts is sought by a combination of pal aeobotanical, archaeozoological and geoarchaeological techniques. The result, hopefully , is an ecological study of hunting and gathering peoples which empowers the actors to have exercised choice, whil st recognising external l y constraining factors . I t is as yet almost impossible to hypothesize such decisions in the terminal Pleistocene , lacking as we do a sufficient number of rel ated observations. From the lower levels at EBC we can document a quartz dominated stone tool assemblage which shows regular bipolar technique and results in very high frequencies of tiny bipolar cores, small chips and chunks, some small bladelets but almost no formall y retouched pieces. Particularly in levels dating between 9 000 and 1 1 000 years ago, at the time EBC became coastal, there are substantial ( + 2 5%) frequencies of quartzites, quartzitic shales and f iner grained metamorphic rocks most of which were obtained as pebbles and reduced by hard hammer bipolar technique . The terminal Pleistocene levels do have one very characteristic tool; the naturally backed knife, which is morphologically related to the concavoconvex scrapers of van Riet Lowe's Smithfiel d A as well as similar tools from the Umgazana shelter ( Chubb, King and Mogg 1 934). Richard Klein 's anal ysis of the EBC fauna ( Klein, this volume) shows that the terminal Pleistocene levels have smal l numbers of bones from elephant, quagga, extinct giant Cape horse, rhino, pig, eland, hartebeest or wil debeest and buffal o. The presence of some large grazi ng forms on this list may have substantial environmental implications in reflecting a landscape with adequate grazing potential on the now-drowned coastal plains . But the contrast with the Holocene fauna surely goes beyond differences in environment and suggests subsistence change . EBC in the terminal Pleistocene was a place in which the bones of large animals accumulated, al though the nature of that accumul ation remai ns contentious . The fact that most large animal body parts are teeth or extremity bones may impl y ( Binford 1 984) that prehistoric groups brought small pieces of scavenged carcasses back to the cave, whilst activel y hunting smaller forms. We need detailed observations on the patterns of breakage, the frequency of cut marks and gnawing damage as well as level-to-level comparisons before answering this question . Coupled to this will be a more compl ete study of the stone tool reduction sequence and an analysis of the spatial distribution of material in the shelter. What we already know is that

1 5

rock shelter observations in the 15 000 to 9 000 time range are rare on the present landscape and not because of poor preservation . The 9000 to 11 000 year ol d levels are doubl y interesting because they document the appearance of the shoreline and integration of marine foods into the EBC diet. These levels are extraordinaril y rich in seal, bird, rock lobster and fish remains but have, as well, very large numbers of tortoises and most other terrestrial animals. Such an admixture contrasts strongly with later levels in the caves and in megamiddens on the west coast but is similar to levels of about the same age at Nelson Bay Cave ( Klein 1 972). My feeling is that these organic-rich levels are not simpl y, as we once felt, the living fl oors associated with nearby shell refuse heaps but document a form of shelter use quite specific to these transitional Pleistocene/Holocene times. The enormous biomass represented at EBC, the variety of animals in the faunal list and the absence of contemporary observations within a f ew kilometers suggest a highl y focussed form of land use. As sea level rose and the coastal plain shrank it appears that people selected EBC as a place from which to carry out a wide range of subsistence activities resulting in a very rapid buil d up of deposit in a millennium or so. It is hard to avoid the assumption that long residences were invol ved . Sometime very soon after 8 000 years ago EBC , as well as Tortoise Cave, ceased to experience regular visits . The fact that an expanding human skeletal radiocarbon database has only produced determinations from before 8 000 B .P. and after 4 000 B .P. suggests that this is a feature of a large area of the west coast. For about four mil lenia the onl y dates we have from the western Cape came from shelters in the Cape Fol d Belt, such as Renbaan ( Kapl an this volume), Klipfonteinrand ( Thackeray 1 977; Parkington & Hall 1987 in press) and Aspoort ( Smith & Rip 1978, Smith pers.comm.) It is possible that some of the undated defl ation hollow assemblages from the sandvel d (Manhire 1984) date from the period 8000 to 4 000 years ago although their composition is not really si mi l ar to 5 00 0 yea r ol d ass e mbl ages fro m Klipfonteinrand ( Thackeray 1977). There seems little doubt, though , that coastal places were rarely chosen at this time, in contrast to the contemporary situation east of Cape Town where mid-Holocene dates are relativel y common. The environmental context of the decison not to use the coast regularl y seems partl y predictable. A r ising sea level in the terminal Pleistocene would have fl ooded back up the incised ri ver val l ey of the Verlorenvlei and generated a tidal inlet some 1 5km long . We have no independant measures of contemporary rainfall but any mid-Holocene aridity , such as is proposed for the Karoo interior (Deacon 1974), woul d increase the

1 6

contrast in freshwater availability between mountain and coast . The dynamics of a higher mid-Holocene sea level are likewise a matter in need of research as the morphology and productivity of the intertidal areas can be expected to have changed in response to sea level fluctuations. Even more tenuous is the suggestion that the incidence of upwelling with associated coastal fogs and inland aridity may have been higher than today during the mid-Holocene. My guess is that prehistoric groups rescheduled their movements soon after 8 000 years ago to emphasise the better watered mountain fol ds. Part of this re-organisation invol ved increased production of small, presumabl y mounted, tools such as scrapers and backed bladelets, large assemblages of which come from deflation hollows in the Olifants river valley, from a small series of caves mostly on the eastern flanks of the Fold Belt and, we think at a later date, from deflation hollows in the sandveld . Reoccupation of coastal places begins again at 4 300 years ago and regular use continues to the colonial period . What seems to be reflected in the patterning of radiocarbon dates is a gradual incorporation of marine foods into late mid-Hol ocene diets as settl ement extended, first as near to the coast as Tortoise cave (reoccupation + 4300 years ago) and then to the shoreline itself ( Spring Cave, f irst occupation 3 5 00 years ago; EBC, reoccupation 3 800 years ago). Coastal i sotope readings illustrate this drift toward more marine readings very well. As Seal y and van der Merwe ( 1985) point out, two contemporary late mid-Holocene skeletons from the Eland 's Bay area ( Tortoise Cave, OxA 477 4 050 + 100 , C13 -15.9; Maureen, Pta 1754 3 835 + 50, C13 -14) seem to indicate that by that time coastal people included substantial inland food in their diets but were separable from populations east of the 01 ifants River valley; a third, and younger skeleton ( Eland 's Bay, OxA 4 55 2 400 + 100, C13 13.9 ) has subsequently reaffirmed this pattern . Between 4 300 and 2 900 years ago caves and shelters were chosen as places to camp and deposit volumes are modest. After 2 900 years ago, megamiddens dominate the record and deposit volumes are enormous; we estimate something like 50 000 cubic metres along a 20km stretch of shoreline in a millennium. I think we have to see this as an increase in marine food intake over the previous millennium, but I would still argue that megamiddens do not reflect a ' whole' diet. Obvious candidates for parts of the same settlement systems are the deflation hollows where massive assemblages of stone tools have accumulated . In terms of s ize and location the deflation hollows woul d fit neatly into the pattern of camp layouts documented by John Yel l en for recent Kalahari San ( 1977). Coastal visits may have been timed for spring tides and estimates of rates of accumulation woul d suggest that all of the megamidden volumes could have been left by 50 people spending only three or four months per year at these places ( Buchanan 1 986).

1 7

The appearance of pastoralism some 1 800 years ago was clearly an episode of some moment . We have detected a series of changes coi ncident with the earliest appearance of sheep and ceramics in rock shel ter sequences . Our model of this episode assumes that these were migrant pastoral ists, that residual hunter gatherers had limited choices after their arrival and that pastoralist/hunter gatherer interactions varied depending on local topography, variability in pasture quality and the relative size of populations in specific parts of the landscape. We suggest that there were mechanisms operating to keep hunter gatherers as a permanent and distinct socio-economic entity , whether in regul ar contact with pastoralists or as marginal popul ations on the fringes of the attractive grazing lands. The archaeological evidence for such marginality consists of a shift into places in rocky terrain with good views, an abil ity to camp in even tiny rock shelters, an increased emphasis on small food parcels and a settlement strategy which emphasised retreat and isolation . These kinds of features have been noted among residual hunter gatherer groups throughout sub-Saharan Africa and are precisel y those described as Soaqua by earl y travel lers through the research area ( Parkington 1 984). The movement strategies of Soaqua are as yet poorly understood, although sets of sites from this period are well known from the coast to the Karoo margins . I sotope readings from three late-Holocene skeletons from the Olifants river valley ( Oxa 458 270+100 C 13-18.1; Oxa 452 250+90 C13-16.1 and Oxa 454 440- + 80 C13-16.0 , all unca 1ibr -a ted for 13 C ), all contemporary with Soaqua levels at De Hangen, for example, suggest some marine food input, but no coastal skeletons from this time range have been recovered . Deposit volumes both at the coast and in the mountains are small and widel y distributed suggesting very high residential mobility , small group size and overall very low population numbers . Dates for rock paintings would be invaluable and may link with the Soaqua pattern of bedding and ash sites to suggest an increasingly fugitive, stressed settlement system falling back in the face of pastoralist and subsequent colonial invasions. Very early in this research programme, mobility and seasonality were identified as key i ssues . These ' in turn led to a pronounced spatial emphasis in research design and prehistoric reconstruction. The project as a whole has coalesced around the concept of place, with the suggestion that archaeol ogical sites are localities selected by people and turned into pl aces where debris ( in the widest sense, including rock paintings) has accumulated .

The

original

model

1 8

of

seasonal

movement

has

been modified and challenged, giving rise to a new generation of research projects with particular spatial, temporal or methodological emphases .

REFERENCES Binford, L .R. 1 984. Faunal Remains from Klasies Mouth . New York: Academic Press . Buchanan, W .F. thesis: Town.

1986. Dept .

Ri ver

Sea shells ashore. Unpubl. Ph.D. of Archaeology , University of Cape

Chubb,

E . C., King, G . B. & Mogg, A . O.D. 1934. A new variation of Smithfield Culture - from a cave on the Pondoland Coast. Trans. Roy _ . _ Soc. S . Afr. 22:2452 70.

C lark,

J .A ., Farrell, W .E. & Peltier, W .R. 1 978. Gl obal changes in post glacial sea level: a numerical calculation . Quat . Res . 9 :265-87.

C lark,

J .A . & Lingle, C .S. 1979. Predicted relative sea level changes ( 18000 yrs B .P . to present) caused by late-gl acial retreat of the Antarctic ice shelf. Quat. Res. 11:279-98.

Deacon, H . J. 1969. District, Cape investigation .

Mel khoutboom Cave, Al exandria Province: a report on the 1967 Ann . Cape Prov. Mus. 6 :141-69.

Deacon, H . J. 1976. Where African Archaeological

Hunters Gathered. South Society Monograph Series 1 .

Deacon, H ,J. & Deacon, J . 1963. Scott's Cave: a Late Stone Age site in the Gamtoos Valley . Ann . Cape Prov. Mus . 3 :96-121. Deacon , J . 1 974 . Patterning in the radiocarbon dates for the Wilton/Smithfield complex in southern Africa . S . A fr . a rchaeol . B ull . 2 9 :3-18 . _ Deacon, J . 1978. Changing patterns in the late Pleistocene/early Holocene prehistory of Southern Africa as seen from the Nelson Bay Cave stone artefact sequence . Quat . Res . 10:84-111. Deacon, J . 1980. Comments on ( Parkington, J .E.) Time and place: some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later Stone Age sequence in southern Africa. S . Afr. archaeol. Bull. 35:7383. Guenther,

M .G.

1 976.

The San trance dance:

1 9

Ritual

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revitalization among the farm Bushmen of the Ghanzi district, Republic of Botswana. J . S .W .A. Sci. Soc. 30:45-53. Higgs,

E .S. ( ed.) 1972. Papers in Cambridge: University Press .

Economic

Higgs,

E .S. (ed.) 1975. University Press.

Higgs,

E .S. & Vita- Finzi, C . 1966. The cl imate, environment and industries of Stone Age Greece, part II. Proc. prehist. Soc. 32:1-29.

Higgs,

E .S., Vita-Finzi, C ., Harris, D .R. & Fagg, A .E. 1 967. The climate, environment and industries of Stone Age Greece, part III. Proc. prehist. Soc. 33:1-29.

Pal aeoeconomy.

Prehistory .

Cambridge:

Horwitz, L .R. 1979. From materialism to middens: a case study at Eland 's Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. Unpubl. B .A . ( Hons) thesis: Dept. of Archaeology, University of Cape Town . Inskeep, R .R. 1967. The Late Stone Age in Southern Africa. In Bishop, W .W . & Cl ark, J .D. ( eds.) Background to Evolution in Africa: 557-582. Chicago: University Press . Johnson, T ., Rabinowitz, H . & Sieff, P . 1959. paintings of the South western Cape . Cape Nationale Boekhandel Beperk .

Rock 7 7 -c iWi li

Katz,

R . the

1 982. Boiling Energy : Community Healing among Kalahari ! Kung . Harvard: University Press .

Klein,

R .G . 1 972. The Late Quaternary mammalian fauna of Nelson Bay Cave ( Cape Province, South Africa): its implications for megafaunal extinctions and environmental and cultural changes. Quat. Res. 2 (2):135-142.

Laughlin, C .D. & d 'Aquili, E .G . 1 979. The Spectrum of Ritual: a Biogenetic Structural Analysis . New York: Columbia University Press . Lewis-Wil l iams, J . D. 1987. Belie ving and Seeing: Symbolic Meanings in Southern San Rock Paintings . London : Academic Press . Maggs,

T . M.O ' C. rock art Cape. S .

1967a. A quantitative anal ysis of the from a sample area in the south western Afr. J . Sci. 63:100-104.

Maggs,

T . M. O' C. 1967b. Microdistribution typol ogicall y linked rock paintings western Cape.

In Hugot,

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H .J.

( ed.)

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of some from the Sixieme

Congres 220.

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Manhire, A .H . 1 984. Stone tools and Sandveld settlement . Unpubl. M .Sc. thesis: Dept. of Archaeol ogy, University of Cape Town . Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. & Van Rijssen, W .J. 1983. A distributional approach to the interpretation o i rock art in the South-western Cape . S . Afr . archaeol. Soc . Goodwin Ser . 4 :29-33. Manhire, A . H., Parkington, J .E. & Robey, T .S. 1984. Stone tools and Sandvel d settlement. In Hall, M ., Avery, G ., Avery, D . M., Wil son, — M . L . & Humphreys, A . J.B. ( eds.) Frontiers: African archaeol ogy today. Oxford: Archaeological Reports .

Southern British

Mazel,

A .D . 1 978. Stories in stone: aspects of artefact distribution in the Clanwilliam district, southwestern Cape . Unpulb . B .A . ( Hons) thesis: Dept . of Archaeology , University of Cape Town .

Mazel,

A . D. & Parki ngt on, J . E. 197 8. Sandy Ba y revisited : variability among Late Stone Age tools. S . Afr. J . Sci. 74:381-382.

Mazel,

A .D. & Parkington, J .E. 1981. Stone tools resources: a case study from southern Africa . Archaeol. 1 3:16-30 .

Parkington, J .E. Stone Age.

1972. Seasonal Mobility Afr. Stud. 31:223-243.

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Parkington, J .E. 1976. Coastal Settlement between the mouths of the Berg and Olifants Rivers, Cape Province . S . Afr . archaeol. Bull. 31:127-140. Parkington, J .E. 1977a. Follow the San. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis: Dept . of Archaeology , Cambridge University . Parkington , J .E . 1 977b . Soaqua: of the Olifants Ri ver, archaeol. Bull. 32:150-7.

Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers Western Cape. S . Afr.

Parki ngton, J .E. 1979. Soaqua. biennial meeting of the Association of Archaeologists, Parkington, J .E. climates 23:71.

Unpubl. report: Southern African Cape Town .

1980a. Late Pleistocene and as viewed from Verlorenvlei.

Holocene Pal. Afr .

Parki ngton, J .E. 1980b. Time and Pl ace: some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later Stone Age sequence in southern 2 1

Africa .

S .

Afr .

archaeol.

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Parkington, J .E. 1981. The effects of environmental change on the scheduling of visits to the Eland 's Bay Cave, Cape Province, S .A. In Hodder, I ., Isaac, G . & Hammond, N . ( eds.) Patterns of the Past . Univ. Press . Cambridge: 341-359. Parkington, J .E. 1984. Soaqua and Bushmen: hunters and robbers. In Schrire, C . ( ed.) Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies. Orl ando: Academic Press. 151-174. Parkington, J .E. & Poggenpoel, C . 1 971. Excavations at De Hangen, 1968. S . Afr. archaeol. Bull. 26:336. Parkington, J .E. & Hall, M .H. 1987 in press. Patterning in recent radiocarbon dates from southern Africa as a reflection of prehistoric settlement and interaction . J . Afr. Hist. Parkington, J .E., Yates, R ., Manhire, A .H. & Halkett, D .M. in press . The social impact of Pastoralism in the south western Cape . J . Anthrop . Archaeol. Robey,

T .S. 1984. Burrows and bedding: site taphonomy and spatial archaeol ogy at Tortoise Ca ve. Unpubl. M .A. thesis: Dept. of Archaeology, University of Cape Town .

Rudner , J . 1 968. Standloper pottery from South and West Africa. Ann. S . Afr. Mus. 49:441-663.

South

Sampson, G . 1980. Comments on ( Parkington, J .E.) Time and Place: Some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later Stone Age sequence in Southern Africa. S . Afr. archaeol. Bull. 35:73-83. Sealy,

J .C . 1 984. Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the South Western Cape Province, South Africa . Oxford: British Archaeological Reports .

Sealy,

J . C. & van der assessment of southwestern Cape,

Merwe, N .J. 1985. Isotopic Hol ocene human diets in the South Africa .Nature 315:138-140 .

Sil berbauer, F .B. 1979. Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpubl. M .Sc. thesis: Dept. of Archaeology , University of Cape Town . Smith, A. B. & Ripp, M . R. 1978. An archaeol ogical reconnaissaince of the Doorn/Tanqua Karoo.S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull. 33:118-127.

2 2

Thac ke ra y, A . I. 1977. Sto ne artef acts from Klipfonteinrand . Unpubl. B .A . ( l ions) thesis: Dept . of Archaeology , University of Cape Town . Van der Merwe, N .J. & Vogel, J .C. 1983. Recent carbon isotope research and its implications for African archaeology . Afr . Archaeol. Rev . 1 :33-56. Vita-Finzi, C . & Higgs, E .S. 1970. Prehistoric economy in the Mount Carmel area of Palestine: site catchment analysis. Proc . prehist . Soc . 36:1-37. Yates,

R ., Gol so n, J . & Hal l, M. 19 8 5 . Tra nce performance: the rock art of Boontjieskloof and Sevilla . S . Afr . archaeol. Bull. 40:70-80.

Yates,

R ., Mil ler, D .E., Halkett, D .J., Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. & Vogel, J .C. 1986. A late midHolocene high sea-level: a preliminary report on geoarchaeology at Eland 's Bay, western Cape Province, South Africa. S . Afr. J . Sci. 82:1646 5.

2 3

HOLOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE PALAEOCLIMATES IN THE WESTERN CAPE

Janette Deacon

The scale and timing of climatic changes in southern Africa over the last 1 25 000 years i s similar to that in other southern hemisphere countries. There are differences in the way in which particular regions responded to these changes with the fynbos biome in the western and southern Cape showing more dramatic shifts in larger mammal communities that can be traced inland, and there may also be differences in rainfall responses in the summer and winter rainfal l regions. Long-sequence deposits with biological materials are urgently needed to investigate the nature of the response of plants and animals to climatic changes in the western Cape .

INTRODUCTION During the Pleistocene and Holocene, world climates have undergone a series of cyclic changes from f ull glacial to full interglacial, each cycle lasting about 100 000 years. The changes are apparently triggered by r egular shifts in the amount of solar radiation received by the earth that are brought about by small scale variations in the geometry of the earth 's orbit around the sun and the tilt of the earth 's axis. The scale and timing of these changes have been confirmed largely through the analysis of oxygen isotopes in deep sea cores and a chronology based on the alternation of warmer ( odd-numbered) and cooler ( even-numbered) stages is widely used ( Shackelton & Opdyke 1 973). Reliable long sequences are not a s easily accumulated on land , but we need terrestrial evidence to see how gl obal temperature shifts ha ve affected continental climates at different t imes and at d ifferent places, and in particular to link the oxygen isotope stages in deep sea cores to climatic changes on land. Ideall y, we should aim at sampling long and securely dated sedimentary s equences in which both geomorphic and biological data are preserved together .

been

In southern drawn from

Africa, changes

palaeoclimatic inferences have in geomorphic and sedimentary

2 4

sequences and from changes in pl ant and animal communities. Geomorphic studies have tended to focus on changes in precipitation which is unfortunate because the changes reflected by the oxygen isotope stages have all been pri maril y temperature-based and there is no predictable correlation between atmospheric temperature and precipitation . Conclusions drawn from biological data are based instead on the reconstruction of past climate from inferred vegetation patterns that responded to both temperature and precipitation and can in some cases be more reliable indicators of temperature change .

THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN PALAEOCLIMATIC

SEQUENCE

The last 125 000 years can be used useful l y as an indication of the scale and duration of earlier glacial cycles, f irstly because this time period covers the Last Intergl acial, the Last Gl acial and the Present Intergl acial (stages 1 to 5 in the oxygen isotope chronol ogy), secondly because deposits are reasonabl y wel l preser ved, and thirdl y because they can be relatively accurately dated . A recent synthesis of the evidence for climatic change during this time ( Deacon & Lancaster 1984, Deacon, Lancaster & Scott 1 984) shows that onl y during the Last Interglacial, between about 1 25 000 and 115 000 years ago, were temperatures as warm or warmer than they are today . Throughout the following 10 0000 years temperatures dropped during the Last Glacial cycle and were between about 2 and 5 degrees C . cooler than they are today, the col dest period being at the Last Glacial Maximum between 20 000 and 1 6 000 years ago when estimates vary from 5 to 9 degrees C . below those of the present. These estimates are based on the oxygen isotope analyses of speleothems from the Wolkberg Caves in the Transvaal which give a maximum estimate of 8 -9 degrees C . cooler than the present about 20 000 years ago ( Tal ma et al. 1974), and from the Cango Caves in the southern Cape W here the estimate is 5 degrees C . lower than the present about 18 000 years ago (Vogel 1 983). Isotope anal yses of fossil water in the Uitenhage aquifer, also in the southern Cape, give a sequence dating from about 28 000 years ago through the Holocene with a Last Glacial Maximum temperature estimate of 5 ,5 degrees C . lower than the present ( Heaton 1 981, Vogel 1 983). These estimates are essentially s imilar to those given for the Last Glacial Maximum in other southern hemisphere countries ( Salinger 1 981) and allow us at least one link between temperature changes on land and those in the oxygen isotope sequence in deep sea cores . Lower temperatures affected southern African regional climates and environments in different ways, but general l y speaking ecozones cl oser to the equator underwent less drastic changes than did the fynbos biome in the south and the higher mountain ranges in the east

2 5

of the subcontinent . Larger mammals less sensitive to environmental micromammals and plant communities.

appear to have been changes than were Although throughout

the Last Glacial ( from about 70 000 to about 10 000 years ago) faunal assembl ages in the southern Cape were dominated by large gregarious grazers rather than the small solitary browsers that are so common in the Present Intergl acial Hol ocene environment, in other ecozones there was relatively little change between last Glacial and Present Interglacial larger mammal communities ( Klein 1 980). Klein ( 1983) has shown that temperature was probabl y an important factor in increasing the grass e lement in the southern Cape vegetation and that periods of cooler climate are closel y correl ated with higher proportions of grazers than browsers . Where inferences on past rainfall have been drawn , more effective precipitation occurred in both the summer and all-year rainfall regions at times when temperatures were intermediate between ful l gl acial and ful l interglacial. Examples here are palaeolake deposits in the Kalahari at Makgadikgadi ( Heine 1978, Cooke 1980, 1 984) and Urwi Pan ( Lancaster 1 979), pollen samples from Wonderkrater in the Trans vaal ( Scott 1982a) and micromammal and charcoal samples from Boomplaas Cave in the southern Cape ( Avery 1982, Deacon et al 1984). However, during the col dest time of the Last Glacial Maximum ( 20 000 - 1 6 000 B .P .), most reliable indicators show it to have been dry . Well-dated information on precipitation at the Last Glacial Maximum in the winter rainfall area has not yet been found . Vogel ( 1983) has demonstrated at Melikane in Lesotho that it is possible to foll ow changes in the incidence of C3 and C4 grasses ( and therefore temperature changes because the abundance of C3 grasses in the Drakensberg increases at higher, cooler altitudes) by analysing the C-13 content of collagen in zebra teeth in both Late Pleistocene and Hol ocene samples in the cave deposit . His results show that during the Last Glacial between 42 000 and 20 000 B .P. the diet of the zebras incl uded between 74% and 84% C3 plants, whereas during the Holocene it included only about 35% C3 plants . Using the same technique, he has also analysed the C-13 content of Late Pleistocene and Holocene zebra teeth from Apollo 1 1 Cave in southern Namibia , but here in the expectation of establishing whether the boundary between the winter rainfal l region ( dominated by C3 plants) and summer rainfal l region (dominated by C4 pl ants) moved appreciabl y northwards during the Last Glacial ( as has been suggested by some researchers). At present the area is dominated by C4 plants and the results of the analyses show that there is no marked difference between zebra teeth from the uppermost late Holocene levels and those from 7 000 B .P., 20 000 B .P. and c . 70 000 B .P. Thus the inference is that during the Late Pleistocene, C3 plants

2 6

did not extend as far north as southern Namibia (Vogel 1 983) and, therefore, the col d fronts that today bring winter rainfal l to the western Cape did not extend much further northwards either . The data from southern Africa confirm observations from other southern hemisphere countries and from Antarctica that warming after the Last Glacial maximum 1 8 000 ye ar s ago preceded warming in the northern hemisphere by 2 -3 000 years and was already well underway by 14 000 B .P . ( Salinger 1 981). Post-glacial warming was very rapid as can be seen both from oxygen isotope analyses of ice cores in Antarctica ( Lorius et al. 1 979) and from sea level changes around the world ( SRackleton and Opdyke 1 973). From dated shells off the continental shelf at Cape St Francis in the southern Cape it would seem that the sea level there rose 1 20m within the space of 5 000 years ( Dingle and Rogers 1972) and by 10 000 B .P. sea temperatures in the Mozambique Channel were approaching those of the present (Vincent 1 972). The effect of this warming trend was striking in the southern Cape vegetation and micromammal communities. Whereas during the Last Glacial maximum species diversity was the lowest of the past 125 000 years, by 14 000 B .P. it had risen to le vel s approaching those of the present, although the community composition of micrommalian samples derived from owl pellets and of woody vegetation inferred from charcoals in the Boomplaas Cave sequence in the southern Cape became simil ar to that of the present onl y within the last 10 000 years. Conditions between 1 4 000 and about 10 000 years ago at Boomplaas were moister and only slightly cooler than they are today . The Holocene ' climatic optimum ', in other words the warmest phase of the present interglacial, which in Australia , New Zealand and East Africa appears to date to between 10 000 and 8 000 B .P. ( Salinger 1981), seems to have occurred somewhat later in South Africa, between about 8 000 and 5 000 B .P. It is marked here by warmer and drier conditions in the interior that are evident in pollen from Wonderkrater, Rietvlei and Scot in the Transvaal ( Scott 1982a, 1982b) Kathu Vlei ( Beaumont et al. 1984) and Wonderwerk (Van Zinderen Bakker 1982) in the northern Cape . In the southern Cape warm conditions are also evident in the oxygen isotope analyses from the Cango Cave speleothem ( Vogel 1 983), from the micromammal data at Boompl aas and Byneskranskop ( Avery 1982, 1983), f rom the charcoals at Boomplaas and Buffelskloof ( Deacon et al. 1 983) and from pollen at Groenvlei ( Martin 1 968). At the latter site on the southern Cape coast, Martin has also suggested that changes in the vegetation surrounding the vlei and in the diatoms of the vlei waters both indicate a 1 ,5m marine incursion at 5 000 - 6 000 B .P . During the Present Interglacial ( oxygen isotope stage 1 ) the community composition of both plant and

2 7

micromammal communities is essentially similar to that of the present, and is markedly different ( where comparative samples are available) from Last Glacial assemblages. Changes do occur within the last 10 000 years, but these are more like 'variations on a theme' and are not at the same scale as changes between the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Post-dating the warm mid-Holocene, there is evidence in the Transvaal and at several localities in the Cape for a short period of cooler temperatures within the last 2 000 years. It is manifested in pol l en sequences from Wonderkrater ( Scott 1 982a) and Moreletta ( Scott 1982b) and from micromammal assemblages from Boompl aas and Byneskranskop ( Avery 1983) and may link with the global temperature drop known as the ' Little I ce Age'.

WESTERN CAPE PALAEOCLIMATES The information so far available from the western Cape is patchy. Evidence for a higher Last Interglacial sea level is indicated by molluscs at between +5 and +6,3m above present day sea level between St Helena Bay and Verl orenvlei. The shells from estuarine and lagoonal fad es incl ude up to 30% tropical and thermophilous species showing that minimum water temperatures in these west coast embayments were 4-6 degrees C . warmer than at present and did not fall below 18 degrees C . ( Tankard 1975). These conditions were the result of estuaries such as those of the Berg and Verl oren rivers being flooded and forming shallow bays and lagoons in which the water was kept warm by strong solar heating . Open coast water temperatures were not s ignificantly different from those of the present, however. Evaporites near Cape De se ada are al so interpreted by Tankard ( 1975) as indicative of flooding of lagoons followed by evaporation in a hot, dry climate during the Last Interglacial. Analysis of south-western Cape palaeosols at Eland 's Bay , Melkbosstrand , Swartklip and Stanford suggests to Butzer ( 1984) a series of changes in precipitation dating from the Last Interglacial to the present that were marked by periods of calcification, ferruginization and soil formation . Dry and relativel y dry phases at around 1 25 000 B.P., around 70 000 - 60 000 B .P. and again between about 16 000 and 7 000 B .P. were interspersed with humi d and subhumid phases. Undated faunal a ssemblages at Elandsfontein that probably relate to the earlier part of the Last Glacial show the characteristic dominance of grassland animals that are present at other sites through to about 10 000 B .P., as at Eland 's Bay Cave ( Klein 1980). By contrast, warmer temperatures during the Holocene ( and in the Last Interglacial), are associated with assemblages of larger mammals that reflect a decrease in the range of migratory grazers.

2 8

Cold conditions dating to the Last Glacial are associated with Middle Stone Age Howiesons Poort-type artefacts in Diepkloof Cave where Butzer ( 1979) has interpreted a roof spall horizon as the result of frost shattering . At the Last Glacial Maximum sea levels fell by about -110 m exposing the shallow continental shelf and initiating incision of river valleys . North of the major rivers, parabolic and barchanoid dunes were formed by strong southerly winds ( Tankard and Rogers 1 978). A rapid rise in sea level after 15 000 B .P. is apparent from a series of radiocarbon-dated shells from the continental shel f offshore between the Orange Ri ver mouth and Luderitz (Vogel and Visser 1981), rising about 60m between 12 000 and 7 000 B .P. Evidence for Holocene sea levels higher than the present is controversial. Whereas Birch ( 1976) and Flemming ( 1977) report a +2,3m marine incursion in the Langebaan Lagoon dated to between 6 500 and 5 000 B . P., Tankard coul d find no unequi vocal evidence of higher Holocene sea levels . However, warmer waters in Lanebaan Lagoon may be indicated by fossil oyster beds with radiocarbon ages of 6 400 - 1 800 B .P. ( Flemming 1 977). More recently , Yates et al. ( 1986) have reported evidence for a cobble beach with shells dated to 3 820 + 50 ( Pta-4041) near the mouth of the Verlorenvlei at El and 's Bay indicating that at that time the estuary was open to the sea . This is the most convincing evidence so far for a mid-Holocene high sea level. Finall y, micromammalian remains at Eland 's Bay cave suggest slightly moister conditions there after 3 000 B .P . ( Avery 1 982).

SOME QUESTIONS

THAT NEED ANSWERS

Questions which remain unanswered in the western which deserve investigation are:

Cape

and

1 . Were floral and faunal communities of the Last Interglacial comparable to those of the Present Interglacial? Faunal remains from the southern Cape at Klasies River Mouth include five species now extinct, for exampl e the giant buffal o Pel o ro vi s anti quus, the gi ant harte be es t Megalotragus priscus and the giant Cape horse Equus capensis, possibly indicative of a more prominent grass element in the vegetation . Pollen and/or micromammalian samples dating to this time period in the western Cape would be able to gi ve more direct evidence on this question . 2 . Was the Last G l acial Maximum ( LGM) in the winter rainfal l bel t wetter or drier than toda y? Predictions from Global C i rculati on Models g i ve

2 9

conflicting estimates ( Heath 1 979), but biological data from the southern Cape at Boomplaas and Nelson Bay Cave indicate that it was drier there and that the contribution of winter rainfall may have been as low or lower than at present ( Deacon et al. 1984). A feature of charcoal, pol l en and micromammalian samples from the LGM in the southern Cape is their low species di versity, again suggesting harsher conditions than at any other time during the last 125 000 years. Butzer 's inte rpretati on of the sout h- wester n Cape palaeosols, on the other hand, suggests sub-humid conditions during the LGM ( Butzer 1984). Two climatic factors need to be taken into account: ( a) at the height of the LGM the enlargement of the Antarctic ice sheet caused a slight northward displacement of the Subtropical Convergence and a more substantial northward shift of the Polar Front in the South Atlantic which in turn led to higher wind speeds (Morley and Hays 1979); ( b) cooler ocean waters led to lower evaporation rates ( Lamb 1 972). These aspects make it unlikely that winter rainfall woul d have been higher 18 000 years ago than it is today. Higher wind speeds woul d have been damaging to plants causing physiological drought, particularl y amongst trees, and the low incidence of trees in the fynbos may well be a legacy from such times . It has been intimated that if the westerly wind belt shifted equatorwards with the northward displacement of the Subtropical Convergence in the South Atlantic, then cold fronts which at present bring rain to the western Cape mainly in winter would have been relatively common in summer too. However the fact that barchanoid dunes on the western Cape coast were formed by strong southerly winds during the LGM suggests that a modification of this assumption is necessary . 3 . Was the initial warming after the LGM as earl y in the western Cape as it was in the southern Cape, and was it also accompanied by higher effective precipitation? Charcoal, pollen and micromammalian data from Boompl aas indicate that by 14 000 B .P. there was a marked increase in species diversity and particularly in the incidence of woody taxa in the vegetation . The deposits at Eland 's Bay , with undated levels between 20 000 and about 12 500 B .P., ought to be able to suppl y information on this time period in the western Cape . 4 . Is during for a shells lagoon has

there evidence for a ' climatic optimum ' the Holocene? There is equivocal evidence higher sea level associated with oyster impl ying warmer water in the Langebaan in the mid-Hol ocene, and Parkington ( 1981)

suggested

that

this

is

an

indication

that

conditions here were too hot and dry for huntergatherers at that time. Biol ogical data such as pol l en anal yses are urgentl y needed to test this hypothesis. 5 . What climatic conditions characterized the last 2 - 3 000 years when the western Cape wascol onized by Khoi herders? Is the advent of herders linked to any significant climatic event? Micromammalian data at both El and 's Bay and Die Kel ders in the south-western Cape suggest that fl uctuations in both temperature and rainfall occurred during this time. The western Cape, which at present receives most of its rain in winter from col d fronts that move in from the South Atlantic from west to east, is the ideal region in which to test models for Pleistocene climatic change that assume strengthening of the westerlies at the Last Gl aci al Maxi mum. Butzer' s interpretati on of the palaeosols needs to be tested against biological samples for the LGM to resol ve this question . If the westerlies were indeed stronger and the amount of precipitable water was lower at the LGM, we coul d predict that pol len, charcoal and micromammalian samples would all show a low species di versity and a vegetation with very few trees. If, on the other hand, the westerlies merel y moved northwards we would expect to find evidence for a higher rainfal l brought by col d fronts from the west al l year round.

