Limpet Gathering Strategies in the Later Stone Age Along the Cape West Coast, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Past archaeological investigations into the impact of shellfish gathering by hunter-gatherers on shellfish stocks, particularly on shellfish size, generally have emphasized long-term change visible in stratigraphic sequences. We propose that short-term exploitation of shellfish by Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers who briefly inhabited the Dunefield Midden (DFM) campsite on the Atlantic Coast of South Africa had impacts, at time scales measured likely in days or weeks, that are expressed by spatial variability in the size and relative proportions of two species of limpet across a horizontally large excavated area encompassing a refuse dump and a likely domestic area. We link variability to choices by the site occupants to collect the largest limpets first and gather the smallest individuals late in an occupation event when only small shellfish remained available. Environmentally driven change in shellfish size or species proportions is unlikely at DFM given the short occupation span of the site. Behavioral factors might be relevant for understanding shellfish variability at other sites where excavation has not uncovered a sufficiently large horizontal area to detect pertinent patterns.

Keywords:

• shellfish
• hunter-gatherers
• spatial variation
• Western Cape
• South Africa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank all those individuals who measured shellfish from DFM, especially Debbie Adams and Dolores Jacobs; and Tobias Tonner for compiling the DFM shellfish database. We are grateful to Neil Rusch for creating the illustrations. The logistical and financial support of the University of Cape Town is also acknowledged. JWF thanks Montana State University for providing a sabbatical during which this manuscript was prepared.