Responses to Coastal Environment Diversity in Middle and Late Stone Age Fish Harvesting Practices, Southern Cape, South Africa

Overview
This postdoctoral project was developed in collaboration with the above participants. The project is designed as part of the Center for Early Sapiens Behavior (SapienCE) project, contributing towards answering the key research question: how adaptable were humans to environmental change and did climate impacts act as drivers for technological innovation and subsistence adaptation? Furthermore, as part of the European Leaders for Marine Sustainability (SEAS) programme at the University of Bergen, the research will contribute towards research on present day marine sustainability along the southern cape of South Africa.
This research project will address two primary questions. Did coastal resource diversity increase between the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) along the southern Cape of South Africa in conjunction with estuary development and changes in the range of cold-water fishes? If diversity and stability increased in the LSA, did the human harvesting of marine resources increase? To test these questions, I will analyze fish teeth, seal teeth, and
otoliths from the MSA using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analyses and fish and seal bone collagen from the LSA using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses. I will conduct these analyses using fauna assemblages from Blombos Cave, Klasies River main site, Nelson Bay Cave and Hoffman’s/Robberg Cave. These methods will allow me to address both changes in the diversity and stability of marine ecosystem along the southern Cape of South Africa and if human harvesting practices changed. The results have implications not just for ho the ecology of the southern coast of South Africa has changed up to present day, but also how humans respond to environmental changes such as the development of seasonal estuary abundance and sardine migrations.