Coastal adaptations on the eastern seaboard of South Africa during the Pleistocene and Holocene? Current evidence and future perspectives from archaeology and marine geology

Abstract

The use of marine resources and the settlement of coastal settlements may have influenced the bio-cultural evolution and dispersal of Pleistocene Homo sapiens in Africa. In order to test such scenarios, however, we require evidence for these behaviours deriving from an expanded spatio-temporal archaeological record. The Stone Age of South Africa documents the richest and longest record of coastal adaptations. In contrast to abundant evidence of coastal sites on the western and southern seaboard, the eastern Indian Ocean coast has not played a role in recent discussions. Considering the important and well-known Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA/LSA) record from inland sites of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), this region may be an underappreciated area for further study. Here we provide a systematic overview of marine resource use and the settlement of coastal landscapes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in KZN. For the first time, we contextualize these archaeological findings with a review and new data on the changing marine and coastal geomorphology in the context of GIS modelling and offshore marine geophysical investigations. Our review finds evidence for long-term dietary and non-dietary use of marine resources during the MSA and LSA from a few stratified sites, with many more surface occurrences particularly for the MSA along the modern KZN coastline indicating human habitation. Comparisons to other areas of South Africa, GIS modelling and geological considerations suggest that current data on the eastern seaboard are not reflective of the original extent and nature of the consumption of marine foods and settlement of coastal landscapes. By contextualizing the biased and patchy MSA and LSA record with results on the dynamic marine and coastal geomorphology of KZN, we develop productive lines of future studies to assess open questions on potential coastal adaptations in this region. These research strategies include the identification of areas with high potential for finding new sites within a 10 km transect along the current coastline as well as dedicated off-shore projects including underwater archaeology aided by new marine geological work in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Evidence for Earlier Stone Age ‘coastal use’: The site of Dungo IV, Benguela Province, Angola

“…Several authors have explored why numerous ESA coastal sites have been discovered, coupled with only much younger evidence for "coastal adaptation", and varying arguments have been proposed to account for this. Among the arguments, coastal environments are regarded as being complex, unstable and unsafe, thus creating a cognitive barrier [16,[43][44][45][46]. Consequently, pre-sapiens hominins would have conducted a 'passive' colonization of coastal areas, whereas Homo sapiens would have conducted a more 'strategic' one [47] leading to a heavier reliance on coastal resources from the very end of the Middle Pleistocene [48].…”

“…It has led to inequalities in site valorization and has further hampered our vision of early coastal occupations across the broader coastal plain. In some areas, such as the Cape provinces, focus has been on understanding the emergence of coastal modern behavior, whereas other regions are helping to 'fill the gap' while clarifying coastal site distributions [16,42,61,75]. To provide some examples, in Namibia most coastal plain research has been focused on geology, given the important diamond bearing deposit caused by the Orange River drainage system, with work subsequently being supported by diamond mining companies [76].…”

“…The plain is currently shared between Angola, Namibia and South Africa, and is characterized, north to south, by the Zambezian woodland down to Lobito (Angola), the Karroo-Namib arid to semi-arid environment from Lobito all along the Namibian coast, and then the fynbos environment which begins in the Cape Province of South Africa [1]. Coastal archaeology is well-developed across this area, but especially in South Africa where there is a rich corpus of coastal sites that document past lifeways and early symbolic behaviors of Pleistocene coastal hunter-gatherers [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], and also in Namibia-especially during the Holocene [18]. However, there are gaps in our knowledge pertaining to specific areas and time periods across this plain, and it is unclear whether the adaptive strategies implemented by early humans represent a collective response that facilitated strategic local landscape and resource use.…”