Hunter-gatherer child burials from the Pakhuis Mountains, Western Cape: Growth, diet and burial practices in the Late Holocene

Few human skeletons have been recovered from the Fold Mountain Belt region of the Western Cape. This paper reports on the rescue excavations of three juvenile hunter-gatherer skeletons from the Clanwilliam district. Two indiv iduals were interred in an unusual double burial, dated to 2145 +/- 50 BP. After study, these remains were returned to the cave where they were found. The third individual dated to 1985 +/- 50 BP. Stable carbon and nitrogen i sotope analyses show that these children had diets based on terrestrial foo ds, clearly distinguishing them from coastal peoples of the same period. Ag es at death were estimated from dental maturation, and the lengths of the l ong bones measured. Published regression equations that relate the length o f long bones to stature (and hence age) for children in North America and E urope cannot be applied to Later Stone Age (and modern Khoisan) people, bec ause of their small body size. Rather, a population-specific approach must be developed. Examination of cortical bone quality (using radiographs) sugg ests that the children were growing well, following a Khoisan pattern, and probably died of acute causes.