Stone tools and sand veld settlement

Manhire, A H

Stone tools and sand veld settlement

Thesis / Dissertation

1984

Abstract

A comprehensive survey and site recording programme was carried out in the sandveld of the south-western Cape, South Africa. The types of site examined included rock art locations, stone artefact scatters, deposit-containing shelters and shell middens. Considerable variation was found to exist in assemblage composition and site density within an area stretching between the coast and the fringes of the Cape Fold Belt mountains. A number of open sites were sampled in different contexts across the research area and detailed analyses of 21 assemblages are included in the thesis. Three main types of assemblage are described: assemblages in wind deflated hollows in open sand dune areas, talus scatters associated with small caves and shelters, and diffuse stone artefact scatters found on exposed rocky areas and referred to as open koppie scatters. This information is used to redefine the history of human settlement in the south-western Cape during the late Holocene. Between about 4000 and 1700 B.P. occupation was focussed on open veld locations, mainly in near coastal riverine settings. After about 1700 B.P., coincident with the appearance of pottery in the archaeological record, there is a proliferation of small shelter and cave sites in the sandveld koppies. It is suggested that the move away from open veld locations was a direct result of the introduction of a pastoralist economy in the south-western Cape. After about 1700 B.P. there was a major change in the pattern of hunter-gatherer settlement with the focus of occupation shifting mainly towards the Cape Fold Belt mountains and to a lesser extent, the koppies of the sandveld.

Keywords

Archaeology

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