The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa documents the earliest and longest record of marine resource use and coastal settlements by modern humans. Here, we provide a long-term and evolutionary perspective of these behaviors. We propose a definition of “coastal adaptations” rooted in the principles of evolutionary biology as a workable analytical device and review the MSA archaeological record from Africa to characterize the specific nature of coastal adaptations by Homo sapiens. On this basis we evaluate current models addressing the importance of coastal adaptations for human evolution and formulate new hypotheses within the larger framework of evolutionary causality by linking these behaviors directly to reproductive success. While the current archaeological record suggests that modern humans occasionally consumed marine resources during the late Middle Pleistocene, systematic and optimized gathering of a variety of marine food items dates to MIS 5 and 4. Archaeozoological studies show that people exploited marine resources in a methodical manner on the Atlantic, Indian, and Mediterranean coasts of Africa during this time frame. Despite the similarities in coastlines, mobile hunter-gatherers also integrated these variable coastal landscapes into their settlement strategies for more than 100 ka, as shown by evidence for stable, repeated and planned occupations. Additionally, elements of complex material culture, such as bone tools and shell beads, occur particularly often in (near-) coastal MSA sites. The specific nature of coastal adaptations by modern humans can thus be characterized by their systematic nature, long duration and verifiable impact on the overall adaptive suite. By combining archaeological data with ethnographic, nutritional and medical studies we propose several evolutionary scenarios for how modern humans could have increased survival and fecundity rates by their specific adaptations to coastal environments. In order to test these hypothetical scenarios for the selective advantages of coastal adaptations for Homo sapiens, we need more data deriving from an expanded spatiotemporal archaeological record, just as much as more formal evolutionary models and research strategies.

Journal of World Prehistory, 2019

Coastal adaptations have become an important topic in discussions about the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens. However, the actual distribution and potential relevance of coastal adaptations (broadly, the use of coastal resources and settlement along shorelines) in these processes remains debated, as is the claim that Neanderthals exhibited similar behaviors. To assess both questions, we performed a systematic review comparing coastal adaptations of H. sapiens during the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) with those of contemporaneous Neanderthals during the European Middle Paleolithic. In both species, systematic use of marine resources and coastal landscapes constitutes a consistent behavioral signature over ~ 100,000 years (MIS 6-3) in several regions of Africa and Europe. We found more similarities than differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, with remaining disparities all in degree rather than kind. H. sapiens exploited a wider range of marine resourcesparticularly shellfish-more intensively. MSA shellfish-bearing sites are also more often associated with intense occupations on coastal landscapes, and more evidence of complex material culture such as shell beads. In terms of broader ramifications, Pleistocene coastal adaptations are best conceived of as an 'add-on' to previous adaptive strategies, complementing more frequently exploited inland resources and landscapes. Still, Neanderthals and modern humans increased their dietary breadth and quality, and added options for occupation and range expansion along coastlines. Potential evolutionary implications of these multi-generational behaviors include higher intakes of brain-selective nutrients as a basis for neurobiological changes connected to increased cognitive capacities, but also greater reproductive success, dispersal abilities and behavioral flexibility. Whether gradual differences between modern humans and Neanderthals stimulated different evolutionary trajectories is a question for future research.

Were prehistoric coastal sites more intensively occupied than inland sites? Using an agent-based model to understand the intensity of prehistoric coastal occupation, and what it means for studies on the evolution of the coastal adaptation, 2022

The origins and significance of an aquatic diet in hominin evolution is a scientific research topic of high significance. Some have argued that marine shellfish collection was a key ingredient in the emergence of modern human behavioral and cultural complexity. The collection of marine resources, which can be productive and predictable, may have evolved into a coastal adaptation that led to reduction in residential mobility and other important changes in behavior and culture. Therefore, studying the emergence and intensity of coastal occupations is important to understand the rise of this particular aspect of modern humans' behavioral and cultural evolution. In this article, we use an agent-based model to explore the interaction between foraging behavior and the environment, and the impact of such interaction on sites' length of occupation, which in turn affects the accumulation of artifacts and ecofacts. The results of the model suggest that the intensive occupation of coastal sites is likely to be influenced by their position within a restricted band of productive coastal habitat. Even when foragers spend most of their time in other habitats, the cyclical reoccupation of coastal sitesdue to the coast's cyclical productivity as well as the low number of locations that can be occupied therecould naturally result in higher artifact density in coastal than inland sites. Here, we argue that, given those results, coastal locations should accumulate large and dense deposits of occupation debris. These will be obvious features on the landscape and should be easier to find than inland occupations because of the coastal habitats' confined space. Finally, given the higher find densities of those sites, this may lead archaeologists to overestimate the contribution of marine resources in prehistoric diets. Therefore, what archaeologists have interpreted as intensive coastal adaptation in the past may be more the result of geographical constraints rather than important evolutionary changes.

