Spring Cave is situated just below the Baboon Point escarpment in Elands Bay and is one of only a handful of central west coast sites with deposits dating to the Medieval Warm Anomaly (MWA, c. 1300-650 cal BP). This was a climatological period of global significance that brought hot and dry conditions to much of the South African west coast, an ecologically stressed period affecting people, animals and plants alike. Although Spring Cave also dates to before and after the MWA, a large amount of its deposits date to this period. Earlier research on the central west coast has shown that most MWA-dated sites are situated at high elevations and near the coast, and that such placement in the landscape allowed monitoring of the movement of game, predators, and groups of people with or without livestock. High mobility, seeking safety and shelter at higher elevations, and a close watch on the landscape were part of general adaptive strategies, but people at Spring Cave may have added repeated ritual slaughter of small carnivores to the range of coping mechanisms. Doing so, according to ethno-historical records among herding groups, would have brought good luck and well-being. When considering Spring Cave's entire sequence, broad late Holocene regional patterns are also confirmed: i) higher frequencies of exotic lithic raw materials before 3000 cal BP; and ii) greater emphasis on gathering limpets after 2000 BP, while mussels dominate assemblages before then. Moreover, metrical data on limpets, mussels and Cape rock lobster suggest that these species were not processed before their transport back to the cave, an observation at variance with barnacles and fish.

We report on excavations at Deurspring, north of Lamberts Bay, South Africa. Earlier work there provided the first evidence of mid-Holocene occupation of the west coast of South Africa. This was unexpected, as previous research argued for an occupational hiatus in the local cultural sequence due to adverse climatic conditions and limited drinking water. Deurspring also provided further insights into the so-called megamidden period (3200-1900 cal BP), a time when people relied heavily on marine resources and accumulated very large shell middens through intense harvesting of predominantly black mussels. Our new work in the area shows that local fauna was procured during rather brief mid-Holocene visits, while groups moved over large areas from where they sourced exotic stone raw materials. Deurspring sites are much smaller than megamiddens, but their occupation intensifies after 3200 cal BP, and quantities of lithic artefacts indicate a domestic signature. Black mussels were harvested in greater numbers over time but their quantities were limited by the northward biogeographic trend of increasing abundance of intertidal limpets at the expense of black mussels, as observed today. This factor likely limited the intense exploitation of black mussels around Deurspring and probably explains why large-sized megamiddens never formed there.

In April 2001, an intact human burial (UCT 579) was accidentally uncovered during diamond mining activity on the Somnaas farm in Namaqualand and was subsequently excavated by the Archaeology Contracts Office. This find presented a rare opportunity to record the burial style, as very few in situ burials have been encountered in the Namaqualand region. The skeleton is that of an adult female, 26 +/- 2 years old at death, radiocarbon dated to 1250 +/- 70 BP (GX-32527). The grave was dug into the approximately +3 m mid-Holocene cobble beach, and the body placed in a flexed, approximately horizontal position. Grave goods (unusual in burials on theWest coast) included a lower grindstone, a Conus mozambicus pendant, a partial tortoise carapace bowl, and Raphicerus sp. phalanges (hoofs). delta C-13 and delta N-15 values indicate that this woman's diet included a substantial proportion of marine foods. Fragmentary remains from a second individual found in a trench nearby (UCT 643), were also collected and dated to 3490 +/- 80 BP (GX-32528). delta C-13 and delta N-15 values indicate that this individual consumed a diet that consisted mostly of terrestrial foods. This information provides insight into the variability in burial practices and lifeways of ancient indigenous people in South Africa.

This paper reviews the precolonial coastal archaeological record from Table Bay to Yzerfontein. The observations include amateur and professional historical reports, academic publications and a large body of grey literature generated by cultural resources management (CRM) practitioners. Primary archaeological information is relatively sparse due to the extensive historical development of the coastline, with most data generated by recent CRM work. The radiocarbon record established from burials and shell middens extends back through 6 000 years; beyond that, isolated occurrences of Middle and Early Stone Age materials exist, notably including the Middle Stone Age shell midden, Ysterfontein 1. Further archaeological sites are likely to occur in the review area but sites in better context are more likely to be found in the north, where development pressure has been less intense. Given the continuing development around Table Bay, CRM work will continue to drive the generation of archaeological data in the area.

The Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay areas have received dedicated attention over the last 40 years. Broad chronological patterns have been established and tested by numerous research projects in the last two decades. Nevertheless, this large corpus of data also reveals that despite much research effort, some periods are better understood than others. For instance, only partial information is available for the Mid-Holocene (8700-4800 cal BP), and astonishingly little is known about the centuries between 1300 and 600 cal BP. Both of these periods were dominated by warm and dry atmospheric conditions, and are known as the Holocene Altithermal and the Medieval Warm Epoch, respectively. But luckily, two of three sites at Soutpansklipheuwel (SPKH) outcrop near Lamberts Bay are now known to have substantial volumes of material dating to the latter and elusive period. This paper reports on recent test excavations at all three sites. The results suggest that outcrops and other high-placed locations were targeted for settlement during this period, probably because of competition resulting directly or indirectly from water shortages and xeric conditions. Abundant supply of fuel from a range of woody shrubs and rainwater accumulating in rock pools made SPKH outcrop especially attractive. Shellfish consumption appears to have been of great importance to groups settling at SPKH, with species diversity largely dictated by the biogeographical distribution of taxa in nearby rocky shores. Exotic lithic raw materials were never dominant, but good effort was made to procure them from distant places, thus influencing mobility. Compared to local sites, backed pieces are unusually common at SPKH and a greater variety of formal tools were used and discarded at this locality. The emerging signs of variability seem to suggest that this hitherto little-known period known as the Medieval Warm Epoch was more eventful than previously suspected.

This report describes an approximately 2000-year-old pre-colonial burial (SAM-AP 6383) recovered from a construction site in Bloubergstrand on the Cape West Coast. A number of decorative items were associated with the burial and this is considered unusual for West Coast burials. Although disturbed prior to recovery, the majority of the skeleton was present and facilitated the identification of the person as a Khoesan male in his early twenties. Based on the the size of the burial shaft, he was interred on his side. Associated archaeological material was minimal and we conclude that the burial was not placed within a shell midden. Stable isotope values calculated from his bone collagen indicate a large proportion of marine protein in the diet. The decorative shell artefacts included two Turbo sarmaticus pendants and 21 small perforated whelks of varying species. Although still requiring microscopic confirmation, the perforations on the latter appear unworn, suggesting that they might have been made close to the time of death or specifically for placing with the burial.

ABSTRACT Archaeological research along the West Coast of South Africa has unveiled a diversity of Holocene adaptive strategies as shown by the different type, size, composition, and distribution of sites and their faunal and artifactual contents. Some differences and similarities are apparent between the northerly semi-desert of Namaqualand and the more central Lamberts Bay and Elands Bay areas. On first impression, this archaeological variability seems related to environmental gradients, human demographics, related divergent economic developments, and perhaps to different contexts for cultural contact between indigenous populations. However, differences between Namaqualand and the central parts of the West Coast need to be assessed more closely in order to understand the influence of environmental and cultural/behavioral variables that could have shaped them and their geographic interaction. Sampling of locations near Lamberts Bay and the southern parts of Namaqualand has become vital. Here we present first observations on a survey and broad chronology at one such locality, namely Soutpansklipheuwel outcrop. First results reveal a millennia-long history of occupation. Possible shared attributes that respond to biogeographic and cultural variables are outlined.

Cape Town's urban redevelopment has exposed human remains at a number of construction sites in the Green Point and Victoria & Alfred Waterfront precincts over the past fifteen years. In May 2003, a substantial amount of bone emerged during the early works phase for a new residential development at Prestwich and Alfred Streets, Green Point (De Waterkant precinct). An initial assessment by the Archaeology Contracts Office (ACO), based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), established that the human skeletal material came from a dense and extensive burial ground. The existence of this unmarked burial ground, situated outside of historically formal burial grounds, underscores a distinct difference in the treatment of those buried in 'formal' (i.e. denominational or military) and 'informal' burial grounds during the colonial period. Social identities and processes of spatial negotiation among different cultural or class groups may be amplified through the analysis of burial patterns. Based on an initial site assessment, there was an expectation that this burial ground would be characterised by an unstructured or random placement of graves. An objective of this study was to test this assumption. In addition we present an overview of the archaeological evidence of cultural markers, such as: burial styles, dental modification and artefactual material, and discuss their implications for the cultural allegiances of the Cape's historical underclass. Plotting distribution has shown that particular cultural traits fall into discrete burial clusters. Attributes underpinning African origins, and an Islamic burial style are identified. It is suggested here that Islamic burials at Prestwich Street provide a glimpse into the consolidation of the Muslim community over the 18th century. In contrast, interpretation of the distribution of other burial clusters is cautioned, as they may be products of expedient burial events or shorter-term processes, as multiple scales of burial interment are likely to have existed concurrently. The interrogation of these historical burials makes a contribution towards the visibility of personal life histories of the Cape underclass, often difficult to 'see' in structural remains or domestic deposits, and demonstrates the success that archaeological methodology can have in laying open previously 'unseen' life histories, as well as larger trends within an evolving Cape Town.

