Middle and Later Stone Age large mammal and tortoise remains from Die Kelders Cave 1, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Die Kelders Cave 1, South Africa, has provided more than 150,000 taxonomica lly identifiable mammal and tortoise bones from Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) deposits. Cape dune molerats dominate the mammal samp le, and they appear to have been accumulated mainly by people during the LS A occupation and mainly by eagle owls in the MSA. In sharp contrast to the LSA fauna, the MSA sample contains extralimital ungulates that imply relati vely moist, grassy conditions. The large mean size of the MSA molerats also points to greater humidity, while the large size of the gray mongooses imp lies cooler temperatures. The sum supports luminescence and ESR dates that place the MSA occupation within the early part of the Last Glaciation (glob al isotope stage 4). The Die Kelders ungulate bones support those from Klas ies River Mouth in suggesting that MSA people obtained dangerous terrestria l prey much less frequently than their LSA successors, probably because MSA people lacked the bow and arrow and other projectile weapons. The Die Keld ers tortoise bones constrain the extent of climatic change, since their abu ndance indicates that warm, dry days remained common, at least seasonally. The tortoises tend to be much larger in the MSA layers than in the LSA ones , suggesting that MSA people collected tortoises less intensively, probably because MSA populations were relatively sparse. (C) 2000 Academic Press.