Sites

A large but severely damaged Later Stone Age (LSA) shell midden was located in the extreme south-western portion of Portion 23/7 of the farm uitkomst,paternoster. The midden also extends into portion 23/17, which does not form part of the current study.The uppermost deposits of the midden has been largely destroyed by heavy trampling  and pedestrian traffic moving over the top of the dune, but some smaller dune hummocks in both portions 23/7 and 23/17 appear to contain some in-situ  shell fish remains. some well preserved, but damaged and distributed in-situ layers of shellfish are visible in the road cutting alongside St. Augustine Road. Black mussel ( choromytilus meridionalis) dominates the in-situ shellfish alongside St. Augustine Road,with smaller amounts of white mussels( Donax Serra ), and limpets species (patellla argenvillei Patella granatina, and even smaller amounts of patella cochlear ) occurring. Burnt shellfish remains are also apparent in the dune cutting. Some bird bone and tortoises bone was also noted in the shellfish sections, and spilling down slope into the road reserve. A few stone tools were also noted on the eroding slopes. These includes some quartz chunks, flakes and a core, and a silcrete flake. The damage top of the midden comprises mainly heavily crushed and fragmented black mussels shell. Some fragmented limpets and white mussels were also noted. One quartz chunk ,two rough quartzite flakes and two quartzite cobbles/manuports  were also found.  This site is very visible, vulnerable and further threatened by the proposed development of the site.