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Plants, Place, and People in the Klasies River area
on the Tsitsikamma coast, South Africa
Objectives
To provide a comparative database of plants at Klasies to allow for
identification of macro- and micro-botanical remains from the site.
To collect ethnobotanical data by engaging with local communities with
links to a pre-colonial Khoe-San presence in the area.
This has been undertaken against the background of a larger study of
vegetation at 75 archaeological site complexes in the southern and
south-eastern Cape
Yvette van Wijk – Rhodes University
Co-authors: Renée Rust, Madelon Tusenius, Sarah Wurz (Wits University), Cynthia
Larbey (Cambridge University)
© YW 2016
Locality of Klasies River Archaeological sites
Locality of Klasies river sites
Adapted from Deacon & Geleijnse (1988 )
Klasies River is a key site in early modern
human origins research, but has not been
closely studied regarding vegetation or
ethnobotany.
Macro- and micro-botanical remains in the
South African context have usually been
used to infer climate change on the basis of
vegetation change or vice versa. Seldom
linked to human use.
The vegetation immediately surrounding the
Klasies River sites is a complex mosaic of
predominantly Subtropical and Kaffrarian
Thicket, Southern Afrotemperate Forest,
and Southern Cape Seashore vegetation,
with elements of Fynbos. Grassy and Dune
Fynbos interdigitates with Renosterbos on
the inland dunefields and plateau - where
agriculture and forestry allows.
Questions
•What processes might have been responsible for the modern composition of these
plant communities?
•Anthropogenic? Ecological? Climatic? All of these?
•Which of these plants are still used by modern Khoe-San descendants in the area
today?
•Ethnobotanical research is on-going – 89% are recorded as being of medicinal or
other use in our, and other research into wider Cape Khoe-San descendant use.
•Did these plants provide a source of food, medicine, insecticide, bedding, fuel,
mastic, cordage, or tools?
•If evidence of these taxa can be identified from the sediments in a context which
tells a story, eg. traces of parenchyma on a stone tool or charcoal in a hearth.
•How long have the plants been present that are growing today in close association
with these archaeological sites?
•Probably since the Late Pleistocene if not longer.
Methods
Modern presence and absence vegetation specimens were collected at Klasies River
from accessible areas (see Map on next slide)
•1 - 19 are relatively undisturbed areas between Klasies River Mouth in the West to
Caves 3 & 4 in the East. These areas lie in a band from the shore to 100 - 120m
above sea-level where the coastal cliffs level off onto the Tsitsikamma coastal
plateau.
•20 – 24 are 5 additional areas on the coastal plateau within 5 km of the sites – the
plateau has been heavily impacted by agriculture and forestry leaving only relict
fynbos, forest/thicket, and grassland patches.
Voucher specimens
•Madelon Tusenius collected woody spp. for charcoal research in 1984 / 85 & 2015
•Yvette van Wijk and Renee Rust collected all spp. each year from 2013 - 2016
•Richard Cowling partially sampled some areas 2015
Ethno botanical data
•Semi-structured interviews & walks in the veld to collect information and plant
specimens with elderly individuals who lived and grew up close to the cave sites,
now living in Clarkson. Khoe-San / Fingo ‘plantekenners’ were also interviewed.
Aerial view – Core collecting areas numbered – Black, Yvw & Rust – White, Tusenius
Panoramic view of Klasies main sites where most collecting took place
1b
2
1
1a
3 & 4
Caves 3 and 4
Note high forest patch
between and below the
sites - protected by fore-
dune stabilised mainly by
thicket.
Salt-spray killed dead wood
on hummock foredune
provides tinder and fuel for
fires.
Cave 5
Note forest patch below cave -
protected by hummock
foredune stabilised mainly by
coastal and littoral Vegetation.
3
4
5
Cave 3 is large and deep with
stalagmites and stalactites and a
passage running approx. 400m
into the Fossil dune behind.
