The exploitation of fish during the Holocene in the South-Western Cape, South Africa

Bibliography: pages 202-225.This thesis describes the fish remains recovered from a number of sites in three different localities in South Africa; Elands Bay and Langebaan Lagoon on the west coast, and False Bay on the Cape Peninsula. Chapter One is an introductory account of ichthyology, its usefulness in archaeological research and the range of analytical work done in South Africa, whilst Chapter Two is an attempt to show the history and development of the study of fish bones recovered from prehistoric sites in South Africa. Chapter Three gives an account of the southern Oceans, the Benguela Current and fishing habitats. Chapters Four and Five give accounts of the fishing habitats within the Elands Bay area and of the identification and interpretation of fish assemblages excavated at four sites and their implications in relation to habitat and palaeoenvironmental changes at Elands Bay. This information is used first to show that the presence or absence of certain species and the size of those species in the archaeological record can be used as an alternative means to interpret late Pleistocene and Holocene sea level fluctuations and to understand to what extent local fishing habitats have been influenced by those changes. An important observation made was the relative surplus or deficit of vertebrae compared to cranial parts through the sequence. The over-representation or under-representation of fish vertebrae in the fish assemblages points to changes in the procurement strategy employed. The consistency between cranial:vertebral ratios through the site sequences suggests that these patterns are related to both location and processing techniques. Chapter Six reviews the ecology of the Langebaan Lagoon, the identification of fish assemblages from three open midden stations; Stotbergfontein on the shores of the lagoon and Paternoster and Duiker Eiland which are located on the Vredenberg peninsula. Chapter Seven gives a short overview of the modern fishing situation at False Bay and discusses the fish assemblages from Smitswinkelbaai Cave and Rooiels Cave in the False Bay area. Chapter Eight deals with the archaeological evidence for fishing equipment and the depiction of fishing scenes in the rock art of South Africa and addresses the historical evidence for indigenous fishing in the south-western Cape. Chapter Nine gives an overview of the historical fishing at the Cape, the use of outposts near Langebaan Lagoon and Muizenberg in False Bay by the Dutch to supply the Cape settlement with provisions. In Chapter Ten the relevant evidence from each of the chapters is summarised and the conclusions for the three areas are presented