Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

Middle Stone Age. Parts of southern Africa were occupied by peoples of Middle Stone Age (MSA) cultures during the Birnam Interstadial (-35 000 to -24 000 year BP) of the latter part of the Late Pleistocene. Characteristically, the stone tools of the later MSA were triangular and irregular flakes, blades, points, knives, scrapers, and cores, as at Rose Cottage Cave in the Caledon Valley of the Free State, near the Lesotho border (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Places mentioned in the text, with the addition of Cape Town, Durban, and Bloemfontein

Figure 2. Stone tools characteristic of the later Middle Stone Age, from Rose Cottage Cave, Free State, South Africa. 1, flake; 2, 3, point; 4, blade; 5, 6, core reduced piece; 7, point with reduced butt; 8, scraper; 9, knife; 10, spall; 11, adze; 12, core rejuvenation flake; 13, blade. Reproduced from LWadley (1991) Rose Cottage Cave: Background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125-130, with permission from the South African Archaeological Society

Comparable tools have been discovered in unconsolidated deposits at Sehonghong in the Senqu (upper Orange River) Valley in Lesotho, in Strathalan Cave B near Maclear in the foothills of the Southern Drakensberg in the Eastern Cape, and elsewhere.

Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age Transition. At Sehonghong, tools that are considered transitional between the MSA and the Later Stone Age (LSA) were discovered in deposits dating between 27500 and 23 000 year BP (Figure 3). These and all other dates are calibrated radiocarbon dates, the sigma ranges are not shown. At Strathalan Cave B longer and broader flake-blades were produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’ and date to between 28 250 and 27250 year BP (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Formal stone tools of the later MSA, Sehonghong, Lesotho. 1-4, scrapers; 5, flake; 6-9, knives. Reproduced from PJ Mitchell (1994) Understanding the MSA/LSAtransition: The pre-20 000 BP assemblages from new excavations at Sehonghong rock shelter, Lesotho. Southern African Field Archaeology 3:15-25, with permission from the Board of the Trustees of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown

Figure 4. Long and broad flake blades from Strathalan Cave B, produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’: 1, flake-blade; 2-6, retouched flakes; 7, point. Reproduced from Opperman H (1996) Strathalan Cave B, north-eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Evidence for human behaviour 29,000-26,000 years ago. Quaternary International 33: 45-53, with permission of Elsevier/INQUA

Occupation floors excavated at Strathalan Cave B and dated to -33 900 and to between 28 250 and 27250 year BP, contained patches of packed grass that were presumably used as bedding and were located near hearths, as well as twigs, corm scales, other plant debris, and bone fragments (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Plant remains on an occupation floor dating to 33 900 year BP, Strathalan Cave B. Photographed and reproduced by permission of H. Opperman

These remains indicate that the inhabitants ate corms of Watsonia as well as other plant foods, and meat derived from rock hyrax (dassies) and from various antelopes including eland, blesbuck, wildebeest, springbuck, and klipspringer. The MSA dwellers of the area probably used fire to stimulate the production of edible corms and to encourage the growth of new and sweet grass in order to attract game to the area.

Fire was also important for warmth at a time of deteriorating climate. Strathalan Cave B was occupied at 25 000 year BP but was abandoned by 24 000 year BP, when extremely cold conditions existed in the adjacent Drakensberg during the Bottelnek Stadial, which began ~24 000 year BP but ended before -15 000 year BP.

Palaeoclimatic conditions are evidenced at altitudes above 1800 m by rock glacier and gelifluction (head) deposits and, although dated less certainly, by moraines and protalus ramparts. No further evidence of human occupation of the Southern Drakensberg exists until 12 000 year BP, when the Ravenscraig rock shelter, near Barkly East (Figure 1), was occupied. Lesotho and the interior of South Africa were apparently unoccupied during the Bottelnek Stadial and earlier part of the succeeding Late Glacial, which lasted from -15 000 until -11500 year BP.

Areas at lower altitudes and on the coastal side of the Great Escarpment (Drakensberg) were occupied during the Bottelnek Stadial, as at Howison’s Poort near Grahamstown, Nelson Bay Cave near Plettenberg Bay, Melkhoutboom Cave between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, and Boomplaas near Oudtshoorn.