Ecological and Anthropogenic Enrichment of soil
The topsoil below the thicket covering the fossil dune(s) is a
dark brown, deep, fertile loam, which we also found above
and below the road in areas 12, 13 and 13a (Fig 2b).
This dark brown earth is the result of millennia of thicket
growth, die back, perennial leaf shedding, and capture of
wind blown sands and soil from the coast and inland (Tilney
1985).
The thickness of the dark humus soil indicates an ancient
origin for the dense thicket vegetation which has probably
changed little since the Late Pleistocene (Potts, Hedderson,
Franklin, Cowling RM 2013).
A wind-and salt-sheared 1 square metre plot in area 8 looks
like a low grassy sward, but includes 21 different species of
forest, thicket, succulent, grass, geophyte, and herb taxa. The
soil is friable, dark, humus-rich loam (depth unknown).
Plant collecting at Klasies is not for sissies!
Lycium ferocissimum forming an
Impenetrable wall of thorns, area 3
As high as we could get on the crumbling,
densely vegetated cliffs in area 11
Is this vegetation specific to Archaeological
sites? If so Why?
•High diversity of vegetation within easy foraging range of the Klasies
sites. 89% of the 268 species collected are reported as useful by
local modern Khoe-San and in the literature.
•Similarity of vegetation at Klasies, Nelson Bay, Pinnacle Point and
Blombos, and at inland sites, points to a possible connection
between humans and this vegetation through time.
•Soil enrichment during human occupation of sites over thousands
of years would have had far-reaching and long-lasting effects.
•Potassium, Calcium and Phosphorus build up in the soil and salts
accumulate from human waste and detritus, charcoal and ash.
•These chemicals have been shown to be long lasting in the soil - see
Dark Earths of Amazonia (Balee 2010), West Africa (Fairhead &
Leach in Williams & Texeira 2008), & S Africa (Blackmore et al 1990)
Plant use – the bigger picture
•Hunter-gatherers lived at Klasies from 120 000 bp with a few periods of apparent
absence.
•Current research could give fascinating information about the past use of plants.
•They ate plants and possibly seaweed, as well as shellfish, marine mammals and
land animals.
•There is a tendency to concentrate on only one or two obvious resources available
at sites and extrapolate size of communities subsisting in that landscape at any one
time. But resources are very diverse and could include fungi, insects, honey, etc. in
addition to plants, seafood and animals.
•Plants provide essential micronutrients not available elsewhere and essential to
human diet and health.
•Humans and animals cannot live without plants.
•Seeds, buds, shoots, leaves, bark, cambium, fruit, pods, roots, tubers, bulbs, gum,
nectar, galls – were / are all utilised by hunter-gatherers.
•The large number of edible and useful plant parts, and the chemotaxonomic
resources they offer is greater than generally acknowledged.
Results to date
•A total of 268 species, in 195 genera and 77 families have been collected.
• 56% spp. recorded as medicinal and 32% for food or fruit.
•Thicket and Fynbos form an intricate mosaic with 79 species falling into both
categories
Vegetation references: Cowling 1982; Geldenhuys 1992; Hanekom et al. 1989; Lubke & van Wijk Y, 1998a,b; Vlok &
Euston-Brown 2002; Mucina & Rutherford 2012
Useful spp. references: Arnold 2002; Fox & Norwood-Young 1982; Hutchings et al. 1996; Pote et al 2006, Smith
1966; van Wijk Y (in prep), van Wijk Y & Rust (in prep); van Wyk B-E & Gericke 2000, van Wyk B-E et al 2009
24 collecting areas within 5km 19 Core areas from seashore to cliff top
Thicket (155 spp.) = 32%
Thicket (138 spp.) = 35%
Forest (100 spp.) = 21%
Forest (82 spp.) = 21%
Coastal (105 spp.) = 21%
Coastal (94 spp.) = 23%
Fynbos (73 spp.) = 15%;
Fynbos (43 spp.) = 10%
Not categorised (56 spp.) = 11%
Not categorised (44 spp.)= 11%
Ethnobotanical research
Research is on-going to record plants used now and in
the remembered past by local people in the Klasies River
area. A complex history of dispossession, politics and
agriculture makes it hard to access information about
descendants of pre-colonial inhabitants.