REFERENCES Avery,

D . M.

1 982.

Micromammals

as

palaeoenvironmental

indicators and an interpretation of the late Quaternary in the southern Cape Province, South Africa . Ann.S.Afr. Mus. 85:183-374. Avery,

D . M. 1 983. Palaeoenvironmental implications of the small Quaternary mammals of the fynbos region . In

Deacon,

H .J.,

Hendey,

Q .B.

& Lambrechts,

J .J. N.

(eds.) Fynbos pal aeoecol ogy: a prel i mi nary synthesis. S .Afr. Natl.Scient. Progr.Rep. 75:139155. Beaumont, P .B., Van Zinderen Bakker, E . M. & Vogel, J.C. 1984. Environmental changes since 32 000 B .P. at Kathu Pan, northern Cape. In Vogel, J . C. ( ed.) Late Cai n oz oi c i-e -i ni sP l ieie7 Birch ,

G .F .

1976.

Langebaan

pa l a e o c l i m at es in the so u t he r n pp . 329-338. Rotterdam: Balkema . Surficial Lagoon.

sediments

of

Saldanha

Bay

and

Trans. 2eol.Soc.S.Afr.79: 293-300.

3 1

Butzer , K .W . 1 979. Geomorphology and Elandsbaai, western Cape , South 1 57-166.

geo-archaeology Africa . Catena

at 6 :

Butzer, K .W . 1983. Summary reports presented at a workshop on the " Evidence for Late Quaternary climatic change in southern Africa", Johannesburg , September 3 and 5 , 1 983. Butzer , K .W . 1 984 . Late Quaternary environments in South Africa. In Vogel, J . C. ( ed.) Late Cainozoic palaeocli ria-ies of the southern hemisphere, pp . 235264 . Rotterdam : Balkema . Cooke,

H .J. 1980. Landform evol ution in the context of climatic change and neo-tectonism in the middle Kalahari of north central Botswana. Trans. Inst. British Geogr.( N .S.) 5 : 80-89.

Cooke,

H .J. 1 984. The evidence from northern Botswana of Late Quaternary climatic change. In Vogel, J .C. ( ed .) Late Cainozoic palaeoclimates of the southern hemisphere, pp . 265-278. Rotterdam :Balkema .

Deacon, J ., Lancaster, N . & Scott, L . 1984. Evidence for Late Quaternary climatic change in southern Africa: Summary of the proceedings of the SAQUA Workshop hel d in Johannesburg, September 1983. In Vogel, J .C. ( ed.) Late Cainozoic palaeoclimate i of the southern hemisphere, pp. 391-404. Rotterdam: Balkema. Deacon, H .J " Scholtz, A . & Daitz, L .D. 1983. Fossil charcoal s as a source of pal aeoecol ogical information in the fynbos region . In Deacon , H .J ., Hendey, Q .B. and Lambrechts, J .J.N. ( eds.) Fynbos pal aeoec ol og y: a prel i mi na ry synt hesis. S .Afr .Natl.Scient.Progr.Rep. 75:174-182. Deacon, H .J., Deacon, J ., Scholtz, A ., Thackeray, Brink, J .S. & Vogel, J .C. 1 986. Correl ation of palaeoenvironmental data from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at Boomplaas Cave, southern Cape. In Vogel, J . C. (ed.) Late Cai noz oi c p aiaeoci i i-m ates of the southern hemisphere, pp.339351. Rotterdam : Balkema . Deacon, J . & Lancaster, N . 1 984. A synthesis of t -h e evidence for climatic change in southern Africa over the last 125 000 years. Unpublished report, CSIR National Programme for Weather, Climate and Atmosphere Research , Pretoria . Dingl e, R . V . & Rogers, J . 1972. Pl eistocene pa l a e o g e o g r a p h y of the Ag u l h a s Ba n k. Trans.roy . Soc. S .Af r . 40:155-165.

3 2

Fl emming,

B . W.

1977.

Langebaan

Lagoon:

carbonate-siliclastic environment in climate . Sediment . Geol. 1 8:61-96. Heath,

a mixed

a semi-arid

G . R. 1979. Si mul ati ons of a gl acial pal aeoclimate by three different atmospheric general circul ation model s. Pal aeo2eogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 2 6: 2 91-303.

Heaton, T .H.E. 1 981. Dissol ved gases: some applications to groundwater research . Trans .geol.Soc.S.Afr . 84: 91-97. Heine,

K . 1978. Radiocarbon chronol ogy of Late Quaternary lakes in the Kalahari, southern Africa . Catena 5 : 1 45-149.

Klein,

R . G. 1980. Environmental and ecol ogical impl icatio ns of large mammal s fro m Uppe r Pleistocene and Holocene sites in southern Africa . Ann .S.Afr. Mus. 81: 223-283.

Klein,

R .G . 1 983. Palaeoenvironmental implications of Quaternary large mammals in the fynbos region . In Deacon, H .J., Hendey, Q .B. & Lambrechts, J .J.N. (eds.) Fynbos pal aeoecol ogy: a prel iminary synthesis. S .Afr.natl Scient.Progr .Rep . 75: 1 161 38.

Lamb,

H .H . 1 972. Climate: present, past and future . Fundamentals and climate now . London: Methuen .

1 :

Lancaster, N . 1 979. Evidence for a widespread late Pleistocene humid period in the Kalahari.Nature 279: 1 45-146. Lorius, C ., Merlivat, L . Jouzel, J . & Purchet, A 30000-yr i sotope climatic record from ice . Nature 2 80: 6 44-648.

M . 1 979. Antarctic

Martin , A .R .H . 1 968. Pollen analysis of Groenvlei lake sediments, Knysna ( South Africa). Rev.Palaeobot . & Palynol. 7 : 1 07-144 . Morley, J .J. & Hays, J .D. 1979. Comparison of glacial and interglacial oceanographic conditions in the South Atlantic from variations in calcium carbonate and radiolarian distribution. Quatern .Res. 1 2: 396-408. Parkington, J .E. 1 981. The effects of environmental change on the scheduling of visits to the Eland 's Bay Cave, Cape Province, South Africa . In Hodder , I ., Isaac, G . & Hammond, N . ( eds.) Pattern of the past: studies in honour of David Clarke, pp . 341-

3 3

359.

Cambridge:

Cambridge

University

Salinger, M .J. 1981. Palaeoclimates Nature 2 91: 106-7.

Press .

north

and

south.

Scott,

L . the 1 7:

1982a. A Late Quaternary pollen record from Transvaal Bushveld , South Africa . Quatern .Res . 339-370 .

Scott,

L . 1982b. Late Quaternary fossil pollen grains from the Transvaal, South Africa . Rev.Palaeobot . & Palynol. 36: 241-278.

Shackleton, N .J. & Opdyke, N .D. 1 973. Oxygen isotope and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy of equatorial Pacific core V28-238: oxygen isotope temperatures and ice vol ume on a 10 x 5 year and 10 x 6 year scale . Quatern .Res. 3 : 39-55. Talma,

A .S., Vogel, J . C. & Partridge, T . C. 1974. Isotopic contents of some Transvaal speleothems and their palaeoclimatic significance. S .Afr.J.Sci. 70: 1 35-140 .

Tankard, A . J. 1975. Thermal l y anomal ous late Pleistocene molluscs from the south-western Cape Province . Ann .S.Afr .Mus . 6 9: 1 7-45. Tankard, A . J. & Rogers, J . 1978. Late Cenozoic palaeoenvironments on the west coast of southern Africa . J .Biogeogr . 5 : 3 19-337. Van

Zi nderen Bakker, studies of the Pollen et Spores

E . M. 1982. Pol l en anal ytical Wonderwek cave, South Africa. 24: 235-250 .

Vincent, E . 1972. Climatic change at the PleistoceneHolocene boundary in the southwestern Indian Ocean . Palaeoecology of Africa 6 : 45-54. Vogel,

J .C. 1983. Isotopic evidence and vegetation of South Africa . 3 94.

for past climates Bothalia 1 4: 3 91-

Vogel,

J .C. dates

Yates,

R .J " Mil ler, D .E., Halkett, D .J., Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. & Vogel, J .C. 1986. A late midHolocene high sea-level: a preliminary report on geoarchaeol ogy at El and's Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa . S .Afr .J .Sci. 82:164-165.

& Visser, E . 1981. Pretoria I I. Radiocarbon 2 3: 43-80 .

3 4

radiocarbon

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONTINENTAL TERRACE BETWEEN ST HELENA BAY AND LAMBERT 'S BAY

J .

Rogers

I NTRODUCTION The continental terrace is defined by Lewis ( 1974) as a combination of the currently submerged continental shelf and the exposed coastal pl ain. During gl acial regressions the coastal plain predominates whereas the continental shelf is more extensive during interglacial transgressions like that of today .

GEOLOGY,

TOPOGRAPHY AND BATHYMETRY

Introduction There is a direct correlation between the morphology of the pre-Cenozoic bedrock surface and its geol ogy. F igures 1 and 2 illustrate the geology and topography of the modern coastal plain and the geology and bathymetry of the continental margin ( shelf and slope) of the area between Sal danha Bay and Lambert's Bay ( Dingle and S iesser 1 977, Dingle et a l. 1 977). Malmesbury Grol le The ol dest rocks are metasediments of the Late Precambrian Mal mesbury Group. They underlie St Helena Bay and its adjacent coastal plain but only crop out, near the coast, west of Vel ddrif ( Fig.1), where they are thermally metamorphosed by the intrusive Cape Granite Suite (Visser and Schoch 1 973). Eastwards the coastal lowlands consist of rolling topography of Malmesbury outcrops ( Visser and Theron 1 973) incised by tributaries of the Berg River and pockmarked with " heuweltjies". In general, south of Eland 's Bay , the sediment-covered parts of the coastal plain are underlain by deepl y weathered Malmesbury metasediments. Cape Granite Suite The Vredenburg Peninsula juts westward into the South Atlantic and forms the northwestern tip of a suite of Cambrian plutons of the Cape Granite Suite that s tretches

3 5

FIGURE

1

GEOLOGY AND

TOPOGRAPHY

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3 6

OF

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COASTAL

3 7

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SPECIES

CHANGE

THROUGH TIME

Most of the evidence for species change through time concerns seals and small to medium-size ungulates in the long sequence at El and' s Bay Cave (Figs. 2 and 3 ). Carni vores tend to be rare at all the Eland 's Bay sites ( Tables 1-3 and Fig. 3 ), probabl y because the various species were either too rare or too dangerous for systematic exploitation . The largest available ungulates - rhinos, hippos, and elephants - are also uncommon, though they might be more numerous i f the s ites included kill/butchery spots in addition to base camps . Seal bones become much more abundant in deposits at Eland 's Bay Cave postdating 1 1-10 000 B .P . Like the more or less simultaneous increase in shellfish , f ish , and sea birds ( Parkington 1 981), this almost certainly reflects decreasing distance to the coast as sea level rose during the transition from the last glaciation to the Holocene . With regard to the ungul ates, small and smallmedium browsers and mixed feeders ( steenbok , grysbok, and grey duiker) are common throughout the entire Eland 's Bay sequence, from 14 000 B .P. or before. The same species dominated the area historically , in keeping with a local vegetation that contained much more browse than grass. The implication is that suitable browse was al ways abundant nearby . However, in deposits that antedate 1 110 000 B .P ., large medium bovids ( bloubok and especially hartebeest), large bovids ( buffalo and eland), equids ( quagga and " Cape horse"), and a suid ( probabl y warthog) are significantl y more numerous ( Figs. 2 and 3 ). Onl y eland and hartebeest occurred nearby historically , both probably in small numbers . With the partial exception of eland, a mixed feeder, the species invol ved are all grazers, suggesting that the local vegetation included more grass before 11-10 000 B .P. Faunal change implies similar or greater reduction in grass between 12 000 and 8000 B .P. in the adj acent southern Cape ( Klein 1983). Almost certainly , the decrease in grass reflects climatic change in the transition from the last glaciation to the Holocene.

In historic times, steenbok was more abundant than grysbok near Eland 's Bay, and it outnumbers grysbok in those layers that accumulated after 9 600 B .P . However , grysbok outnumbers steenbok in the pre-9 6 00 B .P . levels (Tabl e 4 ). Rel ati ve to steenbok, grysbok is al so remarkably abundant in grazer-dominated late Pleistocene faunas from southern Cape sites . This suggests that the regional vegetation was not onl y grassier in the late Pleistocene, but also that it contained a different mix of browse plants . Near Eland 's Bay , the browse componenet may have been more like that in " typical fynbos" than in the " coastal strandveld" that surrounds the sites today ( Parkington 1 981). 1 38

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sma l l b ou lds

sma l l med iu m b ou lds

f ur s ea ls

j .

=

1 3 15±50

l arge med iu m b ou lds

l arge b ou lds N ISP

: • •

: • :

( 516 ) ( 407)

2 3 4

( 163 )

• • • • • • 7. 71

( 217)

5 -7 8

1 20±85 1 520±80 3 510±45

9

3 780±85

( 106)

1

7 910±80

( 487)

1 2

9 600±90

( 4640 )

( 241) ( 469 )

( 1087)

1 0 1 3

1 0700±100

1 5

1 070±140

1 6

1 2450±280

( 2317) ( 193)

z : • •

( 311)

1 7

( 222 )

1 8

( 140 )

1 9 2 0 ( 2184 )

F igure

2 .

E I

( 4292)

( 133) " . •: •

: •

( 131) ( 240)

( 3508)

S pecies change

through

1 39

( 166)

t ime

( 351)

E lands B au C ave

L ayers

C 14 B . P .

1 -6

3 15-1520

7 -9

3 510-3780

1

7 910

1 2

9 600

1 0

1 0130

1 3/14

1 0700

• : : • : • : : : : : • : • : : : : : • : • •

1 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : • : • : • : • : • : • : . : . :

1 5-17 1 070-12450 1 8-20

? 14 ,000 q uagga

r

• : : . :

w i ld

I

P ig

C ape h orse

l ayers

. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

b lou-

g rey

b ok

d u iker

1 e land

h arteb eest

s teenbok/ g rysbok

k l ips pr inger

1 -6

3 15-1520 3 510-3780

1

7 910

1 2

9 600

1 0

1 0130

1 3/14

1 0700

1

1 5-17 1 070-12450 1 8-20

? 14 ,000 h are (s)

p o lecat

j acka l

w i ldcat

g rey

l eopard

c ar na l

3 .

Species

change

t hrough

1 40

r h ino

h yrax

mongoose

Figure

s heep

( Z71

C 14 B . P .

7 -9

b uffa lo 1

t ime

h ippo

mu

W

W W P t U > > r t 1 •4 > t o

0 G n i . o w C n > . c nr4

1 1 a l C r l E n t y

a l

C PL A L l ( 6 r 1 Ef l . 0 5 . 3 x 0.0 A E

of Number

W C W

S 0 4 W n

0 O i

• >4

I n Z . W Z P Et A i s 0

G

0

> ,

I n

5 ( I U I s . :

5 D l

U I > c t u o E 0 u

t i t S _ ' V 0 E r G w

U I >

a l G t 7 1 •r . "

c n

( U

r t l

1

5 . Table

Table

4 .

The

M inimum

before

Individuals and after

a _

W E n

dP4' s

t u

l ower

I

C S . V U i n W W W S . t I -

EX )

S .. 1 0 i n 3 P C 0 4 ,

EXTINCTIONS In addition to species that were rare or absent near Eland 's Bay historically , but which survived elsewhere, Eland 's Bay Cave contains one species that did not survi ve anywhere. This is the " Cape horse," whose occurrence in level 11, dated to ca. 9 600 B .P., is the latest known record of the species . I t was widespread in southern Africa during the late Pleistocene, but relative to its extant relative, the Burchell's zebra/quagga , was most common at sites like Eland 's Bay Cave in the western half of the subcontinent . Historically , the western half was drier ( Fig.1), and if this was also true in the late Pl eistocene, it may indicate that the species was especially adapted to arid conditions, like Grevy 's zebra in nort he ast Af ric a to da y. It was in fact morphological l y similar to Grevy 's zebra, and Churcher and Richardson ( 1978) have suggested that Grevy 's zebra evol ved from it. The spread of Cape horse to southern Africa in the earl y Pleistocene perhaps coincided with the spread of gemsbok and dikdik, both arid country species now geographically separated from conspecifics or at least very close relatives in arid northeast Africa . The extinction of the " Cape horse" may have been caused by the kind of end-Pleistocene vegetational change recorded near Eland 's Bay , compounded by human efforts to maintain grazer-oriented hunting practices ( Klein 1 984).

INTRODUCTIONS At both Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave the oldest sheep bones occur in levels dated between 2 000 and 1 500 B .P ., where they are associated with the oldest potsherds in the sites . There is a comparable association between sheep bones and pottery in the upper layers at Eland 's Bay Open and Spring Cave, but at these sites their absence from lower layers could be due to chance ( small sample size). Simil arl y, chance coul d readil y explain the absence of sheep bones in the pottery-bearing deposits at Hail Stone Midden and Connies Limpet Bar . Together with abundant evidence from other western and southern Cape sites ( Schweitzer and Scott 1973, H .J. Deacon et al. 1978, von den Driesch and Deacon 1 985, Smith 19-8-57 — Kl ei n in press), the El and' s Bay and Tortoise Cave data indicate that sheep ( and pottery) were first introduced to the region between 2 000 and 1 500 B .P., the exact time perhaps depending on the pl ace. At some of the other sites there is also evidence for

1 42

cattle, which may in fact be represented by the highly fragmented bones assigned to buffal o in the post-1500 B .P. deposits at El and 's Bay Cave. More complete bones woul d be neces sary to make a trul y positi ve identification. A priori, cattle may be more likel y, since buffalo were not recorded in the western Cape historically. Even after the introduction of stock, indigenous mammals remain common in the ( known) Eland 's Bay sites. The contemporaneous Kasteelberg sites near Vredenburg provide a very different picture in which indigenous animals are far less numerous rel ati ve to stock ( Smith and Klein in prep., Klein in press). The difference is probabl y due to the use of the Kasteel berg sites as sheep kraals, for which they woul d have been well suited topographically . While the Kasteel berg people were a lmost certainly active herders, their known Eland 's Bay co nt e mpora ries we re eit her herders temporaril y ( ?seasonall y) expl oiting coastal resources, or " pure" hunter-gatherers who occasionall y rustled sheep or cattle.

THE PROBLEM OF THE

CAPE DUNE MOLERAT

The Cape dune molerat is represented throughout the Eland 's Bay Cave sequence, but relative to other animals , is not especial l y common in layers 12 and above, postdating 10 000 B .P. ( Fig. 2 ). Given other faunal evidence for environmental change around 10 000 years ago , it is tempting to interpret the decrease in molerat frequency in environmental terms . However , molerats are relativel y common in post-10 000 B .P. layers at nearby Tortoise Cave ( Fig. 4 ), and the kind of vegetational change that occurred 10 000 years ago shoul d have increased (not decreased) molerat numbers. Certainl y, the species is very common in the vicinity today . In the case of the molerat then, we think that frequency change through time is probabl y not due to environmental change. The most likel y alternative is change in col l ector behaviour. The probl em is to identify the collector. Because dune molerats are relativel y large and are routinel y consumed by some people today (de Graff 1981), we initiall y assumed that people brought them to Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave. People almost certainl y brought some, but we now think the maj ority may have been introduced by eagle owls, which are capable of taking even larger animals, such as smal l antel ope (Brown 1971, McLachl an and Liversidge 1978). The molerat frequency shifts at Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave would then reflect the extent to which eagle s ite.

owls

( rather

1 43

than people)

used each

T or to ise C ave

f ur s ea ls L ayers I l f.

.

.

.

sma l l b ou lds

C 14 y rs D .P .

. 12 . 1 1 1. 1 13

1 1

sme l l med iu m b ou lds

b uret tes

mo le r ats

=

=

=

=

=1

”3 1

l arge med iu m 0 ' l arge b ou ids N 1SP

”1

7 60±50

( 568 )

1 1

( 118 )

2 E 1 2 8 3 4 -8 9 1 0

( 450 )

: • • : • : • : • :

( 272 )

—1 620±50

6 80±50 _3 -520±60 4 020±60

( 185 )

4 190±60

( 409 )

( 232 ) ( 740 )

11

( 314 )

1 18

( 291)

1 2-13

4 330±50

1 4

7 700±70

( 398 ) ( 79 ) ( 1429)

F igure

4 .

S pecies

( 291)

c hange

( 342)

( 1644 )

t hrough t ime

1 44

( 101)

( 44 )

The evidence is circumstantial but suggestive . We know of no pertinent observations on eagle owls in southern Africa , but in East Africa they are reported to prey heavil y on molerats where these are common ( Brown 1 971). It is also noteworthy that the El and 's Bay and Tortoise Cave levels that are richest in molerats are richest in other likel y eagle owl prey, especiall y newborn steenbok and grysbok ( Table 5 ). The abundance of molerats is also correlated with the abundance of newborn grysbok/steenbok in the earlier Upper Pleistocene layers at Die Kel ders Cave in the southern Cape ( Klein 1981). Here, the correlation between molerats and newborn small antel ope occurs in a very different cul tural and pal aeoenvironmental context than at Eland 's Bay, which suggests that neither human behaviour nor environment are behind it. Again, we suspect eagle owls. Finall y, we note that, compared to their abundance in some levels at El and' s Bay and Tortoise Caves, mol erats are very uncommon in open-air sites ( like Eland 's Bay Open), perhaps because such sites do not usual l y provide suitable owl roosts . It may never be possible to resol ve this problem completel y, but it might be elucidated by detailed analyses of the horizontal and vertical distributions of molerat bones at El and 's Bay and Tortoise Caves vs. the distributions of artifacts and of bones from animals that ea gl e owl s certai nl y di d not int ro duce. If postdepositional mixing has not been too extensive, molerat bones might be expected to cluster beneath the most likely roosting spots .

TORTOISE ABUNDANCE AND

MEAN TORTOISE

SIZE

Bones of the angul ate tortoise are abundant to superabundant at all western Cape sites, where they were al most certainl y introduced by Stone Age people. No other species is known to feed on tortoises in such quantity and to concentrate their bones at sites. An ab u n d a n c e of to r t oi s e is pr o b a b l y al s o a pal aeoenvironmental indicator, or at least an index of the limits of past environmental change. Relative to mammals, tortoise numbers fluctuate througout long Stone Age sequences in the western Cape, but tortoises are al ways common, just as they were historical ly . In contrast, at southern Cape sites like Nelson Bay Cave ( Klein 1 972, J . Deacon 1978) and Boomplaas Cave A ( H.J. Deacon 1 979, H .J. Deacon et al. 1984) where tortoises were rare historicall y, they are also rare through sequences as long or longer than the Eland 's Bay one. Thes e se que nces co nt ai n abunda nt evi de nce for environmental change, including a very significant reduction in grassl and during the Pleistocene/Holocene 1 45

transition. However, whatever the extent or nature of past change, it never seems to have favoured tortoises, at least rel ative to mammals. Probabl y compared to Eland 's Bay , the climate was always either too moist, too cold , or both . In addition to counting tortoises from Eland 's Bay Cave, Tortoise Cave, and other sites, we have also measured tortoise humeri and f emora to determine if there was change through time in mean individual size . F igures 5 and 6 and Table 6 summarize our results for Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave. In absolute magnitude, the shifts in mean size through the long Eland 's Bay sequence are not great, but they are still probabl y significant, given the large samples invol ved. There are two major alternative explanations: f irst, that smaller mean s ize reflects a slowing of the tortoise growth rate due to adverse environmental conditions; and second, that it reflects greater human predation pressure. The two expl anations need not be total l y opposed, since environmental change coul d also have affected human predation pressure . A slowing of the growth rate would be indicated if changes in mean tortoise size were not accompanied by changes in mean tortoise age at death . Branch ( 1984) has successfull y determined the ages of recent angulate tortoises by counting the growth annuli in their bones, and he suggests ( in litt. 15 November 1985) that the method be extended to fossil tortoise bones from Eland 's Bay and other Cape sites . We hope to explore this option soon. For the moment, we favour the hypothesis that human predation pressure was the main cause of variation in mean tortoise size . Our conclusion is based partly on the fact that tortoise size changes do not correlate closely with major palaeoenvironmental change , not only near El and's Bay, but also at Die Kel ders Cave 1 and Byneskranskop Cave 1 in the southwestern Cape ( Klein and Cruz-Uribe 1983). In addition, at Eland 's Bay and the southwestern Cape sites, tortoises tend to be larger in those levels where they are most abundant relative to mammals . F igure 5 shows this for Eland's Bay Cave, using onl y those mammals that were probabl y introduced mainl y,if not entirel y, by people. We think that a high tortoise to mammal ratio implies relati vel y poor conditions for hunter-gatherer groups, which means relatively low human popul ation density and thus limited human predation on tortoises. The result is larger mean tortoise size in human sites. In this light, it is interesting that the largest shift in mean tortoise size we have observed in the western Cape is a reduction of more than 8% after 2 0001 500 B .P. This does not show up clearl y at Eland 's Bay Ca ve, perhaps because most of the post-2000 B .P.

1 46

t or to ise h umer i :

l a rge mamma l b ones

C hersina a ngulata

7 .65 7 .60 7 .55 7 .50 7 .45 7 .40 7 .35 7 .30 7 .25 7 .20 7 .15 7 .10 1 -6 7 -9

4

1 2

1 0

1 3/ 1 4

1 45

1 46

1 7 4

. 1 8

4 1 9

1

A

2 0

mA

"breadth" (m m)

E lands Bey Cove l evels m ean d istal hu merus breadth (m m) levels

-

C1 4 Yrs D .P.

5 .0250 4 .0625

6 .9500

5 .9875

8 .8750

7 .9125

I9 .8375

p in iun l in pu i u n im i lm i r u r ru lun im i u npu l l ia i r i l

1- 6 7- 9

3 15

-

1520

--

351 0 - 3780

i lg

i

( 1 48) 1

( 1 01)

1 1

791 0

1

12

9600

1

13/1 4

10,700

15

1 1,070

( 43 4)

16 - 17

12,450

(41 9)

18

-

20

F igure

Changes t ime

( 253) 1

i

7 14 ,000

5 .

1

#

1

( 1 800)

I

i n

tortoise

1 47

( 11 40)

1 ( 306)

s ize

t hrough

Present.

s .

1 4_

I f ) ( S i 1 t o

t o 1 4 ) o i 0 . 1 0 . I 4

i n4 .4 - i n0

t o c 0 1

r e ) 4. 0 1 r e ) 0 1 t . 0 r e ) t O

r e )

e-1 1

t o

( 1

f t

> o

P

U . )

t o

t o 0 . 1 t 1 o , 4 . 0 0 . 1

0 . 1

R c i

t o 0 1 t o

r s .

e n 0 1 N 4 r e ) .

1

4 t o c 0 4 0 . 1 . c 0 t o 4 e n e n e n e n e n . • i • . « el

el

rf

o . 1 .i n •

o i s ot •o •

e

X 1

e.1

o D l t

G ; ge i le je ;

and

1 3

4 t o D l 1 0 . 1 1 . 7 1 .( 1 t o 0 4 t o G I e n e n 1 : 1 c 0

e . u : 1 1 n 0 a ,c

( TC)

breadth

G r e ) c 0 u 3 I f )

r s . I n .• 4. W I

( e )

l f ) 4. . 0 1 0 1 ee l

4 "

• fel

• ir$

N C rle t)c r ;

c m

r e ) N

r e ; r e ;

a

•ri

Cn

r e )

eel

15?

1 1

J e t

v I

e 4

e e l

e -4

in

c ur i

ri

(1)

erg

e ) I n 4 r

e-11 eel

( 9 ( 9

'

eel ee l

4 >

f t 4

S .

0 1

0 f e l

( • e . n 1

0 e-4

e-1

( 1 . 1

7 .

0 . 1

9.4 • • • • •

• re

t o

Table

numbers The

Tabl e

G .

f t

t o

• • • • •

01 . 3 01 . ) 0 I t r i C r , W W W W W W

1 48

M

I

•-• I

1 7 1

I

I I S

• , - 1 0 . 1 4

' 1 -1 * -1

" ' A

O 1 . )

C . ) L . ) I . ) U C A 1 1 -I - W W

tortoises date f rom only shortly after 2 000 B .P ., but is very ob vious at Tortoise Ca ve (Fig. 6 ) and the Kasteelberg sites near Vredenburg where most of the tortoise bones are younger than 1 500 B .P. At Tortoise Cave and the Kasteelberg sites, the marked reduction in mean tortoise s ize coincides with , or shortly postdates, the appearance of domestic stock. The introduction of herding would probably not have been successful if it did not permit more people, who in turn coul d have pressed harder on tortoises. It is also possible that the introduction of stock degraded the vel d, slowing the tortoise growth rate. Again , determining the ages of the fossil tortoises coul d resol ve the issue, which is not only intrinsically interesting , but also important to a general understanding of tortoise size variation .

MEAN

INDIVIDUAL

S IZE

IN DUNE MOLERATS AND HYRAXES

At both Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave dune molerats are abundant enough to estimate mean individual size in different levels. In contrast to tortoise bones, dune molerat bones , like those of other mammals, essentially stop growi ng when the epiphyses fuse. It is thus possible to separate size from age by measuring onl y bones with fused epiphyses . We present measurements here for fused distal humeri, whose durability tends to make them the most common limb bones in fossil samples . The measurements indicate that dune molerats tended to be significantly smaller near Eland 's Bay after 4 400 B .P. than before 9 600 B .P. ( Fig. 6 and Table 7 ). The exact time of size reduction cannot be established because of the depositional hiatus between 8 000 and 4 400-4000 B .P. at both Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave, but it coincided broadl y with a shift to drier conditions suggested by regional geomorphic data ( Butzer 1 984). Dune molerats today tend to become notabl y smaller from the moistest parts of their range ( between Cape Town and Knysna on the southern Cape coast) to the driest parts ( near the mouth of the Orange River on the western Cape coast) ( de Graaff 1 981). This is reflected in the larger mean size of subrecent molerat humeri from Byneskranskop 1 vs. Eland 's Bay ( Klein 1 984b). From

these

facts

we

conclude

that

the

reduction

in

dune molerat size near Eland 's Bay was due to increasing aridity. Exceptional aridity in the interval between 8 000 and 4 400-4 000 B .P. may in fact have reduced the archaeol ogical visibility of both human and owl popul ations, producing the marked occupational hiatus. The dune molerats at Byneskranskop declined in size from the terminal Pleistocene to the late Holocene, but were always larger on average than contemporaneous individuals from Eland 's Bay . This suggests that it was al ways

1 49

E lands B ag C ave a nd T or to ise C ave mean d ista l h umerus b readth ( mm ) 1 0 .450 9 .875

t u n im i p u r i im

1.600

1.025

gathyergus s ui l lus

1 2 .750

I 1 2 .175

I 1 3 .325

u n n in i ni u ni m i n n in um

< 2000 ( IC 1 -3)

( 28) =

R I

O

4 000-2000 ( IC 4 -9 )

( 23)

4 400-4000 ( IC 1 0-13)

( 42) —±

C 14 y rs B . P .

7 910 ( [DC 1)

( 3) ( 34) ( 52) ( 33)

1 0 ,700 ( [DC 1 3 )

7 14 ,000 ( [DC 1 8-20)

( 6) 6 .9500

1 0 ,130 ( [BC 1 0 )

1 2 ,450 ( [DC 1 5-17)

( 9)

5 .0250

9 600 ( [DC 1 2)

8 .8750

C hers ina a ngu lata

4 .0625 I 5 .9875 1 7 .9125 I 9 .8375 i i m ir u ipu rr in T9 1 1 1 1 1 19 1 1 1 1 m rp infm i tm l i nurip ur i n E

< 2000 ( IC 1 -3 )

( 100)

4 000-2000 ( IC 4 -9) ( 60)

4 100-4000 ( IC 1 0-13)

( 53) ( 253) ( 1140)

( 1800 )

=

( 853) ( 306)

Figure

6

9 600 UDC 1 2 ) 1 0 ,130 ( [DC 1 0)

( 245)

= $ .

7 910 ( [DC 1)

Changes

i n

t hrough

t ime

1 0 ,700 ( [DC 1 3) • 1 2 ,450 ( [BC 1 5-17 ) l o = n i za z 1

7 14 ,000 ( [DC 1 8-20)

due molerat a nd

1 50

I BM

tortoise

s ite

moister near Byneskranskop, which may expl ain why Byneskranskop lacks a similar mid-Holocene occupational hiatus ( Schweitzer and Wilson 1 982). As additional evidence for a relationship between dune molerat s ize and humidity , the largest individuals on record come from earlier Upper Pleistocene deposits at Die Kel ders Cave 1 where sediment analysis indicates unusuall y moist conditions ( Tankard 1976). It is also pertinent that Tchernov ( 1968) has shown a probable positive relationship between mean individual size and precipitation in a Near Eastern relative of the dune molerat, while Avery ( 1982) suggest the same relationship may explain notable size variation among prehistoric samples of the common molerat from southern Cape s ites . No other mammals in the composite Eland 's Bay Cave/ Tortoise Cave sequence are known to fluctuate in size with precipitation today, nor are there any which are abundant enough for an a posteriori case to be built from the fossil samples . However , limited observations from Eland 's Bay and Tortoise Cave suggest that the rock hyrax may follow the same pattern as the dune molerat ( Fig . 7 ).

SKELETAL

PART

REPRESENTATION

Most species are too rare in the Eland 's Bay sites for a detailed analysis of skeletal part representation, particularl y as it might reflect human behaviour. The two most important exceptions are the bovids and seals from Eland 's Bay Cave. Figure 8 compares skeletal part representation in the bovids grouped into four successive size categories. Some similarities and differences in the figure may be due to chance, given small sample sizes, particularly in the large medium bovids. However , some probably reflect real similarities and differences among the samples . Thus, in all four size categories, jaws and foot bones tend to be well-represented , probably because they are very durable and are easy to identiy even when fragmented. The smal l est footbones ( carpal s and sesamoids) are relativel y rare in the small bovids, probabl y because they are especiall y likel y to be overlooked even in extremely careful excavations. They are rare in most other southern African faunal samples, al most certainl y because of bias against them during excavation and sorting . With respect to differences that are probabl y meaningful, relatively speaking, bones other than jaws or footbones are especiall y rare in the larger bovids. Conversel y, the smal l er bo vids tend to be better represented by a wider variety of skeletal

151

parts

The

E lands B ag C ave a nd T or to ise C ave

Procavia

Cap e nsis

mean d ista l h umerus b readth ( mm ) 1 0 .9250

1.8500

1 2 .7750

1 0 .4625 I 1.3875 I 1 2 .3125 I 1 3 .2375

( 19)

T ij

- E3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 133 1 1 1" i llE f

1

( 3 ) ( 4o )

I i m ln idnuh il Im 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 , , , , l

F igure

7 .

