Technological Organization on the Paleo-Agulhas Plain: Robberg Lithic Technology from Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1

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.

Lithic technological organization is based on the landscape-scale distribution and availability of resources. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the landscape off the southern coast of South Africa was a different world than it is today. At its most extreme, the modern-day coastline was up to 75 km from its present position. The exposed continental shelf, known as the Paleo-Agulhas Plain, provided an important resourcescape for prehistoric people that is dramatically different from contemporary conditions. The Robberg technocomplex (~20–12 ka) is known from cave and rockshelter assemblages across southern Africa but sites from the southern coast are rare, limiting our understanding of how landscape-scale changes in resource availability affect technological decision making during the LGM. Here we present preliminary results for lithic assemblages assigned to the Robberg technocomplex from the site of Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH-1), located on the modern-day southern coast. We describe raw material selection and acquisition, methods, and techniques used in flake production; the role of heat treatment; and decisions of lithic provisioning and transport. We examine temporal changes within the KEH-1 sequence and situate the assemblages within the broader context of the Robberg technocomplex.

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): 33494