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Mussel Point Midden
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SiteReference:
Organisation:
DeclarationType:
GazetteNo:
Gazette Date:
NoticeNo:
Notice Date:
GazetteFile:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Prov-gaz_6621 Declaration in Gazette 9 April 2009.pdf | 242.2 KB |
DiagramNo:
ShortDescription:
DECLARATION OF HERITAGE RESOURCES AS PROVINCIAL HERITAGE SITES MUSSEL POINT MIDDEN (MIKE TAYLOR’S MIDDEN), ELAND’S BAY
In terms of section 27 of the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999, Heritage Western Cape hereby declares Mussel Point Midden (Mike Taylor’s Midden), fully described in the schedule, as a Provincial Heritage Site.
FullDescription:
Significance
There are only a handful of shell middens along the West Coast of South Africa that are as large and deep as Mike Taylor’s Midden (MTM). These very large sites, named ‘‘megamiddens’’, are the expression of unique social and economic (subsistence) solutions to environmental and demographic challenges that pre-colonial san hunter-gatherers had to face between 3000 and 2000 years before present (BP). MTM megamidden is at least 350m long and 200m wide and has a depth that varies between 1.0 and 1.5m. MTM dates to between 980 and 2800 BP, however, much of this occupational sequence dates to between 2100 and 2500 BP. For this reason, MTM is singular among megamiddens in that it offers the best chronological resolution (greatest volume for shortest period of time) for the later part of this unique period of the precolonial history of South Africa.
