Environment and subsistence of prehistoric man in the southern Cape Province, South Africa.

This paper discusses prehistoric man‐environment relationships in the Southern Cape, defined as Africa south of 32°S. lat. Although the area was occupied in the early Pleistocene and perhaps earlier, archaeological evidence only becomes substantial in mid‐Pleistocene contexts. Local mid‐Pleistocene peoples (Acheulean) seem to have been widespread, but reconstruction of their environment and subsistence remains a goal of future research. Detailed archeological knowledge is so far restricted to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, but even here major questions go unanswered. Chief among these is the nature of the replacement of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), some 30–40,000 years ago. In all known Southern Cape sites, the MSA is followed by a gap in occupation, varying from 15,000 to 25,000 years. This gap alone suggests that the immediate successors to MSA peoples may have been characterized by significantly different settlements and subsistence patterns from those of their predecessors. Additionally, the fact that MSA peoples in a coastal habitat utilized marine resources less intensively, and probably less effectively, than later Albany and Wilton (terminal Pleistocene and Holocene) peoples raises the possibility that replacement of the MSA was accompanied by a major advance in modes of resource exploitation. This and other problems are the focus of on‐going research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]