| Abstract: | By making oxygen isotope palaeotemperature determination of successive growth increments in molluscan food-refuse shells it is possible to determine the sea temperature, and hence the season, at time of death of the shells. Although this is a method which involves the use of sophisticated and expensive equipment, it may under favourable circumstances give extremely reliable results. Shells of the limpet species Patella tabularis in the midden deposits at Nelson Bay Cave, Robberg, Cape Province, South Africa, prove to represent almost ideal material, and are used to demonstrate, contrary to what guesswork might lead one to suppose, that the site was occupied during the winter months. |
