Browsing by Subject "shell midden"

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    Antiquity of stone-walled tidal fish traps on the Cape coast South African
    (2010) Hine, Phillip James; Sealy, Judith; Halkett, David; Hart, Tim
    This paper attempts to answer a long-standing question in South African archaeology: the age of stone-walled tidal fish traps generally believed to date back to pre-colonial times. Since the stone walls cannot be directly dated, we sought datable fish bone in nearby archaeological sites. Four open shell middens at Paapkuil Fontein, near Cape Agulhas, were excavated and analysed and the contents of two previously excavated middens at Still Bay were studied. Both areas are renowned for their numerous fish traps, but lack detailed archaeological studies. The middens yielded very little, if any fish bone, so are probably unrelated to the traps. There is, by contrast, a great deal of archival evidence for the building and use of stone fish traps by historical communities, with traps repeatedly built and dismantled in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Given the lack of any direct evidence in Later Stone Age sites, a pre-colonial age for the practice of fishing with stone-walled tidal fish traps can no longer be entertained.
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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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    Shell middens in Namaqualand: Two Later Stone Age sites at Rooiwalbaai, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
    (South African Archaeological Society, 2005) Orton, J; Hart, T J; Halkett, D J
    This paper contributes to the very limited body of archaeological knowledge from the Northern Cape Namaqualand coastline. Excavations at two Later Stone Age open shell middens from this area are described and discussed. Both sites have finely crafted lithic assemblages and, although one contains possible cow bones, their faunal remains indicate a subsistence strategy consistent with a foraging economy. Although the bead and pottery samples are small, provisionally they may indicate a different interpretation to that offered for similar materials from the Western Cape. The spatial patterning among the shellfish at one of the sites supports our suggestion that the archaeological content of deflation hollows generally represents palimpsests of occupation. It is clear that further research will be required before significant patterns can be described for the Later Stone Age of Namaqualand