First excavation of intact Middle Stone Age layers at Ysterfontein,Western Cape Province,South Africa: implications for Middle Stone Age ecology |
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| Institution: | 1. Archaeology Contracts Office, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa;2. Social History Collections, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, P.O. Box 61, Cape Town 8000, South Africa;3. Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA;4. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa;5. Program in Human Biology, Building 80, Inner Quad, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA;6. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 15200, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA;7. South African Museum, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, P.O. Box 61, Cape Town 8000, South Africa;1. Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 874101, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;2. African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape 6031, South Africa;3. Geological Survey of Israel, 32 Yesha''yahu Leibowitz St., Jerusalem 6962100, Israel;4. The Fredy and Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Edmond J Safra Campus – Givat Ram, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel;5. Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Australia;6. Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, South Africa;7. South African National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa |
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| Abstract: | Excavations into a coastal cliff at Ysterfontein (YFT) 1, South Africa, have revealed 2.5–3 m of stratified sands containing classic Middle Stone Age (MSA) stone artifacts, abundant mussel and limpet shells, numerous fragments of ostrich eggshell, and somewhat rarer bones from mammals, birds, tortoises, and snakes. The sands apparently filled a crevice-like, calcrete shelter, where the artifacts and animal remains accumulated partly in place and perhaps partly through slippage down the face of a dune that once stood between the site and the sea. Accelerator radiocarbon dating of ostrich eggshell places the sequence before 33,400 years ago. Artifact typology provisionally suggests that it formed after 70,000 years ago. The fauna resembles faunas from the handful of other known coastal MSA sites and contrasts with faunas from regional Later Stone Age (LSA) sites in its low diversity of coastal marine species and in the large size of its limpets and tortoises. The difference suggests that MSA people exploited local resources less intensively, probably because their populations were less dense. |
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