-y rs

B . P . ( s ites D il ayers)

4 400-700

( IC 1 -13 G i [ BC 1 -9)

1 2 ,500-7900 ( [BC 1 0-17) ? 14 ,000 ( [DC 1 8-20) 7 92 ,000 ( Sea H arvest)

lni l l in i lm i lm i l im i l im l

C hanges

i n d assie

s ize t hrough t ime

1 52

E lands B ag C ave ( a l l l e ve ls)

MNI p er S ke leta l P art/MNI Most Abundant P art ( 7 0) sma l l med iu m sma l l b ou ids

b ou ids

( MN I -7 6)

( h IN 1 -1 3)

0

f ron t le t l aws e t i 03 a x is c erv ica ls 3 -7 t horec ic l umber s ecre t r ibs s capu la p rox i me l h umerus d i s ta l h umerus p rox i ma l r ad ius d i s ta l r ed l 13 p rox i me l u lna c arpa ls m e tepod ie ls p he lenges i nnom ina te p rox i ma l f emur d i s te l f emur p rox i ma l t i b ie d i s ta l t i b ia c e lceneum a s traga lu s o ther t e rsa ls p rox i me l s esemo ids d i s te l s esemo lds •

F igure

8 .

5 0

1 00

t

0

• Ie

SO

l arge med iu m b ou ids

1 00

( MNI 0

5 0

l arge b ou lds

3 )

( MN I -1 3 )

1 00

5 0

1 00 t

•

t >

S keletal

0

part

r epresentation

15 3

= 2

•

same contrast between size categories is apparent at most Stone Age sites, not only in southern Africa but throughout the world. Perkins and Daly (1968) particularly emphasized it at the early Holocene hunter­ gatherer site of Suberde in Turkey. They explained it by the "schlepp effect", whereby people often brought smaller animals to a site intact, but butchered larger ones where they died and brought back only selected skeletal parts. Binford (1984) argues that the "schlepp effect" has been overworked and that the contrast in skeletal part representation between different-sized animals implies that people obta ined them in different ways. In his opinion, the wide range of well-represented skeletal parts that tends to characterize smaller bovids implies active human hunting, while the disproportionately high number of skull and foot bones that characterize larger bovids implies scavenging. Skull and foot bones have relatively little nutritional or other value and would thus often be left at carcasses on which non-human predators had already fed. Perhaps the principal difficulty with Binford's hypothesis is that the pattern is extremely widespread; it characterizes not only the majority of Stone Age sites, but also Iron Age ones, like Mapungubwe in the northern Transvaal (Voigt 1983). Here too, compared to smaller bovids, large ones are disproportionately represented by head and foot bones. However, the smaller bovids are primarily sheep or goats, which were certainly not hunted, and the larger ones are cattle, which were almost certainly not scavenged. We have no compelling explanation for why the pattern is so common, but we don't think that a "schlepp effect," broadly defined, can be entirely ruled out. In addition, _l ike Voigt (1983), we think t he p a ttern m a y pa rtly reflect greater predepositional fragmentation of large bones during butchering and food preparation, combined with leaching, profile compaction and other postdepositional destructive pressures that tend to remove fragmented bones first (or that make them unidentifiable.) In contrast to the bovids, the Eland's Bay Cave seals tend to be better represented by various limb bones (Fig. 9). Almost certainly, this reflects the fact that seal jaws and foot bones are far less durable relative to their limb bones, particularly in young seals like the ones that dominate the Eland's Bay sample. Additionally, people probably broke up seal limb bones far less often, since, unlike bovid bones� they contain no marrow cavity. T h e s a m e p a t t e rn of s e a l skel e t al p a r t repr esenta t ion found a t El and's Ba y Cave tends to characterize other Later Stone Age sites where seals are well represented, like Kasteelberg B (Fig. 9). Most differences that occur between samples can probably be 154

MNI p er S ke leta l P art/ MNI Most Abundant P art ( 7 . K I ISIEELBEI 1G B (MN I =15) J a ws a t las a n is c eru ica ls 3 -7 t horac ic l u mbar r ibs s capu la h u merus r ad ius u lna c arpa ls metapod ia ls p ha langes i nno m inate f e mur t ib ia l ibu la c a lcaneu m a straga lus o ther t arsa ls

Figure

5 0 Ie I I 4 4 -

0

W ean NU / 1 -9 ( MN I - 1 1 )

1 00 0

S O

WINDS D EW 1 2 (MNI - 6 6)

1 00 0

5 0

1 00

L -44

e

- \ •

9 .

S keletal

p art

1 55

r epresentation

attri bute d to di ffere nces in post- depositional destructive pressures. Thus, the bones from Eland 's Bay Cave level 12 and Kasteelberg B are more leached than those from El and 's Bay levels 1-9. Leaching would probabl y remove seal jaws before humeri, which could explain why jaws are more common and humeri are less common in levels 1 -9. Among regional samples, only the one from the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Mouth Cave 1 exhibits a pattern of seal skeletal part representation that suggests people were obtaining or using seals in a radically different way ( Cruz-Uribe in prep.)

MORTALITY PROFILES From the ages of animals at time of death it is sometimes possible to determine how people obtained them, for example by hunting individuals, or in the case of herd animals, by driving into traps . Additionally , in species like the Cape fur seal that onl y breed during a small part of the year, age at death may reflect the season(s) when bones accumul ated at a site, assuming that age can be determined rel ati vel y precisel y. Parkington ( 1972, 1976) has measured seal jaws to estimate the season of occupation at Eland 's Bay Cave , and we have measured seal limb bones, especially humeri, to estimate it at Eland 's Bay and other sites in the western and southern Cape. Parkington ( pers. comm .) is presently reanalyzing the jaw measurements in light of new data on jaw length and age in recent, known-age seals . We also have measurements on known-age animals, and we hope to combine our results with Parkington 's in the near future . The only bovids that are sufficiently abundant for age anal ysis at the Eland's Bay sites are steenbok and grysbok. Unfortunatel y, teeth of the species are impossibl e to separate, except when they occur in relatively complete lower jaws . The fragmentary jaws and isolated teeth that dominate the samples from Eland 's Bay and other Stone Age sites can be assigned onl y to a composite steenbok/grysbok category . From this it is probably possible to construct an interpretable composite age profile ( Klein 1 981), but establishing the season of bone accumulation would only be possible if both species bred at the same season. There is no evidence they do, or even that their breeding is decidedly seasonal ( Mentis 1 972, Bigal ke as cited in Parkington 1981). In both species, births may be too widel y dispersed through the year to provide a sound basis for estimating the season of bone accumulation at archaeological sites . Figure 10 presents composite steenbok/grysbok mortality profiles from Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave. Age at death was estimated from dP4 and M3 crown

1 56

R ap h icerus

d P4 H e ight

H3 H e ight

6 0

E lands B ag C ave

50

N umber o fI nd iv idua ls

4 0 3 0 2 0 1 0 0,

-

fErj f

2

1 4 1 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

9

1 0

T or to ise C ave

I

1 0 8 6 4« 20 2

3

y ounger —

Figure

1 0.

4

5

6

7

8

A ge C lass —

Raphicerus profile

1 57

o lder

age class

heights, using the method described in Klein and CruzUribe ( 1984). Indi viduals were then divided among ten successively older age categories, each representing 1 0% of potential lifespan ( about 72 months in both species .) One potential problem in interpreting the age profiles is that they may contain a mixture of animals brought in by people and owls . However, in spite of the fact that the supposed " owl" levels do contain a higher proportion of newborn steenbok/grysbok ( Table 5 ), the age profile from these layers is broadl y similar to the profile from the " human" layers when both are cast in 10%-of-lifespan intervals ( Klein 1981). Both profiles are similar in shape to the compound profiles in Figure 10, in which progressivel y ol der age classes contain successively fewer individuals . Palaeobiologists often call such profiles " catastrophic ," because they resemble the age structure of a living population . This structure coul d onl y become fossilized if a catastrophe such as a plague killed all individuals regardless of their age . Common, everyday mortality produces a different, socalled " attritional" age profile in which the second most abundant individuals are old adults ( ones beyond 40-50% of potential lifespan), not the prime age ones ( between 20 and 40% of lifespan) that are so well represented in Figure 10. The reason for the difference is that prime age adul ts much less commonl y die from everyday, attritional causes like accidents, predation or endemic disease. At first glance then, it is tempting to conclude that steenbok/grysbok mortality at Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave was catastrophic rather than attritional. Stone Age hunter-gatherers could produce such a pattern by using traps or snares in which individuals of all ages were equally likely to be caught, and they may well have done so. Howe ver, the same " catastrophic" shape characterizes every steenbok/grysbok age profile we have constructed , including ones from fossil carnivore lairs ( Klein 1982), and it seems unlikel y that catastrophic mortality could be invol ved in all cases. A much more likel y explanation is that in their popul ation dynamics, particularl y their reproductive rate, steenbok and grysbok are more like rodents and other small mammals than like the larger mammals on which the " catastrophic" vs. " attritional" distinction was devised . For such small mammals with a high reproductive rate, high mortality generally continues into prime-adult groups, and it may be shown mathematical l y that corresponding " catastrophic" and " attritional" profiles will be very similar ( Klein 1982). It is thus possible that the profi l es in Fi g ure 10 are act ual l y " attritional," whether they were produced by people, owls, or a combination of the two .

1 58

CONCLUSIONS The possibility that eagle owls accumulated some of the mammal bones in Eland 's Bay Cave and Tortoise Cave compl icates interpretation, but some important generalizations are still possible . Among the ungulates, small browsing antelopes were apparently common nearby throughout the known Later Stone Age occupation, from 1 4 000 years ago or before . Larger grazing antelopes and equids were perhaps never truly abundant, but were almost certainl y more numerous before 11-10 000 B .P. when climatic conditions favoured a grassier vegetational mosaic . Seals were not routinely exploited from ( what is now) Eland 's Bay until 11-10 000 B .P., when rising sea level brought the coastline within easy reach . Earlier sealing sites, if they exist, are now submerged on the continental shelf . A reduction in molerat size indicates that the Eland 's Bay region became drier sometime between 9 600 and 4 400 B .P. The notable occupation hiatus between about 8 000 and 4 400 B .P. may reflect extreme aridity, which rendered human populations, owl populations, or both , archaeologically invisible . Domestic stock were introduced sometime between 2 000 and 1 500 B .P., though indigenous species remained important, at least at the sites considered here. This suggests that the occupants were either herders to whom f oraging remained important ( perhaps seasonally) or even " pure" hunter-gatherers who occasionally stole sheep or cattle. The abundance of small antelopes throughout the Eland 's Bay sequence is paralleled by an abundance of tortoises , which , like the antelopes, were common nearby historicall y. There were times, however, when people seem to have rel ied more heavil y on mammal s vs. tortoises, perhaps because mammals were relatively more abundant . We think such times were generally favourable to human populations, and that each was accompanied by an increase in human numbers that accounts for an accompanying decrease in mean tortoise size . The largest reduction in size coincides broadly with the introduction of stock and populations ,

may reflect a substantial increase veld degradation , or both .

in

human

Our focus on mammals and tortoises shoul d not be a llowed to obscure the importance of shellfish , crayfish , f ish, and birds to the Later Stone Age inhabitants of Eland 's Bay after 11-10 000 B .P. It shoul d soon be possible to collate numbers for all animal types in a single matrix, permitting a broader and more detailed anal ysis of change through ti me. Together with artifactual data, the complete faunal numbers may also 1 59

hel p to clarify some of the outstanding problems in the mammal and tortoise data . These include the question of whether people or owls accumul ated most of the dune molerat bones, whether changes in growth rate or in human predation pressure caused shifts in mean tortoise size through time, and what season( s) of the year people occupied the Eland 's Bay sites .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank J .E. Parkington for making the Eland 's Bay faunas avail able to us, the South African Museum for research facilities, and the National Science Foundation for f inancial support .

REFERENCES

Avery,

D .M. 1 982. Micromammals as palaeoenvironmental indicators and an interpretation of the late Quaternary in the southern Cape Province, South Africa . Ann.S.Afr. Mus.85: 183-374.

Binford, L .R. Mouth .

1984. Faunal remains from Klasies River New York: Academic Press.

Branch, W .R. Mouth .

1984. Faunal remains from Klasies New York: Academic Press .

Brown,

L . 1971. African Houghton-Mifflin.

birds

of

prey.

River

Boston:

Butzer, K .W. 1984. Late Quaternary environments in South Africa. In Vogel, J . C. (ed.) Late Cai noz oi c Pal ae— o — cl i mates of the SoutiTii-r i Hemisphere, pp . 235-264 . Rotterdam : A .A . Balkema . Churcher, C .S. & Richardson, M .L. Maglio, V .J. & Cooke, H .B.S. African mammals, pp. 379-422. University

1 978. Equidae. In ( eds.) Evolution of Cambridge: Harvard

Press .

Deacon, H .J. 1979. Excavations at Boomplaas Cave: a sequence through the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene in South Africa . World Archaeol. 1 0: 241-57. Deacon, H .J., Deacon, J ., Brooker, M . and Wilson, M .L. 1978. The evidence for herding at Boomplaas Cave in th e so u t h e r n Ca pe, So u t h Af ri c a. S . Afr.archaeol.Bull.

33:39-65.

1 60

Deacon, H .J., Deacon, J ., Scholtz, A ., Thackeray, J .F. an d Bri n k, J . S. 19 8 4. Co r r e l a t i o n of palaeoenvironmental data from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at Boomplaas Cave, southern Cape. In Vogel, J .D. (ed.) Late Cainozoic Palaeocli j ates of the Southern Hemisphere, pp . 3395 1. Rotterdam : Balkema . Deacon, J . 1978. Changing patterns in the late Pleistocene/early Holocene prehistory of southern Africa, as seen from the Nelson Bay Cave stone artifact sequence . Quatern .Res . 10: 84-111. Deacon, J . 1 984a. Late Stone Age people and their descendants in southern Africa. In Klein, R .G. (e d.) So u t he r n Af ri c a n pr e hi s t o r y an d pal eoenvironments, pp. 221-328. Rotterdam: Balkema. Deacon, J . 1984b. The Later Stone Age of Southernmost Africa . Oxford : British Archaeological Reports. De

Graaff, G . Pretoria:

1981. The Rodents Butterworths .

of

Southern

Africa.

Horwitz, L .K . 1979. From materialism to middens: a case study at El andsbay, Western Cape, South Africa . Unpublished B .A . ( Hons) thesis, University of Cape Town. Klein,

R .G . 1972. The late Quaternary mammalian fauna of Nelson Bay Cave ( Cape Province, South Africa): its implications for megafaunal extinctions and environmental and cultural change . Quatern .Res . 2 : 1 35-42.

Klein,

R .G . 1981. Stone age predation on small African bovids . S .Afr .archaeol.Bull. 36: 5 5-65.

Klein,

R .G . 1982. Patterns of ungulate mortality and ungulate mortality profiles from Langebaanweg ( earl y Pl iocene) and El andsfontein (middl e Pleistocene), south-western Cape Province, South Africa. Ann .S.Afr. Mus. 90: 49-94.

K lein,

R .G . 1 983. Palaeoenvironmental implications of Quaternary large mammals in the fynbos region. S .Afr .Nat.Sci.Prog.Rep . 75:116-138.

Klein,

R .G . 1984. Mammalian extinctions and stone age people in Africa. In Martin, P .S. and Klein, R .G. (eds.) Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution, pp. 553-73. Tucson: University of Arizona

Klein, R.G.

Press .

1986.

( in press)

The prehistory of

1 61

Stone Age

he r d e r s in the Ca p e Pr o v i nc e of Africa .S.Afr .archaeol.Soc.Goodwin Ser.5. McLachlan , G .R . and Liversidge, R . of South Africa. Cape Town: Book Fund .

1 978. John

So u t h

Roberts birds Voelcker Bird

Me ntis, P . 1972. A re vie w of mammal i an determination methods . Mammal Rev . 2 :69-104 .

age

Parkington, J .E. Stone Age .

1972. Seasonal mobility in the Later Afr .Stud . 31:223-43 .

Parkington, J .E. mouths of Province .

1976. Coastal settlement between the the Berg and Olifants Ri vers, Cape S .Afr .archaeol.Bull. 31:127-40 .

Parkington, J . E. 1979. Report on research in the Verlore Vlei 1976-9. In Parkington, J .E. ( ed .) Reports on research i nto t he Late Stone Age of the Western Cape, pp. 1-31. Cape Town: Department of Archaeology , University of Cape Town . Parkington, J .E. 1981 The effects of environmental change on the scheduling of visits to the Elands Bay Cave, Cape Pro vince, S . A. In Hodder, I ., Isaac, G . and Hammond, N . ( eds.) Patterns in the past: studies in honour of David Clarke, pp . 34-1 7 -5 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press . Perkins, D . and Dal y, P . 1968. A hunter's village Neolithic Turkey . Scient .Amer . 2 19(5):96-106. Robey,

in

T .S. 1984. Burrows and bedding: site taphonomy and spatial archaeol ogy at Tortoise Cave. Unpublished M .A . Thesis, University of Cape Town .

Schweitzer, F .R. and Scott, K . 1973. Earl y occurrence of domestic sheep in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature 241:547. Schweitzer, F .R. and Wilson, M .L. 1982. Byneskranskop 1 , a late Quaternary living site in the southern Cape Province, South Africa. Ann.S. Afr. Mus. 88: 1 -203. Smith,

A .B. 1985. Excavations at Province . Nyame Akuma 26:37-8.

Tankard , A .J . 1 976. The stratigraphy an d it s pa l a e o c l i m a t i c Pal aeoecol.Afr . 9 :151-59. Tchernov, the

Kasteel berg,

Cape

of a coastal cave si g n i f i c a n c e.

E . 1968. Succession of rodent faunas during Upper Pleistocene of Israel. Hamburg and Paul Parey Verlag .

1 62

Voigt,

E .A . 1983. Mapungubwe: an archaeozoological inte rpretati on of an Iron Age commu ni t y. Transv. Mus. Monogr . 1 :1-203.

Von den Driesch, A . and Deacon, H . J. remai ns from Boompl aas Ca ve, S .Afr .archaeol.Bull. 40: 39-44 .

1 63

1985. Sheep South Africa.

COASTAL BIRDS AND PREHISTORY IN THE WESTERN CAPE

Graham Avery

INTRODUCTION Archaeological excavation has revealed that birds f orm a regular part of the food and artefactual remains in coastal sites ( Avery 1 977, 1 981; Robertshaw 1 977, 1 978, 1 979; Smith 1 981) but not in inland sites ( Avery 1 980, 1984a; Kaplan, this volume). This is not surprising in view of the much larger populations of suitably-sized bird species that occur in high densities, particularly along the west coast ( Rand 1 963). A reasonablebaseline of primary information on aspects of avian biology such as habitat preferences, diet, breeding, moult and movement is available . These aspects are all related to availability of food and adaptation to habitat and are al l more or less predictable ( Lack 1 954). In theory then , knowledge of the ecology of birds represented in archaeological sites should provide a basis f or interpreting a spects of human ecol ogy such as season and length of occupation. Information on changing environments in both time and space, exploitation patterns, including procurement and butchery, and the role of birds as dietary and other resources can a lso be deduced . This paper investigates the problems and potential, and outlines some preliminary results with particular reference to data from Eland 's Bay Cave ( Parkington 1 972, 1 981) ( Fig. 1 ). In this context the term " coastal" refers to any avian group - marine, freshwater or terrestrial - that i s available at or near the coast .

PROBLEMS AND METHODS Ornithological information Available ornithological information does have some limitations. Many observations are qualitative and require quantification , especially with respect to local conditions and variation. Furthermore, the long-term

1 64

SALOANHA BAY

Y ZERFONT IEN

C APE

F i g ure 1 .

L o c a l i t ie s m en t io ne d i nt h e t e x t .

A GULHAS

B e a ch s u rv ey p o in t sa r e m a rke dw i th e n

a s t er is k .

1 65

effects of climate, changing environmental conditions and other causal mechanisms affecting the ecol ogical distribution and population dynamics of birds within ecosystems are not well known ( Frost 1 981). Most of the species found in archaeological samples still occur natural l y in the western Cape, howe ver, and it is possible to acquire quantitative data in spite of the fact that recent human acti vities, such as the exploitation of birds ' eggs and pelagic f ish stocks, have caused seabird populations to drop ( e.g. Shelton et al. 1 984). Datahave been collected during monthly surveys to monitor the occurrence of beached birds ( Avery 1 982, 1 984b, 1 985). These data form a comparative base for discussion of the availability and likel y mode of acquisition of seabirds by Late Stone Age coastal f oragers . Data collected f rom west coast beaches between 1 977 and 1 983 have been combined ( Avery & Underhill 1 986) to demonstrate the seasonal availability of beached birds. Data collected during 1 980-1981 from a 14 km s tretch of beach at Eland 's Bay are included in F igure 2 for comparison, but the longer-term data from combined west coast beaches have been used as a basis for interpretation. This is to reduce the effect of annual variation ( Avery 1982, 1985) and to make the data more comparable with the long-term archaeological data . Multiple agencies of accumulation People are not the only predators that a ccumulate remains of their prey . Furthermore, s ites that are a ttractive to human occupation were also often used both by other mammals such as Hyaena brunnea ( brown hyaena), Canis mesomel as ( bl ack-backed jackal), Panthera pardus ( leopard), Hystrix africaeaustra 1is ( porcupine), Ati 1ax paludinosus ( water mongoose), and by birds such a s Aquila verreauxi (bl ack eagl e), Fal co tinnuncu 1us ( rock kestrel), Tyto alba ( barn owl) and Bubo capensis ( Cape eagle owl )— ( Brain 1 981; D . M. Avery 1 982; Avery 1 984c). Other than people, the species most likel y to have been responsible for the accumulation of bird remains in s ites along the western Cape coast are the brown hyaena and black-backed jackal, which regularly scavenge birds, f ish and marine mammals from beaches ( Shortridge 1 934), and accumulate bones in caves as well as in the open; the black eagle nests on ledges above caves, and the Cape eagle owl roosts and nests in caves . In addition remains of these and other species such as Col umba guinea ( speckled rock pigeon), Apus melba ( alpine swift) and Onychognathus mon o ( redwinged s tarling), which utilize ledges for roosting and breeding ( Brooke 1 981), may die in caves and become incorporated in cave deposits. There is no reason, however, why Late Stone Age people could not have used such carcasses i f they came upon them . These probl ems do not necessaril y affect the evidence for palaeoenvironments, provided that there i s

1 66

some control over biases they might introduce, but it i s essential to be able to d istinguish between agencies of bone accumulation if meaningful information on human acti vity is to be obtained. Mammalian predators/ scavengers, including Canis familiaris ( domestic dog), may also cause secondary damage to, or add and remove, bones left by people and other predators, thereby causing some elements to be over or under-represented . Data on the bone-accumulating habits of these predators a re being collected for comparison with the archaeological samples . Archaeological data The Eland 's Bay Cave sequence i s complex and interrupted by a maj or hiatus between 8 000 and 4 000 B .P. with at least one minor gap between 3 000 and about 1 800 B .P. ( Table 1 ; Parkington 1 980, 1 981). After 1 800 B .P. the occurrence of Ovis aries ( domestic sheep) signifies the addition of pastoralism to the purely hunter-gathering economy that had existed prior to this. The data presented in this paper include material from the 1 976 excavation only and some samples are small. As a result it has been necessary to group various excavated samples ( Table 1 ) and it is not possible at this s tage to examine the variation that appears to exist between individual excavated units . Bird remains were identified with the aid of a comparative osteological collection and minimum numbers of individuals ( MNI) for each species/taxon obtained from the commonest element represented. MNIs were used to compare proportions of seabirds in each time period. The relative proportions of species or groups of species ( j ackass penguin; albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters; Cape gannet; cormorants) in the sample were compared with the beach survey data in order to determine seasonality . Scientific names not given in the text are listed in Table 1 and spelling of common names follows Clancey ( 1980). Seasonality Parkington ( 1972, 1976) set out a model of seasonal transhumance by Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer groups between the coast ( winter) and the inland mountains ( summer) of the western Cape. Since then others have attempted to explain resource utilization by both huntergatherers and pastoralists at coastal and other sites within this framework ( Avery 1 976; Robertshaw 1 977, 1 978, 1 979; Smith 1 984). The establishment of the s eason or length of occupation at both coastal and inland localities is clearly essential before the model can be tested.

Late Stone Age a cquisition of coastal birds Comparison of archaeological and beach survey data is complicated by the fact that there is little direct

1 67

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aries

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grimmia

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Procavia

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pardus

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Bunolagus

SPECIES

> a

DISCUSSION The

reconstruction of

prehistoric events

at Tortoise Cave

adds s ignificantly to our understanding of the Holocene sequence in the western Cape and has altered previous models of Late Stone Age exploitation of the Sandvel d ( Parkington 1 972, 1 976, 1 980). The restructuring of the seasonal mobility model resulting from this and other research has already been published ( Buchanan et al 1 984, Manhire et al 1 984) and will not be detailed here, except whe re su bseq ue nt dat a appe ar at odds wi t h the restructured model. The Tortoise Cave sequence begins around 7 700 B .P . ( Pta-3596). There is little deposit between this date and the date of 4 330 + 50 ( Pta-3605) above it, and the taphonomic evidence strongl y suggests that here, as at El and 's Bay Cave, an occupational hiatus of several thousand years exists. There is no significant change in the stone tool sequence over this period, or indeed until around 2 000 BP, so that the still undated open s ites in the Sandveld could fall anywhere within this period . Judging from the considerable accumulation of deposits between 4 300 B .P . and 3 500 B .P., the shelter and tal us were frequentl y occupied during this period . A second gap in the dates occurs between 3 5 20 + 6 0 BP ( Pta -3604) and 1 680 + 50 B .P. ( Pta -3312) which may also represent a break in occupation , although there are units which fall stratigraphically between those dates . Those beneath the basin which contain adzes are remnants and are contaminated from the post-pottery layers above . Layer 9 , outside the shelter, may indeed cover this gap , but the evidence of the piscean fauna links it closel y with the units beneath it, and if indeed adzes became more common after 3 000 or 3 500 B .P. ( Parkington 1980), the lack of these tools in this deposit would strengthen this hypothesis. Thus present evidence points to a second hiatus in the depositional s equence . Final l y, over a period from 1 700 B .P. to 700 B .P. or later , the shelter was sporadically occupied, perhaps five or six times. It is worth noting here that, in earlier periods, both the shelter and the talus slope were used for habitation, the latter area expanding as the talus grew outwards with periodic emptying of the shelter . During the f inal phase, however, it seems that only the shelter was used s ignificantly as a living area , and so infrequentl y that no extensi ve clearing was necessary. While

this

is

consistent

3 22

with

the

current

regional

model and demonstrates that Tortoise Cave was no more important at this time than many other smaller shelters near the vlei, the earlier intensity of occupation prior to 3 500 B .P. and subsequent hiatus may indicate a more complex settlement pattern than is presently considered to have existed . Such faunal patterning as is apparent at Tortoise Cave strongly supports the hypothesis that during the mi d- Hol ocene the sea stood higher than at present ( Fl emming 1977) and that the lower reaches of the vlei at least as far a s the cave were tidal and permanently open to the sea . Rhabdosargus globiceps, the white stumpnose, was important onl y up until the later hiatus. It is significant that while most of the specimens were of a size likel y to be found in an estuarine situation, Rhabdosargus requires a much higher salinity than is normal in the vlei today . Similarly , Solen capensis, the razor clam, inhabits tidal mud flats, which woul d be plentiful on the vlei near Tortoise Cave if the sea stood some two metres higher than at present. Thus there appears to be an environmental rationale behind these changes in diet. On the other hand, the apparent replacement of duiker ( Syl vicapra grimmia) in the d iet by sheep after 1 7 00 B .P . is probably a cultural phenomena, since even today duiker are stil l to be found in the Sandveld despite the presence of sheep . It is only in the lithic assemblage that there is evidence of gradual change in the f inds: a process which ma y ha v e been exacerbate d or expe dite d by the introduction of herding , but was not caused by it . This trend is in the gradual de-formalisation of the lithic assemblage, with the production of fewer flakes and bl ades, less formal tool s and increasing use of unretouched or slightl y modified flakes (M.R.P.$) in their place. The low frequency of formal tools in layer 14 may possibly mean that the reverse of this process occurred during the mid-Holocene hiatus, but it seems more likel y that apparent changes are the result of a smal l sample from the basal units. It was thought that this layer might contain a terminal Pleistocene bladelet industry ( Park p )gton 1979) but this is now rejected in vie w of the J 9 ` C date (Pta 3596) and the general s imilarity of the assemblage with that above the hiatus . Commensurate with the first reliable evidence of herding in the s equence is an increase in the variety of decorative items such as pendants, beads; ochre and specul arite, and in the use of bone implements. It may be that bone points, and possibl y poison, replace stone points ( backed points and/or blades) for projectile tips at this time, accounting for the fairl y radical change in the formal tool kit after 2 000 B .P . ( Humphreys 1 979).

3 23

CONCLUSION The results of the Tortoise Cave excavations have proved pivotal in our understanding of Late Stone Age settlement in the Western Cape. The site contains corroborative evidence for a mid-Holocene hiatus at the coast, and also some indications of a second break in occupation which may or may not prove to have wider significance. There are new and independant data from the site of a Holocene high sea le vel, which it appears is not entirel y coincident with the local hiatus . Further , the s ite has provided more dates for the appearance of ceramics and domestic animals in this part of the Cape . Most importantl y, we can now be sure that the variation in tool-kits in the Sandvel d is primaril y a product of change over time, rather than simpl y a synchronous set of varied acti vity patterns. This has significantl y altered our models of local prehistoric settlement, and must therefore affect archaeol ogical research strategy in the immediate future .

REFERENCES Buchanan, W .F., Parkington, J ., Robey, T . and Vogel, J . 1 984. Shellfish , subsistence and settlement; some western Cape Holocene observations. In M . Hall, G . Avery, D . M. Avery, M .L. Wil son and A . J. B . Humphreys (eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeol ogy today, pp.121-130. Oxford: British Archaeological Resources . Deacon, J. 1984. The Africa . Oxford :

Later Stone Age of southernmost British Archaeological Reports.

Flemming, B .W. 1977. Distributions of recent in Sal danha Bay and Langebaan Lagoon. Roy _ . _ Soc. of S . Afr . 42: 317-340. Harris, E . C. question

sediments Transact.

1974. The stratigraphic sequence: of time . World Archaeology 7 (1): 36-54 .

a

Harris, E . C. 1979. Princi ples of archaeol ogical stratigraphy . London: Academic Press. Humphreys, A .J.B. 1979. The Holocene sequence in the northern Cape and its position in the prehistory of South Africa . Unpublished Ph .D . thesis, University of Cape Town. Joukowsky, M. 1980. archaeology . New

A

complete

manual Hall.

J ersey : P rentice

3 24

of

fiel d

Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. and Robey, T .S. 1 984. Stone tools and sandvel d settlement. In Hall, M . J., Avery, G ., A very D . M., Wil son, M .L. and Humphreys, A .J.B. (eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeol ogy today. Oxford: British A rchaeological Reports. Parkington, J .E. 1972. Stone Age . African

Seasonal mobility in Studies 31: 223-243.

the

Late

Parkington, J .E. 1976. Coastal settlement between the mouths of the Berg and Ol ifants Ri vers, Cape Province . S .Afr .archaeol.Bull. 31: 1 27-140 . Parkington, J .E. 1979.Soaqua. Unpubl. Research Reports distributed at ti-j e— ST ,K .A .A . conference , Cape Town . Parkington , J .E . 1 980 . Time and place: some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later St one Age seque nce in sout her n Af ri ca. S .Afr .archaeol.Bull. 35: 73-83. Robey,

T .S. 1 984 . Burrows and bedding: site taphonomy and spatial archaeology at Tortoise Cave . Unpublished M .A . thesis, University of Cape Town .

Sharer, R . J. and Ashmore, W . 1979. Fundamental s of archaeology . Menl o Park, California: Benjamin Cummings. Whe e l e r, M. 19 54. Arc hae ol og y Harmondsworth : Pelican .

3 25

from

the

eart h.

SANDVELD DEFLATION HOLLOWS: OF OPEN SITE ASSE MBL AGES SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE

A . H.

A STUDY IN THE

Manhire

1

INTRODUCTION This paper is a summary of a detailed spatial study of open sites carried out in the Eland 's Bay area between 1 981 and 1 984. Among the more spectacular archaeological occurrences of this area are the dense arrays of finel y crafted stone tools found in the wind deflated hollows of the sandvel d. These sites have long been a source of interest to archaeol ogists, not onl y for the visual impact of the abundant stone tools they contain, but a lso for the interesting questions they pose concerning settlement patterns in the late Holocene . The maj or problem with this type of open site is the lack of any chronol ogical control as the deflation process reduces all the artefacts to a single horizon which may represent numerous visits over an extended period of time. A further complication is the erosi ve nature of wind bl own sand which tends to remove all traces of organic material. The net resul t of the defl ation process is a set of sites, with extensi ve • surface artefact scatters, which contain virtually no pl ant or animal remains contemporary with the stone tools. Despite being of archaeological concern these problems rel ate more to the dynamic processes which control the movement of sand bodies and it was for this reason that a twofol d research design was adopted . The first approach was to set up a monitoring programme to determine the rate of sand movement in open sand dune areas and to ratify the suspected seasonal nature of the erosion-deposition process . The results of this programme are described in some detail by Nick Lancaster ( this volume). The second line of inquiry, dealt with in this paper , was to investigate how these open site assemblages fitted in to the wider context of the prehistory of the south-western Cape and , more precisely , to determine when defl ation hol lows were occupied and what led to their

3 26

abandonment . This necessitated a detailed survey of the distributi on of defl ation hol l ows as wel l as an examination of the other types of archaeological sites present in the sandveld . Furthermore, it became apparent that the onl y way of establishing a chronol ogy which coul d be used as a model for surface sites was by reference to those stratified shelters in the sandvel d which have been excavated . This paper describes the survey and sampl ing methods used in a study of sandvel d deflation hollows. The spatial distribution of the different types of archaeological sites in the sandvel d are considered as well as the patterns of assemblage composition registered in open sites. A model for the change in settlement patterns following the introduction of a pastoralist economy in the south-western Cape is considered .

THE

RESEARCH AREA

The fiel dwork was carried out in a section of the sandveld stretching inland from the coast at Eland 's Bay to the foothills of the Uitkomsberge which mark the beginnings of the Cape Fol d Belt ( see Fig. 1 ). For the sake of convenience the limits of the research area were drawn to coincide with the four 1 :50 000 maps ( index 3218) covering Eland 's Bay , Lambert 's Bay , Graafwater and Redelinghuis . The resultant area covers nearly 2 5 00 sq . km and is contained between latitudes 32 ° o d and 32 ° 30 south and between the coast and longitude 1 8 ° 45 east . A comprehensive survey and reconnaissance programme was carried out in this area, the objective of which was to locate and record, as far as possible, all existing prehistoric sites . Although the f ieldwork programme was, by design , orientated towards surface artefact scatters, all other types of site including rock paintings, shell middens and deposit-containing shelters were recorded during the survey . The rationale behind this decision was that in a spatial l y orientated proj ect it was not desirable, or even feasible, to study open sites as a phenomenon isolated from other prehistoric events . Figure 2 shows the research area and gi ves a generalised picture of the search patterns employed during the survey. In this part of the sandvel d sites tend to be clustered around obvious features in the landscape such as rock outcrops, sand dune areas and permanent water courses. These prominent features are often separated by large tracts of f eatureless veld and although several transects were undertaken in these open areas they were singularly unrewarding . It became clear during the survey that, whilst some sites probabl y do exist in the open vel d, prehistoric occupation was

3 27

3 28

CAPE TO WN

E lam : 19E 15 ) y \ \ \ \\ \ \ \ \ 1 111

NA M IB IA

eR' V i e(

r esearch

0

1 00

pi km

PORT E L IZABETH

r .

z

* 2

l ocation o f

R esearch A rea

ra,

. 2

c n

. r .

a )

t n a )

% . 4 .

r .

e IsE

LA MBERT 'S BAY

4

6

8

1 0 K rn

COMV OU•I

F ig.

I n e

I ntl.

2 .

.

• • n

The r esearch a rea. T he dotted l ines s how t he m ajor s earch p aths f ollowed d uring t he s urvey .

