Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 – Stratigraphy, chronology, and archaeological find density from MIS 3 to MIS 1 on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (south coast, South Africa)

Abstract

Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH-1), a south-facing archaeological site on the southern coast of South Africa preserves the first record directly relevant to the lives and environments of people living on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP) from later Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 after ∼45 thousand years ago (ka) and continuing throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka). This stratified deposit dated from at least ∼45 ka until ∼15 ka (modelled ages), includes periods of intensive site use by human forager populations from ∼34 ka to ∼19 ka and during the Holocene. Here we present a synthesis of the stratigraphy, chronology, and archaeological find distribution, including estimates of relative find density over time. We show that forager populations exploited coastal resources during late MIS 3. This contrasts with a subsequent and prolonged period of intensive site use during the LGM when foragers shifted their focus more to terrestrial resources. KEH-1 bridges a critical chronological gap between key Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological sites along the southern coast and provides the first evidence of an intensive and continuous record of occupation on the edge of the PAP near the end of the Pleistocene. This result provides the first archaeological record explicitly tested against a recently published dynamic model of the PAP ecosystem that predicts relatively high concentrations of human foragers on the plain during the LGM. Given the continuity of the KEH-1 archaeological record and its contemporaneity with multiple technological transitions known from archaeological sites across southern Africa, the site is important to interpretations of the MSA to LSA transition. Further, the temporal overlap between KEH-1 and the deep inland sequence at Boomplaas Cave, as well as the later MIS 2 deposits at nearby Nelson Bay Cave provides an important expansion of the Western Cape regional archaeological record.