Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-8cg97 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-18T18:31:49.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Late Quaternary Mammalian Fauna of Nelson Bay Cave (Cape Province, South Africa): Its Implications for Megafaunal Extinctions and Environmental and Cultural Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard G. Klein
Richard G. Klein*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nelson Bay Cave is located on the Robberg Peninsula (34°06′ S, 23°24′ E) at Plettenberg Bay, Cape Province, South Africa. Excavation of the Late Quaternary fill of the cave has provided a rich assemblage of mammalian remains dated between ca. 18,000 and 5000 radiocarbon years B.P. Identification and analysis of these remains has shown that important changes in the composition of the mammalian fauna took place first about 12,000 B.P. and again about 9000 B.P. The earlier change is especially clear-cut and is interpreted to reflect the disappearance of grassland from the area as well as the influence of rising sea level. Both faunal changes were accompanied by changes in associated artifactual materials and it is suggested that faunal and cultural changes were causally linked. The mammalian species dated between 18,000 and 12,000 B.P. include the latest recorded Sub-Saharan occurrences of some extinct taxa and indicate that terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene megafaunal extinctions may have been more important in Southern Africa than has hitherto been thought.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , September 1972 , pp. 135 - 142
Copyright
Academic Press, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ansell, W.F.H. 1968 Artiodactyla (excluding the genus Gazella) Meester, J. “Preliminary Identification Manual for African Mammals” Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC Google Scholar
Deacon, H.J. 1969 Melkhoutboom Cave, Alexandria District, Cape Province: a report on the 1967 investigation Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums (Natural History) 2 141–169 Google Scholar
Deacon, H. J. (in press).A review of the Post-Pleistocene in South Africa. South African Archeological Bulletin 27.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1966 An annotated list of radiocarbon dates for Sub-Saharan Africa Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums (Natural History) 2 1–84 Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1969 Re-excavation and Description of the Wilton Type-site, Albany District, Eastern Cape Unpublished M.A. Thesis University of Cape Town Google Scholar
Fairhall, A. W. and Young, A. W. (in press).Radiocarbon dates from Nelson Bay Cave. South African Archeological Bulletin 27.Google Scholar
Harper, F.H. 1945 Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World American Committee for International Wildlife Protection New York CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendey, Q.B. Hendey, H. 1968 New Quaternary fossil sites near Swartklip, Cape Province Annals of the South African Museum 52 43–73 Google Scholar
Klein, R.G. 1969 Man and Culture in the Late Pleistocene: A Case StudyChandler, San FranciscoGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G. 1971 The Pleistocene prehistory of Siberia Quaternary Research 2 133–161 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. G. (in press).Preliminary Report on the July through September 1970 excavations at Nelson Bay Cave, Plettenberg Bay (Cape Province, South Africa). Palaeoecology of Africa 6.Google Scholar
Martin, A.R.H. 1968 Pollen analysis of Groenvlei lake sediments, Knysna (South Africa) Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 2 107–144 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, R.A. 1970 Geomorphology and Cainozoic geology of the continental shelf between Cape Seal and Cape St. Francis South African National Committee for Oceanographic Research-Marine Geology Programme Technical Report 2 28–32 Google Scholar
Wells, L.H. 1970 A late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from Driefontein, Cradock District, C.P. South African Journal of Science 66 59–61 Google Scholar