Exploring Characteristics of Sustainable Coastal Exploitation during the Middle and Later Stone Ages in South Africa through Fish Bones and Seal Teeth

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This interdisciplinary research project investigates both the emergence and defining characteristics of sustainable coastal exploitation. The southern coast of South Africa has the longest history of sustained coastal exploitation globally, despite rising and falling sea levels, changing coastal habitats, and variations in seasonality and temperature. Given this long history of coastal exploitation, with the earliest evidence of systematic coastal exploitation by 110 ka to the present, we aim to explore how humans took advantage of changing coastal environments as part of an overall sustainable subsistence strategy. Stable isotope measurements of fish bones and seal teeth (as proxies for habitat use) and analysis of fish otoliths (a proxy for seasonal exploitation) can provide insights into where and when humans were exploiting fish and seals. Meanwhile, changes in the body size of a harvested fish species over time, namely, the yellowtail amberjack (Seriola lalandi), can be used as a proxy for subsistence intensification. In summary, we explore the origins of and patterns within and across site-specific changes in fish and seal habitat use, seasonal exploitation, and subsistence intensification from four Stone Age sites in southern Africa: Blombos Cave, Klasies River Main Site, Hoffman’s/Robberg Cave and Nelson Bay Cave.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39146.0