Excavations at Blombos Cave and the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve
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HOLOCENE PREHISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA: EXCAVATIONS AT BLOMBOS CAVE AND THE BLOMBOSFONTEIN NATURE RESERVE Christopher Stuart Henshilwood Institute for Human Evolution University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa & Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway 1 PREFACE During 1992/3 nine Later Stone Age (LSA) coastal midden sites ranging in age from 6960 B.P. to 290 B.P., and representing 28 depositional units were excavated in the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve and in the directly adjacent Blombos Estates, situated 20 km to the west of Still Bay, southern Cape, South Africa (Figs. 1.1). This research formed the core of the authors doctoral thesis ‘Holocene archaeology of the coastal Garcia State Forest, southern Cape, South Africa’ completed at Cambridge University in 1995 (Henshilwood 1995). This monograph is based on the results derived from this research. Additional data derived from the 1997 – 1999 excavations of the Later Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave (BBC) has been added into the text (also see appendix) and a brief review of the results from the 1997 – 2005 excavations of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels is included. In this monograph the term Blombosfontein is used to cover both the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve and the Blombos Estates. On some older topographical maps the area is designated Garcia State Forest but the currently accepted name is Blombosfontein (lit. flower bush spring). The sites excavated were originally numbered from 1 – 9 and given the acronym GSF (Henshilwood 1995). In this monograph the acronym has been changed to BBF (for Blombosfontein); BBF 1 is the oldest and BBF 9 the youngest site (Fig. 1). Blombos Cave, previously given the acronym GSF 8, is renamed BBC in this monograph as this is the acronym in current use (Henshilwood et al 2001a). The original excavations at this site in 1992 revealed Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits but excavation in these levels was limited and the age of the deposits could not be determined. Subsequent excavations of the MSA levels show that the BBC deposits range in age from over 140 000 years to less than 300 years (Henshilwood et al 2001a; Jacobs et al 2006). Excavation of these MSA levels is continuing (Henshilwood 2008). Primary objectives of the Blombosfontein Research Project The primary objectives of the initial research at Blombosfontein were to examine the economic and cultural diversity present within and across these nine coastal middens. Although a few isolated sites had been excavated on the southern and south-western Cape coast previously, for example Die Kelders, Byneskranskop 1 and Nelson Bay Cave (Fig. 1.1), the BBF project was the first study in this region which involved a detailed examination of multiple sites located in close proximity to one another. The 3.5 sq. km Blombosfontein area is well suited to a project of this kind. There are 21 Later Stone Age sites of various ages, size and location in the area. Although a number of these sites had the potential to meet the objectives of the project, 9 sites were eventually chosen for excavation based on their age, contents, location and state of preservation. Other factors taken into 2 consideration included whether they were single or multiple occupation sites, and the amount of in situ deposit. The core of the project revolved around the excavation of the 9 sites and the subsequent analysis and interpretation of the recovered data. The area and extent of a site to be excavated was carefully marked out in order to retrieve as representative a sample of that site as was possible within the confines of the project. Prior to the commencement of excavation it was realised that the project could not only be centred on the recovered assemblages but would need to be extended to address a multiplicity of other issues. Initially, the foremost of these was palaeoenvironmental. To what extent had the ecology of the BBF area altered over the last 7000 years in terms of vegetation cover and the range of terrestrial fauna, and what effect had changes in sea levels, erosion, currents etc. had on the morphology of the coastline and its resources? Basically, we needed to know whether the inhabitants of the earliest site excavated, BBF 1, had the same set of resources to choose from as did the group who were the last occupants at Blombos Cave (BBC), about 350 years ago. If they did, then what factors may have motivated one group to select a particular set of resources for exploitation and another group a different set and, if this was the case, would we be able to recognise these differences from the archaeological record and/or relate them to environmental change? On the other hand, if environmental factors were responsible for changing the range and mix of exploitable resources at different times, how did human subsistence patterns change to meet the different demands placed on them by these ecological shifts? The location of the BBF sites are distinctly patterned, the earlier sites are all situated in the elevated dune-field at least 90 m a.s.l. (Fig. 5.2) One interesting exception is an extensive, multi-layered midden situated on a coastal promontory at the base of the cliffs which dated to around 4000 B.P. All the sites which post-date 2000 B.P., a date which coincides with the arrival of the first groups of pastoralists in the southern Cape, are located in small shelters situated in the coastal cliffs. Was this change in site location at 2000 B.P. coincidental, could it be related to environmental factors or was it due to pressures placed on hunter gatherer groups by the arrival of herders? There is also a noticeable decrease in the size of sites occupied in the post- 2000 B.P. era suggesting that the size of hunter gatherer bands decreases in the later period. One method of examining the social interaction between herders and hunter gatherers was to investigate the ethnohistoric accounts of early European travellers to the region. The earliest written records date to around the period of the last occupations at BBF. Although the numbers of ethnohistoric coastal observations are sparse they contained some information relating to the use of the near coastal area, both by herders and, unfortunately, less so, hunter gatherers. However, it was 3 also realised that while ethnohistoric accounts may provide some insight into the demographics and social relations of indigenous people in the southern Cape at around 300 - 400 years ago, it would be be imprudent to extrapolate this information back in time and apply it to the earlier occupations at BBF. Therefore, the only information we had to work with, which would assist in interpreting the earlier BBF occupations, was that contained in the excavated archaeological assemblages. This data also had its limitations. In most cases there were gaps of hundreds of years between occupation units and these could be interpreted in a number of ways. Either the BBF area was not occupied during these interim periods, or the evidence of these occupations was buried under the dunes or had not survived. It was also possible that during the last 7000 years ecological factors had, at times, made the BBF area less attractive for human occupation. Although climatic conditions on the western Cape coast were markedly different to those in the southern Cape during the Holocene, the coastal area in the Eland's Bay area was not occupied between around 8000 - 4000 B.P., suggesting that sections of the Cape coast were abandoned when ecological conditions were not conducive to human exploitation. Fortunately, the two well-excavated and radiocarbon dated sites at Nelson Bay Cave (Fairhall & Young 1973; Inskeep 1965, 1987) and Byneskranskop 1 (Schweitzer & Wilson 1982) (Fig. 1.1), situated respectively on the southern and south-western Cape coast, provide a useful comparative measure for the BBF sequence, despite the geographical distance separating the three sites. A fairly extensive review of the cultural sequence of the southern, south-western and eastern Cape during the Holocene, gained mainly from the excavation of sites located inland, was available for consultation and provided practical insights into the differences between the lithics from sites situated to the west of the Gouritz River, including BBF, and those in the eastern sector. Shellfish recovered from BBF sites are regarded as one of the key components in examining the range of diversity relating to marine subsistence strategies, both over time, but also in relation to site location and site type. On the southern Cape coastline different species of shellfish occur within each of the intertidal zones. This means we are able to determine the range of the intertidal zone exploited by the inhabitants at each site, and also possibly whether visits were timed to coincide with low spring tides as certain species would only have been accessible during these periods. The range of shellfish species at a site may also reflect the ecology of the coastline at the time, and provide information on the effects of varying sea levels, sea surface temperatures and salinity. Measuring the size of shellfish species from each site is a useful yardstick for gauging not only changes in mean sizes over time but also for examining the effects of varying sea temperatures on growth rates and/or human predation pressures which may reduce or increase the mean size of a species. 4 Although some of the BBF middens are almost exclusively shell dumps, the majority of sites in the area point to the pursuit of a range of subsistence activities, apart from shellfishing. Thus, while shellfish may have been one of the main attractions for visiting coastal areas it seems that other food resources also formed a major part of human subsistence strategies while at the coast.