Jakkalsberg N and Jakkalsberg L, located on the bank of the Orange River in the area of South Africa known as the Richtersveld, date to the midand late mid-Holocene, respectively. The former is a palimpsest revealing scattered material from other periods. Both contain large assemblages of lithics and bead-manufacturing debris. Their formal tools are diverse and include types uncommon in South Africa but more frequently found through much of the rest of Africa. In particular, these sites contain more than an incidental occurrence of denticulates and triangles, respectively. The formal tool composition indicates continuity with assemblages from both central and southern Africa and supports common origins for many African microlithic industries. The river serves as a lifeline in the hostile Richtersveld environment with fish being a key resource. Despite having been subjected to periodic flooding and siltation, spatial integrity and preservation of artefacts at these sites was sufficient to allow high research value.

This paper attempts to answer a long-standing question in South African archaeology: the age of stone-walled tidal fish traps generally believed to date back to pre-colonial times. Since the stone walls cannot be directly dated, we sought datable fish bone in nearby archaeological sites. Four open shell middens at Paapkuil Fontein, near Cape Agulhas, were excavated and analysed and the contents of two previously excavated middens at Still Bay were studied. Both areas are renowned for their numerous fish traps, but lack detailed archaeological studies. The middens yielded very little, if any fish bone, so are probably unrelated to the traps. There is, by contrast, a great deal of archival evidence for the building and use of stone fish traps by historical communities, with traps repeatedly built and dismantled in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Given the lack of any direct evidence in Later Stone Age sites, a pre-colonial age for the practice of fishing with stone-walled tidal fish traps can no longer be entertained.

The Ysterfontein 1 rock shelter (33°20’S, 18°09’E) is located in the eponymous town, on the west coast of South Africa, roughly 70 km north-northwest of Cape Town. The floor is diorite at 7 m above mean sea level and the roof is calcrete. Road construction removed the entrance and exposed 3.8 m of stratified sands that completely filled the rear. The uppermost layers, to a depth of 1–1.5 m, contain few artefacts or faunal remains per unit volume, and they dip into the shelter. Tooth-marked bones and occasional coprolites indicate that small carnivores and hyaenas sometimes lived inside the shelter. However, the low ceiling and the sediment dip suggest that the encroaching sands originated on the back face of a dune that stood near the shelter mouth. Middle Stone Age (MSA) activity on the dune crest probably accounts for the occasional artefacts and intertidal shells. Below 1.5 m depth, the layers lie more horizontally, and stacked hearth lenses, numerous artefacts, and abundant intertidal shells document MSA occupation. An accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon reading on ostrich eggshell places the occupation before 46 ka (thousand years) ago. It probably postdates 115 ka ago, since storm surges during a period of high sea-level that ended about then would probably have flushed any pre-existing deposit. The artefact assemblage lacks markers of the Howieson’s Poort and Still Bay variants of the MSA, and it may predate either or both of them. Optically Stimulated Luminescence analysis of sand grains from various stratified units may provide a more precise age estimate. The MSA fauna resembles faunas from other west coast MSA sites in the rarity or absence of fish, the heavy emphasis on a limited range of shellfish, and the large size of limpets and tortoises. Like faunal collections from MSA sites on the south coast of South Africa, the Ysterfontein 1 fauna suggests that people in the MSA exploited coastal resources less intensively than their Later Stone Age (LSA) successors and that their populations were smaller. Thus, even if MSA artefacts from Blombos Cave and other sites sometimes imply LSA-like culture, they do not appear to have conferred an LSA-like ability to survive and reproduce. This may explain why people in the MSA failed to expand from Africa.

This paper contributes to the very limited body of archaeological knowledge from the Northern Cape Namaqualand coastline. Excavations at two Later Stone Age open shell middens from this area are described and discussed. Both sites have finely crafted lithic assemblages and, although one contains possible cow bones, their faunal remains indicate a subsistence strategy consistent with a foraging economy. Although the bead and pottery samples are small, provisionally they may indicate a different interpretation to that offered for similar materials from the Western Cape. The spatial patterning among the shellfish at one of the sites supports our suggestion that the archaeological content of deflation hollows generally represents palimpsests of occupation. It is clear that further research will be required before significant patterns can be described for the Later Stone Age of Namaqualand.

