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Plant taphonomy, flora exploitation and palaeoenvironments at the Middle Stone Age site of Mwulu’s Cave (Limpopo, South Africa): an archaeobotanical and mineralogical approach

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Abstract

The interior regions of South Africa have had less attention devoted to archaeological research than coastal regions, and palaeoenvironmental studies are also more limited. As such, little is known about the interaction between human behaviours and past environments in these semi-arid regions. Here, we present an archaeobotanical and mineralogical study from the Middle Stone Age site of Mwulu’s Cave, Limpopo Province. Our study shows the importance of using taphonomical approaches prior to interpreting archaeobotanical assemblages, while provides with novel information on the plants used by ancient inhabitants of Mwulu’s. The grass phytolith composition is of environmental significance, where a shift from C4 Panicoideae to C3 grasses is observed in the last occupation event. This tentatively suggests a shift in rainfall regime, from summer rainfall conditions to an increase in winter rain, during Marine Isotope Stage 5b in the Polokwane region, or a decrease in rainfall seasonality. Although we are unable to chronostratigraphically associate this change in the plant composition, our study adds evidence in support of previous propositions for an expansion of the winter rainfall zone into the interior regions of South Africa.

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Acknowledgements

IE acknowledges the support of the DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences) towards this research. We thank Prosper Bande for the preparation of the pollen samples for analysis. We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Funding

PdlP is grateful to The Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST), Johannesburg, South Africa, and CoE in Palaeosciences for providing three research grants for Mwulu’s Cave project for field work research (2017) and dating (2018). JF acknowledges the DSI and NRF Rated Researchers Incentive Funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Irene Esteban & Paloma de la Peña

  2. African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Irene Esteban

  3. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Jennifer M. Fitchett

Authors
  1. Irene Esteban
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  2. Jennifer M. Fitchett
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  3. Paloma de la Peña
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Correspondence to Irene Esteban.

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Esteban, I., Fitchett, J. & de la Peña, P. Plant taphonomy, flora exploitation and palaeoenvironments at the Middle Stone Age site of Mwulu’s Cave (Limpopo, South Africa): an archaeobotanical and mineralogical approach. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 226 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01181-4

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