Irene Barnardo of Covie on R.
provided valuable information
Freddie Williams explaining the
use of “Stink Patat” by modern
Fingo/Khoe-San at Klasies River.
Yvette has held workshops and walked in the veld
with southern & southeastern Cape indigenous
plantekenners for the past 20 years. An interesting
overlap exists between plants still used today, those
growing near sites, plus macro- and micro remains
from excavations.
Collecting samples Nov/Dec 2013
Site 1 looking up towards 1a Site 1 with witness baulk at L
Samples from labelled sediment layers were
collected to provide the material from which
seed, pollen, phytoliths and charcoal samples
are being extracted.
Interesting results are emerging.
SEM photos and Gold covered stubs
Tarchonanthus littoralis Sideroxylon inerme
SEM photos were taken of charred reference material
collected by Madelon Tusenius in 1984/5.
MSA charcoal samples were too wet and crumbly for
unambiguous identification, but some LSA samples
(mounted on stubs) were identifiable and correspond well
with the plants growing at the site at present. Sampling is
ongoing.
Contrary to earlier impressions, plentiful fuel-wood is
present within foraging range of the sites.
Ongoing Collection and research
•Collection & Photography of plant specimens with
details of seeds, fruit underground storage organs
etc. Ethnobotanical mythological surveys.
Research in progress
•Ethnobotany – Yvette van Wijk & Renée Rust
•Modern vegetation – Yvette van Wijk & Renée Rust
•Cultural beliefs and myths – Renée Rust
•Parenchyma (starch) – Cynthia Larbey
•Charcoal – Marion Bamford, Bongekile Zwane, &
Madelon Tusenius
•Palaeobotany and combustion – Silje Bentsen
•Seeds – Chrissie Sievers & Bongekile Zwane
•Phytoliths – Alice Novello
•Stone Age technology - Sarah Wurz
•Fauna - Liesl van Pletzen Vos & James Brink
•Shellfish – Kuni Mosweu & Karen van Niekerk
Solanum africanum
Colpoon compressum
Diospyros dichrophylla
Colpoon compressum
Satyrium parviflorum
Upper grindstone with ochre
Some Thoughts
•Name changes in Botanical taxonomy render families, genera and species invisible
to non-botanical researchers. Need to refer to old publications to access past
synonyms and Digital sites to keep up to date with constant new revisions.
•Botanists, Anthropologists, and Archaeologists need to co-operate and co-ordinate
research, bringing the disciplines closer and supporting interdisciplinary research.
•Need for deconstructing colonial Westernised ways of doing science. Indigenous
Knowledge is Indigenous Science. Indigenous taxonomy should be acknowledged as
parallel to Linnaean.
•A pressing need for a South African (and African) centralised, open source, fully
searchable database of modern vegetation, with accurately identified images and
good descriptions for macro- and micro-botanical identification.
•Need to study Southern African data within a global context – to finally overcome
past political isolation and make a bigger impact in global botanical and archaeo-
botanical research.
Thanks & Credits
To
•The van der Merwe family for permission to enter and collect in the Klasies
River Reserve and Kobus Burger for help and support.
•Sarah Wurz, head of the team, for inviting and welcoming us to work at
Klasies.
•The people of Covie, Clarkson, and Humansdorp for enlightening and
educational discussions, stories and walks, whilst we learnt about their
useful plants.
•IZIKO for access to stored Klasies River botanical material
•Rhodes University for allowing me (Yvette) to undertake an ad eundem
gradum PhD - which has opened up so many fascinating areas of research
and introduced me to so many amazing plants, places and people.
•This work is based in part on research supported by the National Research
Foundation and PAST to Sarah Wurz.