The palaeoecology of Klasies River, South Africa: An analysis of the large mammal remains from the 1984–1995 excavations of Cave 1 and 1A

Abstract

Given the large number of hominin and archaeological remains the site has yielded, Klasies River has contributed significantly to our understanding of how humans developed and behaved during the Middle Stone Age. Its extensive occupational sequence and the abundance of faunal remains recovered from the deposits also make it an important site in exploring palaeoenvironmental change during the Late Pleistocene. The mammalian fauna from the over 70 000 year long sequence at Klasies River possibly extending from MIS 6 to 3 are useful in positioning the evolution of complex human behaviour within an environmental context. Here, we use the large mammal fauna excavated in the 1980s and 1990s from Klasies River Cave 1 and 1A to test links between ungulate diversity and palaeoclimatic change in the south-eastern Cape of South Africa. Fauna from extended Pleistocene sequences in the south-eastern Cape are relatively rare and collections such as these are important proxies for assessing environmental change in this particular region. Our analysis indicates that the proportion of ungulate grazers, browsers and mixed-feeders shifts in accordance with glacial/interglacial fluctuations. We find significant correlations between grazer proportions and ungulate diversity through the sequence which may be linked to the effect of marine regressions on the landscape or shifting moisture availability. We compare the Klasies River data set with a selection of Middle Stone Age sites in the southern Cape. Our analysis suggests that primary productivity is greater along the eastern southern Cape than the western region. This study has broad implications for understanding the relationship between expanding grasslands and ungulate richness during the Late Pleistocene.