3 29

overwhelmingly focussed towards rocky outcrops, areas and coastal reefs .

deflation

Altogether, more than 30 sites were sampled in the re se arc h are a. Thi s in v ol ved the exa mi nati o n, classification and recording, in the fiel d, of some 35 000 stone artefacts. The majority of sites sampled were in deflation hollow contexts al though a number of tal us scatters were included for comparati ve purposes. The lnration of the sampled sites are shown in Figure 3 al ong with those cave deposits in the Eland's Bay area that have been excavated . It was decided at the onset of the project that any col l ection of artefacts was highl y undesirabl e, especially as a large number of s ites were involved . To this end it was necessary to devise a sampling strategy that provided a representative sample of the whole scatter whilst inflicting as little damage as possible to the integrity of the s ite . After some experimentation the method adopted was a modified version of the systematic unaligned design described by Hagget ( 1965) and tested in an archaeological situation by Plog ( 1976). This method has been described in detail elsewhere ( Manhire 1 984).

BACKGROUND:

RESEARCH

INTO OPEN S ITES

IN THE

SANDVELD

Although the archaeol ogical potential of open sites in the south-western Cape has long been recognised ( for example see Rudner & Rudner 1954) it was not until the 1 970s that controlled artefact studies were undertaken in deflation hollow locations . Wadley ( 1973) and Feitelson ( 1975) analysed assemblages from different parts of the sandveld , each concentrating on a s ingle open site. In a more ambitious project, Mazel ( 1978) compared a number of deflation hollow assemblages with surface collections from the mountains. Using the information gained from these proj ects, it was suggested (Mazel & Parkington 1981; Parkington 1 980) that open site scatters from the sandveld were broadly contemporary with assemblages found on the tal us sl opes of ca ves in the neighbouri ng mountains. The variability between a ssemblages from these very different environmental contexts were interpreted as reflecting activity differences within a s ingle economic framework . These arguments provided a stimulating basis for the work described here which began with a more detailed appraisal of the different types of sites and assemblages found in the sandveld .

3 30

i s i E 3 2 .1

0 1 1AAF WATE1 1 0

.32 .1 5 S

E LAwo 's

SAY

IBC

4

5

1

1 0 I EXCAVATED S ITES

C0141

• S TONE

TOOL

COUNTS

.011 1 . 4 1

Fig.

3 .

The r esearch a rea s howing t he l ocation o f excavated s ites a nd s urface a rtefact s catters s ampled during t he project.

3 31

S ITES AND ASSEMBLAGES

IN THE SANDVELD

The distinction between different kinds of site is not al ways clear cut, especiall y when some overl ap occurs; for example a rock art site can also house a shell midden. There is, however, some spatial information in the distribution and clustering of sites and for the purposes of this survey the following categories were observed. Rock Art

Sites

To date a total of 5 23 rock art sites have been recorded in the research area. The locations are shown in Figure 4 . In the sandveld the distribution of rock art sites is virtual l y coterminous with that of stone scatters, a correlation that only breaks down in areas lacking rock surfaces large enough to house paintings . Although rock paintings do exist in isolated situations there are very f ew painted locations totally lacking in debitage . Shell Middens In the sandvel d shell middens range from deep shell deposits to surface scatters of shell; these latter often cover extensive areas but lack a sub-surface component . As can be seen in Figure 5 , there is a sharp cut-off in the distribution of the shell middens and they are confined within a zone which extends a maximum distance of 7 km inland from the coast. Beyond this zone sites often contain shell but never in any great quantity . It is suggested ( Buchanan in prep.) that it is not cost effective, in terms of energy expended, to carry large amounts of shell beyond this point. Contact with the coast , however , is attested to by the persistent presence of marine shell throughout the research area . Deflation Hollows Deflation hollows form a persistent focus for stone tool assemblages and despite systematic ground surveys no stone scatters, and in fact very few artefacts at all, were found in open veld situations other than deflation hollows '. A total of 236 deflation hollows were recorded within the research area . Their distribution is shown in Figure 6 . Deflation sites were recorded irrespective of whether or not they contained artefacts, although in practise very f ew of the hollows were totally sterile . The sandvel d deflation hollows are by no means consistent in terms of where they occur or what kind of assemblages they contain and though deflation sites in cl ose proximity to one another usuall y contain a very simil ar range of artefacts, there are significant differences between assemblages on the coastal flats and those nearer to the mountains . Deflation hollows can thus be described according to their geographical setting . The following three divisions were used in the research area: I )

Near-Coastal

Riverine

3 32

Sites.

The maj ority of

1 8 30 E 331

LA MBERT .5 PAY

UK : Wi ldr i f.ou lpen

Y V I ' AD

32 '15

4 0

E LAND 'S PAY ER

;

RON 0508 s\ -- 7

\

UR6 V VE IK

no.

A

A. ,

R edehnohuy.

4

6

1 0 Km

Fig.

4 .

Distribution o f

r ock a rt

3 33

s ites.

1 1 .1 5 E

0

6

2

5

1 0 Km

CONT 0 1 1•1 1

F ig.

N

It ta

5 .

• I N .L

D istribution o f

s hell middens.

3 34

1 5 E

1 8 3 0 E

LA MBERT S BAY

GRAAF WATER 0

4

6

8

1 0 Km

COr di oul ts

Fig.

mi l d

6 .

Distribution

o f

d eflation hollows.

3 35

defl ation hollows fall within this group which describes hollows located close to one or another of the three main river systems which cross the research area. Most of these sites are in coastal or near-coastal lowland settings. The assemblages from these sites have come to be regarded as the cl assic sandvel d deflation pattern as they are large , visually impressive a rtefact scatters with high numbers of formal tools . In terms of raw materials these assemblages display an overall quartz domination although most of the formal tools are made of silcrete. Scrapers are present in consistently high numbers at all these sites and are the most abundant formal tools. As can be seen in Table 1 , however, the assemblages are characterised by the presence of various backed tools and drills, and by the complete or virtual absence of adzes . Ii) Sites Cl ose to Rock Outcrops. This group incl udes those deflation areas located in sand bodies close to koppies and rocky outcrops. They occur at higher elevations than the near-coastal riverine sites and are located mainl y in the central sandveld . A typical s etting is one where a broad sweep of sand encompasses a small koppie or where deep sand deposits have accumul ated at the base of a mountainous ridge. Sites in these areas always contain far smaller a ssemblages than those of the previous group. In terms of raw materials and formal tools, however , they follow the classic defl ation pattern fairl y closel y except for one important difference, namely a notable increase in the frequency of adzes. iii) Interior Sandvel d Sites. The third group consists of inland deflation areas situated close to the margins of the Cape Fol d Belt mountains. Assemblages from these localities share some of the characteristics of the near-coastal group but also show strong affinities with non-defl ation sites located in the mountains to the east of the sa nd v el d. The numbe r of scrape rs re mai n consistentl y high whereas backed pieces are less common . As in the mountain s ites, drills are a rare incl usion. The characteristic feature, however, which they share with mountai n sites is the addition of a large, and in s ome cases substantial, adze

component .

Across the sandveld , from the coast to the foot of the Cape Fol d Bel t mountai ns, the re is a progressive increase in the numbers of adzes and a corresponding decrease in the numbers of backed pieces . This can be seen in Table 2 which lists the frequency of adzes and backed pieces from

3 36

TABLE

1 .

Frequency range of sel ected formal tool s from "ne ar-coastal ri veri ne" deflation s ites .

Scrapers

40-55%

Backed P ieces

2 0-35%

Adzes

0 -5%

Drills

1 -5%

NB. The term drill is used here to mean a small blade or bladelet, blunted by abrupt retouch on two or more s ides. In Deacon 's ( 1984) classification scheme these are referred to as borers]

TABLE

2 .

Comparison of the frequency of diagnostic tool types from deflation s ites across the sandveld ( Manhire 1 984; Mazel 1 978)

S ITE Leipoldtvil le LPV/E Pepper Tree Hill PTH/6 Koopmanskraal KMK/2 Bontheuwel BH

%ADZES 1 .3 1 2 .0 1 2.3 5 9.4

3 37

%BACKED P IECES 33.6 30 .0 20.9 4 .1

assemblages in deflation parts of the sandveld . Talus

Scatters

and Dep9sit

bays

located

in

different

Sites

The distribution of sites with deposit and/or talus scatters is shown in Figure 7 . Talus scatters refer to stone artefact assemblages associated with a rock f ocus as opposed to those found in open deflation situations. The focus for these scatters is often a smal l depositbearing cave or shelter but can also be an overhanging rock wall or even a boulder . They are widely distributed throughout the koppies of the sandveld and range in s ize from the ephemeral presence of a few pieces of stone to a substantial accumulation of artefacts. A total of 1 18 talus scatters, each with a quantifiable number of formal tools and/or a sizable number of f lakes, were recorded in the research area . A total of 42 sites with sub-surface deposit were recorded within the same area. An interesting pattern emerges here as all the sites which contain deep deposits are at coastal or near-coastal locations. Furthermore, the large sites are all shell midden deposits . The inland pattern is one of the repeated occurrence of small s ites with shall ow deposits, often with ash and grass bedding concentrations visibl e on the surface. The onl y exception to this rul e is Diepkl oof Cave, locate d approximatel y 18 km inl and on the south bank of Verl orenvlei, but here again the Hol ocene deposits are shallow and overlay substantial Pleistocene MSA horizons ( Parkington 1 977). The assemblages at these koppie sites form a f airl y consistent pattern irrespective of whether they are associated with a deposit-bearing shelter or merely fan out from a rocky focus. They are characterised by large quantities of quartz waste and a relatively small formal tool compl ememt, composed al most entirel y of silcrete. Scrapers are al ways present, although in frequencies lower than those of deflation sites. The diagnostic features are the consistentl y high adze numbers and the almost negligible incidence of backed tools . Segments and drills are virtually absent from these assemblages . Two important principles appear to influence the choice of sites in the sandveld koppies . F irstly there is an obvious need for a level area in front of a shelter or overhang. Most of the talus scatters occur on flat or slightly sloping terraces which presumably function as activity areas. The need for a level space appears to have been as important, if not more so, than the actual need for shelter. Many potential sites in the research area , even sizable caves, which lack this frontage tend to have

the

been avoided .

Secondly , there is the question of water as most of koppies are situated at some distance from permanent

3 38

l e3 0

f 1 3 I

3 2 .1

e n nK 3 0 LA MBERT'S SAY

ORAAF WATE I. 0 .. ;BOV

C E>

W•dr I lsou tpar t

1 —3 2 .1

1 3

ELAND 'S SAY

A T IAN T tC

E H

ettvE111

U le f

0 R ede l l rehuy0

0

2

4

6

•

1 0 Kn .

c envoun• t o

F ig.

• T ALUS

SCAT T ERS

D EPOS IT

S ITES

.... aS t

7 .

D istribution o f w ith d eposit.

t alus _ s catters

3 39

a nd s ites

sources. Many of the sites are, however, found near to natural rock basins which catch and hold rainwater . These catchment basins coul d have been a useful resource as they are often quite large and have been observed to contain water well into the dry season . Stone artefacts and ostrich eggshell fragments are sometimes found next to these basins .

SETTLEMENT

PATTERNS

IN THE

SANDVELD

At present the onl y way of establishing a chronology which can be used as a model for surface sites is to refer to those stratified sites in the sandvel d which have been excavated. Both Tortoise Cave and Diepkloof Cave offer some potential in this r espect . Tortoise Cave is situated 5 km from the sea on a small koppie on the southern bank of Verlorenvlei ( see Fig. 3 ). Excavations by Robey ( 1984 & this vol ume) confirmed the presence of a substantial deposit extending over a series of rock steps in front of the cave with a maximum excavated depth of nearl y 1 .5 m . Al though predominantl y a shell midden deposit, numerous stone artefacts were recovered and the excavated levels were separabl e into discrete, dateabl e horizons. The frequencies of the formal tools from both the excavated layers and the surface collection of Mazel ( 1978), referred to here as Tortoise Cave Open, are listed in Table 3 . Although the formal counts from the talus sample and the upper , post-pottery , excavated levels ( Layers 1 3 ) are not large they are essential l y simil ar. Furthermore, they are quite unlike any deflation pattern and cl osel y resembl e the sandve 1d tal us sactters described previousl y . The radiocarbon dates from the post-pottery levels at Tortoise Cave range from about 750 to 1 700 B .P. ( Robey 1984). A simil ar time span was recorded for the short Holocene occupation at Diepkloof Cave where post-pottery levels with bedding , dating f rom about 300 to 1 700 B .P ., were superimposed on Pleistocene MSA levels ( Parkington 1 977). The most interesting layers at Tortoise Cave are undoubtedl y those which predate the the appearance of pottery . Radiocarbon dates show that layers 4-9 fall within the time period of about 2 000 to 4 000 B .P. and layers 10-13 within the period of about 4 000 to 4 400 B .P. ( Robey 1984). As Table 3 shows, the deposits which accumulated during the periods represented by layers 4-9 and 10-13 contain substantial numbers of formal tools of which a significant number are backed pieces. The important point here is that the stone tools recovered from the pre-2 000 B .P. layers strongl y resemble the 3 40

T .C. OPEN

TORTOISE CAVE EXCAVATED LAYERS 1 -3 4-9 10-13

f

f

%

f

%

Convex scraper Backed scraper

1 4

5 0.0

5 1

3 1.3 6 .3

72 1 1

46.8 7 .1

TOTAL

1 4

5 0.0

6

3 7.5

83

5 3.9

SCRAPERS

%

9 7 8

5 0.5 4 .2

1 05

5 4.7

Backed blades Backed points Segments Misc. backed

-

-

-

-

1 1 1 6 8

TOTAL BACKED

-

-

-

-

26

1 6.9

42

2 1.9

Adzes Drills M .R.P. Awl Unifacial

4 1 9 -

1 4.3 3 .6 32.1 -

6 4 -

37.5 2 5.0 -

4 3 37 1

2 .6 1 .9 24.0 0 .6

4 1 39 1 -

2 .1 0 .5 2 0.3 0 .5 -

TOTAL

TABLE

pt.

FORMAL

3 .

28

1 00.0

1 6

1 00.1

1 54

7 .1 0 .6 3 .9 5 .2

f

9 9.8

Tortoise Cave. F requencies of formal surface collection ( T.C. Open) and l evels. ( After Mazel 1 978; Robey 1 984)

1 6 6 4 1 6

8 .3 3 .1 2 .1 8 .3

1 92

9 9.9

tools from excavated

DEFLATION HOLLOW SITES KK/H

KK/I

KK/K

LPV/E f

Convex scraper Backed scraper

2 28 4 8.3 2 4 5 .1

1 65 2 2

4 6.5 6 .2

TOTAL

2 52

5 3.4

1 87

5 2.7

5 2 1 2 1 6 33

1 1.0 2 .5 3 .4 7 .0

2 8 4 25 34

1 13

2 3.9

1 .3 2 .5 1 8.9 -

SCRAPERS

Backed blades Backed points Segments Misc. backed TOTAL BACKED

Adzes Drills M . R.P. Bored stone

TOTAL

TABLE

FORMAL

4 .

6 1 2 8 9 -

4 72

1 00.0

35.4 1 2 .7

204 1 2

3 8.5 2 .3

1 10

48.0

2 16

40.8

7 .9 1 .1 7 .0 9 .6

2 4 1 2 1 3 23

1 0.5 5 .2 5 .7 1 0.0

6 4 38 30 46

1 2.1 7 .2 5 .7 8 .7

9 1

2 5.6

72

3 1.4

1 78

3 3.6

1 4 72 -

0 .3 1 .1 2 0.3 -

1 0 37 -

4 .4 1 6.2 -

7 6 1 22 1

1 .3 1 .1 2 3.0 0 .2

355

1 00.0

8 1 2 9

%

2 29

1 00.1

5 30

Frequencies of formal tools from"near-coastal r iverine" deflation s ites.

3 41

1 00.1

assembl ages of the classic sandveld deflation pattern. This can be seen by comparing them with the inventories of formal tools from typical near-coastal deflation hollow sites listed in Table 4 . Tortoise Ca ve provides a vital cl ue towards understanding the sequence of events in the sandveld as to date it is the onl y site where the two main assemblage types, one typified by adzes and the other by backed pieces, occur together in a stratified context . The adzerich , post-pottery levels not only resemble the sandveld talus assemblages but also have much in common with s ites from the Cape Fold Mountains . Furthermore, the available radiocarbon dates suggest that in the mountains, as at Tortoise Cave and Diepkloof Cave, this pattern post-dates 1 700 B .P. Two important points can be emphasised here. Firstl y, adze-rich sites are not, as was previousl y thought, restricted to the mountains but extend all the way across the sandvel d to near the coast. Although the sandveld talus assemblages are less dense they are by no means uncommon and mirror, on a smaller scale, the pattern found in the mountains . Secondly , these sites are a relatively late phenomenon , post-dating the appearance of pottery and not contemporary with deflation hollow s ites rich in backed tools . The evidence from Tortoise Cave shows that the two assemblage types were not deposited at the same time and , moreover, that the assemblages from the earlier period are remarkably similar to those found in deflation hollow contexts. It seems most likely that the deflation hollows were occupied, and assemblages that characterise these sites discarded, between about 4 000 and 1 700 B .P. The lower levels at Tortoise Cave can be seen as a coastal expression of this pattern . Prior to about 4 000 B .P. the higher sea levels which rendered the shore line less productive, as well as the generall y more arid conditions, are considered to have made the coastal areas an unattractive proposition for prehistoric groups (Miller 1 981 & this volume). El and 's Bay Cave was not visited after about 7 800 B .P. until reoccupation commenced about 3 800 B .P . ( Parkington 1 977). An occupational hiatus of similar dimensions is recorded at Tortoise Cave with a slightl y earlier reoccupation date ( Robey 1 984 & this volume). This period of aridity must have similarl y affected the interior sandvel d which makes it unlikel y that the deflation holl ows were regularl y occupied whilst the coast was neglected. By about 3 000 B .P., however, modern or nearmodern sea levels had been reached and evidence from micromamma 1 ian fauna (Avery 1983) suggests that conditions had become rather wetter with marginally more lush vegetation .

3 42

Pottery does occur in some deflation hollows and although the quantity is insubstantial it does indicate that the hol lows were visited after 1 700 B .P. The distribution of adzes is also informati ve. They reach their highest frequencies in hollows close to rocky outcrops and in sites close to the mountains. It woul d seem likel y that, like pottery, they are an " overprint" and not part of the earlier pattern . The virtual absence of adzes in lowland coastal settings suggest that they are a spil l -over from the later occupation of the koppies. The metrical anal ysis of samples of formal tools from deflation hollows (Manhire 1984) provides further support for the contention that adzes were not part of the original activity pattern which produced the classic defl ation assembl ages. The mean length of adzes in the sample was found to be greater than the mean length of flakes. Although small cores of bladelet dimension were fairl y common , a s were numerous small flakes, there was a lack of any waste material of suitabl e size for transl ation into adzes. This suggests that adzes were introduced as completed tools or as adze blanks from which the finished tool coul d be manufactured when required. One possible source of material suitable for adzes could have been the open MSA scatters, several of which occur in the sandvel d. Large silcrete fl akes are common at these locations and the maj ority of sandvel d adzes are made of silcrete. This woul d also explain the occasional presence of large faceted pl atform flakes, seemingly out of place, in deflation hollow settings . Having established the most likely time periods for the discard of the two main assembl age types, one characterised by backed pieces and the other by adzes, it remains to clarify the relationship between the two patterns and the reasons for the different contexts in which they are found. The evidence suggests that both types of location , deflation hollows and small shelters, were used as livi ng sites. Most of the rock shelters whi ch form foci for the adze rich talus scatters contain occupational debris and often include traces of bedding . Whil st the deflation holl ows sel dom preserve organic material certain aspects of the assemblage patterning, such as the abundance of scrapers and the presence of grindstones, are far more likel y to reflect home bases than transitory activity camps . Also the actual quantity of lithic waste as well as the caching of large objects such as manuports and heavy lower grindstones suggests the rescheduling of sites over a long period . If, as the evidence suggests, the two different locations represent a change in hunter-gatherer settl ement then interest is naturall y focussed on the point in time when this shift, from deflation hollows to rock shelters, took place . The scarcity of pottery at the former, as compared to its qualifying presence at the

3 43

latter, suggests that the transition from open vel d locations to rocky eminences may have been quite abrupt .

CONNECTIONS

BETWEEN THE

SANDVELD AND

THE

COAST

Prior to about 1 700 B .P. occupation was focussed on the open sandy plains and riverine dune areas with apparently little attention being directed to the sandveld koppies . It is onl y near the coast that the two patterns are found in the same context . Apart from Tortoise Cave, where the two assemblage types occur in stratified shell deposits, there are also numerous open station shell middens which provide important information on coastal expl oitation. Whilst these middens contain very f ew stone artefacts and are not, therefore, directl y rel atabl e to either assemblage pattern the available radiocarbon dates show that the scope of marine expl oitation was not the same during the two periods in question . During the late mid-Holocene a relative high s tand of the sea existed on the south-western Cape coast with a mean sea level in the order of 2m higher than present being confirmed at about 3 800 B .P. (Yates et al 1986). It is postulated ( Buchanan et al 1984) that -fhii r higher sea level would have covered -fhe— Productive shell-bearing reefs, rendering them inaccessible to human exploitation . With the subsequent lowering of sea level, however, shellfish collecting recommenced a s witnessed by the vast accumulations of mussel shells at various places a long the coast between Lambert's Bay and Mussel Point, south of Eland 's Bay. The basal dates for these sites all cl uster around 2 700 B .P. ( Buchanan et al 1984) which suggests that this phase of marine exploitation began about 3 000 years ago coinciding with the stabilising of the sea level to around the present day norm. During the period 3 000 to 2 000 B .P. al l coastal exploitation was restricted to this type of locality . The " mega" middens at these sites are virtually monospecific and their occurrence is most likel y rel ated to the progressive emergence of the coastline which brought rich mussel beds within range of human exploitation. After about 1 700 B .P. there is a change in the patterns of shellfish predation . Coinciding with the introduction of pottery there is an enormous proliferation of small shell middens and, although mussels were still overwhelmingly preferred, limpet dominated sites appear at specific localities close to sheltered shorelines . These data show that whatever changes were taking pl ace in the interior sandvel d, between about 3 000 and 300 B .P ., shellfish collecting continued unabated at the coast . The obvious question is : can coastal exploitation be

linked

to

either,

or

both,

3 44

of

the

characteristic

a ssemblage patterns? There seems little doubt that the adze-rich assemblages found on the sandvel d koppies relate, at least in part, to what was happening at the coast . Firstly , there is the unequivocal association of adzes and shell fish in the stratified deposits of Tortoise Cave . S econdly , there are several near-coastal s ites which contain shell deposits with rudimentary a ssemblages which include adzes. Thirdly , the ubiquitous presence of marine shell at rock shelters throughout the sandvel d is suggestive of more than just a passing interest in the coast . Links between the classic type of deflation pattern and exploitation of the coast are far more tenuous and so f ar the only positive association of a backed piece rich assemblage with marine residues are the pre-2 000 B .P. levels at Tortoise Cave. Many deflation bays which lie within the shell midden zone contain some shell but the quantity seldom approaches midden proportions . At present there is no way of establishing whether or not the the shell and stone are contemporary but, with the dense d istribution of middens in the general area , the shell is more likel y to have been a later addition . In contrast to the koppie sites , shell is a rare inclusion in deflation s ites away from the coast. Significantl y though, shell does occur in hollows close to rock outcrops along with pottery and adzes. The occasional presence of glass trade beads in these situations tends to confirm that later occupation of the koppies overflowed into those deflation a reas close to rock .

THE

IMPACT OF PASTORALISM

An obvious, but none the less significant, observation is that in the sandvel d the shift in settlement from open sandy pl ai ns to rocky koppies coincides with the a ppearance of pottery and the remains of domestic animals i n stratified contexts such as Diepkloof Cave . Both these events signify the arrival of pastoralists . Whilst it is l ikely that some local hunter-gatherers were incorporated into pastoralist society, the prevalent view ( Elphick 1 985; Marks 1972) is that the appearance of pastoralism invol ved an infl ux of new peopl e and that some communities continued to pursue an al most excl usivel y hunter-gatherer existence long after the incursion of pastoralists. The spread of a pastoralist economy throughout the low lying areas of the south-western Cape must have severel y restricted the activities of the remaining hunter-gatherer bands. The proliferation of small cave and shelter sites in the Cape Fol d Belt was almost certainly a response to this development. Likewise the small

sites

in the

strings

of

3 45

sandveld koppies,

although

on a smaller scale than those in the mountains, be interpreted as hunter-gatherer refugia, subsequent to the introduction of pastoralism .

may also occupied

If the shift away from the low lying plains was a reaction to a more dominant pastoralist presence, then a number of changes can be inferred . These would include an overall increase in human population concomitant with a reduction in wild biomass in favour of protected domestic stock. The need for greater security in the wake of conflict situations woul d have made the previousl y neglected koppies a more attractive proposition. The relationship between pastoralists and hunter-gatherers was in all probability a dynamic interplay with members of the latter being incorporated into pastoralist groups, loosely attached on a client basis or eliminated in conflict . The distribution of certain motifs in the rock art of the south-western Cape (Manhire et al 1983) can be used to amplify this theme. Scenes of conflict are occasionall y depicted and, notwithstanding the other le vel s of meaning present in the art, may refl ect instances of inter-band aggression or confrontation. Their distribution is mainl y limited to the east of the Olifants River and may well relate to conflict situations engendered by seasonal concentrations of hunting bands . Certainl y paintings of large groups of humans are far more common in the mountains than in the sandvel d. Similarl y, there is a higher incidence of complex and detailed trance imagery in the paintings of the Cape Fold Belt. This has been interpreted ( Parkington et al in press) as an increase in the intensity and elaboration of trance performances amongst residual hunter-gatherers in reaction to the stressful conditions caused by competition with pastoralists. The intrusi ve nature of the pastoralist occupation of the lowlands is seen as eliciting both ecological and social responses, the most obvious of these being resi dential rel ocation and intensification of painting. This set of observations adds confirmation to the view that, sometime after 2 000 B .P., the main thrust of hunter-gatherer occupation was centered in the mountains and , to a lesser extent, in the koppies and rocky retreats of the sandveld . It is not possible, at this stage, to reconstruct an accurate picture of pre-pastoralist diet in the sandvel d but the high frequencies of backed pieces, and the low numbers of adzes, may be linked to an emphasis on large game . Although the precise function of the various types of backed tools which characterise the deflation hollow assemblages is problematic , the authoritative view ( Cl ark 1959; Deacon 1976; Phillipson 1977) is that some backed el ements were incorporated into compound arrowheads . The deflation hollow sites could certainly be interpreted as residential bases for large, logistically organised bands of hunters and gatherers for whom game

3 46

hunting, with bows and arrows, was an integral part of the economy . I f mobile game was one of the prime targets then the base camp need onl y be situated in the approximate locality of the quarry. It would be more logical, in this instance, to locate near to a dependable resource such as water, particularl y in view of the suspected increase in aridity during the mid-Holocene. Most deflation hollow sites are in fact found near to maj or water courses and are located in what is now referred to as strandvel d vegetation. In his review of western Cape vegetation communities, Eugene Moll ( this volume) notes that , due to its higher nutrient potential, the strandvel d woul d have been more likel y to attract large game than the dry mountain fynbos. By about 1 700 B .P. there was a shift not onl y in s ettlement but a lso in subsistence strategies with a move away from interest in large game towards a preoccupation with smaller food parcels. The range of food remains recovered from Diepkloof Cave ( Parkington 1 980), so far the only non-coastal site excavated in the sandveld , is of note in this respect. Apart from sheep, there are large quantities of underground corms, tortoises and dassies as well a s small bovids such as steenbok . As with other sites of this type, there are substantial numbers of adzes in the grass bedding and ash deposits. It has been argued (Mazel & Parkington 1981) that adzes are functional l y rel ated to the production of wooden artefacts, including digging sticks, and it is likel y that the increase in adze frequencies during the later period i s related to a greater dependence on plant foods . Following the introduction of a pastoralist economy in the south-western Cape there was a marked change in the patterns of settlement. As well as changes in site location, dietary emphasis and assemblage patterning there was also an enormous increase in the number of s ites in the sandveld . During the earlier period , between about 2-4000 B .P., sites were fewer in number and restricted to certain areas with occupation focussed on what are today deflation areas. By about 1 700 B .P. the pattern of site d istribution in the sandveld had entirely a ltered with occupation now being directed away from open vel d areas towards the koppies and rocky massifs. An impression of this change in the use of space can be gained by comparing the distribution of deflation hollows ( Fig. 6 ) with that of talus scatter and deposit sites ( Fig . 7 ). With no evidence to suggest any environmental change, this shift is best viewed as a spatial relocation of the remaining hunter-gatherer bands in the face of pastoralist domination of the lowlands.

3 47

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to all the University of Cape Town students and other helpers who made the f ieldwork possible, and to Nick and Judith Lancaster , Bill Buchanan, Les Underhill, John Lanham, Carol Kaufmann, Rod Bishop and John Parkington for assistance in analysis . Financial s upport was received from the Harry Oppenheimer Institute for African Studies and from the Human Sciences Research Council.

REFERENCES Avery,

D .M. 1 983. Palaeoenvironmental implications of the small Quaternary mammals of the fynbos region . In Deacon, H .J., Hendey, Q .B. & Lambrechts, J .J.N. (eds.) Fynbos pal aeoecol ogy: a prel iminary synthesis . South African National Science Programme Report 75:139-55.

Buchanan, W .F., Parkington, J .E., Robey, T .S. & Vogel, J .C. 1984. Shel lfish, subsistence and settlement: some western Cape Hol ocene observations. In Hall, M ., Avery, G ., Avery, D . M., Wil son, M .L. -- 6 Humphreys, A . J.B . ( eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeology today , pp. 121-30. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports . C lark,

J .D. 1959. The prehistory Harmondsworth enguin .

of

southern

Africa.

Deacon, H .J. 1976. Where hunters gathered: a study of Holocene Stone Age people in the eastern Cape . Claremont: South African Archaeological Society . Deacon, J . 1984. The Later Stone Age of southernmost Africa . Oxford : British Archaeological Reports . El phick, R . 1985. South Africa .

Khoikhoi and Johannesburg:

the founding Raven Press.

of

white

Feil tson, N . 1975. Anal ysis of the Koopmanskraal assemblage. Unpublished Archaeology Additional project . University of Cape Town . Haggett, P . 1 965. Locational London: Edward Arnold .

analysis

in

human

Manhire, A .H . 1 984. Stone tools and sandveld Unpublished M .Sc . thesis . University of

geography .

settlement . Cape Town .

Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. & Van Rij ssen, W . 1 983. A distributional approach to the interpretation of rock art in the south- western Cape. S . Afr.

3 48

archaeol. Marks,

Mazel,

Soc.

Goodwin

Ser .

4 :29-33.

S . 1972. Khoisan resistance to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . J . 13 ( 1): 55-80. A .

1978.

Stories

in

stones:

aspects

Dutc h in Afr . Hist.

of

artefact

distribution in the Cl anwilliam district, southwestern Cape. Unpublished B . A. (Hons) thesis: University of Cape Town . Mazel, A.

&

Parkington,

J .

1981.

resources: a case study Archaeol. 13:16-30 .

from

Stone

southern

tools

Africa.

and Wld .

Mil l er, D . 1981. Geoarchaeol ogical research at El and 's Bay . Unpublished B .Sc ( Hons) thesis: University of Cape Town . Parkington, J .E. 1977. Foll ow the San. thesis: University of Cambridge.

Unpublished

Ph.D

Parkington, J .E . 1 980 . Time and place: some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the Later Stone Age sequence in southern Africa. S . Afr. archaeol. Bull. 35:73-83. Parkington, J .E., Yates, R .J., Manhire, A .H. & Hal kett, D . J. ( I n press). The social impact of pastoralism in

the

south

Phil lipson, and Plog,

D .W.

S .

1976.

136-58. Robey,

1977.

southern

techniques K . V. (ed.)

western

Cape.

The

Africa .

J .

Anthrop .

Archaeol -

later prehistory London:

Rel ati ve

of

eastern

Heinemann .

efficiencies

of

sampl i ng

for archaeological surveys. In Flannery , The earl y Mesoamerican vil l age, pp.

New -

c 3rk:-- Äcademic

Press.

T .S. 1984. Burrows and bedding: site taphonomy and spatial archaeology at Tortoise Cave. Unpublished M .A .

Rudner,

thesis:

I .

&

University

Rudner,

devel opment .

S .

J .

of

1954.

Afr .

Cape A

Town .

local

archaeol.

Late

Bull.

Stone

Age

9 :103-7.

Wadl ey, L . 1973. Anal ysis of stone impl ements from Vensterklipkop . Unpublished Archaeology Additional project. Yates,

R .J.,

University

Mil ler,

D .E.,

of

Cape

Town .

Hal kett,

Manhire,

Parkington, J .E. & Vogel, J .C. 1986. A late midHolocene high sea-level: a preliminary report on geoarc haeol ogy at El and' s Bay, western Cape Province, South Africa. S . Afr. J . Sci. 82:164-5.

3 49

SETTLEMENT AND CAVE

J .

SUBSISTENCE AT RENBAAN

Kaplan

INTRODUCTION The excavation of Renbaan Cave was undertaken as an archaeol ogical rescue operation to prevent further destruction of a potentially valuable deposit, partially destroyed by uncontrolled excavation. The site was excavated by Cedric Poggenpoel from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town . This paper presents the results of the analysis of the excavated material. Important behavioural information has been derived from the anal ysis of the stone tool assemblage, particularl y the re-use of ol der, perhaps Middle Stone Age ( MSA), flakes to f ashion adzes. The appearance of adzes, pottery and bedding and ash deposits in most post 2 000 B .P. cave sites, such as Renbaan , is considered to document a settlement response by San hunter gatherers to the appearance of pastoralism ( Parkington 1 980, 1 983, 1 984). The presence of certain rock art images in the mountains, namel y large group scenes, net scenes (Manhire et al 1983, Manhire et al 1985) and paintings of conflict- ( Golson 1 983), may also be linked to this incursion, and, it is argued, represents stress on hunting and gathering societies' freedom of movement ( Parkington et al in press). Subsequentl y, new settlement and subsistence patterns emerge and, ultimatel y, restructured forms of social

organization .

EXCAVATIONS Renbaan Cave ( 32 ° 14' South 18 ° 52' East) is situated on a kopje about four kilometers south of the present-day town of Cl anwilliam. It is eroded into strata of the Table Mountain Group, is 5 , 6 m deep and 16 m across and faces almost due south . From a vantage point immediately above the site one can see the Olifants River about five kilometers

away .

