Filling in the gaps and testing past scenarios on the central westcoast: hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility at 'deurspring 16' shell midden, Lamberts Bay, South Africa

Abstract

This paper presents the first detailed report on mid-Holocene faunal and artefactual observations from Deurspring 16 (DSP16) shell midden situated on the central West Coast of South Africa. DSP16 also yielded late Holocene material. Until recently, the mid-Holocene record eschewed most but not all research efforts. Likewise, systematic studies on the abundant late-Holocene record of this region suggest a trajectory of hunter-gatherer resource intensification and limited group mobility. DSP16 observations show that mid-Holocene group mobility involved long distances and that visits were either brief and/or undertaken by small groups. People procured large and small terrestrial prey, and shellfish were a dietary complement. Stone tool kits were manufactured on mostly exotic silcrete, with scrapers and backed pieces being dominant among formal tools. Subsequent late-Holocene patterns shifted radically: site visits were probably longer, mobility became increasingly circumscribed to the coast and Sandveld, and subsistence relied heavily on marine resources while small terrestrial prey was also procured. Locally-available quartz and quartzite was favoured over silcrete in stone tool production, and backed pieces were gradually dropped in favour of scrapers among formal tools. These results and those from other sites show that i) the central West Coast was not as uninhabited during the mid-Holocene as previously thought, and that ii) a late-Holocene resource intensification model adequately accounts for the settlement and subsistence trends in this region.