The understanding of human behaviours and patterns during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in South Africa, is derived from a robust set of chronological and technological sequences compiled from caves and rock shelters (closed sites). Although a necessary component, these closed sites provide a spatially and temporally limited view of MSA lifeways, as people were not only restricted to these "sites", but were also utilising a vast open landscape.
      Drawing on landscape approaches originally developed in an East African context, we apply "scatters between the patches" (Isaac & Harris 1980) and "off-site" (Foley 1981) frameworks to the surface archaeological record of the marginal, arid Tankwa Karoo. By viewing the Tankwa Karoo as a continuous landscape rather than an incomplete set of discrete sites, we aim to understand past human technological and lithic provisioning behaviour at a landscape-scale. We use existing landscape-use models and the well-resolved excavated sequence for the wider Cederberg region to compare human adaptations to these neighbouring but contrasting environments, gaining insights into spatial variability in past land-use systems which cannot be gained from single-site studies.