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Shell middens / Skulphope
Shell middens / Skulphope
Please do NOT remove anything from these middens !
The coast of South Africa is littered with large mounds of shells. These mounds were built up through several agents: storms, seagulls and humans. The mounds called shell middens are the accumulations of shells discarded where prehistoric people lived and fed for extended periods. Shellfish are being utilised as food since 120 000 years ago. Archaeological research has shown that people have occupied the Cape Agulhas area for well over a million years. Early Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) tools occur locally. The middens contain remains of stone tools, potsherds, bone, fish hooks from bone and stone sinkers. Sea levels stabilized 4000 years ago and the best-conserved middens are younger than this date. Middens are protected under the National Heritage Resources Act (Act No. 25 of 1999), Section 35 (4) which says: No person may, without a permit issued by SAHRA or the responsible heritage resources authority, destroy, damage, excavate, alter or remove from its original position, or collect, any archaeological material or object. (Edited by Dr Lita Webley)
Stone Age Tools found:
Agulhas dune fields / Agulhas duineveld
Agulhas dune fields / Agulhas duineveld
The shoreline of the Cape Agulhas coast has both rocky (60 km) and sandy (45 km) beaches, followed by dunes, including rare hummock-blowout and playa-lunette dunes between Brandfontein and Cape Agulhas.
As a habitat type, the dune fields are an important conservation target for the Overberg and the Agulhas National Park coastline. Dune fields are not a marine habitat, but being outside the tidal influence, it is linked to a marine environment. The Agulhas dune fields are not only ecologically sensitive but also are a very sensitive and important archaeological site from the Holocene era, the last 10,000 years.
In 1984, Martin Hall of the University of Cape Town did an archaeological survey of the Agulhas dune fields. It was discovered that the dune field contains an extensive array of archaeological sites dating back to the Holocene period. Stone-age people from the Holocene period moved in three specific environmental zones: the coastline, the inland border of the dune field and the smaller coastal mountain ranges, Sandberg, Soetanysberg and Heuningrug. The archaeological sites found in these zones differ in structure and composition. It can be interpreted as the first land use in the Cape Agulhas area. Groups of Stone Age people most probably lived permanently on the Agulhas Plain and moved in smaller groups to the coast to harvest seafood to bring back to the permanent dwelling. The composition of the sites shows the summer use of the area and that the low-lying areas were avoided in the winter.
Note: This area is not open to the public.
(SOURCE: The Late Stone Age in the Cape Agulhas area: a distributional study, Martin Hall, 1984; A Marine conservation plan for the Agulhas Bioregion, B.M. Clark & A.T. Lombard, 2007)
Fish traps
Fish traps
Fish traps are old stone structures in which fish were caught. The structures consist of low walls of stone built to enclose a portion of a bay or rocky sections on the coast. When the tide rises and floods over the wall, the fish swim into the enclosure getting trapped when at low tide the water seeps away. The fish trapped in the shallow water can easily be caught by hand or net.
Archaeological research has shown that people have occupied the Cape Agulhas area for well over a million years. Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Early Stone Age (ESA) tools occur locally. Large numbers of Later Stone Age (LSA) sites have been recorded. Substantial concentrations of shellfish remains (shell middens) are densely clustered inshore of the rocky shoreline. It is here that large quantities of shellfish species were exploited, processed and consumed by LSA hunter-gatherers. Well-preserved tidal fish traps also occur at Cape Agulhas and Suiderstrand. The tidal fish traps were most likely built by pre-colonial LSA people – possibly the same people responsible for the accumulation of shell middens that occur along the rocky shoreline. But, research has shown that it could also have been built by poor whites.
Rasperpunt is one of the important archaeological sites on the Cape Agulhas coast. It is located to the west of the Southernmost Tip. The name Rasperpunt is derived from the fact that the sharp rocks regularly cut the fishing lines of the anglers. Rasperpunt is as famous with local fishermen as it was 20 000 years ago. The fish traps located here are well-preserved but not used anymore.
Follow the circular Rasperpunt Hiking Trail of five kilometres; information available at the Agulhas Park Reception.
Spookdraai
Spookdraai
Onlangs het beriggewing oor moontlike ontwikkeling in Spookdraai, reg op die kus, groot ontsteltenis in die gemeenskap veroorsaak. Spookdraai is een van die bekende landskapbakens aan die Kaap Agulhas kuslyn, asook ‘n belangrike en geliefde erfenisplek van menige Strandvelder en Suidpunter; lees onder andere hengelaar. Dit is ook ‘n plek met baie stories en legendes, soos waar kom die naam vandaan; maar ons rakel bietjie ander stories op.
Soos Daniël le Grange ‘n paar jaar gelede sy onthoue van die Vuurtoring vir ons gestuur het. Hy het as jong seun vir Derick Auret, Vuurtoringwagter, ontmoet en baie jare later weer vir hom op see terwyl hulle kabeljou vanaf ‘n boot in Spookdraai gevang het. “Ons het ‘n klein skiboot gehad en Oom Derick was in sy roeibootjie alleen. Hy was die eerste man soos ek verneem het, wat daai groot kabeljoue, wat sekere tyd van die jaar in Spookdraai inkom agter die elwe aan, gevang het. Hy vang hulle toe alreeds 40 jaar en het baie sukses daar behaal. In my onkunde hoe om die grotes aan te keer, het ek stadig na hom gevaar en myself voorgestel as die klein seuntjie wat destyds daar aan huis by hulle geslaap het. Soos ‘n Pa sy seun ‘n geheim vertel, het hy my in detail die tegniek geleer om die grotes aan te keer, net daar op die see. Verskoon die volgende, maar ek sal sy woorde nooit vergeet nie: ‘My boy, you need to feed the line gently for the cob to swallow, and if you do not hook him in his ass, you have not caught him!’ Sedertdien het ons baie sukses met sy hengeltegniek behaal.”
Spookdraai is ‘n integrale deel van die kus-erfenisbewaringsone vanaf Struisbaai tot L’Agulhas. Die Parafienpad, ‘n groen sone (kusplantegroei), interessante geologiese formasies, tradisionele visvang- en swemplekke, skulphope, spoelklipplekke, visvywers, ‘n veekrip uit die Van Breda’s se tyd en vele ander plekke van belang vir oud-inwoners.
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