Stone Age landscape use in the Olifants River Valley, Clanwilliam, Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTStone Age surface assemblages are all too often neglected in favour of stratified, datable cave sequences, thus overlooking important insights into changing behavioural patterns at a broader scale. The Olifants River Valley (Clanwilliam, Western Cape Province, South Africa) presents a rich surface lithic record alongside excavated rockshelter occupations from the early Middle Stone Age (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA). Surface surveys in the Olifants River Valley mapped temporally diagnostic artefacts and their association with different topographic features in order to investigate past landscape use. Our approach refers to a hypothesis proposed by Hilary Deacon, framing the MSA within the context of earlier and later patterns of behaviour. Based on observations from sites across South Africa, Deacon described Earlier Stone Age (ESA) landscape use as ‘stenotopic’, with a narrow focus on permanent water sources, and LSA landscape use as ‘eurytopic’, using a much broader range of habitats but specifically occupying rockshelters as domestic sites. Deacon suggested that the intervening MSA, in its later stages, shows a pattern that anticipated LSA landscape use. We apply Deacon's model to the study area, observing distinctive preferences for certain locations and raw materials and approaching changing patterns of artefact discard from a technological perspective.