Human fossils and the genetics of extant human populations indicate that living people derive primarily from an African population that lived within the last 200,000 years. Yet it was only approximately 50,000 years ago that the descendants of this population spread to Eurasia, where they swamped or replaced the Neanderthals and other nonmodern Eurasians. Based on archaeological observations, the most plausible hypothesis for the delay is that Africans and Eurasians were behaviorally similar until 50,000 years ago, and it was only at this time that Africans developed a behavioral advantage. The archaeological findings come primarily from South Africa, where they suggest that the advantage involved much more effective use of coastal resources. Until now, the evidence has come mostly from deeply stratified caves on the south (Indian Ocean) coast. Here, we summarize results from recent excavations at Ysterfontein 1, a deeply stratified shelter in a contrasting environment on the west (Atlantic) coast. The Ysterfontein 1 samples of human food debris must be enlarged for a full comparison to samples from other relevant sites, but they already corroborate two inferences drawn from south coast sites: (i) coastal foragers before 50,000 years ago did not fish routinely, probably for lack of appropriate technology, and (ii) they collected tortoises and shellfish less intensively than later people, probably because their populations were smaller.

Duinefontein 2 (DFT2) preserves at least two buried land surfaces within a 10-m thick dune plume on the Atlantic Coast of South Africa, about 35km north of Cape Town. Optically stimulated luminescence dating indicates that the sands enclosing the upper surface accumulated around 270ky ago, while the sands between the two surfaces were accumulating about 290ky ago. Excavation so far has focused on the upper buried surface, which is now exposed over 480m2. Historically, there was no body of fresh water nearby, and the surrounding vegetation was a variant of the regional fine-leafed shrub or fynbos. Pedogenic alteration of the sands and bones of water-loving mammals and amphibians indicate, however, that the bones and associated Acheulean artifacts accumulated near the edge of a large pond or marsh. In addition, the principal mammal species (buffalo, wildebeest, and kudu) imply a sharply different regional vegetation in which grass and broad-leafed bush were much more common. The artifacts are distributed across the upper buried surface in no apparent pattern, but the large mammal bones tend to occur as clusters of skulls, vertebrae, ribs, and other axial elements, often in near anatomical order. Limb bones are mostly missing, and the clusters appear to mark carcasses from which the limb bones were selectively removed. The bones rarely show marks from stone tools, but marks from carnivore teeth are common. Together with numerous hyena coprolites, the abundant tooth marks suggest that hyenas and perhaps other carnivores were largely responsible for carcass disarticulation. The human role appears to have been insignificant, which suggests that local Acheulean people obtained few large mammals, whether by hunting or scavenging. Among the small number of other Acheulean ‘carcass’ sites for which bone damage observations are available, the best-documented sites suggest the same limited human ability to acquire large mammals, but many additional sites will be necessary to determine if this was the Acheulean norm. Greatly expanded excavation of the lower buried surface at DFT2 can provide an additional, high-quality data point.

Excavations into a coastal cliff at Ysterfontein (YFT) 1, South Africa, have revealed 2.5–3m of stratified sands containing classic Middle Stone Age (MSA) stone artifacts, abundant mussel and limpet shells, numerous fragments of ostrich eggshell, and somewhat rarer bones from mammals, birds, tortoises, and snakes. The sands apparently filled a crevice-like, calcrete shelter, where the artifacts and animal remains accumulated partly in place and perhaps partly through slippage down the face of a dune that once stood between the site and the sea. Accelerator radiocarbon dating of ostrich eggshell places the sequence before 33,400 years ago. Artifact typology provisionally suggests that it formed after 70,000 years ago. The fauna resembles faunas from the handful of other known coastal MSA sites and contrasts with faunas from regional Later Stone Age (LSA) sites in its low diversity of coastal marine species and in the large size of its limpets and tortoises. The difference suggests that MSA people exploited local resources less intensively, probably because their populations were less dense.

This paper raises the question of whether it is possible to recognise different cultural groups in the later prehistory of the Western and Northern Cape Provinces, and, if so, how to use the archaeological signatures as indicators of site integrity. To do this we have used a 300-year-old open site at Bloeddrift along the Orange River which yielded a number of hearth features and cultural debris that were indications of discrete cooking areas, possibly associated with individual huts. The hearths of Bloeddrift 23 are indications of a limited occupation period and of places where social activity was focussed. Their survival and association with the rest of the cultural material is a key to the integrity of the site. Comparisons between Bloeddrift 23 and Jakkalsberg A & B, some 30 km upstream, suggest that it is associated with a pastoralist economy. While the sites appear similar, in both context and material culture, the radiocarbon dates indicate Bloeddrift 23 is 1000 years younger. Using data from coastal surveys, and guidelines from Bushmanland, as well as Western and Northern Cape Provinces, we believe we can separate hunter from herder archaeological signatures. Based upon this, we suggest that not all the cultural and faunal material from these sites may be contemporaneous with the hearths. By knowing what the pastoral signature should be, we have attempted to separate out those elements of cultural material that may be intrusive. This exercise warns us to be careful of mixture, and not to assume all materials on sites found on the Orange River floodplain are necessarily coeval.