Trekking the Shore, 2011

Journal of Human Evolution, 2013

New excavations at the Middle Stone Age (MSA) open-air site of Hoedjiespunt 1 (HDP1) on the west coast of South Africa advance our understanding of the evolution of coastal adaptations in Homo sapiens. The archaeological site of HDP1 dates to the last interglacial and consists of three phases of occupation, each containing abundant lithic artifacts, shellfish, terrestrial fauna, ostrich eggshell and pieces of ground ocher. The site provides an excellent case study to analyze human behavioral adaptations linked to early exploitation of marine resources.Here we reconstruct human activities through a detailed study of the lithic assemblages, combining analyses of the reduction sequences, artifact attributes and quartz fracturing. These methods provide insights into raw material procurement, lithic reduction sequences, site use and mobility patterns, and foster comparison with other MSA coastal sites.The main characteristics of the lithic assemblages remain constant throughout the use of the site. Quartz dominates silcrete and other raw materials by almost four to one. Knappers at HDP1 produced different forms of flakes using multiple core reduction methods. Denticulates represent the most frequent tool type. The assemblages document complete, bipolar and hard hammer reduction sequences for the locally available quartz, but highly truncated reduction sequences with many isolated end products for silcrete, a material with a minimum transport distance of 10–30 km. This observation suggests that well provisioned individuals executed planned movements to the shoreline to exploit shellfish. Our excavations at HDP1 furthermore demonstrate the simultaneous occurrence of flexible raw material use, anticipated long-distance transport, systematic gathering of shellfish and use of ground ocher. The HDP1 lithic assemblages document a robust pattern of land-use that we interpret as a stable adaptation of modern humans to coastal landscapes as early as MIS 5e.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in History and …, 2004

Conventional accounts of world prehistory are dominated by land-based narratives progressing from scavenging and hunting of land mammals and gathering of plants to animal domestication and crop agriculture, and ultimately to urban civilisations supported by agricultural surpluses and trade. The use of coastlines and marine resources has been viewed as marginal, late in the sequence, or anomalous. This bias is primarily the result of three factors: the removal of most relevant evidence by sealevel change; the bad press given to coastal hunters and gatherers by 19th century ethnographers; and a belief in technological 'primitivism'. In this paper I will examine the case for treating coastal habitats as amongst the most attractive for human settlement, and coastlines and seaways not as barriers but as gateways to human movement and contact, from early hominid dispersals to the rise of the great coastal and riverine civilisations.

Will, M., Kandel, A.W. & Conard, N.J. (2015). Coastal adaptations and settlement systems on the Cape and Horn of Africa during the Middle Stone Age. In: N.J. Conard & A. Delagnes (Eds.) Settlement Dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, Vol. IV, pp. 61-89. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag. , 2015

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of sub-Saharan Africa currently provides the earliest and longest record of marine resource exploitation by modern humans. Here we present data on coastal settlement systems from our excavations at the shellfish-bearing MSA locality of Hoedjiespunt 1 (HDP1), Western Cape, South Africa. We also review recent advances in research on MSA coastal adaptations, with a focus on mobility patterns and land-use. The archaeological assemblages of HDP1 indicate that the inhabitants executed scheduled movements to the coastline for exploiting shellfish during three sequential phases of occupation. HDP1 documents a consistent pattern of land-use that suggests stable adaptations of modern humans to coastal landscapes as early as MIS 5e. Results from other coastal MSA sites on the Cape and Horn of Africa support these findings, suggesting the occasional use of marine resources as far back as the late Middle Pleistocene. Recent studies from the western and southern coasts of South Africa, and as far north as the Red Sea, demonstrate that coastlines provided important resources for occupations between MIS 6 and 4. However, these coastlines are not the same. Each represents a region of variable marine productivity with differing oceanographic parameters and exhibits a wide array of geographic and environmental attributes. Yet despite these dissimilarities, the available data document that early modern humans exploited marine resources in a consistent manner. Mobile hunter-gatherers systematically integrated variable coastal landscapes and their resources into their settlement strategies throughout much of the MSA over a widespread area.

PLOS ONE, 2023

The relationship between Earlier Stone Age (ESA) hominins and the southern African coastal environment has been poorly investigated, despite the high concentration of open- air sites in marine and fluvial terraces of the coastal plain from c. 1Ma onward during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Southern Africa provides some of the earliest evidence of coastal subsistence strategies since the end of the Middle Pleistocene, during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). These coastal MSA sites showcase the role of coastal environments in the emergence and development of modern human behaviors. Given the high prevalence of coastal ESA sites throughout the region, we seek to question the relationship between hominins and coastal landscapes much earlier in time. In this regard, the +100 m raised beaches of the Benguela Province, Angola, are key areas as they are well-preserved and contain a dense record of prehistoric occupation from the beginning of the Middle Pleisto- cene, including sites like Dungo, Mormolo, Sombreiro, Macaca and Punta das Vacas. Accordingly, this paper provides a critical review of the coastal ESA record of southern Africa and a detailed presentation of the Dungo IV site, through a qualitative technological analysis coupled with a quantitative inter-site comparison with contemporary southern African coastal plain sites. Through our detailed technological analyses, we highlight the influence of coastal lithological resources on the technical behaviors of hominin groups, and we propose the existence of a “regional adaptive strategy” in a coastal landscape more than 600 000 years ago. Finally, we argue for the integration of coastal landscapes into hominins’ territories, suggesting that adaptation to coastal environments is actually a slower process which begins with “territorialization” well before the emergence and devel- opment of Homo sapiens.

Before Farming [online version], 2002

General accounts of global trends in world prehistory are dominated by narratives of conquest on land: