Tracking the influence of technological change on Middle Stone Age hunting strategies in South Africa

The influence of technological developments on Middle Stone Age subsistence strategies is unclear. In the research reported here, hypotheses on the influence of the use of Still Bay Points and on the introduction of bow and arrow hunting and the use of traps and snares during the Howiesons Poort are tested. Still Bay points have been proposed to function as specialised hunting weapons. Increased specialisation of hunting strategies is expected to lead to a narrowing of diet breadth. Bow and arrow and trapping and snaring technologies have been hypothesized to be niche broadening. These hypotheses are examined by scrutinising diversity and evenness indices of faunal assemblages associated with Still Bay and Howiesons Poort occupations. The results suggest that only slight specialisation took place during the Still Bay, while during the Howiesons Poort, diet breadth was narrowed instead of widened.