There

is

therefore

3 50

a permanent

supply

of water within rel ati vel y easy access. Although the wal l s of the shelter are heavil y weathered, some rock paintings are s till visible, including a u -curved linear f eature, possibly a handprint . The deposits at Renbaan Cave are similar to those of other Later Stone Age cave sites in the mountains of the south-western Cape ( Fig.1), with an arc of bedding lining the back of the cave and an ashy, charcoal-rich deposit towards the centre (Manhire 1984, Robey 1 984, Liengme this vol ume, Parkington & Poggenpoe 1 this volume). During excavation , the deposit was removed in 28 stratigraphic units . Units were grouped into four levels: Surface Deposit 1 ( SD), Bedding Units ( BU), Ash Deposits ( AD) and Basal Units ( BL). Figure 2 illustrates stratigraphic relationship of the main levels .

the

Surface Deposits A substantial part of the surface had been disturbed and was therefore collected separately as surface cleanings . Underneath this deposit four individual units were recognized and s till referred to surface related units on stratigraphic grounds. Together, they form the Surface Deposits. Bedding Units ( BU) Bedding Units consisted of deposits considered in the main to have been bedding patches. The matrix of the bedding consisted of a mass of uncompacted grass stems, vegetable remains, twigs, sticks, woodshavings , sand and charcoal. A substantial number of termite casts were found in the bedding which may indicate a factor affecting preservation. Seven bedding patches were identified, but disturbance, especiall y around bedding patches 1 , 2 and 4 , may ha ve destroyed others. The bedding lies in an arc-like pattern around the back of the cave . Bedding patch 3 in square C4 and D4 was the only reliable in-situ deposit and was more dense and compacted than the other bedding patches. A sample of grass from BP3 in square D4 at a depth of 5 cm has been date d to 1 150 B .P. (Pta-3768). Withi n BU, nine additional units were identified. They are not extensive but represent localized and isolated pockets of plant rich deposit ( Fig. 2 ). Ash Deposits (AD) The inner border of the bedding arc merges into an orange and grey ash deposit with flecks of charcoal. It extends over eight metre squares and seems to result from a series of centrall y placed fires which have been scuffed together to form one unit . A sample of charcoal was collected from square C3 30 cm below the surface and radiocarbon dated to 1 910 + 60 B .P. ( Pta-3783). Whilst the ash deposits were clearl y homogenous, four small localized units in close stratigraphic association were identified

and

included

in

this

3 51

level

( Fig .2).

Figure

1 .

Renbaan Cave:

Plan

of

3 52

c ave

and excavation

F igure

2 .

S ection o f

i llustrating

t he main

l evels

3 53

t he

r elationship

Basal

Units

( BL)

A sandy brown deposit with abundant charcoal makes up the bulk of this unit which differs markedly from overlying deposits of ash and bedding. The unit was excavated in one square onl y and it rests directl y on bedrock. Considering the number of artefacts and other cultural remains from this one square, it must reflect relatively substantial use of the site . The stratigraphic separation of BL from the upper deposits is mirrored in the stone tool assemblages. A charcoal sample collected from square B4 at a depth of 50 cm below surface in the brown sand is dated to 5 430 + 70 B .P. ( Pta-3766).

CULTURAL MATERIAL Stone Tables 1 - 7 summarise the data on stone tools and raw material categories in each level. L ithic analysis shows that particular raw materials were preferred for making particular types of implements . Adzes, for example , are made almost exclusively in silcrete , convex scrapers are made mainl y in silcrete and some in chalcedony, quartz and hornfels . Small scrapers, lenticular in plan view , are exclusively in quartz, a pattern observed also at De Hangen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971). Miscellaneous retouched pieces are dominated by silcrete and pieces esquillees by quartz. Utilized flakes are mainl y in s ilcrete , although some are made f rom quartz. At Renbaan Cave, 29 tools were identified with mastic traces, three coming from the Surface Deposit, 2 0 from the Bedding Units, 3 from Ash Deposits and 3 from Bas al Uni t s. These inc l u ded sc rape rs, adzes, miscellaneous retouched pieces, a backed point and utilized flakes and blades . A selection of formal tools with mastic is illustrated in Figures 3 . An

interesting

disco very

was

a

scraper

with

extreme wear on the retouched edge. The scraper is a typical microlithic Later Stone Age convex scraper , 1 1,5 x 10, 4 mm x 4 , 5 mm, made from chert. A micro-wear study of the scraper indicates a well developed hide polish in a broad band along both the dorsal and ventral surface of the scraper edge . The polish displays wear typical of use on hides - it has a rough uneven look and is pitted . In addition a greasy appearance suggests that the scraper was used to process fresh hides. An interesting observation is that small areas of wood polish are a lso present, approximatel y in the middle of the scraper 's ventral surface. Johan Binneman, who examined this artefact , suggests that the wood polish results from the hafting design . Striations associated with the working

3 54

r l 0 ) r - C D C D C D

C V L i ' ) r -

C N U 1

: 74 1 H r : 4

u 4 1 E 4Z

QUARTZ ITE

CATEGORIES

HORNF EL S

N r — N

( N N

C D 1 - C D 0

r 1 4 1

C l ) E 4 • H C i ) ( 1 ) ( f ) 0
3 ( 1

W 0 E , 1 g i t rI t r ( C S 0t) r t i Iw w W A :

. d u ) r ( 1 )

, 1

0 0 ( 1 ) 1 i

zp ia l

) I

( 1 )

( 1 )

r I r I r I U l I)

C f )

( I ) e l i t S g i 1 4 1

C V 0 4 ( I ) M 1 ) u ) 0

I -

0 . 4 ( / ) 0

0 4 -) r d 1 ) X W , 1 • r t i r z i x

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C r

G . )

u ) t r e n 0

( n 0 t r G nrd C D C l

, 1 g i 1 ) t n

U U • . 1

m l U 0 r i • ( 1 ) ( 1 : 1 0 0 3 r i w w w C a Zu 1 04 10 : 1 P L I ZC O I < E-IZ M O O

3 60

4

a )

u ) r d a ) W

• r 4

0

r i IF 1

0

0

r a 40

[ r e l

Mast ic Mast ic S ta in

0 1

F igure

3 .

A s election t races

o f

adzes

r ecovered

3 61

and

1 1

2 1 CM

s crapers with mastic

f rom Renbaan Cave.

edge lie mainl y parallel to the edge, while onl y a f ew are found at right angles . The parallel striations could mean that the implement was not used onl y for scraping action , but also in lateral ( cutting) actions . During the preliminary analysis of the Renbaan Cave lithic assemblage, it was observed that some of the formal tools, particularly adzes, d isplayed the typical characteristics of Middle Stone Age (MSA) fl akes, most noticeabl y a prepared pl atform. Subsequentl y, all s ilcrete adzes, scrapers, MRP 's and utilized flakes were re-analysed in order to locate the precise proportion of Later Stone Age tools made on ' older ' flakes. Tables 5 and 6 ill ustrate the stratigraphic origin, number and percentage of formal and utilized silcrete tools on ' older ' flakes . This re-anal ysis made it clear that prehistoric people seem regularly to have picked up previously struck flakes and re-used them. The maj ority of adzes and some of the MRP 's, for example, show patinated surfaces which had been flaked by secondary retouch . This suggests that the striking of the flakes happened quite a bit earlier than their subsequent re-use by Later Stone Age people. For the purpose of the following discussion, an ' older' f lake is defined as a flake which is equally patinated on both dorsal and ventral surfaces. The impl i cati ons of this obse r v ati on are considerable since it represents behavioural information not normal l y recognised in stone tools. Of a total of 82 silcrete adzes, 45 ( 54.8%) display faceted platforms and/or patination damage reflecting re-use . This raises questions about hunter-gatherers ' responses to available raw materi als. It suggests that large flakes, some of which had been struck many millenia earlier , were picked up mainly for adze manufacture, the emphasis being on a sharp cutting edge for working wood. Scrapers on the other hand, particural y el ongated scrapers, were made predominantly from quartz. This observation may tell us something of the changes in raw material availability , as the re-use of older artefacts seems confined to the post-pottery levels at Renbaan and elsewhere . In addition , re-used tools were mostly made in silcrete and were most noticeably used to fashion adzes. The twel ve silcrete cores found seem to have provi ded smal l fl akes and bl ade bl anks for translation into scrapers, backed points, drills and awls. Our re-examination of the De Hagen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971) and Andriesgrond a ssemblages show that the use of older, often NSA , flakes for adze manufacture in the last two millenia is widespread . After the apperance of pastoralists, the inhabitants of Renbaan Cave, in common with other popul ations in the Cape Fol d

3 62

Bel t, may have had to adapt to more constrained circumstances intensifying their expl oitation of underground plant food and small game, as well as seeking out new sources of raw materials. Strategies would therefore have been redefined and MSA and ' older ' flakes were re-used to make tools, especial l y adzes. It is possibl e that pre viousl y expl oitable raw material quarries in the Sandvel d were less accessibl e as pastoral ist groups settled on the land . Worked Bone and Shell Twel ve worked bone artefacts were recovered from the excavation. These incl uded bone sli vers which were shaved and polished to form projectile points, a bone awl, three elongated polished bone tubes from the long bones of birds and four miscellaneous worked bone pieces with more enigmatic signs of polishing and grooving . One compl ete tortoise carapace bowl was found in BU, the manufacturing process of which has been described elsewhere: " the carapaces were systematically separated from the pl astrons and the jagged sutures were grooved and smoothed to form a serviceable rim" ( Parkington & Poggenpoel 1971:13). Marine shell represents contact with the coast. The Renbaan marine shell assemblage includes three white mussel ( Donax serra) scrapers, two ' buttons ' shaped from the gastropod Turbo sarmaticus, and some pieces of black mussel ( Choromytilus meridionalis). We assume that the latter were kept as a raw material to be used for impl ements such as spoons, scrapers and pendants. Black mussel shel ls wrapped in a leaf have been found at De Hangen (P ark ing ton and Poggenpoe 1 1971), and may represent a cache. Marine shel l was collected at the coast and either brought directl y back to the site, or exchanged when camps aggregated in times of abundant resource availability ( Lee 1 965). Of interest here is the fact that the northern limit of the distribution of Turbo up the west coast lies near Ysterfontein (Ha 1kett pers. comm.) - considerabl y further south than the latitude of Renbaan . Kil burn and Rippey ( 1982), and Richards ( 1981), record it as extending from Table Bay to the Transkei coast. The direct distance from Renbaan to Ysterfontein is more than 150 kil ometres and the presence of Turbo at the site suggests that they were highly valued by the inhabitants . Ostrich egg-shel l was an important raw material to make beads while egg shel ls were perforated and used as water containers. At Renbaan 64 whole beads of ostrich egg shell were found along with nine unfinished beads and 1 00 unworked fragments of shell. Worked Wood, Fibre and Seed A number of worked wooden implements were found at Renbaan Cave . These included miscellaneous worked pieces

3 63

which were shaved and notched and a peg which was perhaps inserted into a crack in the cave wal l and used to hang bags, quivers, nets, bows and clothing . Three drill bits came from the bedding and are interpreted as the upper parts of f ire drills . One quiver fragment probably made from the trunk of an aloe was found , also in the bedding . Besi des worked wood impl ements, more than 1000 woodshavings were collected , none of them from the basal units, again suggesting some distinction with the upper deposits of bedding and ash. Three seed beads, leatherwork and a piece of string ( Fig.4) made from the stem fibres of a rush emphasise the similarity of the Renbaan organic artefacts with those of De Hagen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971). Pottery Nine undecorated potsherds were recovered from the excavations. All were unburnished body-sherds. One sherd came from the basal unit but i s possibly the result of vertical dispersal ( Villa 1 982). Most of the sherds are bl ackened on the outside and inside and coated with a sooty layer from prol onged use in the fire. Two of the sherds have encrustations on the inner face and may eventually reveal the contents of the pot . The matrix of the sherds includes sand and grit, with no grass temper visible . Although the sherds are small, and thus not suitable for il lustration, it is likel y that the Renbaan Cave pottery is similar to pottery described a s Cape Coastal by Rudner ( 1968).

FAUNA AND

FLORA

Faunal remains The large mammals from Renbaan Cave have been identified by Richard Klein ( Table 8 ), the birds by Graham Avery ( see the appendix to this paper) and the smal l mammals by Margaret Avery ( Table 9 ). What is clear from Table 8 is that the annual foods eaten by the Renbaan people were dominated by small items such as tortoise and dassies. Small bovids are also fairl y common but as at De Hangen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971) the bones of the larger bovids and domestic stock are extremely rare. F lora Botanical material was recovered in substantial quantities from the cave deposits and it has been assumed that the maj ority of the botanical remains, especiall y corm casings and other Iridaceae waste, represents food debris ( Liengme this vol ume). This is supported by historical and contemporary ethnographic accounts (Waterhouse 1932, Lee 1965), incl uding descriptions of roots, berries and fruits which were a lso eaten but which may not survive in the archaeological deposit,

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the flowers, roots, leaves and stems of succulents such as Carall uma, mammillaris and Hoodia sp ., whose fleshy stems are eaten raw after peeling off the thorny skins. The leaves of Conophytum , truncatellum and the berries of Di os pyros m, ra mul os a, as wel l as st al ks of Crassula alpestris , are examples of non-representative pl ants which can be eaten (Metelerkamp and Seal y 1 983). Trachyandra spp . and Albuca spp . are other edible plants which might not be recognized in the deposits ( Liengme pers. comm.). This wide range of edible pl ant foods suggests that plants were a more reliable and important food base than is apparent from the archaeol ogical record. Plants were also used for medicinal purposes (Metelerkamp and Seal y 1983) and for making fibre, string, mats, nets, bedding and fuel. Water-retaining pl ants also provided moisture during dry seasons ( Lee 1965, Story 1958). Corms, bul bs and tubers grow underground and these were probably collected with the aid of the weighted digging stick. They were ground, soaked and roasted before being eaten . The inhabitants of Renbaan Cave were undoubtedly gatherers and hunters. Pl ant food, particul arl y underground corms of the Iridaceae famil y, roots and bulbs seem to have formed - th-e- b i iTi c of the diet. Among residual gathering and hunting people in Botswana today , plant food constitutes at least 80% of their diet and over 85 edible plant foods are identified ( Lee 1 965:72). Although direct association between the past and present is tenuous, it does show to some extent the relative importance of plant food in the diet of the San. Plant food was supplemented by tortoise, dassie, small bovids, caterpill ars, termites and honey. Larger bovids were occasionally also hunted .

DISCUSSION From excavated archaeological material, and historical and ethnographic accounts, we can confidently assume that the prehistoric inhabitants of the southwestern Cape the San - were hunters and gatherers, fishers and col l ectors. Gathering and hunti ng groups have traditional l y been anal ysed withi n an ecol ogical framework and their economic and social organization has been seen as the direct product of their interaction with their environment. But although ecol ogical studies provide important insights into the gathering and hunting way of life, it is becoming increasingl y evident that they yiel d onl y partial understanding of the gathering and hunting economy and social organization . " Only part of the behaviour of gatherer-hunters can be accounted f or by even the most fine-grained ecol ogical anal ysis" ( Leacock and Lee 1982: 61).

3 68

Settlement and subsistence at Renbaan Cave can be seen as one segment of the wider picture of prehistoric people/environment relations during the last 2 000 years. Excavations at De Hangen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1 971), Andriesgrond, Tortoise Cave ( Robey 1984, this volume) and Diepkloof ( Parkington 1 976), the systematic recording of rock art sites ( Golson 1983, Yates et al 1 985), the detailed pl otting of surface scatters of artefacts on grassy swards and open sites ( Manhire 1 984, this volume) and shell middens ( Buchanan et al 1 984), are all directed towards understanding changing settlement and subsistence patterns in the Southwestern Cape. Archaeological analysis of the associated data, including the emerging patterns in the Sandvel d and at the coast, suggest that settlement and subsistence patterns were continually changing through time and across space . For the last 2 000 years, some of these changes may be seen in relation to the emergence of pastoralism . In essence , the archaeological context and contents of Renbaan Cave are explicit; a smal l, isol ated cave site with a shallow deposit, a formal tool assemblage rich in adzes associated with woodshavings and pottery in the upper le vel s, a subsistence base dominated by underground plant food , an arc of bedding lining the back of the cave, and an accumulated , substantial ash deposit towards the centre, and rock art. De Hangen and Andriesgrond demonstrate near identical features . It has become quite cl ear that this emerging pattern is widespread and is not onl y confined to the mountains. Diepkl oof ( Parkington 1976, Parkington and Poggenpoel this vol ume), although a fairl y large cave situated 18 kilometres upstream of the coast al ong the south bank of the Verlorenvlei, and Tortoise Cave ( Robey 1 984, this volume), only f ive kilometres inland from the coast, share the same features, as do numerous small isol ated cave sites dotted around the Sandvel d kopjes (Manhire 1 984). All are dominated by adzes and pottery in the upper levels and on the talus slopes and share the same occupation features. By contrast, Manhire's ( 1984) deflation hollow s ites in the Sandveld are dominated by scrapers and backed pieces and contain little pottery . We can therefore demonstrate similar settlement and subsistence patterns across space , in small cave sites in the mountains, in the Sandveld and nearer the coast . In addition , these s ites are related chronologically , with the adze rich, plant food and pottery levels at Renbaan Cave, De Hangen, Andriesgrond, Diepkloof and Tortoise Cave al l postdating 2 000 B .P. Taken together, it is argued that these patterns represent a people 's response to the emergence of pastoralism. After 2 000 B .P. smaller camps of gatherers and hunters were occupying small, isolated cave sites, with greater emphasis than before on gathering plant food , collecting shellfish and snaring smal l game. Large mobile game hunting was de3 69

emphasised. The mode of production need not have changed, merel y its emphasis. It is hypothesised that the majority of the San in the Southwestern Cape at t his time were living in the Cape Fold Belt mountains . Lewis-Williams ( 1982) considers the role that the medicine people and their art played in the economic a nd social relationship of San hunter-gatherer groups during periods of stress, and how their rol es reinforced rel ations of production within and between camps. He identifies a link between the cogniti ve system and the economic and social systems, expressions which, he argues, are represented in the art. I suggest that paintings of cave scenes, large group scenes, net scenes and paintings which illustrate trance ( Golson 1 983, 1 984), in the Southwestern Cape , may be explained as one of changing social rel ations of production and alternati ve hunting strategies and settlement patterns during periods of aggregation or permanent settlement . We can therefore demonstrate a link between the location of rock art images and the occupation of small cave sites, which reflects stress brought about by changing settlement patterns during the last 2 000 years . The rock art, I suggest, refl ects group unity and cohesion. The maj ority of rock art sites are in the mountain kl oofs, as are the small cave sites with adzerich assembl ages, where associated radiocarbon dates indicate a late devel opment. An explanation for those isolated small cave sites in the Sandveld kopjes is that they reflect periods of dispersal during seasons of scarce resources, or even permanent settlement . Renbaan can be seen as part of an increasingly robust pattern of settlement which offers social as well as ecological insights into the latest phases of southern San life .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Christene Liengme, Cedric Poggenpoel, Royden Yates, John Parkington and Tony Manhire for help at various stages in the writing of this paper .

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Buchanan, W . F., Parki ngton, J .E. & Robey, T . 1 984. Shellfish, subsistence and settlement: some western Cape observations. In Hall, M ., Avery ,G ., Avery, D. M., Wilson, M .L. and Humphreys, A .J.B. ( eds.) Frontiers : Southern African archaeology

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Golson , J . 1 983 . Symbols in action . Unpublished Honours thesis, University of Cape Town . Gol son, J . 1984. El and, el ephant and trance. Interpretation ofrock art in the south-western Cape. Unpublished workshop paper, Spatial Archaeology Research Unit . Kil burn, R . & Rippey, E . 1982. Seashells Africa . Johannesburg , Macmillan .

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Leacock, E . & Lee, R . ( eds.) 1982. Politics and history in band societies Cambridge Uni versity Press, Cambridge. Lee,

R .B. 1965. Subsistence ecol ogy of Bushmen . Unpublished Ph .D . dissertation , of California , Berkeley .

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Lewis-Wil liams, J .D. 1982. The social and context of southern San rock art. Anthropology 22: 429 - 449. Manhire, A . H. M. settlement . Cape Town .

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Manhire, A .H. M. Parkington, J .E. and van Rij ssen, B . 19 83. A di st ri buti onal ap pr oach to the interpretation of rock art in the south-western Cape . S .Afr .Archaeol.Soc . Goodwin Ser . 4 : 2 9-33. Manhire, A .H. M., Parkington, J .E. & Robey, T . 1 984. Stone tools and Sandveld settlement . In Hall, M ., Av er y, G ., Av e ry, D . M., Wi l s o n, M. L., and Humphreys, A .J.B. ( eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeol ogy today Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. — Manhire, A .H. M., Parkington, J .E. and Yates, R . 1 985. Net hunting and fully recurved bows: Rock art and hunting methods in the southwestern cape. Worl d Archaeology 17(2): 1 61-174 . Metel erkamp, W . medicinal Flora 6 9:

and Seal y, J . plants of the 4 -8.

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Parkington , J .E . 1 976. Follow the San: an analysis of seasonality in the prehistory of the south-western Cape. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge. Pa rki ngt o n,

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Parkington, J .E. 1983. A traj ectory of hunter-gatherer change . Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Hunter-Gatherers . Bad Homburg . Parkington, J .E. 1984. Soaqua and Bushmen: hunters and robbers. In Schrire, C . ( ed.) Past and present in Hunter-gatherer studies, 1 -25 . New York: Academic Press. 1-25. Parkington, J .E. and Poggenpoel, C . 1971. Excavations at De Hangen , 1 968. S .Afr .Archaeol.Bull 26: 3-36 . Parkington, J .E., Yates, R., Manhire, A., Halkett, D. 1 986. The soci al impact of pasto ral i s m in the south-western Cape . J . Anthrop . Archaeol. In press . Richards, D . guide . Robey,

1968. Strandloper pottery West Africa . Ann .S.Afr .Mus .

P . 1982. processes.

Waterhouse, G . Onblin. Yates,

shells:

a collectors

T .S. 1984. Burrows and beddi ng: site taphonomy and spatial archaeol ogy at Tortoise caves. Unpublished M .A . thesis, University of Cape Town .

Rudner, J . South Villa,

1 981. South African Cape Town : Struik .

from 4 9:

South and 441-663 .

Conj oinable pieces and site formation American Antiquity 47 ( 2): 276-290 . 1932.

Simon

van

R ., Gol s on, J ., & Hal l, performance: the rock art of Sevil la . S .Afr .archaeolo .Bul 1 .

3 72

der

Stel's

journal.

M. 19 8 5. Tra nce Boontjieskl oof and 40:70-80 .

APPENDIX AVIAN REMAINS FROM LATE HOLOCENE ACCUMULATIONS AT THE RENBAAN SHELTER, OLIFANTS RI VER VALLEY, SOUTHWESTERN CAPE

G .

Avery

INTRODUCTION Renbaan ( 32 ° 13 'S ; 18 ° 51 'E ) is a small shelter situated in the Agenbachsberge between the Kransvlei and Olifants rivers within a vegetation mosaic of Dry Mountain Fynbos and Karroi d Shrub 1 ands (Mol l & Bossi 1983). The excavation was undertaken under the supervision of J .E. Parkington of the University of Cape Town and the results have been described by Kaplan ( this volume). Identifications were made with the aid of comparative specimens and minimum numbers of individuals ( MNI) derived from the most common element identified for each species . Excavated units were grouped into the major units used in Table 1 .

RESULTS

AND

DISCUSSION

Some of the bones could not be identified because not all the species that occur in the Olifants ri ver area are re p r e s e n t e d in th e co m p a r a t i v e co l l e c t i o n. Identification, particularl y of small passerines, was limited further by sample size, degree of fragmentation and the diagnostic qualities of different skeletal elements. Counts of individuals per species could change slightly if greater accuracy of identification could be achieved. Twenty one taxa, all of which coul d occur in the vicinity of the s ite , were identified . With the exception of Francolinus africanus ( greywing francolin), Eupodotis afra ( bl ack korhaan) and Corvus albus ( pied crow) all species represented ( Table 1 ) are small and fall within the size range readily taken by Tyto alba ( barn owl). The barn owl contributed numbers of micromammals to the deposits ( D. M. Avery, pers comm.) and still uses a roost adj acent to the site ( pers. obs.). Although Hirundo fuligul a ( rock martin), which currentl y nests in the shelter ,

and Onychognathus

mon o

3 73

( redwing

starling)

fall

T ABLE

1

Avian s pecies a nd m inimum n umber o f i ndividuals i dentified f rom t he R enbaan s ample . 0 = n umber o f j uvenile i ndividuals i n t he t otal

S PECIES

M AIN E XCAVATED U NITS S D

B U*

AD**

BL***

P I

A LL

F rancolinus a fricanus g reywing f ranoolin

0

0

1

0

0

1

E upodotis a fra b lack k orhaan

0

1

0

0

0

1

Colius c olius w hitebacked mousebird

1

0

0

1

0

2

Colius s p . mousebird

0

2 (1)*

0

0

( 1)

3

A laudidae G en .et s p .

1

0

0

0

1

2

H it-u ndo f uligula A frican r ock m artin

1

1

0

0

1

3

Corvus a lbus p ied c row

0

1

0

0

0

1

P ycnonotus c apensis C ape b ulbul

1

0

1

1

0

3

C ercomela s p . c hat

0

0

0

2

0

2

Cossypha c affra

i ndet .

l ark

0

0

0

0

1

E rythropygia c oryphaeus k aroo s crub r obin

0

0

1

0

0

1

T urdidae G en . e t s p .

1

1

1

0

0

3

P rinia s p .

C ape r obin

i ndet. c hat/robin

p rinia

0

M üsicapidae G en . e t s p .indet .

f lycatchers

1

1 ? 1

? 1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

1

M acronyx c apensis o rangethroated l ongclaw

1

0

O nychognathus morio r edwing s tarling

0

( 1)

0

0

0

1

P asser m elanurus

0

1

0

0

0

1

C ape s parrow

P loceus c apensis C ape weaver

0

1

0

0

0

1

P loceus s p . w eaver

0

0

0

1

0

1

E uplectes c apensis y ellowrumped b ishop

0

1

0

0

0

1

P loceidae g en . e t s p .

0

0

1

0

0

1

S erinus f laviventris y ellow c anary

0

0

0

1

0

1

S erinus s p . c anary

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

1

0

2

5

8

3

i ndet .

S erinus a lbcgularis W hitethroated s eedeater E mberiza c apensis C ape b unting

8

T OTAL

* Pta-3768 1 150

5 0 B .P .

1 4

* * P ta-3783 1 910 + 6 0 B .P .;

3 74

* ** P ta-3766 5 430

3 8

7 0 B .P .

within the range of Tyto alba prey, they also roost and breed in rock shelters ä ili d— Mä f have died there naturally . In view of the above it is assumed that although modern hunter-gatherers take small birds when opportunity arises, remains of very small birds were introduced to the deposits by agencies other than human . The larger species may well have been taken by people, although other mammalian predators and Corvus albus, which sometimes breed on rocky ledges (Ma 6-1 .- i ige7 f), coul d have contributed bones. It shoul d also be noted that Panthera pardus ( leopard), which is recorded from the surface deposits (Klein pers. comm.), takes small and large birds as well as mammals ( Norton et al. 1 986). Remains of any of the birds in the samples coul d therefore also have been introduced via scats deposited by Panthera pardus in the shelter . While the total sample is small, and concl usions drawn from it necessaril y tenuous, it appears, in any event, that birds were rel ativel y unimportant in any human activity reflected at Renbaan . It is possible, however , that game-birds such Francolinus africanus and Eupodotis afra and even some smaller species, were taken from time to time in the same manner as has been recorded ethnographically ( Avery 1 980).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V . M. van Zyl assisted with the sorting and preliminary identification of the remains. This work was undertaken as part of a larger project on the taphonomy of bone accumul ations which is supported by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the South African Museum.

REFERENCES Avery,

G . 1980. Appendix 8 , Avian remains. In: Maggs, T .O'C. & Ward, V . Driel Shelter: rescue at a Late Stone Age s ite on the Tugela River . Ann . Natal Mus . 24(1): 35 - 70.

Maclean, G .L. 1984. Robert's birds of southern Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. Mol l,

Africa.

E .J. & Bossi, L . 1983. 1 : 1 000 000 scale map of the vegetation of the Fy aog blame . Mowbray , South Africa: Chief Director of Survey .

Norton,

P . M.,

Lawson,

A .B.,

Hel ley,

3 75

S .R.

&

Avery,

G .

1 986. Prey of leopards in four mountainous areas of the south-western Cape Province. S . Afr. J . Wildl. Res. 16:47 - 52.

3 76

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PUTSLAAGTE

D .J .

Halkett

INTRODUCTION This study is part of an ongoing programme of research into the prehistoric settlement patterns of the western Cape in Hol ocene times (Mazel 1978; Manhire 1980, 1984; Parkington 1977, 1980). The results of this fiel dwork have all owed us to suggest reconstructions of past environments and to describe and interpret changes in social and economic organization through time ( Parkington 1977, 1981, 1986). The aim throughout has been to generate information about the distributions of archaeol ogical materials across the landscape at successive time periods. Research has thus been organized around the study of spatial patterning at various scales . Regionally we have noticed broad patterns of assembl age distributions which illustrate variable settlement histories in response to topographic and climatic features. On individual sites we ha ve establ ished cl ear patterns of artefact and depositional layouts which refer to the domestic use of space, particularly in rock shelters . At an intermediate sc a l e we are inte rest e d in the patte r ni ng of archaeol ogical debris in sets of juxtaposed sites, patterns which should inform us about site choice and the scheduling of acti vities in small segments of the landscape. The survey of sites in the Putslaagte is an example of research at the third scale .

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT The location of the research area, and the topographic detail of the Putslaagte kloof with site locations, are presented in Figures 1 & 2 respecti vel y. Caves and shelters are formed where underl ying strata have been incised and eroded by ancient fl uvial action. The maj ority of shelters are thus found in the kl oof, and these, along with the availability of water and raw material, probabl y in part dictated settlement in the Putslaagte.

3 7' 7

3 78 L ocation

r esearch

3 79

Although rainfall is generally low ( Table 1 ), water can be found in the Doring river cl ose by. While the river may not flow all year, water i s usually available in standing pools or from pits dug into the river bed . In addition, the ri ver transports a range of raw material from several geol ogical strata through which its upper catchment erodes ( Fig . 3 ), forming extensive gravel beds al ong its course. Materials identified in the gravels incl ude hornfels ( h), quartzite ( qz) and various types of shale. Lower frequencies of crypt° crystalline silicates ( ccs) which include cherts, jaspers and chalcedonies, occur in pebble form. Quartz ( qtz) is common in the gravels and can also be found as inclusions in the local rock strata. The number of artefacts on the sites made from exotic materials show that the gravels were a val uable and greatl y expl oited source of raw material ( Table 2 ) .

S ITES Al l sites fal l within the boundaries of the kl oof and settlement was cave and shelter orientated. Sites are defined by the presence of either stone tools or rock paintings. 39 sites have stone artefacts present on the surface and of these, 28 are in , or in front of, shelters which contain rock paintings. In onl y a few cases do these features occur exclusi vel y at a single locality. The rel ationship woul d seem to suggest that both artefacts and painting were produced concurrently , though this would be difficult to prove s ince no reliable method for dating rock paintings exists a t present ( but see van der Merwe, Sealy and Yates in prep .). A number of factors suggest that not all the s ites were scheduled for similar use. A clear indication of extended and/or repeated domestic occupation is a buildup of deposit in shel ters, concentrations of fl aki ng debitage and formal artefacts, and scatters of nonlithic items such as bone, ostrich eggshell beads and pottery in, or in front of, a cave or shelter. Six sites contained all of the above elements . The remaining s ites were not systematicall y sampl ed since they contained minor amounts of waste and formal material. This paucity of artefacts gives the impression that they were not used as extensively as the six sampled s ites but experienced less frequent periods of use . Three groupings of sites can be identified from the s ite distribution ( Fig .2). Site clusters usually consist of one or more large sites with minimal artefact scatters and rock painting sites nearby . Though some scatters and painted sites occur between the groupings they are f ew in number and tend to be rather dispersed. It is possible

3 80

C LANWILLIAM d ays D OORNBOSCH*

m d ays

T OTAL

J AN

F EB

M AR

A PRIL

M AY

J UNE

J ULY

A UG

S EP

O CT

N OV

2 16,1

4 ,0

6 ,3

7 ,6

1 7,7

3,3

3 8,9

3 4,2

2 8,8

1 8,0

1 3,2

8 ,8

5 ,3

4 6

1

1

2

3

6

7

7

7

5

4

2

1

1 35

1 ,0

1 ,8

9 ,0

1 2,9

1 7,6

2 1,0

2 4,2

1 4,3

1 9.8

9 ,1

8 ,6

4 ,7

2 5

1

1

1

2

3

4

5

3

2

1

1

1

D EC

* 12 k m u pstream f rom t he m outh o f t he P utslaagte a long t he D or ing R ivier .

Table

1 .

Mean monthly r esearch

rainfall

at

stations

close

to

t he

area

%

F

F

%

%

F

%

T OTAL

C CS

Q TZ

Q Z

S F

two

F

%

F

%

1 249

1 00

C HIPS/CHUNKS

7 24

5 8,0

1 0

0 ,8

1 27

1 0,2

3 25

2 6.0

6 3

5 ,0

F LAKES

8 49

6 5,0

3 3

2 .5

9 5

7 ,3

2 24

1 7,2

1 05

8 ,0

1 306

1 00

4 8

4 6,2

6

5 ,8

1 5

1 4,4

3 3

3 1,7

1 ,9

1 04

1 00

5 8

8 0,5

1

1 ,4

3

4 ,2

1 3,9

7 2

1 00

1,1

6

3 3,3

1

5 ,6

1 8

1 00

1 0,5

6

3 1.6

9

4 7,4

1 9

1 00

1 9,0

8 4

1 00

8 ,3

1 2

1 00

2 864

1 00

C ORES U TILIZED P IECES

E SQUILLEES

2

S CRAPER

6 4

A DZE

8

M .R.P.

1 762

T OTAL

Table

9

2 .

5 0,0 1 0,5 7 6,2 6 6,7 1 00

Percentage classes

2 2 4 2 6 0

1

1 6,7 2 37

1 00

r aw materials

- Total

1 0

1 6

4 ,8

1 00

2

f or

3 81

a ll

1 00

5 98

i n

8 ,3

1 2 07

s elected

s ites

1 00

artefact

( excluding

phillite)

that these sites are still part of the clusters though their spatial separation argues otherwise .

ANALYSIS Stone

artefacts

Stone artefacts from surface scatters at six locations were anal ysed . These contained a range of artefacts and debitage and all ow quantification of artefact and raw material types. Where systematic sampl es were not conducted, notes were made about the nature of the scatter as well as its location . The results of these anal yses are presented in Ta bl e 3 an d show that onl y sit e PL 1 di ffers s ignificantly from the others . This may be the result of thi s sit e ha vi ng bee n use d for raw materi al modification , whereas the others appear to have been used as domestic locations. The formal tool category in a ll the samples was dominated by adzes and scrapers. Adzes were always the most commonly represented formal tools. Table 4 lists some of the larger, less frequent artefact types which were found . Non-lithic material Materials other than stone were recorded when observed , although no quantification was attempted except in the systematic samples . Pottery is present in 1 7 sites ( Table 5 ). Thickness, col our, temper and burnish are variable and decoration is present on some sherds. Marine shell is found at two sites but is limited to a few pieces. Ostrich eggshell ( OES) fragments and beads are found at some sites. Some of the OES fragments show traces of incised decoration. The amount of bone present at the sites varies and in most cases tends to be highl y fragmented. Rock paintings A rock art survey was conducted for two main reasons . The first was to document all painting occurrences and identify similarities between the image sets at different sites and then derive broad spatial information from this data . Secondly , the survey was conducted in such a way as to make it comparable with other quantitati ve surveys which had been conducted in the South-western Cape up to that time (Maggs 1967; Manhire 1980; Van Rij ssen 1 980). Detailed written records were made and supplemented by monochrome photographs and col our transparencies. The basic quantitative data is presented in Table 6 . The multiplicity of images and the complexity of arrangement, depiction and distribution make it extremely difficult to identify patterns within the data . Males and females

are

identified

by

the

3 82

presence

of

primary

or

P L5

P L8

F 1 3

U TILIZED

F

6 1,9

E SOUILLEES

S CRAPER

P L16 S

F

1 8

6 0,0

P L46 F

P L26 S

F

P L60 S

F

S

7 0,0

2

1 0,0

6

2 0,0

3

1,1

4

5 ,9

1

1 0,0

3

1 5,0

7

2 3.3

5

1 8.5

1

3 .7

2

1,8

2

1 0,0

7

2 3,3

3

1,1

4

1 4,8

3 3.3

8

2 6,7

6 ,7

2

6 ,7

2 8,6

8

4 7,1

4 ,8

1

5 ,9

1 0

2 0,0

1 2

6 0,0

1

5 ,0

1 0 2

1 5

4 0,7

1 4,8

1 8

6 6,7

2 7

1 00

1 8,5

4 .8

2 1

3 .

