Variability among South African west coast megamiddens: Insights from Paternoster North midden

Large shell middens or shell mounds are present throughout the world's coastlines. They are frequent expressions of higher population densities, more sedentary lifestyles, social and technological innovation and/or complexity, and overexploitation of large and small prey. Large Holocene shell middens on the west coast of South Africa are known as megamiddens and date to the third millennium BP. Earlier studies have explained their appearance as resulting from a resource intensification process. Megamiddens situated further south in Paternoster village were known to contain comparatively larger quantities of vertebrate fauna and artifacts; however, they remained much less studied until now. Recent findings on Paternoster North megamidden, are reported here and compared to other local sites and to central west coast megamiddens. Previous observations on fauna and artifacts from Paternoster megamiddens are confirmed in this study, with their chronology appearing to be somewhat earlier than that of the central west coast megamiddens. Climatic, geographical, geological, and environmental differences in both terrestrial and coastal settings seem to explain the contrasting records. Further studies on Paternoster megamiddens will improve our understanding of a millennium which has the most intense use of coastal resources in southern African prehistory.