Cave facts
In Fish Notes and Star Songs, the cave mentioned is on the Robberg Peninsula in South Africa. Although there are no longer human remains in the cave, it’s still possible to see the layers of bone and shell and pottery in a section that has been excavated. And at high tide with sea pounding against the rocks and the cormorants screeching, it’s easy to imagine how people must have lived here. These photographs were taken when I visited the cave with a school group.
Layers of soil inside the cave tell stories of the people who lived there. Deposits of bones of wild animals and antelope in the deeper layers, show the sea was once far away and people living there were hunters. When the ice-caps melted and sea levels rose, the sea came closer to the cave - as it is today.
Deposits from higher layers dating between 12 000 to 8 000 years ago, show the inhabitants were collecting shellfish, marine birds and marine mammals. The stone implements made at this time were not blades like hunters would have used, but scrapers. Polished bone tools and ‘fish-gorges’ which were pointed at both ends, were also made.
From 8 000 to 2 000 years ago the cave inhabitants were the ancestors of the San hunter-gatherers. They made more sophisticated stone tools as well as polished bone tools, and beads and pendants from bone, ostrich eggshell and seashells. Their diet included fish and shellfish like mussels, oysters and limpets and a few land animals such as bushbuck and Cape buffalo. Bushbuck still exist wild in this area. I've seen them wandering quietly through the bush around my house, but with development and neighbourhood dogs I can’t imagine they will be there for much longer.
Within the last 2 000 years there was a slight change in the lifestyle of people living in the cave with the introduction of sheep, cattle and pottery. Remains have been found, which show Khoikhoi stock farmers must have lived there. There is evidence that bits of pottery were parts of jars used to store milk, butter and fat. These people also lived on fish, shellfish, wild game and plant food.
Extra ideas for students:
1. Can you imagine living in a cave? If you could have written a diary in those times what would you have written about a day in your life?
2. Make up a poem or story to tell or a song to sing around the campfire in front of your cave.
3. Collect some shells, or bits of bark or feathers, perhaps some odd beads and make a necklace for yourself. Perhaps you can even use plaited grass in place of string or cord. Imagine this necklace as a talisman. Something that identifies you as part of a group from long ago. Afterwards imagine telling around the campfire about the objects in your necklace and why they are meaningful in your life.
4. Close your eyes and think about a small dark space. How does it make you feel? If you played music would it make you feel different? Try it out with some flute music or drumming music.
5. There are many caves and old sites in England where people lived a long time ago. Perhaps you know of some in your area. You might be able to compare the tools they made and hunted with, with those of the early people who lived on the southern tip of Africa. Were their arrows different? What did they hunt? What was their clothing like? How did their clothes differ and why were they different?
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