Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)/Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona, c/Montalegre 6-8, Barcelona, Spain.
J Hum Evol. 2010 Sep-Oct;59(3-4):412-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.003.
Systematic collection of shellfish has been increasingly recognized as an important component of human adaptation to aquatic environments and as part of the archaeological evidence found in association with the appearance of early Homo sapiens. Over the last forty years, South Africa has played a prominent role in recording the earliest evidence of shellfish in and substantial expansion of the early human diets as shown by several Middle Stone Age (MSA) coastal sites along the west and south coasts. In this paper, we report on the abundance of marine invertebrate species from PP13B cave and interpret these abundances in terms of paleoenvironmental changes, the likely shellfish procurement behaviors involved in both rocky and sandy shore contexts, and the significance of the collection of marine shells for purposes other than food collection. Possible cognitive implications of shellfish gathering as a reflection of modern behavior are also suggested.
贝类的系统性采集越来越被认为是人类适应水生环境的一个重要组成部分，也是与早期人类出现相关的考古证据的一部分。在过去的四十年中，南非在记录贝类的最早证据方面发挥了突出的作用，并且随着几个中石器时代（MSA）沿海遗址的发现，早期人类的饮食也得到了实质性的扩展，这些遗址位于南非的西海岸和南海岸。在本文中，我们报告了来自 PP13B 洞穴的海洋无脊椎动物物种的丰度，并根据古环境变化、在岩石和沙质海岸环境中可能涉及的贝类采购行为以及贝类收集除了食物收集以外的其他目的的意义来解释这些丰度。贝类采集作为现代行为的反映所带来的可能的认知影响也被提出。