I

1

I

1 00

1 7

1 00

1 8

1 00

2 0

1 00

3 0

1 00

3 0

1 00

2 7

1 00

F requencey a nd percentage o ccurrence o f f ormal p ieces

p er

s ample

s e

1

I s I s l e l e 2 0

x I I 1

5

x 2

I

1

x x x

I

2 1*

1

2 9

4

4 1

I

S CATTER

x x

II

I

1 2

O N O PEN

o nly I N S HELTER

H AMMERSTONE(

P OINT B IFACIAL

G ROOVED

P IECE

)

f ragments R EAMER

B ORED S TONE(

d epression

i /h n nnnn s tone

e cked

S ITE N O

4 1 U-faceted

f ace

r ,

G RINDSTONE

A REA O UTSIDE S HELTER

)

u tilized a nd

i ngle

Table

F

7

6

1

P 118 00

S

2 9,4

A DZE

T OTAL

F

5

M .R.P. R EAMER

P 118(i) X

s ingle

P IECES

S

x

3 X

I I

4 2

X

X

x

I

4 6

I I

x

I

4 9 5 0 5 1

3

5 2

I

• I n p roximity

Table

4 .

t o

P L

x X

2 1

O ccurrence s pecific

3 83

a nd quantity o f

a rtefact

t ypes

2 a

1 6

1 8 X X X X

1 9 X X X

2 6 X

X

2 8 X

2 9 X

4 1 3 8 X

4 3 X X

4 9

5 5 5 2

X

6 0 X

Table 5 . X

4 6

X '

X

X

1 2

X

X

Sites X X

X X

X

X X X

. X

X

X—X

3 84 X X

X

X

X

with pottery X

X

X X

X

X

F I NE T EMPRE

> . ‹T H I C K >

c

N E C K B O D Y B A S E N O T I D E N T I F I A B L E B U R N I S H E D R E D / O C H R E B U R N I S H U N B U R N I S H E D C O A R S E T E M P R E

P P 6 M

R I M N E C K B O D Y B A S E I L U G S A S E N I P P L E HO TI D E N T I F I A B L E

S ITE

8

X X X

X X

X

X X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X

=

r n

c

_ SITE NO 2 (a) 4 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 ‚ 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 1 2 8 2 9 3 0 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9 4 0 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 7 4 8 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 6 5 7 5 8 5 9 6 0 TOTAL

HUMANS f 8 44

%

6 .

/

H

P .

g

H Z

_

M

1

3

4 8 5 2 0 7 3 5 1 7 4 5 4 6 2 08 5 6 1 9 1 4 1 9 2 45 8 1 35 1 9 1 81 1 9 1 4 2 0 1 6 2 7 9 1 1 9 4 1 1 2 7 1 9 7 0 5 5 1 8 1 3 1 6 7 1 3 0 3 7 2 4 1 7 3 1 4

4 3 1

4

8

7 2 3 6 1 8 1 4 1 07

q

e ' ' , ,

s

s

1 2

3

4 2 7 1 1 2 7 2 2 8 7 3 6 1 7

1 0 1 4 2 2 1 4

1 9 1 43

3 4

1 15 8 1 09 8 4 2 5 1 3 5 1 4 6

6 0

8 8

7

1 3 1 0 6 2 1 1 1 0 1 6 1 1 1 4 3 1 0 2 1 1 1 1 5 1 0 2 1

1

7

3

2

1 1 3

1 4

1 2 5 4 3

4 4 5 5 2 1 5

3 1 3

4 3 3 1 9

1 2 3 6 4 4 3 2 4

2 7

3 1 7 7 1 3

1 6

5 0

2 H

8 44

1 47

ANIMALS

r 4 7 , 2

Table

m C

1 13

HANDPRINT

f

%

1 47

8 ,2

1 13

i mage counts

s ites

a nd

3 85

I NANIMATE

6 ,3

T otal

t he

1 790

6 86

6 86

f or

e ntire

3 8,3

TOTAL

1 790

i ndividual

s ample

secondary sexual characteristics, though most figures were of indeterminate sex. Table 7 shows how the different components of the sample are associated at different sites . Considering the compl exity of the social and cogniti ve behaviour which motivated these depictions, there wil l be subtl e metaphors with which the quantitative method cannot deal ( see Lewis-Williams 1983). Nevertheless, while we can see that the human, ani mal and inani mate subj ects are to be found in a ssociation at most sites, handprints are found at only a few localities and in three cases are the only images a t those sites. Simil arl y, male and female figures are associated at most sites but in two cases females are the only f igures painted . If we compare the human element of samples from different areas, the identifiable males and females form onl y a fraction of the total human images. Table 8 compares the human images from three samples. From this it woul d appear that the frequency of identifiable females increases as one moves towards the mountains. Table 9 lists animal species which were painted . Eland and elephant are by f ar the most commonly depicted species and the presence of domesticated sheep should also be noted .

DISCUSSION There is abundant historical evidence for the existence of indigenous communities over most of the south-western Cape in the period shortl y after the arri val of Dutch col onists in A .D. 1652 ( Parkington 1984). Some of these groups were pursuing an established pastoral lifestyle with large herds of sheep and cattle, whilst others seemed not to have owned any animal s and li ved by gathering pl ant foods and hunting small game. Whether this latter group were herders who no longer owned any li vestock, or residual hunter/gatherers is subject to much debate. Parkington et al. ( 1986) have argued that the emergence of a pastoral economy in the south western Cape some two thousand years ago d isrupted local hunter gatherers to the extent that a substantial change in settlement patterns resulted. Sites of a particular spatial structure, found in the Putslaagte and described below , have been attributed to the activities of largely residual hunter gatherer groups who were historically referred to as Soaqua ( Parkington 1 984). Excavated sites dating within the last 2 000 years show patterns of spatial organization noticeabl y different from sites dating to previous mil lenia. Not onl y are changes evident in artefact and faunal assemblages, but also in the physical location and s ize of sites. Later sites tend to be smal l and situated in

3 86

e

S ITE N O. f 3

2 (a)

%

T OTAL

7

9

%

f

6 0

f

%

f

%

2

0 ,2

5

1 00

6

7

1 00

7

1 00

7

2

1 00

2

1 00

8

3

1 00

3

1 00

4

6 6,7

6

1 00

2

9

2

1 0

3 3,3 1,1

1

2

1,1

1 4

7 7.8

1 8

1 00

1

7 .1

1 3

9 2,9

1 4

1 00

8 3

7 7,6

1 07

1 00

2 1,0

1 9

1 00

1 2

8

7 ,5

1 6

1 5,0

1 7

1

5 ,3

1 4

7 3,7

4

1 8

3 9

2 7,3

1 0

7 .0

9 4

6 5,7

1 43

1 00

2 1

2 7

2 3,5

1

9 ,6

7 7

6 7,0

15

1 00

8

2 8 4

2 9

3 ,7

3

2 ,8

1 00 9 3,6

1 02

8

1 00 1 00

1 09

3 0

e

1 00

8

1 00

3 2

4

1 00

4

1 00

2

1 00

5

1 00

2

3 3 3 4

2

3 5

1

1 00 3

4 0

1 2

7 ,7

6 0 9 2,3

1 3

1 00

3 6

5

1 00

5

1 00

3 7

1

1 00

1

1 00

2

3 8

4 ,3

3

6 ,5

4 1

8 9,1

4 6

1 00

4 0

1

1 00

1

1 00

4 3

4

1 00

4

1 00

2

4 4

4 ,4

3

6 ,7

4 5 1 4

4 7 5 1

3

7 5,0

5 2

3

9 ,1

9 3.3

4 5

1 00

5 2

1 00

5 2

1 00

1 5

1 00

1

5

5 7

4

5 8

2 9,4

2

1,8

5 7,1

5 9 6 0 1 08

7 .

1 2,8

8 1

F requency i ndividual

9 ,6

2 5,0

4

1 00

9 0,9

3 3

1 00

1 9

1 00

1 9

1 00

1 0

1 00 5 8,8

3 1 7

1 00 1 00 1 00

3

4 2,9

7

1

1 00

1

1 00

3

1 00

3

1 00

6 55

o f human s ites

3 87

6 ,7

3 0

3

5 6

Table

8 8,9

1

5 3

T OTAL

4 0

7 7,6

8 44

f igures

1 00

a t

S AMPLE

M ALE

F EMALE

f

%

f

P UTSLAAGTE

1 08

1 2,8

8 1

S ANDVELD

2 08

9 ,6

2 32

9 ,8

O LIFANTS

Table

R IVER

8 .

Comparison three

%

f

% 7 7,6

8 44

3 8

1 ,8

1 925

8 8,7

2 171

1 00,1

9 8

4 ,1

2 044

8 6,1

2 374

1 00

of

t he

human

e lement

E LAND

5 2

3 5,4

2 4

1 6,3

R HEBUCK

5

H ARTEBEES

2

1 ,4

G RYS/STEENBOK

3

2 ,0

B ABOON

3

2 ,0

H YENA

1

0 ,7

A NTELOPE

3 ,4

1

0 ,7

B ONTEBOK

1

0 ,7

A ARDVARK

4

2 ,7

Z EBRA

6

4 ,1

R HINO

1

0 ,7

S HEEP

7

4 ,8

I NDET

B UCK

1 6

1 0,9

I NDET

A NIMALS

2 1

1 4,3

T OTAL

9 .

1 47

Animal

f

6 55

s amples

F AT-TAIL

T OTAL

9 ,6

E LEPHANT

R OAN

Table

I NDETERMINATE

1 00

s pecies depicted

3 88

1 00

of

t he

shelters on relatively inaccessible rocky koppies . Inside the shelters deposits are usuall y well defined, with grassy bedding holl ows placed between central ash deposits and the rear wall of the shelter . In most cases the talus slope in front of the shelter will also be littered with stone artefacts, pot sherds and other debris. De Hangen ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1971) and Diepkloof ( Parkington and Poggenpoel, this volume) are examples of this pattern . When the Putslaagte data is compared along with that from the wider research area , it is clear that these sites are directl y comparable with those described in other parts of the south western Cape; thus the maj ority of the archaeology of the Putslaagte can be dated by association to within the last 2 000 years ( Parkington 1 980). One site from the Putslaagte , a very large rock shelter, al most certainl y contains ol der deposits below bedding and ash, but the lack of obviousl y simil ar circumstances in other shel ters suggests that instances of earlier occupation are rare. There is no evidence for open occupation sites in the Putslaagte and it is unlikely that there are any open s ites in the wider research area dating within the last 2 000 years, although such settlement can be detected prior to this date in the sandy coastal plains to the west (Manhire 1 984). The survey of the Putsl aagte kl oof made it possible to examine a number of archaeol ogical sites within a relatively small area . The geological profile, coupled with the fact that people were concentrating their activities in or around caves and shelters , meant that sites were easil y located and in a cl earl y d emarcated area . A pattern seems to emerge indicating a number of preferred locations ( based on the high artefact frequencies) which in turn are surrounded by other , less preferred locations, in which artefacts are far fewer and less varied in type. The abundance of artefactual material is seen as an indication of the f requency of site re-use . It seems l ikely that the larger concentrations are places where domestic activities regularly took place, either repeatedl y or for extended periods of time. Smaller concentrations of material at some sites do not necessaril y imply that domestic activities never took place there, but rather that visits to these sites were not rescheduled to the same extent . Ethnographic studies of ' modern ' hunter/gatherers ( Binford 1 983; Brooks 1 984; Gould 1 980; Lee 1 979; Yellen 1 977) have shown that, during occupation of any area, a number of different places are utilised. Usuall y the location of these sites is functional l y linked; for exampl e, the positioning of hunting blinds close to water-holes or game trails ( Brooks 1984:49). It is rel ati vel y simple to identify a repeatedl y reoccupied 3 89

domestic/core s i te, but it is far more difficult to assess ephemeral deposits since they are difficult to sample adequately and casual activity may not produce a diagnostic assemblage . The proximity of living sites in the Putslaagte could have resulted from one or a combination of a number of strategies pursued by prehistoric groups. One explanation is that, whilst returning to the same general area for reasons of resource availability, a group may have occupied a different shelter during each visit . Thus the numerous scatters and few deposits could represent a palimpsest of repeated visits, spread across time and a number of locations, with some sites having been occupied more frequentl y than others. Alternativel y, we shoul d consi der the possibil ity that these sites were s imultaneously generated under conditions of aggregation ( Lee 1 979), each representing the contemporary residence of a group. However, the number of people who coul d be accommodated in small rock shelters would seem to be a constraining factor in both these instances . Another scenario which could have generated s imilar traces sees indi vi dual famil ies of a single band splitting up to occupy several shelters in the same vicinity. This woul d impl y a maj or deviation from the traditional l y recorded patterns of settlement ( Yellen 1977). In documenting the spatial structure of cave se ttl e me nt it re mai ns to be see n whe t her the shelter/cave focus in the later period completely excl uded formal domestic use of the external space at these locations. Should this be the case, then the size of shelters being selected would indicate small numbers of people utilising the space . Unfortunately , there are at present no archaeological data to discriminate between these hypotheses, but the evaluation of the described patterns is currently underway ( Halkett , in prep .). This wil l hopefull y lead to a better understanding of the magnitude of changes coincident with the appearance of pastoralism.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fi nancial assistance was recei ved from the Harry Oppenhei mer Institute for African Studies at the Uni versity of Cape Town and the Human Sciences Research Council.

REFERENCES Binford,

L .R.

1983.

In pursuit of the past:

3 90

decoding the

archaeological

record .

London :

Thames

and

Hudson .

Brooks, A .S. 1984. San land-use patterns, past and present: impl ications for southern African prehistory. In Hall, M .J " Avery, D . M., Wilson, M .L., & Humphreys, A . J.B., (eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeology today . Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. Gould,

R . A. 1980. Li vi ng Cambridge Univei • Jü l EY

archaeol ogy.

Cambridge:

Halkett , D .J . 1 981. Doom nto Dusk . Unpublished B .A .(Hons) proj ect, Uni versity of Cape Town, Department of Archaeology. Lee,

R .B. 1979. The _ Kung San: Men, women and work in a foraging society . , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lewis-Wil liams, J .D. 1 983. Introductory essay: Science and rock art. S .Afr.Archaeol.Soc.Goodwin Ser. 4 :31 3. Maggs,

T . M.O 'C. 1967. A quantitive anal ysis of rock art from a sampl e area in the weste r n Cape. S .Afr.J.Sci. 63:100-4.

Manhire, A .H . 1 980 . Rock art of the Sandveld . B .Sc( Hons) proj ect, Uni versity of Department of Archaeology .

Unpublished Cape Town,

Manhire, A .H . 1 984 . Stone tools and Sandveld settlement . Unpublished M .Sc. thesis , University of Cape Town . Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. & Van Rijssen, W .J. 1 983. A distributional approach to the interpretationof rock art in the south- western Cape. S . Afr. Archaeol. Soc. Goodwin Ser . 4 :29-33. Mazel,

A . D. 1978. Stories in stones. Unpubl ished B . A.( Hons) proj ect, Uni versity of Cape Town, Department of Archaeology .

Parkington , J .E . 1 977. Follow the San . thesis , Cambridge University .

Unpublished

Ph .D .

Parkington , J .E . 1 980 . Time and place: Some observations on spatial and temporal patterning in the later st one age seque nce in sout he rn Af rica. S .Afr .archaeol . Bul 1. 35:73-83. Parkington, J .E. 1981. The effects of environmental change on the scheduling of visits to the Elands Bay cave, Cape Province, South Africa. In Hodder, I ., Isaac, G . & Hammond, N . ( eds.) Patt -i-n of the past, pp. 341-59. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity

3 91

Press. Parkington, J .E. 1984. Soaqua and bushman: Hunters and robbers. In Schrire, C . ( ed.) Past and present in hunter g atherer studies., pp. 151 1 1/-2 . New York: Academic Press . Parkington , J .E . & Poggenpoel, C . 1 971. Excavations Hangen , 1 968. S .Afr.archaeol.Bul 1 . 26:3-36.

at

De

Parkington, J .E., Yates, R ., Manhire, A ., & Halkett, D . in press The social impact of pastoralism in the south-western Cape . J . anthrop . Archaeol. Th a c k e r a y, A. I. 19 7 7. St o ne ar t e f a c t s fr o m Klipfonteinrand. Unpublished B .A .( Hons) project: University of Cape Town , Department of Archaeology . Van

Rijssen, W .J. 1 980. Ways of seeing. Unpublished B .Sc.( Hons) project: Uni versity of Cape Town, Department of Archaeology .

Yel len, J .E. 1977. Archaeological approaches to present: models for reconstructing the p ast . York: Academic Press.

3 92

the New

SEASONAL EXPLOITATION OF RESOURCES ON THE VREDENBURG PENINSULA AFTER 2000 B .P.

Andrew B .

Smith

INTRODUCTION Radiocarbon dates from the Vredenburg Peninsula suggest that domestic animals and pottery f irst appeared around 1 800 B .P.. Herders appear to have taken over from aboriginal foragers who occupied the area prior to this time. The archaeological evidence indicates that this replacement probably occured fairly rapidly and may have caused considerable disruption among foraging peoples. The herders appear to have accomodated themsel ves to a simil ar seasonal pattern followed by the foragers, perhaps even learning about local resources from them during first contact, and may onl y have usurped the grazing regimes of the wil d herbivores as the domestic herds grew in s ize .

EXCAVATION AT

KASTEELBERG

A Later Stone Age site at Kasteelberg ( Fig.1), near Vredenburg, has produced a t ight sequence of occupation over the past two mil lenia. A small excavation at the rock shel ter KBC showed an earl ier Late Stone Age occupation dated to 2 1 60 + 50 B .P . ( Pta-3788) underlying a herder occupation dated to 1 270 + 50 B .P. ( Pta-3785) with sterile deposit separating the two occupation levels. On top of the kopj e at the open site of KBA two dates of 1 860 + 60 B .P. ( Pta-3711) and 1 790 + 40 B .P. (Pt a- 3 4 61 ) gi ve an idea of the earl iest pastoral occupation . These dates are a ssociated with the bones of many sheep, along with seals, terrestrial ungulates and large quantities of shellfish . The s ite i s basically a coastal exploitation settlement, as the coast i s only 4 km away. The faunal component at KBA equates well with the faunal component from lower deposits of another open site, KBB [ 1 300 + 60 B .P. ( 170cm) ( Pta-3995), 1 220 + 45 B .P. ( Pta-3998) - and 1 200 + 45 D .P. ( 125 cm) ( Pta 3994)], where a considerable number of sheep and a few

3 93

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FIG. 1

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0

LOCATION OF

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REFERRED

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IN TEXT

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cattl e bones have been retrieved. The sequence at KBB continues; large bovids increase in frequency in the upper layers of the deposit [ 910 + 50 B .P. ( 91 cm .) ( Pta-3787), 880 + 50 B .P. ( 45-50 cm.)(15 7t a-3747) and 920 + 40 B .P . ( 30-34 ai .)(Pta-3742)]. The faunal component has a large percentage of seals in these levels, while in the top levels at KBB, dated to 190 + 40 B .P. ( 2-12 cm .)(Pta-3737), the fauna tends to be dominated by large amounts of tortoise bones, although seal frequencies are still consistently high .

SEASONAL

DATA

FROM VREDENBURG PENINSULA

S ITES

Whil e faunal anal ysis continues from the Kasteelberg excavations, other data from coastal sites in the area suggest evidence of summer occupation along this coastal strip. Robertshaw ( 1977, 1978, 1979a, 1979b), in his excavation at Paternoster , recovered large quantities of limpets ( 90%) from lower deposits, in sharp contrast to an increase in mussels ( 45%) in the uppermost deposit. This he interpreted as evidence of a summer occupation , prior to 900 B . P., because of possibil e red tide poisoning of mussels, restricting their use in summer. The high frequencies of limpets are repeated at Duiker Eiland , supporting the summer occupation hypothesis. The dates from this site are 1 930 + 70 B .P. ( Pta-1554) and 1 700 + 50 B .P.(Pta-1581). A third site in Robertshaw 's study was at Sto fbergs fonte in, on the Churchhav en Peninsula, dated to 1 550 + 55 B .P. ( Pta-1903). Here the frequency of mussels is hi- her and the limpet frequency correspondingly lower, suggesting the possibility of a seasonal pattern si mil ar to the upper le vel at Paternoster. A number of other sites were located around the coast along St . Helena Bay , many on the hills overlooking the bay. Excavation was carried out at one of these sites by Margaret Jacobsohn ( 1985). This site, Steenberg 's Cove, is basically a shell-midden , dated to 1 720 + 50 B .P. ( Pta-4012) on marine shell ( corrected to 1 320 + 50 B .P.), and 1 350 + 50 B .P. ( Pta-4010) on charcoal. A short occupation period is thus indicated from these results. From an anal ysis of the ratio of bl ack mussels ( Choromytj lus meridionalis) to limpets ( Patel l a app.) through time, the site shows a degree of mussel domination ( 4:1) at the bottom of the excavation , easi ng off to 2 : 1, or even parity, higher up the sequence. There is no question that mussel frequencies are usuall y much higher than limpets in these later sites. This is confirmed by the marine component analysed from Kasteelberg .

the

An interesting observation is that virtual l y all sites located in the survey are north-facing . This

3 95

pattern is repeated at Kasteelberg where the sites of KBA and KBB are both well-protected from the prevailing south-east winds that blow in summer. From this we can suggest the sites were occupied in s ummer .

HISTORICAL OBSERVATION ON THE VREDENBURG PENINSULA AND SWARTLAND As outlined elsewhere ( Smith 1 984) h istorical information from early travellers ' reports shows that large numbers of cattle and sheep were pastured around St . Helena Bay . One such report from a French captain hunting seals in 1 653 says: " he had seen the Saldanhars with thousands of cattle and sheep on the plains" ( Thom 1952, vol. 1 :176). Other voyagers, who were onl y too keen to obtain fresh beef and mutton, show a distinct seasonal pattern in their observations of domestic stock. In winter they were able to barter for domestic animals, but in summer there were no animals to be found in the area for trade. A good example of this was Etienne de Fl acourt, who sailed into Sal danha Bay at noon on the 14th October, 1 648. Three days later he notes that they still had not seen any of the local inhabitants " who live inland more than 15 or 20 leagues distant —. All those who come to these coasts are merel y the poor slaves of others, who are masters and possess cattle, which they have in great numbers. On the seventeenth the savages came to the spring —. numbering ten or fifteen men, with the same number of women and as many small chil dren. I bartered with tobacco: eighteen land-tortoises, each for a piece of tobacco as long as a finger —. By signs I asked them for cattle and sheep: they replied that they had none" ( Raven-Hart 1 967:174) ( see Table 1 ). In summer when the pasture became scarce the Khoi abandoned the Vredenburg Peninsula with their herds and moved inland towards the Renosterveld of the Swartland and the permanent waters of the Berg River. The earl y Dutch records tell us that in October 1 657 the Saldanhars were contacted along the Berg River: " . — they gathered on its banks for the sake of the water, for no water of sufficient pasturage for their cattle was to be found anywhere but at this place, where r ich pastures existed" ( Thom op. cit., Vol. 2 :174). In February 1658 this information is once more reiterated ( Ibid, Vol. 2 :237). Starrenburg, in 1705, also reports Khoi at Vier-enTwintig Rivieren in October (Valentyn 1 973, Vol. 2 :17). Van der Stel, another early visitor to the Swartland , met only " Obiquas" or " Sonquas" without cattle on his outward journey to Namaqualand in September 1685 ( Waterhouse 1932: 117), while on his return journey in January 1686 he met " Goenjeman Hottentots" in a kloof at the northern end

of

the

Swartland

( Ibid:

1 55).

3 96

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In the Renostervel d, today a maj or wheat-growing area of the Cape, we find historical references describing excellent pasturage . As Van der Stel noted at the end of August, 1685 near Riebeeck's Casteel: " The plain was uncommonl y wide —. we pitched our camp ( at a ) spot —. supplied with grass and water in abundance" ( Waterhouse 1 932: 1 16). He made note of the good pasture and water conditions to be found across the Swartland and on the 7th September on the eastern si de of the Piketberg: "... found good cl ay and gra vel soil, plentifully covered with grass and wild oats and watered by various brooks —." ( Ibid:118, see also Kolb 1731, Vo1.1: 61; Valenty 1 973 Vol.2: 23, 45). The region from Sal danha Bay to the Berg River mouth was recognised by the earl y col onists as bei ng free of 1 ams iekte ( Lichtenstein 1928:60, 67, Thunberg 1795, Vol. 1 :151, Blommaert & Wild 1 937:271), a disease found elsewhere in the Western Cape caused by phosphorous deficiency, particul arl y in pastures which support pl ants like Tarconanthus camphoratus, "usual l y deficient in phosphorous" ( Bonsma 1980: 35), which makes the animals chew old bones or carrion infected by Parabotulism bovis ( Handbook for Farmers in South Africa 1 957, Vol. 3 :344).

THE TRAJECTORY OF LAST 2 000 YEARS

PASTORAL

LAND-USE

PATTERNS

OVER

THE

It can be seen that there is a discrepancy between the season of occupation of the Vredenburg Peninsula from the archaeological samples and that noted in the historical record . Robertshaw ( 1979b), in the interpretation of his data, suggests there is a shift away from the summer occupation found prior to 900 B .P. to an autumn/winter occupation. His Stofbergsfontein data indicate the possibility that this may have occurred around 1 5 00 B .P . Why shoul d this have happened, and what might these shifts mean? The earl y pastoral occupation of the V redenburg Peninsul a appears to coinci de with the formation of large shell middens in this area, both at the coast and inland . This does not mean that the coast was not exploited prior to this, but that there was an increase in coastal exploitation by people with herds at this t ime . The faunal data from Kasteelberg points to a basic sheep-herding economy with the later addition of a few cattle. Anal ysis of the bone from KBB ( c. 1 200 B .P .) shows a ratio of the number of identified specimens ( NISP) of small-medium to large bovids is 1 0:1, from KBB (c. 900 B . P.) 4 .7: 1 and from KBB ( c. 190 B . P.) 3 .5: 1. The ratios from the later occupation after 900 B .P. conforms to that of modern pastoralists, such as the Turkana of East Africa where a ratio of 4 :1 is to be found ( Gulliver 1 955: 38-39). This modern information is supported by data on herd composition from the earl y Dutch records at the Cape where a ratio of 3-4:1 was also

3 98

noted ( Thom 1952, Vol. 1 : 306). The animals traded to the Dutch by the Khoi between 1662 and 1713 showed a ratio of 3 .9:1 ( El phick 1977, Deacon, 1 982), and 19th Century herds in Namaqualand had a ratio of 3 .8:1 ( Lita Webley pers . comm .) In discussion of the pasture needs of sheep, Mr. Kotze, the owner of Kasteelberg who uses the kopje a s his main lambing area , suggests that free-ranging sheep ( i.e . before f ences) would be able to stay around the Peninsula for most of the summer. In the late summer, if pasture became scarce, they could move towards the Berg River and u tilize the riparian pastures. In other words they could have stayed close to the coast for most of the year, if they had been so inclined . The Vredenburg Peninsula in w inter, however , would have been a less attractive place to be, so they probabl y moved to a more shel tered habitat, perhaps along the Berg River . With the increase in cattle herds a new land-use pattern developed . Cattle are bulk-grazers and less eclectic in their diet than sheep. They also have g reater water needs . The combination of greater pasture and water requirements woul d have meant a much more coherent pastoral strategy had to be developed. This woul d have meant making opti mal use of the winter pastures on the granite soils of the Vredenburg Peninsula and the devel opment of some form of shelter, such as a matlieshuise ( mat house). As the year progressed the pasture of the Vredenburg Peninsula woul d have become depleted, forcing a move to the interior. Because the Sandvel d is such a poor nutrient zone they woul d most probabl y have gone into the Renostervel d area on the Mal mesbury shales, but not until mid-October because 1amsiekte becomes critical in September and earl y October . By the time of the early European observers in the 15th-17th Centuries this pattern had been firml y established. The transhumance of the later colonists from the interior to the Vredenburg area was no doubt model l ed on an earlier Khoi pattern ( see Lichtenstein 1 928, Vol. 2 : 150).

SOCIAL RELATIONS S OUTHWESTERN CAPE

BETWEEN

ABORIGINAL

PEOPLES

OF

THE

The f irst contact between aboriginal hunters and incoming herders may have been fairl y amicable. But the herder population density was probably relatively low and they seem to ha ve fitted into the local conditions and patterns quite easily . The archaeological evidence from Kasteelberg shows a replacement of a microlithic industry by a crude stone technology associated with domestic s tock . This suggests a major intrusion into the lives of the

aboriginal

foragers.

The

3 99

coastal

resources woul d

have been very attractive,

and with a sustainable meat

source in the form of sheep, they coul d have stayed at the coast for prol onged periods of time. This is reinforced by the isotopic studies of Seal y & Van der Merwe ( 1985, this vol ume) who have anal ysed human skeletal remains of foragers from the southwestern Cape . Although the sample is small their data suggest that some populations were living off marine resources all year round . The feasibility of this is further indicated by the detail ed energy budget of coastal foragers subsisting off shellfish compiled by Buchanan ( 1986) for the south-western Cape . As ti me progressed herd size and composition changed . More cattle accumulated and this would steadily have put increasing pressure on grazing availability. Thus competition for grazing must have arisen between the larger domestic herds and wil d ungulates. As the wil d ungulates diminished so did the resources of the hunters . At the same time herders woul d have placed greater rel iance on mil k as a diet base, and the need for increasing numbers of milch cows. With greater cattle numbers would have come ever-increasing social and wealth disparities and the patronage system seen by historical observers would have developed . H ierarchical control of wealth would have meant raiding between herding groups, and the need for clientship relations with hunters . Those hunters not willing to become dependents of the herders woul d perhaps have been robbers, but the military might of the herders probably forced them into the more marginal environments, or to use the spatial distribution of resources on a rotational basis. This is perhaps suggested in the faunal data from Kasteelberg. Although seal frequencies remain consistent through the sequence, the lower 70 cms of deposit has much greater numbers of sheep than the upper deposit. At the very top of the sequence the sheep frequency drops even f urther ( see Klein , 1 986). The possibility exists that the later large-biomass cattle herds utilized the open plains around St. Helena Bay on high-mobility basis, leaving Kasteelberg free for occupation by foragers or small stock herders rel ying more on marine products, once the herds had moved away to summer pastures in the interior . Certainl y, Vasco da Gama's aboriginal capti ve was a forager who , in November 1 497, had no domestic stock .

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Permission to excavate at Kasteelberg was kindly g iven by Mr. P .A. Kotze, the owner of the farm Rooiheuwel where the site is situated . The radiocarbon dating was done by J .C. Vogel, and the faunal analysis by R . G. Klein. The excavation was funded by the Human Sciences Research

4 00

Council,

who are gratefully acknowledged .

REFERENCES Blommaert, W . & Wiid, J .A. 1937. Die Joernaal van Dirk Gysbert van Reenen, 1803. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Soc. No. 1 8. Bonsma, J . 1980. approach . Cape

Li vestock Production: Town : Tafelberg .

a

gl obal

Buchanan , W .F . 1 986. Sea Shells Ashore . Thesis, University of Cape Town .

Unpublished

Ph .D .

El phick, R . 1 977. Univ. Press.

New

Yale

Kraal

and

Castle.

Haven:

Deacon, J .C.G . 1 982. The Later Stone Age in the southern Cape, South Africa. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cape Town . Gulliver , P .H . 1 955. & Kegan Paul. Handbook for Farming Printer.

The

Family Herds .

London:

Routledge

Farmers in South Africa. 1957. and Pastures, Vol. 3 . Pretoria:

Stock Govt.

Jacobsohn , M . 1 985. Excavations at Steenberg 's Cove, St . Helena Bay. Unpublished Archaeology Additional Report . University of Cape Town . Kolb,

P . 1731. The Present Hope. London: Innys.

State

of

the

Cape

of

Good

Klein,

R .G . 1 986. The Prehistory of Stone Age herders in the Cape Province of South Africa. Sth. Afr. Archaeol. Soc . Goodwin Series 5 :5-12.

Lichtenstein , H . 1 928. Travels in southern Africa in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805 and 1806. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Soc. Nos. 10 & 1 1. ---Raven-Hart, R . Struik.

1 967.

Before

Van

Riebeeck.

Cape

Town:

Robertshaw , P .T . 1 977. Excavations at Paternoster, southwestern Cape . South African Archaeological Bulletin 32:63-73. Robertshaw , P .T . 1 978. Archaeological Langebaan Lagoon , Cape Province . Africa 1 0:139-148.

4 01

investigations Palaeoecology

a t of

Robertshaw, P .T. 1979a. Excavations at Duiker Eiland, Vredenburg District, Cape Province . Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums ( Human Sciences) 1 :1-26. Robertshaw, P .T. 1979b. Coastal settlement, freshwater f ishing and pastoralism in the later prehistory of the western Cape, South Africa . Unpublished Ph .D . Thesis, Cambridge University . Sealy,

J . & Van der Merwe, N .J . 1 985 . I sotopic assessment of Holocene human diets in the southwestern Cape, South Africa . Nature. 315: 138-140.

Smith,

A .B. 1 984. Adaptive strategies of prehistoric pastoralism in the south-western Cape In Hall, M ., Avery, G ., Avery, D . M., Wilson, M .L. & Humphreys, A .J.B. ( eds.) Frontiers: South African Archaeology Today ., pp . 1 31-142. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

Thom,

H .B. 1952. vols. Cape

The Journal Town: Balkema .

of

Jan

Van

Riebeeck .

3

Thunberg, C .P. 1795. Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia made between the years 1770 and 1779, 4 vols. London: Rivington . Waterhouse, G . 1932. Simon van der Stel's Journal of his expedition to Namaqualand , 1 685-6. Dublin : Hodges, Figgus. Valentyn , F . 1 973. Description of the Cape of Good with the matters concerning it. Cape Town: Riebeeck Soc . Second Series No . 4 .

4 02

Hope Van

PORTERVILLE SURVEY

Tim Hart

INTRODUCTION The Berg Ri ver - Portervil le area of the Swartland, south- western Cape (Fig.1) had recei ved littl e archaeol ogical attention before the initiation of this project . Our survey had two purposes. The f irst was to gain an insight into the distribution of archaeological remai ns on the landscape, the second to test a hypothesized Later Stone Age herder presence and route of seasonal transhumance ( Smith 1 984). Smith ( 1984) maintains that a maj or historical l y known herder group in the Cape, the Cochoqua , would have used a seasonal transhumant strategy to exploit the Cape 's various soils to their best advantage at different times of the year. The Berg River runs through the nutriti ve Mal mesbury shal es of the Cape and is a permanent source of water during the dry late summer . It is likel y that the surrounding nutrient-rich pastures woul d have been expl oited by pastoralists on their seasonal round . A survey and sampling strategy , adapted to the specific conditions of the survey area and designed to test Smith 's hypothesis, was devised and impl emented. The survey and its results are described below.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

BACKGROUND

Pastoralism in the recent prehistory of the south-western Cape has not been clearl y understood and its role has be e n bl u r re d by the appare nt in visi bi l it y of pastoralists in the archaeol ogical record ( Robertshaw 1 979). The numerous accounts of Khoi pastoralists in the historic record are indicators of the important role pl ayed by them but the character of the impact of herding on San hunter-gatherer society continues to be debated ( Parkington et al. In press). Although the study of prehistoric herding has been dogged by lack of wide regional research as wel l as paucity of identifiable herder remains, it is known that soon after 2 000 years

4 03

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P I KETBERG

B erg R i ver

P OR TERV ILLE S ALDANHA H OPEF IELD • M OORREESBERG SW A

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Figure

1 .

