Aquatic Innovation and Adaptation: Archaeological Evidence of Fishing Technologies in Southern Africa

Abstract This contribution explores the intersection between technology and the aquatic resource economy, with a particular focus on southern Africa and how human innovation, adaptation, and social strategies have been shaped in tandem. Archaeological evidence reveals a rich tapestry of innovative fishing technologies and exploitation strategies that reflect ecological knowledge, artisanal ingenuity, and social organisation. Fishing technologies were not merely utilitarian responses to environmental conditions but became deeply embedded in the social, cognitive, and ecological arenas. We see this, for instance, in the range of aquatic imagery that features in both San religious iconography and in the rock art, highlighting the intimate entanglement of aquatic resources and fishing technologies within spiritual and ideological domains. I explore the variety of exploitation strategies ranging in time from the opportunistic collection of shellfish to the use of technology in the form of bone fish hooks, to the use of large structural fishing strategies in the form of preserved stone-walled fish traps and the implied watercrafts.