Browsing by Author "Maggs, Tim"

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    Excavations at Melkbosstrand: Variability among herder sites on Table Bay, South Africa
    (2004) Sealy, Judith; Maggs, Tim; Jerardino, Antonieta; Kaplan, Jonatha
    During an archaeological impact assessment in 1997, three shell middens were identified along a dune ridge 1.5 km from the shore at Melkbosstrand, about 22 km north of central Cape Town. They were subsequently excavated and yielded evidence of occupation beginning c. AD 700. Remains consisted mostly of shell and bone, with a very informal stone artefact assemblage. All three sites yielded ceramics and sheep bone; at one site sheep was the animal most frequently identified to species level. On the edge of one midden, a stone hearth 1.8 m in diameter was uncovered This site cluster was almost certainly occupied by herders and, as such, constitutes the closest herder sites to Cape Town investigated to date
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    Simon Se Klip at Steenbokfontein: the settlement pattern of a built pastoralist encampment on the West Coast of South Africa
    (2007) Jerardino, Antonieta; Maggs, Tim
    A major topic in southern African archaeology, particularly in the Western Cape, concerns the differentiation of herder from hunter gatherer signatures. Argument has largely focused on the interpretation of direct evidence, in the form of remains from domestic animals, and more indirect evidence, in the form of cultural markers derived from the typology of stone implements and ceramics, and average size of ostrich eggshell beads. Current views suggest a spectrum from hunter-gatherers to hunter-gatherers with sheep to herders and finally to pastoralists, the latter having both a strong economic and cosmological involvement with livestock. However, the assignment of individual sites and assemblages, particularly small ones, to these categories can be elusive. Simon Se Klip provides an alternative source of evidence relevant to this issue, namely settlement pattern. This is the first time in the Western Cape that the use of stone as a building material has enabled the virtually complete reconstruction of a precolonial settlement. The first millennium builders were able to provide controlled access and secure penning for their livestock by taking advantage of natural topographical features of the site and augmenting these with rather minimal stone walling. Domestic areas were also partly defined by linear arrangements of rocks. The pattern demonstrates that livestock were a central concern for this pastoralist community.