The

South

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zone

4 04

S TELLENBOSC H

Cape

and

search

ago pottery and domestic stock were introduced into southern Africa. This phenomenon is manifested in sequences at a number of Late Stone Age sites ( H J Deacon et al. 19 78). Roberts ha w (19 79) re- e xami ne d a d istribution of available radio-carbon dates from sites in Namibia and the Cape and concluded that a herding economy spread rapidl y through southern Africa. Linguistic evidence ( Westphal 1963) has indicated an origin for Khoi language in northern Botswana but no archaeological data is available from this area as yet and only hypothesized routes of herder movement have been proposed ( Elphick 1 977).

STUDIES

IN THE

SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE

In the south western Cape more specific research has been conducted . Robertshaw ( 1979) made some attempts to locate herder sites in the archaeol ogical record using historical and ethnographic information as guides. An aerial photographic survey was conducted and a 10 km strip of land, from the northern Vredenberg Peninsula extending inland along the Berg River , was searched for possi bl e crop marks resul ting from kraal s and hut foundations. No indications of pastoralist settlement were obtained and Robertshaw concluded that the herder way of life produced no identifiable surviving remains . This, he argued, was because herders were cultural l y adapted to a transhumant way of life, an essential ingredient of which was the ability to move rapidl y in response to resource availability , particularly pasture quality . All property was portable and camps were shortterm and ephemeral, leaving no visible trace . For prehistoric herders, the most important characteristic of soils in the south-western Cape is that they differ in their abil ities to maintain a nutritive base adequate for stock herding . Therefore, on the basis of comparison of the nutritional potential of grasses from season to season as well as the varying trace elements available in soils, it is possible to predict how prehistoric pastoralists would have used the land. Studies in other parts of Africa ( Gulliver 1955, Netting 1 977) have revealed that pastoralism is generally found in areas that are fairly marginal. Domestic stock provi de the medium by which peopl e expl oit their environments, and consequentl y people's worl d view and culture becomes ' livestock centric ' ( Yellen 1 983). As an adaptive response, pastoralists are very mobile and move in response to resource av i 1 abi 1 ity. The social structure of pastoralist groups is correspondingl y flexibl e. Smith ( 1984) believes that the relationship between

herders

and their herds

4 05

is

so

close

that they

would be able to respond to deficiency and make suitabl e adj ustments to exploitation strategies.

diseases in s tock their seasonal

The soil s deri ved from the Tabl e Mountai n Sandstones of the Cape Fold Belt a re of low nutritional val ue and support a variety of shrub and heath communities known as Fynbos (Moll and Jarman 1 984). Grazing animals could only exploit these environments on a very limited basis. Granite and sandvel d soils show low copper and cobalt levels during the summer months, making grasses on these soils only suitable for short term grazing at this time of the year. They woul d have been adequate in trace elements during the winter months ( Smith 1984). The Mal mesbury shale soils support the best wheatlands of the Cape. Little of the indigenous coastal renostervel d which is thought to have existed prior to European col onisation survives. It is likel y that the area supported large herds in prehistoric t imes. Utilising historical and ecological evidence, Smith ( 1984) suggests that the Cochoqua ( who were historically known to have wintered on the Vredenberg Peninsul a between April and September) would have been forced to move southwards towards the Mal mesbury area or, after 1657-58, towards the Cape Peninsula, where they coul d trade with the Dutch ( Fig.2). Further south they woul d have had a chance of expl oiting the occasional summer rain and pastures around Malmesbury , Tygerberg and Table Bay area. After summering on the Cape fl ats between September and January the Cochoqua moved in a northerly direction into the Swartland. From this area the Berg Ri ver provides a source of permanent water and an easy passage back to the Vredenberg Peninsula . The Berg Ri ver - Porterville region lies in the Malmesbury shale area of the Cape and straddles the Berg Ri ver route hypothesized for the Cochoqua. A maj or purpose of the work described here was to determine whether any herder sites coul d be identified and so provide a test of Smith 's 1 984 hypothesis .

HISTORIC BACKGROUND Historic sources were consulted in order to determine whether Khoi or San were in the research area and if so, where and when ( Fig.3). Most of the sources that are relevant to the Berg Ri ver - Porter vil le region are the journals of travellers who moved through the r egion , en route up the west coast. Jan Danckaert passed through the research area in November 1660 (Mossop 1 927:125). He mentions no encounters with Khoi but met with a group of friendl y

4 06

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Songua just north of Porterville and bartered some skins and honey ( Thom 1952: Vol 111:316). The Sonqua, or Soaqua, are suggested by Parkington ( 1985) to have been remnant hunter-gatherers who were displaced by the advent of herders into the Cape. The following year ( January 1 661) Pieter van Mierhoff passed through the area . Eight Sonquas were encountered at the Little Berg River. Van Mierhoff presents a picture of a countryside rich in game including quagga, hartebeest, rhinoceros, ostrich and hippopotamus. Sweet water, good grazing and the many huts of the Sonqua are mentioned but no pastoralists were encountered ( Thom 1 952: Vol 1 11:343-356). Van der Stel, on his journey to Namaqualand in 1 685, passed through the research area and kept a fairly compl ete record of his movements and what he saw . In September at the ' Honigbergen ' ( today known as the ' Heuningsberg') he forbade members of his expedition to have carnal intercourse with the ' hottentots' whose kraal s were near at hand. Between Heuningberg and Misverstand they passed the two kraals of the ' Kaptein ' Goereman and cattle and sheep were successfully bartered . In 1705 the Landdrost, Johannes Starrenberg, visited the research area on a cattle bartering trip ( Valentjin 1726: Vol 2 :9-57). The Gonnema Hottentots with their 'kaptein ' Bootsman were encamped near the Twenty Four Rivers. Bootsman kept an excellent herd but refused • to barter cattle . In November Starrenberg again tried to barter cattl e with Bootsman who was encamped near Misverstand . Within three days march in the ' land van Waveren ' lay three more kraals where Starrenberg bartered 26 animals and mentioned the presence of 200 cows. The oxen had been sent away by the Hottentots who refused to barter them . Thus the historic record indicates that this part of the Swartl and was being expl oited by both huntergatherers and herders .

THE

RESEARCH AREA

The Porterville district lies at the eastern edge of the f ertile plains known as the Swartland ( Talbot 1 948). The Berg Ri ver, which runs in a north-westerl y direction, bisects the research area and is a permanent source of water . The only other permanent river is the Twenty Four Ri vers which flows into the Berg in the south east section of the region ( Fig.4). Indigenous vegetation survives only in a f ew places in the research area and consists of ericoid scrub and rhenosterbos ( El ytropappas rhinoscerati), which has proved to be a very tenacious survivor of cultivation and

4 09

P OR IERV UE

F igure

4 .

G eneral m ap o f R esearch

t he

B erg R iver—Porterville

z one

4 10

1

may be found on steep valley sides and hilltops that have not been cultivated ( Tal bot 1948, Tansley 1982). The area experiences hot dry summers and cool wet winters. The temperature during summer can reach up to 40 ° C . Towards March and April the temperature cools off and some early rain may occur . The main rainy season extends from April to October during which most of the annual 240-280 mm of rain falls ( Talbot 1 948). This is also the growing season of the wheat crop, and most standing water and springs are flowing .

pans

have

Topographical l y this part of the Swartland is characterised by gently rolling hills and valleys - most of which are under cultivation . The only mountain is the Heuningberg which is in a central position on the East Bank of the Berg River and rises 359m . It 's lower slopes are heavil y culti vated. The Berg River runs in a well defined valley and there are 3 major confluences . These are the Matjies Ri ver in the north west, and in the south, the Klein Berg and the Twenty Four Ri vers. In historic times the Twenty Four Rivers confl uence was swamp land (van der Merwe 1 972). The landscape is mostl y uniform and offers few natural foci such as caves or sheltered places that would have attracted prehistoric people year after year . I t is quite possible that herders coul d have set up their encampments in the research area at different places, never using the same locality twice . Unlike areas of the Cape Fol d Belt and coast where one can predict to an exte nt where sites may occur, the Berg Ri ver Portervil le area does not lend itsel f to such an intuitive approach .

METHOD It was decided that a stratified random sampl ing technique would be the most suitable design to fulfil the needs of this proj ect and to cope with the particular requirements of the landscape . It was felt that since so little was known about the archaeology of the area, this method woul d be an unbiased and adequate means of controlling the data . The project was of an exploratory nature and merely invol ved determining the extent of prehistoric occupation of the area. Sampling stratifications were delineated that were most condusi ve to producing this kind of information. It was decided that permanent water woul d be a likely factor in determining the location of sites especiall y in a pastoralist situation . On this basis three stratifications were used. A 60m contour defined the ri ver valley clearl y . All areas above this 60m contour were termed the ' plains' stratification . Areas

4 11

bel ow 60m contour were termed ' plains and ri verine' and areas that directl y bordered the ri ver, ' riverine'. Quadrats were the units of sampling and each one was the ar a represented by a minute of a degree on a side ( 2.79 km ). It was decided that in accordance with Plog's ( 1979) recommendations a 10% level of sampling should be set as a starting objective ( Fig .5). Quadrats were given a reference number and those to be sampled were randoml y selected . Although it was impossible to sel ect whole quadrats to make up a 10% fraction in each stratification, the closest figure to make up the 10% sample was used. Once the survey was well underway it was decided that the riverine samp) ,ing fraction should be raised to 30% . In all some 45 km 4 of land was surveyed . The survey was commenced on the eastern side of the Berg River and only this side could be completed before the commencement of the wheat growing season . The search pattern invol ved locating a convenient corner of the quadrat and working round the quadrat from that point. As each quadrat was searched it was di vi ded into arbitrary sections delineated by fences, roads or natural boundaries. Arbitrary sections were searched as units using zig-zag wal k paths or transects, depending on the nature of the terrain and the number of field crew available. Crew spaced themsel ves approximatel y 25m apart in ploughed land, the exact distance depending on vegetation cover . Sites in each quadrat were recorded and given a number within the quadrat. Quadrats were named after farms or areas. Occurences were recorded in such a way as to include site context and the character of the terrain.

RESULTS The survey revealed that the Berg Ri ver - Portervi 1 1e area is one of mixed archaeological potential. The most notable result of this survey was the lack of Late Stone Age sites. In contrast, the Middle and Earl y Stone Age presence is very strong and mixed scatters of this material were found in virtually every quadrat. Earl y Stone Age material was located on the west side of the river in quadrat Misverstand. A l"G l ig the material were large flakes and disc cores of patinated silcrete as well as silcrete bifaces. Intermixed with the Earl y Stone Age material were Levallois flakes and large bl ade cores of silcrete, quartzite and indurated shal e of Middle Stone Age character. Middl e and Earl y Stone Age material was so widely spread in most quadrats 4 12

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On the east side of the Berg River mixed scatters of Earl y and Middle Stone Age material were located in every ri verine quadrat on the Berg Ri ver as wel l as the Klein Berg, Assegaaibos and Twenty Four Rivers ( Fig.6). Most of the artefacts were constructed on quartzite river cobbles resulting in large numbers of cobble choppers and round based disc cores. Al so characteristic were ' uni facial' hand axes made on flakes struck from the outer edges of river rounded cobbles. Most of the raw material used was quartzite gathered in the r iver bed . Frequencies of tools were recorded in several quadrats and it was found that cobbl e tool s were prevalent in the riverine zones and relatively scarce in the plains zones ( Fig .7). This is probably a reflection of raw material availability . A noticeable aspect of visibility of Early Stone Age material was that, in most cases, it was found in stony soil near the tops of hillocks , slopes and ridges . This indicates that massive sheet erosion has moved a good deal of topsoil, exposing the rocky B and C horizons lower down . At the same time artifacts have been exposed and concentrated along with the underlying rocky shale . Visible occurences of material may be largely governed by the differentiating effects of soil erosion . Much of this may have taken place recently as a result of poor farming practices early on this century ( Talbot 1 948). Sixteen Late Stone Age occurrences were found within the resea ph area ( Fig .8) of which only 5 exceeded an area of 375 m4 . Of the remaining sites onl y one lay in uncultivated land. The maj ority of the occurrences were very thin scatters . The distribution of sites over the landscape displays some degree of patterning , in that 15 of the 16 occurrences are associated with water. The 4 ' plains' sites are all on the pale alluvial soil that surrounds fountains and springs . Many of these have been bulldozed out to form dams and water collection hol l ows. Some sites have al l but been destroyed. All 10 riverine sites are withi n 100m of the river and all are on patches of white alluvial soil on gently s loping banks. Despite the many sheltered places on the banks of the Berg River, locations with soft all uvial soil were consistentl y preferred camping places. Of the 10 riverine sites, most were dominated by quartz and quartzite . Large manuports, f lakes and chunks were characteristic . The sites of Vrugbaar I , Grootvlei I and Toorkrans 5 provided what appeared to be the most reliable samples . Of the 1 15 artefacts examined on a 10

414

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Late S tone A ge o ccurrences

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x 10m sample of Grootv 1ei I , 2 utilised pieces of quartz, 2 sil crete adzes and a quartz segment comprised the modified lithic sample. The waste was dominated by quartz and quartzite ( Fig.9). All visible artefacts on Vrugbaar 1 were recorded. Pottery was present and the only formal tool was a single silcrete adze . Toorkrans 5 was clearl y the most extensive site with an area of about 10 000 m`. I t lies in a sharp bend in the Berg ri ver and is 60% wa 6 er bounded. Four collections over an area of 36 i t y were made. These collection zones powed densities of 6 .59, 6 .67, 7 .2 and 16.67 pieces per m respectivel y. Of the 334 artefacts col lected and examined onl y two trimmed pieces and a s ingle silcrete adze were noted . Pottery was present on the site. The waste comprised 5 irregular cores of silcrete and quartz as well as flakes, chips, chunks dominated by quartz and quartzite . This brief anal ysis re veals that 4 main raw materials were used . These were cryptocrystalline sil icate, quartz, quartzite and sil crete. The proportions of these raw materials show similarities f rom site to site, with quartz dominant f ollowed by quartzite, silcrete and cryptocrystalline silicate ( Fig.9). This tends to be a gross reflection of available raw material. Quartz and quartzi te are wi de l y av ai l abl e, crytocrystalline silicate occurs within the Malmesbury shales, but no local sources of silcrete have been found , although these too are known to lie in the shales . The Late Stone Age sites are characterised by the informality of their artefacts. This may simply be a reflection of available raw material or it may be characteristic of ephemeral occupation by peopl e expedientl y using whatever raw material was nearest at hand , and leaving little debris in any one place .

CONCLUSION The generalised scatter of Earl y and Middle Stone Age material is most likel y to be a consequence of large scale soil erosion. Since Earl y and Middle Stone Age material was deposited over a period of hundreds of thousands of years a substantial amount of material has accumul ated. Sheet erosion and poor agricul tural practise acting on the shall ow soils of the Mal mesbury shales has resulted in a visibly impressive unstratified concentration of material on t he surface . The survey revealed a curiously minimal Late S tone Age presence. A question that may be asked is whether this is a real phenomenon or simpl y a result of the research

strategy .

Most of the Earl y and Middle Stone

4 18

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4 19

Age material was located with very little difficulty in ploughed land. Those Late Stone Age occurrences that were located in ploughed land were spotted with no difficulty. It coul d be argued that if Late Stone Age material had occurred in any quantity in the research area we woul d have seen it. It is also possible that some material has been lost as a result of cultivation , to which the region has been subject for some 150 years. After so many ploughings any surface material would be mixed in with the top 1 5 cm of soil which would have the effect of diminshing visibility and therefore apparent s ite density . However , the small lateral extent of the scatters located would tend to weigh against this. In all probability the 1 6 occurrences located , although only a sample of the actual total surviving , reflect the real density of the Late Stone Age material in the research area. The paucity of sites may be the result of any of several factors . The f irst is that the topography of the area is uniform and offers few natural foci. The area is devoid of rocky outcrops and shelters that would have attracted prehistoric people through time and allowed an accumulation of deposit. Seasonal pans and springs, as well as the river, appear to be the onl y foci in this respect. Mobil ity woul d al so be responsibl e for nonaccumulation of material. In 1658 van Riebeeck wrote about the might of the Cochoqua ( Goodwin 1 952:32). This group was so big that they were unable to come onto the Cape Peninsula because the pasture would last them only half a day . If this report is correct one can expect that a group of this size woul d have had to have been highl y mobile in order to find sufficient pasture for their stock . If the Berg River was used as g route of seasonal transhumance, herders woul d have had to have passed through at speed, making temporary camps and hardl y staying in the same pl ace from day to day. It is possible that a substantial herder presence woul d be archaeologically invisible . The occurrences that have been located in the research area do not display any specially distinguishing features that may be attributed to pastoralism, and are diagnosticall y inconclusive. Most of the sites are fairly small in extent and cannot be likened to the vast camps that are mentioned in the historic context. In addition only two sites contain small amounts of pottery , placing them within the last 2 000 years . Although the site Toorkrans 5 is extensive, bone preservation is poor to the extent that there is little chance of determining whether domesticates were present . At present lithics in isol ation cannot be used to determine what is a herder site as no diagnostic herder lithic assembl age has yet been described .

4 20

The Late Stone Age situation has some affinities with the open kopje sites of the Sandvelt described by Manhire et al ( 1984). Like some of those on the Berg Ri ver, the open kopje sites are all adze dominated and lack a microlithic component. The sites of Sandvelt deflation hollows are rich in microliths and are deemed to predate 1 700 B .P. The adze dominated open kopje sites postdate this period and like the adze rich sites of the Fol d Belt, they are seen to have developed as a consequence of the geographical and social impact of herders: hunter-gatherers were forced to move into the Fold Belt and Sandvelt kopjes. It is possible that Late Stone Age scatters along the banks of the Berg River are the camps of remnant Soaqua who made occasional ventures onto the plains from the nearby Cape Fold Belt mountains . Despite the paucity of Late Stone Age material on the ground many spectacular private collections of grinding surfaces and bored stones are to be found at farmhouses in the area. Some of these collections have been made on farms where no Late Stone Age occurrences were recorded. It is possible that these items were articles of " camp furniture" that were not transported by herder or hunter- gatherer groups. An al ternati ve strategy of pursuing the pastoralist problem would be to co nd uc t a broad re gi onal su r ve y of farm hous e collections . In this way areas of prehistoric activity no longer visible in the f ield could be located . Robertshaw ( 1979) suggested that pastoralism in the Cape is archaeol ogical l y invisibl e due to herder mobility . As a result of his work at Sendelingskraal in the north-west Cape he also pointed out that the few faunal remains left behind at such camps woul d not be preserved for very long in a surface context. The Berg Ri ver - Portervill e survey was conducted against a background of strong historic evidence for herding in the research area and as a result one can only agree with Robertshaw' s ( 1979) concl usion, especial l y in the Swart 1 and landscape. Consequentl y Smith's ( 1984) hypothesis of seasonal transhumance along the Berg River is untestabl e using this particular method and in this context.

REFERENCES Deacon, H .J., Deacon, J ., Brooker, M . & Wilson, M .L. 1 978. The evidence for herding at Boomplaas cave in the southern Cape, South Africa. S . Afr. archaeol. Bull. El phick,

33:39-65. R .

1977.

University

Kraal

and

Press .

4 21

Castl e.

London:

Yal e

Good wi n, A . J. H. 19 52. Jan Hottentots, 1 652-1662. S . 54. Gulliver , P .H . 1 955. The and Keegan Paul.

va n Afr .

Rie beec k and archaeol. Bull.

Family Herds .

London:

the 7 :2-

Routledge

Manhire, A .H., Parkington, J .E. and Robey, T . 1983. Stone tools and sandvel d settlement. In Hall, M .J., Avery, G ., Avery, D . M. Wilson, M .L., & Humphreys, A . J. B. (e ds.) Fro ntie rs: sout her n Af rica n archaeology today . Oxford : British Archaeological Reports. Moll,

E .J. & Jarman, M .L. 1984. Classifaction of the term Fynbos. S . Afr. J . Sci. 80:351-2.

Mossop,

E .E .

Netting ,

R .

1 927. 1 977.

Old

Cape

Cultural

Highways . Ecology .

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Town:

California:

Balkema . Cummins.

Parkington, J .E. 1985. Soaqua and Bushman: hunters and robbers. In Schrire, C . ( ed.) Past and present in hunter-gatherer studies, pp. New York: Academic press . Parkington, J .E., Yates, R ., Manhire, T . & Hal kett, D . in press. Social impact of pastoralism in the south western Cape . J .Anthrop . Archaeol. P log,

S . 1976. Rel ati ve efficiencies of sampl ing strategies for archaeol ogical sur veys. In Fl annery, K . V. (ed.) The Earl y Mesoamerican Village, pp .161-36. New York: Academic Press .

Robertshaw, P .T. 1979. Coastal Settlement, fresh water Fishing and Pastoralism in the Later Prehistory of the Western Cape, South Africa. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge . Smith,

A .B. 1984. Adapti ve strategies of prehistoric pastoralism in the south-western Cape. In Hall, N . J., Avery, G ., Avery, D . M., Wil son, M .L. & Humphreys, A .J.B., ( eds.) Frontiers: southern African archaeol ogy today. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports . -

Talbot, W .J. 1948. Swartland Oxford University Press .

and

Sandveld.

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Tansley , S . 1 982. Koppie Conservation Project. Wild Life Society of South Africa . Thom,

H .B. Cape

Valentijn ,

1952. Town: F .

Journal

of

Jan van Riebeeck.

Town:

Cape

Town :

Vol.

III.

Good

Hope

Balkema .

1 726.

Description

4 22

of

the

Cape

of

with Matters Concerning it. Serton, P . & RavenHart, R . eds. Cape Town: Va d Riebeeck Society . Van der Merwe, S .W . 1 972. Porterville twintig riviere . Stellenbosch : C .F .

en die Vier-enAlbertyne .

Westphal, E .O.J . 1963. The linguistic prehistory of southern Africa: Bush, Kwadi, Hottentot and Bantu linguistic relationships . Africa 33(3): 253-256. Yel l en, J . E. 1983. The integration of herding into prehistoric hunting and gathering communities . In Hall, M .J ., Avery , G ., Avery , D .M., Wilson , M .L., & Humphreys, A . J.B., (eds.) Frontiers: . Oxford: British southern African archaeology today Archaeol ogical Reports .

4 23

THE HI S T O RI C AL AR CH AE OL OG Y OF COLONIAL-INDIGENOUS INTERACTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA: PROPOSED RESEARCH AT OUDEPOST I , CAPE .

Carmel

Schrire

This paper is the narrative of a successful research proposal that was submitted in 1 985 to the National Science Foundation. It appears here to illustrate general aspects of the scope of historical archaeology in South Africa, as well as the background and rationale of a particular programme of current research .

INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present research is to amplify our grasp of interactions between indigenous people and Dutch colonists at the Cape, by the excavation and analysis of an earl y outpost where a smal l garrison traded with the pastoralists and interacted with the Cape settlement as wel l as passing ships. The post, which has since been termed Oudepost I , ( Figs.1, 2) can be located in its historical and archaeol ogical setting. Documentary sources suggest that it was buil t by the Dutch in 1666 to deter a French threat, and that it continued in this capacity for a while, while also f unctioning as one of a string of minor trading forts whose purpose was to drain cattle and sheep from local Khoikhoi pastoralists for the Cape settlement. It was abandoned around 1730 when the garrison moved to a new location 2km away in order to have access to better water . Archaeological survey and excavations in the immediate and general region show a pattern of indigenous seasonality based on hunting, gathering and pastoralism . Test excavations at Oudepost I reveal a rich deposit reflecting the presence of Dutch and indigenous people at the site . Analysis of f inds is designed first, to describe and define the European material cul ture; second, to compare the dietary evidence of Dutch resource perception and management with that of indigenous peoples past and present as reflected in documentary and archaeological sources and f inally , to reveal the spatial relationships evident in the site as wel l as the entire pattern of site content in order to set its identity and function picture of colonial existence .

4 24

f irml y

in

the

broader

OUDEPOST I

0 C U r d 0 P

0 H

4 4 0 t u

r d r z l

9

P H C l )

0

4 25

Location

4 4 0

T ransect A

OUDE POST

Transects

positions

t n

9

9

c _ 39

4 26

i ndicated

HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND

Introduction The following summary of historical issues comes from both primary and secondary sources. Foremost among these are the daily journals of the commanders and governors of the Cape, which despite subsequent editing, provide a detailed account of dail y Khoikhoi-Dutch interactions ( Leibbrandt 1896a, 1901, 1902, Thom 1952, 1954, 1958). The Placaarts ( Jeffreys 1944) and Resolutions of the Pol itical Council have been skimmed, as wel l as translations from Moodie ( 1838). Correspondence has also been studied ( Leibbrandt 1896b, 1898, 1899). Valuable material on earl y historical sources comes from RavenHart ( 1967, 1971). A summary of the history of the Saldanha Bay ( Burman and Levin 1 974) is used , as well as an overview of the adj acent region ( Scholtz 1966). Preliminary attempts have been made to reconstruct indigenous and col onial resource perception as regards sheep ( Thom 1936), cattle ( Elphick 1977), fish (Muller 1 942) and seals ( Roux 1 966); an overview of these issues is found in Guelke ( 1974, 1 979). The map collections at the Cape Archives have been examined and dated using geneal ogical texts ( De Villiers and Pama 1966, Hoge 1 946) as well as standard cartographic analyses ( Norwich 1 983, Tooley 1 979). The indigenous population of the Cape, as witnessed by European mariners prior to 1 652, included both herders ( termed " Khoikhoi" and " Hottentot") and hunters ( called " San", " Sonqua" and " Bushmen"), but social and economic distinctions were far from clear ( see Elphick 1 977, Marks 1 972, Parkington 1 984, Schrire 1 980). Interactions with Portuguese, English and Dutch mariners started in 1488 ( Raven-Hart 1967, Axelson 1954) and consequentl y Europeans and indigenes were not strangers when the f irst permanent Dutch s ettlement was established by the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C) on the shores of Table Bay in 1652. Its purpose was to provision passing ships and facilitate the Indies trade ( Elphick 1 977:87-88, Moodie 1 838:1-4). Each side formed a strong impression of the other based on their values and purposes. The Dutch were dominated by the rulings of their masters in Amsterdam, whose mercantile commitments overshadowed al l other considerations: " Its polestar was profit, its lodestone greed" ( Kielstra in Furnivall 1 939:34) epitomised one view of the V .O .C . operations . As for its policy towards indigenes, controversy exists on the degree to which Cal vinism of the mid-17th century determined the future course of South African race relations ( Du Toit 1 983, Leftwich 1 976). The chief aim of the Dutch, as far as

4 27

indi genes were concerned, was to trade for their fattailed sheep and cattle in order to f eed the settlement, the hospital and the ships . To this end they negotiated , fought, entertained and punished the Khoi and sent expeditions inland with regularity to ensure an outflow of stock . The Khoi, on the other hand , seem to have been misled by previous short-term European visitors into thinking that the Dutch were " birds of passage" and that however much trade took place, there was no question of dispossession or conquest ( Elphick 1977:86-87). This disasterous misconception is reflected in Dutch reports of Khoikhoi outrage once they realised that they had lost the right to pasture their herds on former open land; it recurs in innumerable incidents over the years when Dutch hunters, intruding into the territory of various groups, were restrained or kil l ed. It probabl y underlines decades of warfare between Khoi and Dutch and it reached its full tragic proportions after the epidemic of 1 713 when the Khoikhoi clans were decimated and people became incorporated in the stratified colonial society of the Cape ( see Elphick 1 979). Dutch-Khoikhoi

interactions:

1 652-1666

The dail y journal provides a rich account of Dutch aspirations and interactions with indigenous people, and an indirect view of the local inhabitants themsel ves. Read together with the record of resolutions, letters and instructions one forms a clear picture of early Cape settlement, in its material and ideological aspects. Elphick ( 1977:95) describes Khoi-Dutch relations as one of " tense cordiality". It would be wrong to insist that the first commander 's famous epithet of the Khoi as "dull, rude, lazy stinking nation" ( Elphick 1977:96) reflected Van Riebeeck's constant view, because the daily record shows constant accommodation and negotiation on both sides. The Dutch needed to be wary about alliances, gi ven that they knew very little about the ful l number of potential traders and foes housed in the unknown hinterland . Although Van R iebeeck petitioned the Council of Seventeen in 1654 to take the local Khoi by force ( El phick 1977:102) he was never allowed to do so, being forced to conciliate in order to maintain V .O.C. interests . The indigenes clearly resented the intruders whatever their alliances and trade goods: hostilities erupted between the Dutch and the local Peninsular tribes in the First Khoikhoi-Dutch war of 1 659, and although no military victor emerged , the peace terms established the European presence and left the Dutch free to focus on the more distant pastoralists of the Saldanha region . The Cochoqua of Sal danha Bay, who are estimated to have numbered 1 6-18 000 people ( Elphick 1 977:118), lived in kraals of mat-covered huts encircling their stock. Their seasonal round southwards in summer and north in winter ( Smith 1 983, 1 984a, 1 984b) did not preclude yearround trading since emissaries came from the Cape with copper, beads and tobacco. Dutch mistrust is reflected

4 28

in their unwillingness to trade in iron ( Leibbrandt 1 901:171) and it characterised all their dealings, particularly with the chief , Gonnema, whom they regarded as particularly avaricious with his " empty maw and gluttonous throat" ( Leibbrandt 1 901:34). In return , the Cochoqua were r eluctant to pour stock into the patently insatiable belly of the Dutch ships, and negotiated each transaction with a view to enlisting Dutch aid against other Khoi foes. The Cochoqua failure to realise the magnitude of the Dutch threat by uniting with other tribes against the invaders was particularl y obvious during the First Khoi-Dutch War when their alliance with the Peninsulars might well have ousted or restricted the foreigners. E 1phick is persuasi ve on this matter ( 1977:122) though given the apparentl y tenuous Dutch presence and the traditional Khoi conflicts, it may be unreasonable to have demanded such prescience . Oudepost 1 : 1 666-1800 Until 1 666, Dutch interest in Saldanha Bay focussed only on its consumabl e resources, because al though the anchorage was splendid for carreening ships ( Raven-Hart 1 967), it did not have enough permanent water to support a s izeable settlement . Visitors obtained stock f rom the pastoralists and shipped seal skins, train oil, shells, birds' eggs and fish to the Cape settlement. In late 1 666, when Holland was allied to France, a French fleet arrived at the Cape and declared their intention of claiming Saldanha Bay . In great haste the Dutch raced a force of eleven men to the water place to " throw up a fort" and declare the presence of Dutch commercial interests in the region. After irate exchanges, incl uding the planting of a French post of arms, the French fleet sailed to Madagascar. Alerted to the possibility that their sovereignty at the Cape was less entrenched than they imagined, the Dutch destroyed the French marker in the middle of 1668, and following a d irective from Holland , fortified the watering place in 1 669, placing markers on strategic islands. The garrison of five men planted crops, stored powder and lead and traded with the local Khoi for stock. In August 1670 their presence was justified with the return of the French . This t ime more aggressive postures were struck , a fter which the F rench left . Until 1671, Dutch relations with the Cochoqua mirrored the benign tone set at the Cape. Trade was congenial, and when the French landed in 1670, local pastoralists actually offered to take the Company 's s tock to their more d istant kraals for safekeeping . From this point on however, pol icies and attitudes changed radically, culminating in a massacre at the outpost in 1 673 that marked the beginning of the Second Khoi-Dutch War. Hostilities dragged on with V . O. C. parties capturing quantities of Cochoqua stock, until a peace agreement was struck in 1677 whereby Gonnema agreed to provide a small annual cattle tribute. Once again, no

4 29

clear victor emerged, though the toll of the Dutch presence grew with their constant demand for stock, mai ntenance of intertribal hostil ities and deeper penetration inland by explorers, traders and would-be colonists. The Sal danha Bay post was abandoned after the massacre, and despite a directive from Holland, was not reoccupied until 1 676. The garrison varied from four to nine men who were occupied provisioning ships with vegetables and meat . They witnessed efforts to capture runaway slaves, a pirate threat ( 1693) and a spectacular shipwreck ( 1702). The catastrophic effect of the smal l pox epidemic of 1713 was noted in the local depletion of pastoralists. The precise date of its abandonment in favour of a better watered spot 3 km away at Oudepost II is not known, but letters from the postholder P . Steenmetz, suggest that it was between 1 730 and 1732 [ ( C.432, C .J. 336): I am grateful to Mr. D . Sl ei g h of Mowbray Teac hers' Col l ege for thi s information]. The new post was described briefly by later travellers who visited in 1 776 ( Thunberg 1 796), 1785 ( Le Vaill ant 1790) and 1803 ( Lichtenstein 1 928; 1 930). Cartographic analysis Sources outlined above are confirmed to some extent by cartographic information . Approximately 200 maps in the Cape Archives and private collections were examined but although evidence of the location of the f irst and s econd posts can be found, not a single plan or view of Oudepost I was located. The earliest map made by Potter in 1659 ( Axelson 1 977:216, Fisher n .d .) resembles a series dated from then till 1687 and shows only watering places . Two maps of approximatel y 1712-1713 ha ve conflicti ng information: both show a European post, but whereas Van Keulen 's map shows the " Companies Post" at precisely the position of Oudepost I , van de Aa 's map marks the place as " Fort Francois" ( Norwich 1 983:212). This " French fort" recurs in maps by Kolben ( 1731) ( Fig.3), de L 'Isle of 1740-56 ( Norwich 1983:288) and Bellin of 1755 ( Cape Archi ves M1/1172). The first mapping of two stations occurs in 1781, though clearl y they were in existence earlier. Finall y the name "Kraal Baai" onl y appears in the mid-19th century ( that bay having previously been named " Ol d Posthouse Bay" in 1820) and may well be a misnomer , with the ruined Dutch fort being mistaken for a stone kraal.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

BACKGROUND

Physiography and ecology Ou de post I lies on the Churchha ve n Pe ni nsul a, southwestern Cape, on the western shore of Langebaan

4 30

4 31

lagoon, which is an extension of Sal danha Bay ( Fig.1). This is a winter rainfall area where the rain-bearing winds produce a marked gradient with considerably wetter conditions at the Cape than in the north at Saldanha Bay and Vredenburg. Perennial rivers and streams occur in many places but some regions, like Sal danha Bay, are famous for their shortage of water . Variations in soil and rainfal l combine to produce a complex mosaic of vegetational types featuring varying densities of fynbos and grass ( Acocks 1975). The human resource picture includes rich estuarine and coastal stretches containing fish, shellfish, seals and birds, as well as various plant communities that support mammals, reptiles, and insects ( Parkington 1972, 1976a, 1976b, 1977, 1 984, Parkington and Poggenpoel 1971, Grindley et al. 1980). The Churchhav en Peninsul a forms the s outhwestern enclosure of Saldanha Bay and Langebaan lagoon . Present conditions have prevailed here since 2 000 B .P . ( Flemming 1 977:1-8, 143-145, Robertshaw 1 978b :139-41). Rainfall ( c . 300mm p .a.) is restricted to winter and summers are hot and dry.

Prehistoric archaeology A large and complex literature on the southwestern Cape raises three significant points concerning human settlement patterns during the Holocene . Firstl y, prehistoric human occupation here, as elsewhere , was neither timeless nor unchanging ( J . Deacon 1984a, Schrire 1984). Evidence of fluctuations in densities and behaviour of prehistoric people has given rise to lively debate ( Parkington 1 980, see references and comments). Over the past 2 000 years intensive occupation is inferred from sites such as El and 's Bay Cave ( Parkington 1 976a), Kasteelberg ( Smith 1 983, 1 984b), Paternoster ( Buchanan et al. 1978, Parkington and Robertshaw 1978, Robertshaw 1977), Klipfonteinrand ( Parkington and Poggenpoel 1971) and Stofbergsfontein ( Robertshaw 1 978b). I t is clear that people roamed over a wide variety of environmental zones to harvest land mammals, birds, tortoises, snakes, f ish , seals, shellfish and edible plants

like

roots ,

corms,

nuts

and berries .

