Ecological variation in Later Stone Age southern African biomechanical properties

Humerus strength indicators were higher among central interior and Namib Desert females. This may have occurred due to decreased resource quality and quantities in these semiarid and arid ecologies. Females in particular may have enhanced resource-processing efforts to maximise nutritional intake in sparse ecologies. Lower limb biomechanical properties indicative of strength were highest among Cape coast individuals, but it is not clear if search efforts were higher in this region, or if other factors like complex terrain imposed a biomechanical cost for individuals living in this region. Overall, local ecologies interact with subsistence strategies to impact upper limb habitual activities among LSA southern African groups.