Large Mammal Fauna from Klasies River Main Site: Changing Environmental Conditions during the Late Pleistocene of South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Klasies River is one of the most significant Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in Africa with a sequence spanning from c. 120,000 to c. 50,000 years ago (ka). Because it yields one of the largest collections of human remains dated to the Late Pleistocene associated with an abundance of MSA cultural remains, it is an important site for understanding the development of modern Homo sapiens. A key issue in Palaeolithic research are the links between complex behavior and the environment. Given its abundant faunal remains, Klasies may allow us to unpack this relationship. Here, we examine the large mammal faunal remains from c. 120 ka to c. 90 ka layers from the Witness Baulk Cave 1 with the aim of exploring environmental changes through Marine Isotope Stage 5. Our data indicate a taxonomically rich assemblage with high species diversity. Generally, the lowermost LBS member is dominated by grazers with browsers becoming more common in the subsequent SASU and SASW sub-members. Ungulate diversity is highest in the LBS member and the reasons for this will be explored. We also discuss how the Klasies faunal data is linked to changing environments along the South African Cape coast during the Later Pleistocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24582