New data on avifaunal remains associated with the Middle Stone Age layers from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

New bird remains were identified in the faunal assemblage recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers of Diepkloof Rock Shelter in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The bird assemblage, while small, is composed of 12 distinct taxa, whose presence is linked to (1) the recovery of the material within a large rock shelter offering various roosting and/or nesting places (passerines and birds of prey such as Verreaux's eagle); the proximity of (2) the Verlorenvlei River (heron, white-breasted cormorant and African swamphen) and (3) the Atlantic Ocean coastline (African penguin and Cape cormorant). The occurrence of the coastal birds in the sequence seems to be stratigraphically consistent with other lines of evidence suggesting occasional human visits to the coast and correlates with putative periods of higher sea level and associated closer proximity of the shelter to the coastline (i.e. during the interglacial Marine Isotopic Stages 5 and 3). The taphonomic analysis shows a weak anthropogenic signal and suggests, rather, a primarily natural origin for most of the bird remains, possibly partly accumulated by a large raptor such as a Verreaux's eagle. By comparing data from Diepkloof Rock Shelter with data from Sibudu Cave, another large rock shelter located in a different part of South Africa but where the same techno-complexes have been recognized -namely the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort-, I touch on the possible influence of environmental and geographical factors on animal exploitation variability amongst late Pleistocene hunters-gatherers.