Revisiting, redating, and reframing the earliest excavations at Paternoster, South African west coast: The archaeology of Fisheries Factory Midden

The Holocene archaeology of the South African west coast is arguably the most studied among other coastal stretches in this country. It has helped to understand the shifts in the lifeways and technology of coastal hunter-gatherers in relation to their environment, climate changes and cultural contact with herder groups. Among the momentous and varied records, the appearance of very large shell middens known as ‘megamiddens’ stands out. They are discontinuously distributed along a ~125 km long stretch of coastline from Lamberts Bay and Elands Bay to Paternoster, and date to ca. 3200-2200 cal. BP. Megamiddens around Paternoster are less studied than the two former. The Fisheries Factory Midden in Paternoster is contemporary with two megamiddens in this locality and is the subject of this paper. This site was excavated by Pete Robertshaw in 1975, and here we expand on his observations to make them directly relevant to the megamidden period. New radiocarbon dates position this site a few centuries before 3265 cal. BP to ca. 2760 cal. BP, with last visits happening from ca. 1990 cal. BP to ca. 625 cal. BP. This study reveals a decrease in bovid foraging efficiency and a concomitant and dramatic increase in the procurement of a number of marine resources from the onset of the site occupation until ca. 2760 cal. BP. Several proxy indicators suggest an increasing occupational intensity at this site as group mobility and foraging range shrank to the coastal margin and adjacent plain during this period. This trend was largely reversed soon after ca. 2000 cal. BP.