Strandlopers, Shell Middens, and the Police

Today began my weekend of fun, sort of. I technically still have class tomorrow morning, but that will only be a short interruption in the otherwise great adventure. I woke up this morning and got in a van with my archeology class and drove off to Langerbaan. As a class we were going to get lunch at this restaurant called Strandlopers and after the meal I am sure that early modern humans must have survived on shellfish and lived along the coast. Our lunch consisted of 10 courses of various shellfish, seafood and other items. Items (in order) included mussels with garlic, freshly baked bread, bokkom (fish), seafood paella, snoek (more fish) with potatoes and sweet potatoes, lamb stew with some kind of seaweed flower in it, smoked angelfish, some other grilled fish, lobster-sized crayfish, and koek sisters (donuts). All of the food was served in a sort of buffet style, but one at a time. We would have to collect the food from various grills and pots around the restaurant where they were cooking each dish once they were ready. It was quite a fun experience and the atmosphere was great. The restaurant was entirely outside with a sandy floor. We ate under small covered sections right next to the ocean. A guitarist was playing for the group the whole time. To add to the fun, mussel shells served as our silverware throughout the meal. We began eating at around 12:30 and didn’t leave the restaurant until 3:30 in the afternoon. At that point I was the fullest I have been so far in South Africa.

From the restaurant we drove a few kilometers to a new archeological site that our professor will be excavating starting next year. It was really exciting to get a chance to see what archeology is actually like on the ground. The site was on a fairly steep slope and there was no visible cave, only sandy soil that appeared to be filling in the cave. It was a really interesting site because there were actually two distinct sections. One of them was filled with all sorts of animal bones (mostly smaller mammals) and our professor told us that it was likely a hyena cave. The other side was much different and contained a shell midden (literally a pile of shells) which would not have been collected by the hyena. In addition, it had numerous pieces of ostrich egg shells, which were used as liquid containers by early people. Several stone tools littered the edges as well and it was clear that this was the site of early modern humans, likely from the middle stone age (approximately 150,000 years ago to 50,000 years ago).

Just as we were exploring the site and looking at everything that was littering the ground, a police car drove up the road just down the hill from us and motioned for us to come down from the slope. He was not happy and told us that we were on private property and that we were eroding the slope by climbing on it. Our professor chimed in that he was an archeologist from UCT and this seemed to help, but he still was not happy with us explaining that we still needed permission. I couldn’t help thinking that our professor had just gotten a bit excited about the site and just barged right in. Getting to know him it has been great. He just has this bounce to him whenever he is talking about or exploring archeological sites. Today was no different – though it took a police altercation to deflate the fun.

Tomorrow I fly to Durban and then drive up to the Drakensburg Mountains on the Lesotho border. I won’t be able to update my blog until I get back, but I hope that you all can wait and I promise to have lots of stories to bring back!