12. Human Impact On Precolonial West Coast Marine Environments Of South Africa

Abstract

andproductive coastlines, it is no surprisethat South Africa offers a superb opportunity tounderstand how marine ecosystems function,and the effects of people on these environments.This prospect is heightened by the realization ofthe tremendous time depth of human occupa-tion, including the first emergence of modernhumans in Africa and, by default, in the world(Erlandson 2001; Marean et al. 2007). Thisendeavor is multidisciplinary by necessity:marine ecology and archaeology go hand inhand, along with other closely related specialitiessuch as oceanography, geology, and palaeo-environmental studies. While ecological studiescan provide an understanding of the ecology ofpresent species, their vulnerability to harvest-ing, and the way they are influenced by physicalfactors, archaeology and palaeoenvironmentalstudies offer a window into the past where suchecological relationships and physical variablescan be seen changing through time. The resultof this multidisciplinary dialogue not only feedsmuch needed academic debate but also bringsnew and important dimensions into marineconservation policies and fisheries manage-ment. Because of this, the relevance of archaeol-ogy to modern society extends beyond its per-ceived status as a highly specialized and ratheresoteric field (Erlandson and Rick, this volume).As demonstrated below, we also propose thatthis multidisciplinary dialogue benefits the waycoastal archaeological sites are studied, by bring-ing a more exhaustive and systematic approachto answering questions, and by highlightingtheir main trait as archives of both human andenvironmental history. Seen in this perspective,the protection, conservation, and managementof coastal archaeological sites must be a priorityas promoted by the current South African her-itage legislation (National Heritage ResourcesAct, No. 25, 1999).In this chapter, we explore the relationshipthat people established with the marine envi-ronment on the South African West Coast overseveral millennia. Such effects have frequentlybeen demonstrated for terrestrial environmentsworldwide (Redman 1999), but few convincingcases have been made for marine systems. Abroad account of the long-term precolonialhuman settlement of the West Coast of SouthAfrica sets the background for a more focusedanalysis of selected archaeological sequences inthe Lamberts Bay area. An integrated approach

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