Grassridge Rockshelter is located just under the Drakensberg Escarpment in the interior grasslands of the Eastern Cape and has been the home to hunter-gatherers for over 45,000 years. This talk will summarize the ongoing research being conducted at the site, which describes hunter-gatherers’ lifestyles during the period with an emphasis on how these behaviours and habits changed through time.

 

Key changes are seen in stone tool technology, subsistence strategies, occupation intensity, and the manufacture of symbolic objects, such as ostrich eggshell and marine shell beads. These changes will be situated within their past environmental and cultural contexts and compared with other Stone Age sites in southern Africa. This comparison will explore the extent of past social networks, social connections, and hunter-gatherer mobility, and comment on how the changes in behaviour that we are currently observing fit within the current culture history framework