South African Archaeological Society Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North-Central Cape Province, South Africa Author(s): Richard G. Klein Source: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 129 (Jun., 1979), pp. 34-49 Published by: South African Archaeological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3888169 Accessed: 20-05-2015 19:27 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3888169?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. South African Archaeological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The South African Archaeological Bulletin. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 196.21.233.72 on Wed, 20 May 2015 19:27:12 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PALEOENVIRONMENTALAND CULTURALIMPLICATIONS OF LATE HOLOCENE ARCHAEOLOGICALFAUNAS FROM THE ORANGE FREE STATE AND NORTH-CENTRALCAPE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA* RICHARD G. KLEIN Departmentof Anthropology,University of Chicago,1126 East 59th St., Chicago,R. 60637 Introduction:the sites The available descriptionsindicate that the assem- This paper reports on small faunal samples I have blagesare characterizedoverall by formal stone tools, analysed from thirteen late Holocene archaeological especiallytypes of scrapersand backedelements, that sites in the OrangeFree State and north-centralCape are characteristicof the Wilton/SmithfieldIndustrial Province. Six of the sites-Powerhouse Cave, Lime- Complex of southern Africa (see J. Deacon 1974). rock Shelters1 and 2, Dikbosch Shelters1 and 2, and If the assemblageshad to be fitted within the classic Burchell'sShelter-were excavatedbetween 1973 and Later Stone Age classification scheme of Goodwin 1976 by A. J. B. Humphreys; four others-Blyde- and Van Riet Lowe (1929), they would probably be fontein Shelter, Riversmead Shelter, Glen Elliott placedvariously in the 'SmithfieldB' or the 'Smithfield Shelter, and Ventershoek Shelter-were excavated C', though these units were definedalmost exclusively between 1965 and 1967 by C. G. Sampson; and the from surface samples which are not directly com- remainingthree-Tienfontein Shelters2, 4A, and 7- parable to the excavated ones. were excavated in 1973 by M. Brooker. Figure 1 Sampson has divided the materials he excavated shows the approximatelocations of these sites and of among a series of successiveLater Stone Age phases, other fossiliferous late Holocene localities in the initially referred to simply by numbers (Sampson same region. 1970, 1972) and subsequently by names (Sampson Figures 2 and 3 and their captions present some 1974). His scheme is set out here in Table 1. importantculture-stratigraphic information, 14C dates, Humphreys (1973a, see also 1972) has already and sources of backgroundinformation on the sites. suggestedthat this scheme may requiremodification, From the figures,it is obvious that none of the sites and his analysis of the materials he has excavated, contains more than 1,40 m of deposit and most of in combination with his reanalysis of Sampson's them contain substantiallyless. With the exceptionof materials,will probablyresult in a somewhatdifferent Dikbosch 1, none of the sites contains deposits cultural framework.Working with similar materials clearly older than about 4000 years, while at some of from roughly the same time interval(c. 4500 B.P. to the sites the deposits probably span no more than near present) from the Highlands Shelter in the the last few decades or centuries.Dikbosch 1 is less Karoo-Cape Midlands to the south of the area of an exception than it might appear at first glance focused on here, H. J. Deacon (1976) has recognized (Fig. 3), since it apparentlycontains a major deposi- only a single cultural entity, albeit one marked by tional non-sequence spanning the interval between some interestingand importantchange in stone tool perhaps13 000 and 3000 years ago, and the overwhel- size and shape through time. ming majority of the artefacts and bones probably At present,one of the more curious aspects of the come fromabove the non-sequence(Humphreys 1974). prehistory of the Orange Free State and northern At nearlyall the sites, well-definedstratigraphy was Cape, and indeed of virtuallythe entire South African absent, and the excavators were forced to dig in interior,is that sites with culturalremains older than arbitraryor semi-arbitrarylayers or 'spits'. In com- 4500 years and younger than 9500 