Secondl y, where hunter gatherers are concerned, Parkington has long argued for a strongl y seasonal pattern of winter months at the coast and the summer inl and ( Parkington 1972, 1976a, 1976b, 1977, 1 984, Parkington and Poggenpoe 1 1971). This has been challenged recently by isotopic analysis of human remains that suggest year-round occupation of either coastal or mountain regions ( Sealy and van der Merwe 1 985). Turning to pastoralists, Smith envisages a movement that brought herders north to the Cape in summer, and back to the drier, northerl y reaches of Vredenburg in winter, and uses historical citings and the constraints of indigenous feed to support his case ( Smith 1 984a:100-103, 1985:7).

4 32

Like earl y observers ( e.g. Bird 1 823:98), Smith notes t he particular succulence of the Sal danha grass for wintering flocks and the need for cattl e to move seasonall y in order to avoid areas with trace element deficiencies. Thirdl y, the association of sheep and cattle bones with abundant wild food remains raises the question of whether the total diet inferred f rom analysis represents that of hunters or herders. Since the debate over the d istinction between the two groups i s far f rom resol ved ( see Parkington 1 984, Smith 1 983:81, 1 985 vs Elphick 1 977:30-42, Schrire 1 980a) this matter needs to be set briefly in a broader framework . Prehistoric pastoralism may be inferred with some confidence from the presence of structures like kraals, containing the bones, hair, wool and dung of domesticated stock . In southern Africa we have a f ew s ites containing evidence of more than one element ( Denbow 1 984). Often , the presence of a kraal is contained in a cave or rock shelter ( Deacon et al. 1 978, Klein 1 978, Sandelowsky 1 974, Sandelowsky —e -t -i i. 1 979). In the southwestern Cape there i s a surprising absence of surface s igns of kraals, despite innumerable references to such settlements in the historical literature . As a result, here a s elsewhere in the Republ ic, the presence of sheep and cattl e is a ttested by bones lying in and amongst dietary remains of people who cannot clearly be categorised as hunters or herders. The evidence from such caves and shelters ( Avery 1 975, Deacon 1 967, Deacon and Deacon 1 963, Klein 1 977, Klein and Scott 1 974, Parkington 1 976b , Schweitzer 1 974, Smith 1 984a , 1 984b , 1 985, Soper 1 974) provides f irm evidence for the antiquity of sheep and cattle going back some two millennia, but it also raises the provocative issue of the economic identity and the cul tural a ffiliation of the people who a ctually occupied the s ite . Given the context of the remains, and a reluctance to insist that hunters and herders subscribe to historical stereotypes, the best we can say is that both shared a landscape within which they might also have exchanged roles, a ccording to perceived t imes of stress and plenty . Three points emerge from the preceding discussion. First, the antiquity of pastoralism in southern Africa goes back al most 2 000 years over an area ranging from the Kalahari down through Namaqualand to the southern and southeastern Cape ( see Deacon et a l. 1 978, Denbow 1 984, Robertshaw 1978a, Sandelowsky et al. 1 979, Schweitzer and Wilson 1978), but does not automaticall y connote stability throughout this time. Given the marginal nature of much of the semi-arid region under d iscussion , as well a s the possibility that prehistoric pastoralists raided and traded like their historic counterparts, Elphick's ( 1977:23-42) model might be a reasonable approximation of what went on . Secondl y, even if the fortunes of pastoralists f luctuated over time and space ,

4 33

there are no grounds at present to underrate the impact of col onialism in bringing about the destruction and subjugation of Khoikhoi society . I make this point here because it has been fashionable in certain contexts, where the course of a historical trajectory is known , to use the archaeological evidence to minimise the impact of historical events . One such case concerns the Aboriginal Tasmanians, whose fate has been traced back, perhaps unjustifiably , to their prehistoric adaptation ( see Jones 1 977, 1 978, vs Allen 1 979, Horton 1 979). F inally , since it is clear- that hunting and herding coexisted for millennia , it seems productive to recognise that whatever their epithet at any particular time, all people in the southwestern Cape over the past 2 000 years were familiar with hunting, gathering and husbandry even if they did not pursue these strategies with equal intensity all the time. Archaeological and documentary sources confirm that both ate veldkos ( corms, roots , berries and fruits) and burned the grass to encourage new growth (see Parkington 1977:152-156, Schrire 1 980b:10) and to clear the way for stock ( Thom 1958:354). Both hunters and herders are recorded as harvesting marine products like fish, shellfish and seals ( Thom 1952:176) and both hunted , moving seasonally if necessary to achieve these ends, with pastoralists driving herds and fl ocks in a pattern related inter alle to soils and fodder ( Smith 1 983) and hunters -MO ing- acEording to the distribution of pl ants and shellfish ( Parkington 1 976a, 1 976b). On one level therefore, one might treat all indigenes as a s ingle population using the same broad resource base, and regard sites like Kasteelberg and S tofbergsfontein , that postdate the arrival of pastoralism in the region, as being indicative of the general subsistence pattern of people grouped together as Khoisan . Historical archaeology The present state of historical archaeology in Africa is summarised by Posnansky and De Course ( 1985) who note that its application here needs to extend beyond reliance on documentary sources and into the f ield encompassed by oral history . As they point out, work in this f ield has onl y recentl y gathered pace in South Africa ( see J . Deacon, 1984b). Abrahams ( 1984) summarises the present s ituation noting that most excavations and investigations have occurred as sal vage operations with occasional anal yses of finds ( e.g. Woodward 1974, Appendix 1 ), though more systematic anal yses are now in the offing ( Potgieter and Abrahams 1984). A noteable exception to the sal vage work is a fi ve year project run by the Stellenbosch Museum , a imed at studying the domestic life of colonists in that town between 1680 and 1850 ( Heap 1 970, Vos 1 981). Excavations elsewhere include work by members of the University of Cape Town at a putative V .O.C. posthouse ( Abrahams 1984:25-27; Robertson 1983). The former lack of effective inclusion of historical archaeology within the legislative umbrella that covers prehistoric

sites

has

led

to

4 34

some

shocking

loss

of

evidence, the most striking of which is possibl y the destruction of one of the earliest recorded European settlements of the country, namel y the camp of the survi vors of the wreck of the Soa Goncalo in 1630 ( Abrahams 1 984:26). A more optimistic future is heralded by the recent teaching of historical archaeology at the University of Cape Town, Abrahams' maps of earl y Cape Town, which are constructed to pl an and predict future work ( J. Deacon 1 984b), and by the growing interest in using oral and documentary sources to reconstruct Iron Age history ( e .g . Parkington and Cronin 1 979). Nautical archaeol ogy provides evidence of long distance maritime trade by Portuguese, Dutch and other empires as well as a key to the interpretation of archaeological collections. Significant African wrecks incl ude the Sao Bento ( 1554) off the Transkei coast ( Auret and Mägg-S T T8 -2-) , the Witte Leeuw ( 1613) off St Helena ( Stenuit 1 978), the Santa Antonio da Tanna ( 1697) off Mombasa ( Kirkman 1972a, 1972b, Piercy 1977, 1 978, 1 979,1980 , 1 981, Sassoon 1 981), the Meresteyn ( 1702) off Sal danha Bay (Marcus Galleries 1972, Marsden 1 976, Venter 1 972), the Slot ter Hooge ( 1724) off the Madeiras ( Stenuit 1975), the Nieuw Rhoon ( 1724) in Table Bay ( Lightley 1 971) and the Middelburg ( 1781) in Saldanha Bay ( Marcus Galleries 1 972, Venter 1 972). The paucity of historical archaeology is balanced in one sense by a wealth of sources on earl y South African material culture. These include catalogues of Dutch objects and art ( Fehr 1 969), studies of architecture ( De Bosdari 1 953, Pearse 1933), fortifications ( Ras 1959), social history ( Botha 1 962, Hattersley 1 969, Pearse 1 956) and town pl anning ( Picard 1968). Studies are also avail able of porcelain ( Beurdeley 1962, Hobson 1 915, Phillips 1956, Volker 1954, 1959, Vos 1981, Woodward 1974). Delft ( De Jonge 1965, Heukensfel dt Jansen 1 967) and jars from the East Indies ( Moore 1 970). In addition , there are extensive studies of sil ver ( Frederiks 1 9526 1), glass ( Heller 1 951) and coins ( Scholten 1 953). Posnansky and De Course summarise their review of African historical archaeology noting that attention has hitherto been focussed too strongl y on military sites near large present day cities ( 1985:14). They stress the need to investigate more deeply the way in which colonial enterprises were integrated into the wider social and environmental frameworks ( 1985:14-15). Bearing this in mind, the proposed work wil l draw heavil y on the historical archaeological literature from the United States ( summarised in Deagan 1982), where particular emphasis is gi ven to studies of earl y contact between Indians and Europeans, including Dutch, English and French in the northeast ( Hel m 1981, Trigger 1978) and Spanish further south ( Deagan 1980). The comparisons are not intended in any way to suggest that the North American fur trade

( Ray 1976) was identical

4 35

to the Cape

stock trade, but rather to acknowledge that its effects on the indigenous peopl e as regards changes in technology , demography and distribution patterns can be perceived archaeologically , and that these findings may ampl ify and qual ify the impressi ons drawn from documentary sources. For example, it is interesting to note that Williams' ( 1972) archaeol ogical research suggests a degree of robustness and continuity in East coast indigenous adaptation after contact that contradicts Brasser' s ( 1978) contention of Indian col l apse at that time. Likewise the idea that disease and depopulation preceded the actual arrival of Europeans both in America (Martin 1 978) and Australia ( Butlin 1 983) may be confirmed by the similarly earl y appearance of trade goods in archaeological contexts. The speed with which Dutch, English and French trade networks moved inland in North America, leaving the seaboard settlements making wampum for trade on a scale not archaeologically evident in protohistoric sites ( Funk 1973) is also of interest in constructing patterns of interaction through time. General works ( Trelease 1 960, Trigger 1976) as well as those dealing with the archaeology of trade goods ( Quimby 1 966, Salwen 1 966) land use ( Monroe et al 1 980), the impact of trade on indigenous artefacts ( Feder 1 984, Thomas 1973) and resource management ( Sal wen 1975) pro vide a suitabl e framework in which to view our findings. In a far smal ler way too, recent work on the archaeol ogy of Aboriginal contact in Australia ( Allen 1 973, Macknight 1973) and Tasmania ( Birmingham 1 975) reflect the situation among hunter gatherers .

PRELIMINARY EXCAVATIONS AT OUDEPOST I Introduction Numerous middens have been surveyed on the beaches and north facing shelters of granite hills on the Churchhaven Peninsul a. In addition a stone circl e on the Postberg might represent the remains of a Khoi kraal ( see Inskeep 1978:37). The Stofbergsfontein midden on Kraal baai, dated to 1550 + B .P. pro vides a good picture of prehistoric diet ( hobertshaw 1 978b), with heavy reliance on shellfish and f ish though small bovids , seals, birds and lobsters were also eaten. The fish were caught local l y, using lines or nets, but the shel lfish and lobsters came from the Atlantic shore 3 km away . Paucity of birds contrasts markedl y with their abundance in the lagoon today , suggesting possible ineptitude in catching them or a dietary preference for other foods. No marked seasonality is inferred , and though summer occupation is suggested by some birds, it may be contraindicated by certain molluscs . Neither sheep nor cattle occur , though one bone fal l s within the sheep range (Robertshaw

4 36

1 978b:145). Associated artefacts including Cape coastal pottery are not diagnostic of economy ( Rudner 1 979a). The most striking aspect of this study is the fact that the occupants of the site clearl y preferred to camp a considerable distance from the source of one of their main foods, namely shellfish . This Robertshaw attributes to their need to be close to one of the few perennial springs during the dry months. This spring is situated directl y behind the Oudepost I site, and was one of the chief reasons that the Dutch located their settlement at that very spot . In 1 979 the Historic Monuments Commission surveyed the area and located two possible 17th century sites ( Rudner 1 979b). The f irst , Oudepost I , ( Fig .1) contained two stone ruins of a buil ding and a " kraal" and was thought to be the site of the Company 's post of 1 666 ( see Axelson 1977:216), as well as the structure after which Kraal baai was named. The second, Oudepost II, included the present homestead flanked on one s ide by large stonewall ed kraals and on the other by a smal l thick-walled house . The homestead was considered to be younger than 1 692, and the possibility that the smaller house was the original Company 's post was disputed . Trial excavations were made at both sites in Jul y 1984, by myself and a small team from the University of Cape Towp under the direction of C . Poggenpoel. A series of m test pits were excavated in and around Oudepost II but only a surface scatter of 18th and 1 9th century artefacts were found. Unfortunatel y the entire area in front of the house was graded and bull dozed in 1 972, and the hill behind is bare. In contrast to this, trial excavations a t Oudepost I revealed the presence of two structures as wel l as a cultural deposit containing late 17th and early 1 8th century material. S etting and surface features Oudepost I lies at the foot of Constable Hill on a small headl and in Langebaan lagoon on the northeast shore of Kraal Baal (Figs.1, 2 ). Access from the sea is f acilitated by a deep channel leading to this point . The head of the lagoon is visible from the beach in front of the site, but one has to climb Constable Hill to see the entrance to the hay . The sandy surface of the site is covered with dense saltbush and winter grass . Very few artefacts were found on the surface, probably due to removal by beachcombers years ago ( Green 1970:93). Two stone structures are visible. The f irst is an oval one, 25x17m . Sections of the walls standing 4 m high and 1 .8m wide are made of beach rock , interspersed with occasional ballast bricks . It was termed a " kraal" by local owners, but close inspection revealed an angled-bastion on the northeast corner suggesting instead that it might be the fort or battery erected here in 1666. The second structure, a rectangular building, 21 x 6m. with a di viding wall at

4 37

one end , has lower walls than the f irst . I ts function is not known yet, though dietary and artefactual remains read in accord with documentary sources suggest that it may have been the Company 's lodge ( Moodie 1 838:334). Test excavations Eight test pits, each 1 square metre, were excavated by the author and C . Poggenpoel, in an attempt to show the extent of the site, its contents and the relationships of the two structures. Starting with the fort, the identity of this structure was not recognised until the last day , and consequentl y, imagining it to be a kraal, we placed onl y one pit, ZZ3, in a particularl y shall ow area. Fragments of Dutch cl ay pipes found here link this structure to the other one . Two squares, CO 26 and EO 26 were located cl ose to the northern wal l of the rectangul ar structure. The deposits were removed to a depth of 80-110cm at which point sterile sand was well established. Exposure of the wall showed it to have a spread footing 50cm high and lm wide. It narrowed at this point to a width of 80 cm rising to a total present height of 1 .1m. Smears and globs of clay were noted in pl aces, suggesti ng the use of pl aster to bind and possibl y face the wall. No fl oor of any sort was found but the occupational debris ( bones and fish scales interspersed with colonial and indigenous artefacts) was most co nc e ntrate d 25-5 0 cm bel ow the surface. Preliminary interpretation is that the foundation walls were laid in a shallow trench , the sand was smoothed over to serve as a fl oor on which people li ved and deposited their garbage , scuffing and treading it around . F inally , a midden made up largely of animal bones, f ish scales and occasional limpet shells was found in squares PI, S 3, S8, Z 8 and Z 13. The debris was richest 5 -50cm B .S. Evidence of compaction was noted about 20cm B .S. in square S 8, but otherwise the onl y stratigraphic change was the appearance of sterile white beach sand 30-80cm below the surface. Our most dramatic find was the remains of a coffin in Z8, with its lid and sides marked onl y by faint stains punctuated with heavy iron spikes. No pit was observed and the coffin seems to have been buried in the midden . We confirmed its identity by revealing the left patella of an adult within, and covered it up pending extensive excavation . Preliminary interpretation of f inds 1 . Scale and structures . At f irst sight, the s ite is very small, with occupational debris covering onl y some 2 500 square metres. Two structures, a four bastioned one and a rectangul ar buil ding, are present. The first is obscured by dense vegetation and dune encroachment on the southern s ide but it appears to have been stoutl y, if hastil y, buil t. Construction methods and a handful of Dutch pi pe fragments relate it directly to the rectangular building . Test excavations here show that it was used to deposit a dense midden , inside and out , but activity areas have yet

4 38

to be located and defined by excavation and anal ysis. Its low walls are reminiscent of those found today in some local, rural kapstylhuisies - defined as a thatched roof carried on a framework of paired couples - some of which have low walls within to protect occupants from wind and rain ( Walton 1 981). A 1 660 map of Dassen Island suggests that the presence of such a shed there, confirming the Dutch use of these structures in the period under discussion . This proposition will be tested by trying to locate post holes in future excavations . Another issue that demands clarification invol ves the inclusion of bricks in both buildings. Documentary sources say nothing about the construction of the lodge, but they specifically note that a fort built in 1 666 was hastily made in a matter of weeks whilst the French were in the area . There is no mention whatsoever of shipping bricks here. Cl earl y our future excavations need to consider this matter carefully , before assuming that this particular settlement was built in 1 666. 2 . Fauna. Large quantities of excellentl y preserved bone were recovered in association with a few limpets . Butchery is evident on most large specimens and scavenging is seen on one. The preliminary list in Table 1 shows the presence of wil d and domesticated forms reflecting hunting, gathering and barter between Khoi and Dutch . The cattle are indigenous, because imported breeds were not introduced until the late 1 8th century ( Mentzel 1 944:205206, Thom 1942:103-105). Since these are practical l y the first specimens of historic Khoi cattle found in a controlled context, it will be interesting to compare them with cattle c .1 800 B .P. from Kasteelberg ( Smith 1 984b) to assess breeding changes through time . The same cannot be assumed for sheep however, since the Dutch imported breeding rams in 1658 ( Thom 1954:326) and actuall y shipped hybrid sheep from Dassen Island via Oudepost I in 1672-3 ( Leibbrandt 1 902:75). Finall y, interesti ng comparisons may be made between the proportions of domesticated animals from Oudepost and Kasteel berg to check the assumption that indigenous people rarely ate cattle, whereas colonials who were not locked into a pastoral society ate them as often as they could . Turning to wild resources, our collection may be contrasted with that from Stofbergsfontein ( Robertshaw 1 978b) in that there are very few shellfish at Oudepost . This cannot reflect reluctance to forage on the Atlantic coast since tunny were caught there . Historical sources document the Khoi consumption of shellfish to such an extent that bands of beachcombing, sometime cattlemen, were named " Strandlopers" to denote their propensity for seafoods, but we have not located a single historical reference to colonists eating shellfish . Clearl y this archaeol ogical findi ng confirms a real cul tural difference between the two groups' perception of local resources . Finally , the most popular f ish in the deposit

4 39

Table

1 .

1 :

Faunal

r emains

f rom Oudepost

I

Mammals: Cape

f ur

Bovids

s eal

( Arctocephalus pusillus)

( steenbok,

grysbok)

( Raphicerus

s p.)

Cattle Sheep

( Ovis

aries)

Rodent

2 .

Birds: Jackass penguin Cormorant

( Spheniscus demersus)

( Phalacrocorax

s p.)

F lamingo Ostrich

3 .

( eggshell)

R eptiles S nake Tortoise

4 .

Fish: White

s tumpnose

( Rhabdosargus g lobiceps)

White

s teenbras

( Lithognathus

Haarder Catfish S hark R ay Tunny

( Liza

r amada)

l ithognathus)

is white stumpnose, which contrasts with the strong predominance of haarder and steenbras in the indigenous di et evi de nce d at Stofbergsf o nte in (Robert shaw 1978b: 146). Whether this refl ects shifts in fish composition in the lagoon , taste preferences or predation methods remains to be seen .

3 . Artefactual remains: colonial material. A small excavated collection includes 101 fragments of cl ay pipes, 17 fragments of gl ass, 2 stoneware, 8 earthernware and 1 piece of Delft . Over 30 iron spikes, fragments of metal ware, 5 trade beads, 1 gunflint and 4 f ragments of porcelain were found . In addition , several well-attested artefacts were excavated by local residents and may be briefly analysed as follows. All the pipes are Dutch . F ive excavated specimens have stamps listed in Duco's guide ( 1982) as nos. 68, 387, 402, 633. Eight stamped pieces from pri vate collections include nos . 6 8, 7 9, 234, 402, 6 33, and 721a . Dates on the excavated series run from 1700 to 1828 and on the other group from 1 660 to 1 799. None has the fleur de u s characteristic of certain 17th century New York Dutch sites ( Huey 1984). Several bowls suggest an earlier date than their stamps and clearly stem diameter anal ysis is needed to clarify this matter ( Harrington 1 954, Walker 1 977). European glass includes a fragment of a 17th century roemer ( Hartshorne 1967:47-53), three fluted goblet stems of the same period and fragments of green case bottles. Salt glazed stoneware fragments occur and private collections contain two Bellarmine faces (Noel Hume 1970:276-280) common in Dutch sites ( Huey 1984), and one seal. Similar designs occur on a specimen dredged up in Table Bay and ascribed to the latter half of the 17th ' century ( Woodward 1974:200). Earthi-nware fragments have white, pink and red tempers with yellow and green tin glazes. They are similar to 1 7th and 18th century European wares, and one decorated sherd is reminiscent of Mediterranean wares. A fragment of a Del ft porringer was excavated . Five glass trade beads were found , including specimens classified as Wlld and 1 12a ( Kidd and K idd 1 970:52). One musket ball with a hole drilled through and one French blade gunflint ( Blanchette 1 975, Hamilton 1 971) were found . Metal f inds include fragments and a complete strainer , and 33 large t arn ii nh t irnn spikes with rose heads, similar to those from 17th century sites el sewhere (see Harrington 1 962:18-19). Turning from European to Oriental material, artefacts from China, Japan and Southeast Asia were found. Four excavated Chinese porcelain fragments include two pieces of undateable coarse South Provincial ( Swatow) ware, one K 'ang Hsi sherd ( 1680-1723) such as that which reached the Cape c .1690, and a transitional fragment. One piece of Japanese Arita ware ( Woodward 1 974:52ff) is ascribed to the Genroko period ( 1680-90).

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Final l y, the handle of a martavan stoneware pot from Indonesia (Woodward 1974:141ff) was found in a private collection . Oriental porcelain is rare in Dutch s ites in the States ( Huey 1 984) but it will probabl y be common here, reflecting as it does the different trading spheres of the V .O.C. and the Dutch West India Company. 4 . Artefactual remains: Indigenous material. Nine stone flakes, nine fragments of Cape coastal pottery and one ostrich eggshell bead were found in association with material described above . They point clearly to the presence of indigenous people in the immediate area when the post was occupied by the Dutch . Conclusions Test excavations reveal that Oudepost I i s the site of a 1 7th and early 1 8th century Dutch post, where influences of the Company 's trading networks in Europe and the Indies can clearl y be seen. In addition, interactions with indigenous people are reflected in the faunal record, trade goods and indigenous artefacts. The presence of two structures helps to define activity areas, but the construction materials used raise the question of whether this site can clearly be identified as the fort constructed by the Dutch in 1 666.

METHOD AND

THEORY OF PROPOSED RESEARCH

Outline of research procedures 1 . Survey. An extensi ve survey of prehistoric sites in the region has al ready been made but onl y a brief description of selected historic sites is available ( Rudner 1 979b). We propose to make a comprehensive survey of historical sites listing the presence of historical artefacts f ound in middens and rock shelters . Brass trinkets, fragments of stoneware and clay pipes have been already recorded in sites on the Olifants River valley (Moore 1977) but a wider survey will let us view the Oudepost work in its broader regional framework, while at the same time providing data about the movement of people, trade goods like tobacco and even liquor , in early historic times ( cf Wray 1 973:20, quoted in Huey 1 984). 2 . Excavation . Extensive excavations are proposed at Oudepost I . The sequence of work will start with clearance of scrub and bushes on the site, followed by careful plotting of all surface f inds . The site will then be surveyed and mapped and a gridded area, encompassing twice the 2 500 square metres of known site extension, will be checked using metal detectors. Following on this, a series of trial test pits will be excavated in selected areas to test the contents of areas unaffected by excavation so far. Extensive excavations of suitable areas will be done,

4 42

starting with the rectangular structure whose richness has already been tested , and then moving on to the fort . Attention will be directed to locating postholes to test the existence of a kapstyl huisie . The midden area east of this structure wil i — be — eX-Eavated as will the areas inside and outside the fort. Care will be taken to locate postholes, buried structures and possible engraved stones here. Finall y all walls and structures made of brick and stone will be recorded by the surveying team, using close range photogrammetry to produce stereoscopic photographs with ground control that provide the basis f or a precise three dimensional reconstruction of these d f raw eatures ings.,

as

wel l

as

providing

corrected-to-sca le

3 . Archival research . The preliminary work ( see Historical Background) is based entirel y on material in Cape Archives and the African Studies Library a t the University of Cape Town . Rich and varied though these sources may be, they have failed to date to produce a map and/or pl an of the site. In addition we need to make an extensive check on despatches sent to and from Sal danha Bay and on instructions to other outposts, such as nearby Groenkloof and Hottentots Hol l and. Biographical detail s concerning V . O. C. personnel including Dutch , German and other employees at Oudepost, need amplification in order to relate their possessions and beliefs to the archaeological evidence such as artefacts and burials . Finally lists of supplies sent to the post, and ships records listing cargos that might have become incorporated into the archaeology of the site ( bricks , glass, wine containers etc), need to be compiled. ' he most comprehensive map collections dealing with these matters are located in the Algemeen Rijksarchief, Kaarten Afdeeling in The Hague, and the Topografische Dienst in Delft. More general matters referring to the history of this site are housed in the Koningl ike Biblioteek in The Hague. The Public Record Office in London and Kew, and the India Office archives in London are al l expected to produce relevant material. In additi on, we have noted French invol vement in the placement of the original post at Saldanha Bay so that it i s necessary to check their records of this encounter in their Department of Oriental Colonies section of the Paris Archives . F inally , it has been suggested that the Copenhagen Archives contain invaluable material relating to Danish observations at the Cape made during their travels from Europe to Tranquebar from 1 650 onwards . Analysis 1 . Fauna. Unlike the analysis of colonial artefacts from Oudepost I analysis of faunal remains will be done with reference to the large comparative collections housed at the S .A. Museum. These data will then be entered on a computer

4 43

and analysed using programs similar to those described in Klein and Cruz-Uribe ( 1984). Programs include data entry , computation of number of identified specimens and minimum number of individuals, descriptive statistics and age profiles. Specific issues that will be compiled from data incl ude relative species representations, patterns of body part distribution ( "butchery patterns") and age/sex profiles . Documentary sources will be examined in detail to establish the presence of hybrid animals in the domesticated group. The age/sex profiles of domestic sheep will be compared with material from the prehistoric s ites like Die Kelders ( Klein and Cruz-Uribe 1 984:85-86) and the cattle with material from Kasteel berg, which ranges from c .1 800 B .P. to modern times ( Smith 1 984b). The wild animal material will likewise be compared with numerous sites in the immediate area ( Robertshaw 1 978b) and the wider region ( Parkington 1 972, 1976a, 1 976b, 1 977, 1984, Parkington and Poggenpoel 1971, Smith 1 984b). Shellfish and f ish remains will be analysed at the University of Cape Town using large comparati ve col l ections to establ ish habitat, seasonality and predation techniques . The wider theoretical framework within which these analyses will be set stems from reviews of colonial and indigenous resource perception such as is presented for New England in Cronon 's masterl y anal ysis ( 1983). He documents the use of land, trees, animlas and water by both parties in terms of their different cul tural backgrounds, contrasting Indian views of being part of the land itself, with European visions of the land as a sourcl of marketable commodities ( see also Thomas 1 976, 1 979). The Dutch occupants of Oudepost I were part of the greater V .O.C. concern, and their views of the land were determined by Company demands . Indigenous stock was viewed as an unlimited source of f ood for Company men , a vision that contrasted with the Khoikhoi integration of stock into their wider socio-pol itical framework. Similarl y, sources agree that indigenous people had achie ved a certai n bal ance with the land and its resources, scheduling their exploitations of seasonally avail able foods. They certainl y seem to have created small perturbations in local resource patterns, as is seen in reduction of shellfish sizes in some sites ( e .g . Buchanan et al. 1 978:79) but there i s no indication that indigenous hunters or herders extermi nated local resources through persistent killing . In contrast, Dutch sealing, and hunting for large animal s like rhinos and hippos which they salted for slaves ' food , had a serious effect on local animal populations. Their commercial fishing operations at Sal danha Bay ( to provide salted f ish for slaves) invol ved seasonal gluts and slumps but seems not to have depleted the suppl y. A particularl y interesti ng el ement that may be refl ected in the archaeol ogical anal ysis is the fact that the Dutch

4 44

( according to documentary sources) ignored the smaller foods like tortoises and shellfish that feature so prominently in indigenous diet . Finally , a major point to be remembered if not directly observed , is the use of wil d plants, vel dkos, by indigenes alone. The Dutch generally ignored veldkos and grew vegetables and grains. Onl y later when trekboers moved inland to form a true frontier community did colonists learn the use of these foods from their indigenous companions, servants and mates. 2 . Artefacts. The proposed excavations at Oudepost I is one of the fi rs t pro grams of control l e d arc hae ol ogi cal investigation of a Dutch colonial site in South Africa. Consequentl y, the collection of artefacts it produces will become a s tandard reference collection for the late 17th and earl y 1 8th century in South Africa. Analysis and interpretation will draw heavil y on studies of col onial American sites. A useful body of information concerns the operations and archaeology of the Dutch West India company in the New York-New Jersey region . The purpose, date and duration of this enterprise differed from that of the V .O.C. at the Cape, but a wealth of relevant data lies in excavations of Dutch houses, forts and even warehouses ( see eg. Huey 1 984, Noble 1 976, N .Y .H .S. 1 982, Nooter 1 982, Rothschild and Rockman 1 982, Sal wen 1978, also J . Grossman, P . Huey and B . Sal wen pers. comm.). In addition, specific historical studies such as those relating to demography ( Feister 1 982) help to amplify our view of this period. More extensi ve information on 17th century col onial life comes from famous English s ettlements, including Jamestown ( Cotter 1958) and Martin' s Hundred (Noel Hume 1982). The comprehensi ve sources listed in Noel Hume's Historical Archaeology ( 1968) and expounded in his Guide to the Artefacts of Colonial America ( 1970) will be amplified by recent comprehensive studies including those of cl ay ( kaolin) pipes ( Walker 1977), beads ( Karklins 1 974, Karklins and Sprague 1972, Kidd and Kidd 1970) and gunflints ( Blanchette 1 975, Hamilton 1 971, Leveque 1 971, Stone 1 971), to name but a few . F inally theoretical and methodological approaches to s ite patterning and identity are based on comprehensive studies including Deetz 1 977, Orr and Crozier 1 984, Schuyler 1 978 and South 1 977a ,b .

wel l

The indigenous artefacts at our site seem to fall within the range of known forms for this region.

Extensive studies of collections are available in texts ( e.g. Sampson 1 974) as well as key journals like the South African Archaeol ogical Bul letin. Comparative collections are housed at the S .A . Museum in Cape Town . 3 . Artefact distribution . The spatial relationships of structures and artefacts is of particular concern to the Spatial Archaeology Research Unit

of

the University of

Cape

4 45

Town.

Their

efforts

to

date have focussed largel y on the use of space in prehistoric environments, but a current program led by M . Hal l is concerned with the application of similar techniques to modern homes. Members of that unit might participate in our work in the f iel d and laboratory, plotting the distribution of material to compute spatial relations and possible site usage . 4 .

Site

patterning .

The extensive and challenging literature on patterning in historical sites ( South 1 977a, 1 977b , 1 978) has received wide attention and recognition as well as criticism for its overly ahistorical and mechanistic tone ( Deetz 1 977, 1 983). Though our research is not designed to infer the pattern at Oudepost I against which other sites may be assessed, the prevalence of such studies raises the question of what we know so far about the identity and function of Oudepost I . It woul d be misleading to use the small bastioned structure to call the entire s ite a fort, because it is neither like American military and trading forts ( see eg. N .H.A. 1972) nor like any of the great Dutch forts that stretched around the African coast to the Indies ( Boxer 1965, Lawrence 1964, Ras 1 959, Schukking 1941). In one respect however, it is typical of Dutch forts whose primary function was to advertise the commercial presence, not the military challenge of the V .O.C. ( Boxer 1965). Oudepost I was original l y established not to fight the French but to advertise to them and others the Dutch trading and commercial monopoly at Sal danha Bay. The ti ny garrison kept watch, provisioned ships, traded occasionally and went back and forth to the Cape settlement. They were never isolated in the true frontier tradition ( Legassick 1 972) since the Cape coul d be reached in a brisk two days wal k or one day by sea. This lack of isol ation is confirmed by the archaeol ogical sample. European and Oriental wares reflect the position of the outpost on a very sheltered bay which attracted numerous trading ships in search of shel ter, water and repairs. Although the men emplaced here were poor Company soldiers who l ived in typical 1 7th century squalor, throwing their garbage inside and outside their buil dings, we have to date found none of the artefacts said to be typical of lower cl ass househol ds of that time ( South 1 977a:203). Nor can we discern at present a frontier pattern analogous to that found in the U .S. ( South 1 977a:141-164). However we do consider that the archaeological a spects of White-Indian trade relations contribute to our work because analysis of its general aspects ( Beaudry 1982, Forsman 1 983, Stevenson 1 983) and of specific trade items ( Brown 1 977, Fi tti ng 1975, MacCor d 19 7 7) pr o vi de a way of understanding more about the val ues and mutual perceptions of both parties .

4 46

CONCLUSION The excavation of Oudepost I is designed to elucidate the archaeological character of an early Dutch colonial settlement at the Cape. The site has three key aspects: first it was a minor outpost of the main Cape settlement, second it was strategically placed on Saldanha Bay to interact with the passing Indies trade, and third, its location on a permanent spring in the heart of Cochoqua territory put it in the position to trade and interact with local indigenous p astoralists. Analysis of artefacts, dietary remains and site patterning wi 11 amplify our grasp of Dutch colonial life and expand our understanding of the interactions between these people and the Khoikhoi whom they would later dispossess. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The p re 1iminary fie 1d work on which this paper is based was fiananced by a generous grant from the Mauerberger Foundation Fund, Cape Town. I am particularily grateful to Mr s. Yach of the foundation and to Dr and Mrs T. Schrire of Cape Town for encouragement and support. A large number of colleagues were kind enough to help me to draft this paper, providing references, unpublished information and support. In singling out a few, I thank Mr. I vor Noel Hume of the Colonial Williamsburg F oundation, Professors, A. C antwell, M. Conkey, J. Cotter, J. Deetz, M.P. Leone, R. Shell and E.N. Wilmsen. I thank the Archaeolcgy Department of the University of Cape Town, and in particular, Mr. C. Poggenpoel who helped direct preliminary work on the site and who has since become co -director of the excavations. I am grateful to Ms. G. Abrahams of the Cultural History Museum, Mr. H. Vos of the Stellenbo�ch Museum, Mr. J. Adler and Mrs. G. Fagan of Cape Town for advice and help.

REFERENCES Abrahams, G. 1984. The development of historical archaeology at the Cape, South Africa. Bu!!etin of the South African Cultural History Museum. 5:20-32. A cock s, J.P.H. 1975. Veld typ es of South Africa. Botanical Surv� of South Africa. Memoir 40. Allen, H. 1979. Left out in the cold: why the Tasmanians stopped eating fish. The Artefact 4:1-10.

'T'hA archaeology of nineteenth century h:;.,i".a", .J. 1 n 7 'l British imperialism: an Australiau