Early hominin group size: A perspective from Bestwood 1, Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The study of primate social behavior in the wild has emerged as a tool with great potential for increasing our understanding early hominins. However, the application of models generated from observation of living primates to the archaeological record is challenging. Bestwood 1, a component of the Kathu Complex of sites in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa provides an opportunity to consider the spatial organization of hominin activity across a landscape at ca. 360 kyr in an archaeological context attributed to the Fauresmith. This article provides the first data for the spatial distribution of artifacts at Bestwood 1 and argues in favor of a baboon model of social organization for the hominin groups that generated the spatial patterning found at this locality.