The Last Glacial Maximum, Strathalan Cave and human networks in the broader Drakensberg
By:
Dr Jerome Reynard
Date:
Thu, 07/11/2024 - 19:30
Venue:
The Auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown, Johannesburg
Branch:
Northern
The Last Glacial Maximum, Strathalan Cave and human networks in the broader Drakensberg
Talk by Dr Jerome Reynard
Date: Thursday, 07 November 2024
Time: 19h30
Venue: The Auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown.
Charge: Non-members: R50, members: free
Strathalan Cave near present-day Maclear in the Eastern Cape is a Stone Age site at the foot of the Drakensberg. First excavated by Mannie Opperman in the early 1990s, it is one of few sites with deposits that date to the Last Glacial Maximum. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was an exceptionally cold period in the Earth’s history, with extensive ice sheets blanketing much of Europe and North America and a substantial drop in Global temperature. In southern Africa, with its variable climate, the LGM was likely associated with increases in both aridity and precipitation - depending on the region. Certain areas, such as the highlands of the Drakensberg and its foothills would have likely been significantly impacted. Extreme environmental stressful periods, such as the LGM, would have affected social and subsistence networks across southern Africa. Yet, the details of these changing conditions are still unclear.
This talk focuses on how the LGM affected South Africa in general and the broader Drakensberg in particular. New excavations at Strathalan Cave will also be discussed, as well as the role the site may have played in regional networks in south-eastern South Africa.
Dr Jerome Reynard lectures at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. His research focuses on the zooarchaeology of the Middle Stone Age. He is currently involved in research on occupational intensity in southern Africa during the early Pleistocene.
Report posted 03 December 2024
Dr Reynard and his team from Wits University are exploring the kinds of exchange and communication networks, as well as seasonal mobility patterns, that existed between the coast and Strathalan Cave in the southern Drakensberg during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), roughly 20 000 years ago. The cave is located approximately 10 km north of Maclear in the Eastern Cape, in the ecotone between two grassland regions: East Griqualand grassland and southern Drakensberg Highland grassland.
Students excavating at Strathalan B. Prof. Dominic Stratford supervising. Photo by Jerome Reynard.
Report by Justin Bradfield
Students excavating at Strathalan B. Prof. Dominic Stratford supervising. Photo by Jerome Reynard.
The popular image conjured up by the terms ‘Glacial’ and ‘Ice Age’ is one of frozen deserts and glacier-covered mountains. But in southern Africa, Dr Reynard explained, the effects of the LGM were somewhat different. While there was a drop in overall temperature of between 2 and 10 degrees celsius, this was more marked in the southwest and the northeast of the country. The westerly winds moved further north, extending the winter rainfall zone. There was greater precipitation over this area, together with greater aridity to the northeast.
Such environmental changes would have stimulated the movement of people on the landscape. Sea levels would have been much lower than they are today, meaning that many of today’s coastal sites would not have been on the coast during some of the periods in which they were occupied.
In Eurasia, the LGM is marked by a proliferation of material culture expression. In southern Africa, it is the period when the Later Stone Age as a technological expression becomes fully distinct from the preceding Middle Stone Age period, although this transition began about 20 000 years earlier. The period immediately after the LGM witnessed population expansion, evident at many sites in the area.
Strathalan Cave was first occupied at the start of Marine Isotope Stage 2, just before the onset of the LGM. The site is actually a complex of three rock overhangs. Cave B, which has excellent organic preservation, is the one Dr Reynard is primarily interested in. The site was originally excavated by Manie Opperman in the early to mid-1990s. These early excavations removed approximately 12 m2 of deposit, revealing a central hearth surrounded by grass bedding. An interesting category of finds was of knotted grass stems similar to those Hilary Deacon found at Melkhoutboom.
Opperman’s excavations revealed a late Middle Stone Age expression of stone tools, akin to those at Sehonghong in Lesotho. He also found remains of Hippotragine antelopes. The precise identification of the Hippotragines is important from an environmental point of view. If the remains are from roan antelope, it would indicate that the vegetation was rich in high-quality grassland, much like today. If the remains turn out to be of bluebuck it would mean that the vegetation was more like fynbos.
Dr Reynard hopes that the renewed excavations at Strathalan B, together with excavations by other research teams at coastal sites, will help shed more light on occupation patterns in the Drakensberg region at this time, and on seasonal mobility between the highlands and the present-day coastal area. This in turn might help us better understand social exchange networks, which are thought to have followed the river courses. Occupations at coastal and highland sites appear to complement each other in terms of the season in which they were occupied, lending credence to the seasonal mobility hypothesis. Modern analytical techniques, like micromorphology, anthracology and a better understanding of taphonomy, all have a role to play in deciphering the clues left behind at Strathalan Cave B.
Report by Justin Bradfield