Can archaeo-faunal data track site-specific occupational intensity? Case studies from the Late Pleistocene in the southern Cape of South Africa

Summary

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

The ubiquity of archaeo-faunal remains and discarded bone at Paleolithic sites make these useful datasets for investigating a range of site formation processes, including anthropogenic site-use activity. Occupational intensity is a common theme in current research and is often linked to demographic changes in the past. Given its association with early evidence of human behavioural complexity, the Late Pleistocene in the southern Cape of South Africa may be important in interrogating links between socio-demographic changes and site-specific occupational intensity. In this paper, zooarchaeological and taphonomic data are evaluated as proxies for occupational intensity in the southern Cape. Geoarchaeological and micromorphological data from three Middle Stone Age sites – Klipdrift Shelter, Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point – are used to ascertain whether specific layers have increased or decreased periods of occupational intensity at each site. Various zooarchaeological and taphonomic data are then compared to this reference data to assess the value of faunal proxies in tracking temporal changes in occupations. The results show that anthropogenic bone surface modifications appear to be effective in tracking occupational patterns, with trampling a particularly useful indicator. The implications and limitations of these proxies are discussed, particularly with regards to settlement patterns in the southern Cape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39887.0