Faunal exploitation and the Palaeoenvironment during the Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Cave 1B

Abstract

The general taphonomic signature and palaeoenvironment of MSA sites and layers dated to the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5e in the Eastern and Western Cape of South Africa is not well known; most of the focus has been on the younger MIS 5d-a and MIS 4 layers at Klasies River main site (KRM). At KRM, the first faunal material excavated by Singer and Wymer was at the centre of debates about the agents of accumulation and faunal use by humans; however, the mesh size used was large, and some of the faunal remains were not recovered. The faunal material studied here is from KRM Cave 1B RS sub-member, excavated by Deacon, where most of the faunal remains were retained. The results show fauna from the RS sub-member was primarily accumulated by humans, although there were some incidences of carnivore and natural intrusions, but their role in contributing to the faunal sample was insignificant. The subsistence strategies used by humans suggest that they were hunting a variety of taxa, including mammals, birds, tortoise and fish, using tool technology associated with the MSA I. The Klasies Pattern is present in the entire sample but not per individual layers. Based on the relative abundance of ungulates present from the oldest to the youngest RS layers, the palaeoenvironment was a mixture of open grassland and closed environments during the older layers with more open grassland environment in the younger layers. The ecological tolerance of certain taxa may have implications on these findings, and the results may also reflect a dating issue at KRM Cave 1B.