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Iron age fauna from Sibudu cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This dissertation provides an analysis of the faunal remains
excavated from the BSV and BSS layers from Sibudu Cave,
Kwa Zulu-Natal. Based on ceramics, presence of daga floors and
glass beads found within the layers the BSV and BSS were
classified as dating to the Iron Age period (AD 900-1660) . The
met hod of analysis follows Driver (2005).
The presence of taxa shows that na tural occupants, non-human
predators and human occupants accumulated the faunal material
in Sibudu Cave. The taxa identified provide strong indication
that at this time the site was predominantly occupied by farmers,
who hunted wild ungulates and gathered marine taxa. The
occupants may have used the site as a temporary shelter between
camps or settlements and coastal sites. There is also some
indication that the cave was utilised for religious purposes .

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15065
Date30 July 2014
CreatorsLe Roux, Andreas
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf

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