advertisement
Exploring Desert Adaptations at Spitzkloof Rockshelter B, South Africa - Institute for Field Research
Location: Namaqualand, South Africa
Season:
July 7, 2019 to August 8, 2019
Application Deadline:
Friday, April 5, 2019
Deadline Type:
Rolling
Flyer:
syllabus-south-africa-spitzkloof-2019.pdf
Program Type
Field school
RPA certified
no
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Scarborough, University of Michigan, Connecticut College, Institute for Field Research
Project Director:
Dr. Genevieve Dewar, University of Toronto Scarborough, and Dr. Brian Stewart, University of Michigan
Project Description
Spitzkloof is a series of three neighboring rockshelters in the Richtersveld region of Namaqualand, a coastal desert in the northwest corner of South Africa. Namaqualand is a semi-arid southern extension of the Namib Desert of Namibia. Extremely rugged and remote, the Richtersveld is known for its spectacularly strange and desolate landscapes, its extraordinarily diverse plant and animal life, and, though the local inhabitants are generally impoverished, its immense mineral wealth. Transhumant pastoralists, the descendants of whom still live here, thrived in this landscape for some 2000 years. Until last century, the region was home to desert-dwelling hunter-gatherer groups for at least 60,000 years. The three Spitzkloof Rockshelters – designated A, B and C – form the ‘backbone’ of our research in Namaqualand. The goal of the 2019 field season is to continue excavating Spitzkloof B and to conduct archaeological and geomorphological surveys in the surrounding area.
Period(s) of Occupation: Mesolithic & Paleolithic
Project size:
1-24 participants
Minimum age:
18
Experience required:
No experience required.
Room and Board Arrangements
Cape Town –In Cape Town, students will stay at ‘The Back Pack’ situated in the heart of the city. The Backpack has an airport shuttle that will collect you directly from Cape Town International Airport. The Backpack is an approximately 20 minute drive from the airport. We will stay at the same venue on the night that we return to Cape Town from the site (Aug 7th).
Spitzkloof – On site, where the majority of the field school will take place, we will be camping. You will be required to bring your own tent, sleeping bag, air mattress etc. You will receive an information package before we leave detailing the equipment for which you will be responsible.
We bring all food and water for drinking/washing into the field. This is a rugged, isolated desert environment with absolutely no supermarkets or stores in the immediate area; the closest supermarket is a 1.5 hour drive away over rough terrain. We thus cook our own meals in the field. We take turns cooking and doing the washing up, allowing budding chefs an opportunity to wow us all. We have also built our own rock-and-sand pizza oven at the site (it works!) that we use on Sunday evenings. We eat very well with typical meals consisting of risotto, pasta, curry, pizza and even calzones. As we do not have a fridge, most meals are vegetarian with the exception of tinned tuna and dried meat (jerky, known locally as biltong). We do, however, have the occasional barbeque (meat and/or fish) on days we return from town with fresh produce and water (approximately once per week). Those who enjoy milk in their coffee/tea will also be happy to know we do have long life milk in camp. We can accommodate vegetarians, people with lactose intolerance, or who require Halal or Kosher food.
Toilet and shower facilities are very basic but functional. Our toilets are frequently renewed, open-air (but secluded) long-drops. We wash using solar showers to heat water, which everyone should bring. There is enough water for everyone to wash at the end of every workday.
Cost:
All room and board costs are included in tuition.
Academic Credit
Name of institution offering credit:
Connecticut College
Tuition:
$4,880
Location
Recommended Bibliography:
Chase, B. M. & Meadows, M. E. (2007). Late Quaternary dynamics of southern Africa's winter-rainfall zone. Earth-Science Reviews 84: 103-138.
Cowling, R.M., Esler, K.J. & Rundel, P.W. (1999). Namaqualand, South Africa: an overview of a unique winter-rainfall desert ecosystem. Plant Ecology 142: 3-21.
Desmet, P.G. (2007). Namaqualand: a brief overview of the physical and floristic environment. Journal of Arid Environments 70: 570-587.
Dewar, G. & Stewart, B.A. (2012). Preliminary results of excavations at Spitzkloof Rockshelter, Richtersveld, South Africa. Quaternary International 270: 30-39.
Dewar, G. & Orton, J. (2013). Subsistence, settlement, and material culture on the central Namaqualand coastline In: Jerardino, A., Braun, D. & Malan, A. (Eds.), The Archaeology of the West Coast, South Africa. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 84, BAR 2526 109-123.
Dewar G. & Stewart, B.A. (2016a). Paleoenvironments, sea levels and land use in Namaqualand, South Africa, during MIS 6-2. In: Jones, S. and Stewart, B.A. (Eds.), Africa from MIS 6-2: Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments. Springer, Dordecht.
Dewar G. & Stewart, B.A. (2016b). Early maritime desert dwellers in Namaqualand, South Africa: A Holocene perspective on Pleistocene peopling. Journal of island and coastal Archaeology. DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2016.1216476
Hoffman, M.T., Allsopp, N. & Rohde, R.F. (2007). Sustainable land use in Namaqualand, South Africa: key issues in an interdisciplinary debate. Journal of Arid Environments 70: 561-569.
McCall, G et al. (2011). Erb Tanks: a Middle and Later Stone Age Rockshelter in the Central Namib Desert, Western Namibia. 2011. Palaeoanthropology: 398-421
Mitchell, P. (2002). The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Odendaal, F. & Suich, H. (2007). Richtersveld. The Land and Its People. Struik, Cape Town
Smith, M. (2005). Moving into the southern deserts: an archaeology of dispersal and colonization. In: Smith, M., Hesse, P. (Eds.), 23 S: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts. National Museum of Australia Canberra, Canberra.
Stewart, B.A. et al. (2012). Afromontane foragers of the Late Pleistocene: site formation, chronology and occupational pulsing at Melikane Rockshelter, Lesotho. Quaternary International 270: 40-60.
Stewart, B.A. & Dewar G. (n.d.). Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age (Project AMEMSA): Research Design and Goals. Unpublished report.
Veth, P. (2005). Cycles of aridity and human mobility risk minimization among late Pleistocene foragers of the western desert, Australia. In: Veth, P., Smith, M., Hiscock, P. (Eds.), Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing, Victoria.
Vogelsang et al (2010). New excavations of Middle Stone Age deposits at Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology and Past Environments. Journal of African Archaeology 8: 185- 218.
Webley, L.E. (2007). Archaeological evidence for pastoralist land-use and settlement in Namaqualand over the last 2000 years. Journal of Arid Environments 70: 629-640.
Wiessner, P. (1982). Risk, reciprocity and social influences on !Kung San economics. In Leacock, E. & Lee, R. (Eds.), Politics and History in Band Societies, pp 61-84. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Yellen, J. (1977). Long term hunter-gatherer adaptation to desert environments: a biogeographical perspective. World Archaeology 8: 262-274.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED
Barham, L. & Mitchell, P. (2008). The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gamble, C. (1994). Timewalkers: the Prehistory of Global Colonization. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Unearth an Adventure
Dig Deeper
Subscribe to the AIA e-Update
-
Magazine
-
Journal