years are all but bination with the fact that the samples of charcoal unknown (J. Deacon 1974). The only exception to used to obtain dates at the sites excavatedby Sampson this generalization is Rose Cottage Cave in the were usually composed of individualpieces dispersed easternmostOrange Free State (Malan 1952; Vogel throughouta spit, the fact that spits may sometimes 1970; Vogel & Marais 1971), where the pertinent have crosscut natural stratigraphy and important archaeological materials have yet to be described. depositional breaks probably accounts for some What this means is that it is impossible to say what apparentinconsistencies (inversions) in 14Cdates. The sorts of culturalmaterials immediatel precedethose excavation method probably also accounts in part known from the sites of interest here. The reasons for the lack of consistency in the dates for the first for a general gap in the record between c. 9500 B.P. appearanceof pottery or of Iron Age objects in the and c. 4500 B.P. are not entirely clear, but it is sites, though differencesin site location and small probably due in part to the shallow, ephemeral sample sizes (sampling error) may also be partly nature of rock shelters in the area, so that most of responsible. those which existed prior to 4500 B.P. may no longer exist. It may also be due in part to unfavorable The place of the sites in SouthernAfrican prehistory climatic conditions. Particularly between roughly The artefacts from the various sites have been 6500 and 4500 B.P., climatemay have been simplytoo described in the referencescited in the captions to dry to support human populations with substantial Figures 2 and 3, and with the exception of the archaeologicalvisibility (Butzer, Stuckenrathet al. Tienfontein materials, will be further analysed in a 1978). comprehensive, comparative study by Humphreys. It is probable that the last people to make stone tools and other objects of the kinds found in the * Received June 1978, revised January 1979. sites discussedhere werethe San or 'Bushmen'hunter- 34 1979. S. Afr. archaeol.Bull. 34: 34-49. This content downloaded from 196.21.233.72 on Wed, 20 May 2015 19:27:12 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions gathererswhom earlyEuropean travellers encountered Elphick (1977) is correct in suggestingthat the first in variousparts of the north-centralCape and Orange herders to enter South Africa passed through the Free State in the late eighteenthand early nineteenth region, then herders should have been present there centuries (Stow 1905; Wilson 1969; Elphick 1977). at least as early as in the southernCape coastal region In 1811, WilliamBurchell observed a hunter-gatherer and its hinterland, where sheep and possibly also band in the shelter named for him that has provided cattle are well documented at or shortly after the some of the faunal remainsdiscussed below, and it is time of Christ (Schweitzer& Scott 1973; Schweitzer possible, perhaps even probable, that some of the 1974, 1975; Avery 1975; H. J. Deacon & Brooker animal bones and the stone artefactsthat accompany 1976; H. J. Deacon, J. Deacon et al. 1978; Klein & them were left behind by the very people whom Inskeep unpub.; Parkington 1976). However, none Burchell met (Humphreys 1975). of the sites consideredhere has providedunquestion- At the time of Europeancontact, hunter-gatherers able remains of domestic animals in a context where in some parts of the northernCape and OrangeFree the remains are demonstrably more than a few State were in contact with Hottentot-speakingpas- decades or centuriesold, and it remainspossible that toralists and with Tswana- and Sotho-speakingIron the initial appearanceof stock in the South African Age farmers(Fig. 1). Iron Age peoples were restricted interiorwas in fact relativelylate, perhapscoinciding to the northern and eastern peripheriesof the area, more closely with the advent of Iron Age peoples probablyby the climatic conditions necessaryfor the than with the much earlierappearance of Stone Age success of their mixed farming economies (Maggs herders along the west and south coasts. 1971; Humphreys1976). Although it is now clear that In the southern Cape, the appearanceof domestic Iron Age peopleswere present in the Transvaal,Natal, stock seems to have coincided closely with the first and perhaps even the south-easternCape from the appearanceof pottery, suggestinga linkage between early centuries of the Christianera (Maggs