Life in the Margins: The Pre-Still Bay Deposits from Varsche Rivier 003, Southern Namaqualand, South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Varsche Rivier (VR) 003 is located in the Knersvlakte, the quartz-gravel plains of southern Namaqualand, South Africa. While currently a marginal, low-rainfall region within the Succulent Karoo Biome, conditions were more favorable during the Late Pleistocene. VR003’s pre-Still Bay deposits provide an opportunity to examine earlier adaptations within the Middle Stone Age. Luminescence dating of feldspar and 230Th/U dating of ostrich eggshell (OES) indicate accumulation 95–75 ka. Faunal remains indicate that the landscape was wetter and grassier than present. Secondary gypsum formations throughout the sequence indicate a switch from these wetter conditions to dry conditions later in time. The lithics include common notched and denticulated flakes, and silcrete dominates. ~90% of silcrete cores show signs of thermal alteration prior to flaking, with evidence of further reduction of heat-fractured pieces, indicating the presence of low-investment heat treatment. The fauna and OES are extensively burned; we did not observe hearths, but micromorphology samples preserve microscopic fragments of charcoal and heated bones. Marine shell indicates site catchment area, because VR003 is currently 43 km inland. Some OES appears to be flaked and could represent flask apertures. The recovered marine shells, flasks, and pigments have patterned distributions which reveal changes through time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33135