A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, November 2014. / My analysis of the lithics, shellfish and tortoise recovered from layers dating to between 11.8 and 9.7 ka at Klipdrift Cave (KDC), De Hoop Nature Reserve, southern Cape, provides new information on the Oakhurst technocomplex. A re-analysis of a sample of lithic artefacts from Matjes River Rock Shelter (MRS) indicates many technological similarities, but also unexpected differences, highlighting the need for detailed contextualised studies that could reveal the complexity of the Oakhurst Industry. The lithic artefacts were analysed following a typo-technological approach. The KDC Oakhurst shares many characteristics typical of this technocomplex from the southern Cape, for example in the dominance of quartzite, irregular and unstandardized flakes, the occurrence of irregular cores and typical large side and end scrapers. It differs from most coastal Oakhurst sites in the more intensive exploitation of quartz, and the presence of a morphological blade component, especially in the lowermost layers. Shellfish remains were identified to species level in terms of minimum number of individuals (MNI) and weight. The two main species are Dinoplax gigas, dominating in the lower part of the sequence, between 11.8 and 11.1 ka and Turbo sarmaticus that is more numerous thereafter. These species provide the highest energy yield in terms of kilojoules, estimated at 667 511 kilojoules for both species combined. The species composition at KDC reflects changing environmental conditions that may relate to the effect of the Younger Dryas event, changing from a sheltered sandy bay to a habitat with more exposed rocks and less sand after 11.1 ka. T. sarmaticus opercula, Cymbula oculus shells and tortoise medio-lateral humeri were measured to investigate whether human predation pressure could have affected their size. Although the sizes of T. sarmaticus opercula show some decrease through time suggesting human predation pressure on these molluscs, there is also a possibility that environmental factors may have affected Turbo growth. The tortoise sizes at KDC, and some other Oakhurst sites, are similar to that of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) but the KDC data are iv inconclusive on whether intensive harvesting had an effect on average tortoise size.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / Since the latter part of the 20th century to the present, we have seen growing concerns about the potential collapse of socio-ecological systems due to climate change. On the other hand, palaeoenvironmentalists, archaeologists and anthropologists consistently point to evidence of how Homo-sapiens have survived within climate variability underpinned by an embodied/embedded relationship to their environments. Archaeological data shows how indigenous groups such as the Bushman have inhabited landscape features such as caves for longer than 10 000 years and thus survived through periods of climate variability. Another well researched element of Bushman life is their ritual practices. Given the low supply of livelihood resources within the contexts where such communities have survived, this study hypothesised a possible relationship between Bushman ritual practices and their long-term resilience when faced with variability. Using the Holocene habitation of the Wonderwerk Cave as the main case study, this study explored the relationship between people, place and ritual. Furthermore, the study applied phenomenology as the primary data collection method. The resultant first-person experience guided the researcher in engaging with secondary data from archaeology and ethnography. The study found that Bushman ritual practices such as trance constituted a critical adaptation tool in response to perpetually variable environments. Through such practices and their related tools such as art, space and myth, such communities managed to sustain a synchronised dialogue with place thus facilitating for ongoing dissolution of maladaptive behaviour. Another key finding is that our inability to change constitutes a key characteristic of our species today as we have been seduced into the trap of our deep psychic longing for existential continuity. The study argues for an architecture for resilience whose primary role would be to facilitate higher fluidity in our embeddedness to place and allowing for faster and trauma-free transitioning in synchronicity to our changing environments. In conclusion, the study finds that our own contemporary climate change has implications far beyond the techno-scientific understanding which has prevailed so far and is instead calling to be understood as an existential phenomenon to be primarily resolved through relevant/responsive ritual practices to facilitate our own transitioning and continued resilience. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 1995. / The main concern of this study is the investigation of the events which initiated the symbolic construction of communities in the south-eastern Cape during the Holocene Later Stone Age. To understand and to explain the relationships which existed between different groups in this region a social approach was followed. The data presented in this thesis are a summary of the results obtained from a large number of open-air shell middens, a coastal shelter, Kabeljous River Shelter 1, two coastal caves, Klasies River Caves 1 and 5 along the Cape St Francis coast and The Havens Cave, one of several sites excavated in the adjacent Cape mountains. Lithic evidence from the coastal sites indicates that during the past ·+500 years two distinctly different stone tool industries co-existed side by side along the south-eastern Cape coast. Caves were first occupied between 5800 and 4200 BP by groups with a typical Wilton Industry. At ca 3000 BP the Wilton Indu.rry was 'replaced' in the caves by a macro lithic quartzite cobble industry, named the Kabeljous Industry, but was still present in open-air shell middens until ca 1900 BP. At Klasies River Cave 5 both industries were Pl esent in the cave from 4200 BP to ca 3000 BP. There are no marked differences in the subsistence activities between the two different lithic industries and therefore it is argued that the Kabeljous industry does not reflect technological adaptation to a coastal environment. Instead I argue that the stone tools, as part of material culture production, played an active role in communicating information between groups. Central to the understanding of these social relationships are the concepts of power relations and inclusion. Style was the medium through which groups expressed symbolic group identity and maintained social boundaries. Important however, is the fact that the power rclutinns generated by symbolic identity expression was not aimed at excluding ether groups from their territory, but rather at. inclusion.