Luminescence dating estimates for the coastal MSA sequence of Hoedjiespunt 1 (South Africa)

Abstract

Coastal adaptations have been considered to play an important role in the bio-cultural evolution of early Homo sapiens and their dispersal out of Africa. In line with this assessment, recent years have seen increasing evidence for the exploitation of seafood from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of northern and southern Africa. Yet, chronological control constitutes a key problem for better understanding the evolution of these behaviours, with little well-dated evidence for their origins in the late Middle Pleistocene and only few sites dated to before 100 ka. The shellfish-bearing MSA site of Hoedjiespunt 1 (HDP1), located in the Western Cape in South Africa, is one of the localities tentatively dated to the early Late Pleistocene. HDP1 has yielded a 1.5 m stratigraphic sequence with three phases of occupation, each containing abundant lithic artefacts, shellfish, terrestrial fauna, ostrich eggshell and pieces of ground ochre. Analyses of the cultural and zooarchaeological remains of HDP1 have provided evidence for systematic gathering of a narrow range of marine resources coupled with stable adaptations to coastal landscapes. Here we present the first complete absolute chronology for the site and its entire stratigraphic sequence by applying luminescence dating (OSL) to quartz grains extracted from the carbonate-rich sediments. The results show repeated human occupations during Marine Isotope Stages 5e-5c (∼130–100 ka) at HDP1, suggesting successful integration of coastal ecosystems into the regular repertoire of behavioural adaptations by early modern humans by no later than the beginning of the Late Pleistocene.