Heritage Cases

Environmental changes have repeatedly been evoked, at least in part, as underlying the historical trajectories of cultural innovations evident in the South African Middle Stone Age (MSA). While the detailed record from South Africa represents a perfect area for research questions concerning culture-environment interactions, it is nevertheless possible to highlight grounds where crucial data is still missing. Detailed zooarchaeological analyses of faunal remains are remarkably rare for MSA archaeological sites. Such studies can however identify changes in subsistence strategies, seasonal or territorial organization, and thus provide a better understanding of how MSA groups adapted to environmental changes. We propose in this project to complement data on MSA subsistence strategies by performing cementochronological analyses on the faunal material from Blombos Cave. Cementochronology relies on the study of the dynamic patterns and rhythmicity in the deposition rate of mineralized tissue around tooth roots. In many mammalian species, the cementum growth follows predictable seasonal cycles with an alternation of fast and slow rate deposits during respectively the good and poor seasons. Microscopic analysis of these structures provides information about the age, the season at death and the life history of a given individual. Estimations of the season and age at death of the animals exploited by humans in archaeological sites can be used to characterize the annual scheduling of economic activities and the mobility strategies of the site inhabitants.