Changing collecting strategies of the clam Donax serra Röding (Bivalvia: Donacidae) during the Pleistocene at Pinnacle Point, South Africa

Jerardino, Antonieta; Navarro, R. A.; Galimberti, Mariagrazia

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.12.012

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…4) between strata 7 and 1; ichthyofauna (Fig. 5) are especially abundant in level 5a (Ramos et al, 2011a,b;2014;Cantillo and Soriguer, 2011;Cantillo, 2012. In order to ensure the comparability of results, we have used the database CLEMAM (Check list of European marine mollusca), published by the Mus eum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris).…”

Section: Marine Resources In the Rock Shelter Of Benzúmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early use of marine resources by Middle/Upper Pleistocene human societies: The case of Benzú rockshelter (northern Africa)

Muñoz

Duarte

Bernal‐Casasola

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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This article examines the role played by marine resources for hunter-gatherer groups of the Middle/ Upper Pleistocene in the geohistorical region around the Straits of Gibraltar, on the basis of new evidence collected at the rock shelter of Benzú (North Africa). The stratigraphic sequence at Benzú has been dated to between 254 and 70 ka. The excavations have revealed the exploitation of marine gastropods and bivalves, alongside fish. The most common taxon in the sequence is the genus Patella. The analysis of the molluscs and their spatial distribution shows that these animals were purposely collected by humans, probably as a food source. In order to contribute to the debate about the origins and scale of the exploitation of marine resources during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, the evidence collected at Benzú is interpreted within the broader context of North Africa and southern Europe. The similarity of groups of Homo sapiens sapiens in North Africa and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis in southern Europe in terms of lifestyle and subsistence strategies is interpreted as reflecting equally similar social and economic practices, in spite of the diversity of anthropological perspectives on the relationship between humans and the environment currently in vogue.

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Section: Marine Resources In the Rock Shelter Of Benzúmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early use of marine resources by Middle/Upper Pleistocene human societies: The case of Benzú rockshelter (northern Africa)

Muñoz

Duarte

Bernal‐Casasola

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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“…Hence, dominant ecological conditions at reefs play an important role in shaping the material record of nearby shell middens. Clearly, there is a need for archaeo-malacology studies, particularly in southern Africa, to engage more fully with ecological variables beyond general or basic considerations in order to maximize data interpretation (e.g., Campbell, 2008;Fa, 2008;Flores and Broitman, 2008;Giovas et al, 2010Giovas et al, , 2013Jerardino et al, 2014;Thakar, 2011). Other important sources of variability in zooarchaeological assemblages, such as human predation, prey choice and foraging strategies, seasonality, and environmental changes, to name a few, are also important and need to be weighed on a case by case basis (e.g., Bird et al, 2002;Giovas et al, 2010Giovas et al, , 2013Jerardino et al, 2008;Whitaker and Byrd, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in late Holocene shellfish assemblages: the significance of large shore barnacles (Austromegabalanus cylindricus) in South African West Coast sites

Jerardino

2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…The South African MSA coastal dwellers who produced what are usually considered the oldest-known true shell middens, dated between about 128 and 60 ka at sites including the Klasies River Caves (Deacon and Deacon, 1999;Deacon and Wurz, 2005), Pinnacle Point Caves 13B and 5/6 (Jerardino et al, 2014;Marean, 2014;Marean et al, 2014), Blombos Cave (Henshilwood, 2005;Henshilwood et al, 2001;Langejans et al, 2012), Klipdrift Shelter (Henshilwood et al, 2014), and Ysterfontein 1 Shelter (Avery et al, 2008;Wurz, 2012), discarded not only numerous shells, but also thousands of bones from terrestrial mammals and fur seals. The especially rich Klasies River Caves are in fact probably much better known for their extensive mammalian fauna than for their shellfish (Bartram and Marean, 1999;Binford, 1984;Klein, 1976Klein, , 1989Outram, 2001;Turner, 1989).…”

Section: Do Shell-rich Sites Imply Mastery Of the Tidal Cycle?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shellfishing and human evolution

Klein

Bird

2016

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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Southern and northwestern Africa have provided the oldest known shell middens, dating from the Last Interglacial (MIS 5, ~128-71 ka) and the early part of the succeeding glaciation (MIS 4, ~71-59 ka). However, when and if older, suitably situated, stratified coastal sites are found, they are likely to show that routine shellfishing began much earlier, perhaps from the time that people first occupied coasts. Ethnohistoric records suggest that ancient people would have shellfished mainly during twice-monthly periods when the intertidal zone is maximally exposed. Caloric and nutrient return for coastal shellfishing effort can be quite high, but only when the intertidal is exposed, and archaeology implies that like ethnohistorically observed groups, ancient shellfish collectors depended more on terrestrial and marine vertebrates and on plants. Shellfishing can generate highly visible and durable archaeological signatures, and only a few collecting episodes each year could have produced the oldest middens, which span many millennia. Shell middens are so far unknown in European Neanderthal (Mousterian) and succeeding Upper Paleolithic sites, probably because suitably situated sites have yet to be found. Consistently large gastropod size in the oldest known middens suggests that human population growth cannot explain either the occasional presence of "symbolic" artifacts or the innovative burst that coincides with the spread of fully modern Africans to Eurasia 60-50 ka.

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Changing collecting strategies of the clam Donax serra Röding (Bivalvia: Donacidae) during the Pleistocene at Pinnacle Point, South Africa

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

Early use of marine resources by Middle/Upper Pleistocene human societies: The case of Benzú rockshelter (northern Africa)

Early use of marine resources by Middle/Upper Pleistocene human societies: The case of Benzú rockshelter (northern Africa)

Variability in late Holocene shellfish assemblages: the significance of large shore barnacles (Austromegabalanus cylindricus) in South African West Coast sites

Shellfishing and human evolution

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