0
Cape Town - Pre History
The Birth of Table Mountain
The story of Cape Town must begin with Table Mountain. The mountain creates a rain shadow, providing rain and the streams that flow in its valleys. Small forests grow in the ravines and the mountain provides shelter. Soil has developed on the mountain slopes, in contrast to the sandy plains beyond. Without these vital elements the area would would not have attracted human settlement.
So our story of Cape Town begins by looking back in geological time to understand the birth of Table Mountain. Only then can we turn to the evolution of the Cape's fauna and flora and set the scene for the arrival of man.
Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains on earth, six times older than the Himalayas and five times older than the Rockies. It's story begins eight hundred million years ago when sandstone began to form underwater.
Sandstone is a relatively soft rock but it was given strength by magma rising from the earth's core. When magma reaches the surface it often forms a volcano, but in this case it stopped underground, cooled and formed hard granite. You can easily see granite rocks along the coast of the Cape Peninsula today.
Around 300 million years ago the mountain was still at sea level during an ice age and ice sheets flattened the layers of sandstone creating the flat surface that today we call the 'Table Top'.
When the continents split apart, stresses and pressures built up in the earth's crust. If the rocks of Table Mountain had been made only of sandstone they would have folded under the pressure, but the granite gave it strength, deflecting the forces down. Slowly this process forced the layers of rock to rise, slowly becoming the kilometre high mountain we know today.
Throughout its history, Table Mountain has been eroded by the action of wind, fire, ice and water. The flat face of the mountain is a cliff face, caused by the action of waves when the sea lapped against it. On the mountain you can find strangely shaped rocks and deep ravines caused by millions of years of erosion.
Over its long history Table Mountain would see great changes in the plant and animal life around it, and we now turn to this.
Plant and Animal Evolution
Fossil pollen evidence has shown that from one billion to 5.3 million years ago the region around modern Cape Town was predominantly lush, subtropical rainforest. The superb West Coast Fossil Park near Langebaan has revealed fossils of great and fascinating creatures that lived in wetlands and forests five million years ago - double tusked elephants, saber-toothed cats, various species of hyena, the African bear, ancestral birds and white rhino.
However, the climate became more typical of the Mediterranean and the landscape more arid with the cold Benguella current flowing from the Antarctic. Plants and trees came under pressure from lack of water and an increasing frequency of fires. Many species of flora and fauna began to decline. The short-necked giraffe became extinct around 1.5 - 2 million years ago; the sabre-toothed tiger 1.8 million years ago.
Some plants, with origins in the mountains of central Africa, were suited to a drier climate and began to dominate and diversify. Over the last five million years they have evolved and multiplied into more and more species that are now recognised as the unique Cape Floral Kingdom.
This complex kingdom of at least eight and a half thousand species includes numerous bulbs, heathers, grasses and proteas. Locally these plants are known as 'fynbos' because they have hardy wooden stems and fine leaves. In general they grow low to the ground and are extremely well adapted to high winds, long droughts, fire and wet, cool winters.
Although fynbos provides little grazing for animals, herds of elephant, antelope and buffalo continued to migrate to the area. These included the now extinct Blue Antelope, the Longhorn Buffalo and various zebra species. Fossils of these species have been found at sites such as Elandsfontein and Duinfontein. Lions and leopards preyed on antelope until modern times.
Human Evolution
Southern Africa rivals East Africa for the title 'cradle of humankind'. Discoveries at Sterkfontein, Taung and Makapa reveal that australopithecines (primitive forms of humans evolved from apes) were living in the region three and a half million years ago.
Discoveries from various stages of human evolution have been made in South Africa, including hand axes made by Homo Erectus 750,000 yeas ago in the vicinity of Cape Town, now on display in the Wellington Museum in the winelands.
But the oldest evidence of modern humans (Homo Sapien Sapiens) found anywhere in the world, was found in the region of Cape Town. In the 1960s Anthropologists dated bones of modern man found at Klasies River, on the coast between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, at 80,000 years old. In 1994 further discoveries at this cave were dated 100,000 years old.
On the Cape Peninsula at Fish Hoek, remains from Echo Cave have been dated to between 75,000 and 50,000 years, and rock art found there is as old as 28,000 years.
But the oldest record of all is of footprints made by a human woman near the lagoon at Langebaan - just north of Cape Town. These prints are dated at 117,000 years old and are called 'the footsteps of Eve'. They are on display at the SA Museum in Cape Town.
Further work is underway and more sites have been uncovered in recent years. According to this evidence, the first modern people that evolved lived around Cape Town.
The Khoe San
Archaeology has shown that the earliest human communities ever recorded lived in sight of Table Mountain. We cannot say for certain how they lived, but since the climate is quite arid, and there is no evidence of a complex civilisation, one can infer that they lived in small nomadic groups hunting animals and gathering edible plants.
This is not to say they lacked sophistication - their art, some dated at 27,000 years old, has been described as 'one of the high points of human visual creativity' (Ross, 1999, pg. 9).
However, much further north, groups of hunter-gatherers, probably in northern Botswana, turned to herding sheep and, later, cattle (pastoralism). Whether by migration or cultural transmission, the practise of herding drifted south, and was present along the rivers and coastline north and east of Cape Town at least 2,000 years ago.
Wherever there was good grazing, pastoralism became established, but it is not suited to very arid or mountainous areas. Thus, a distinction arose between the San people who continued to live by traditional hunting and gathering in difficult environments, and the Khoe who herded sheep and cattle on the plains.
Genetically these groups were very similar, although the Khoe, enjoying a better diet, tended to be taller and bigger. Their appearance was described by the traveller William Burchell in 1811
'they were small in stature, all below five feet; and the women still shorter; their skin was a sallow brown colour.. Though small and delicately made, they appeared firm and hardy' (quoted, Thompson, 1995, Pg 6)
They also shared a similar distinctive language made up of clicks. And we believe they traded with one another - for instance swapping meat for milk - and in times of difficulty or for the sake of marriage perhaps exchanged lifestyle. Together, they are known as 'the KhoeSan'.
The San
The San encamped under rock overhangs in the mountains or in small camps in dry areas. It is clear they lived in the mountain ranges just north of Cape Town until the nineteenth century.
They lived in small nomadic 'bands', numbering between 20 and 80 people, consisting of several family groups.
The women foraged around the camp for food, gathering bulbs (especially those of Arum lilies), roots, stalks and fruits. They also made clothes from skins sewn with catgut.
The men made bows and arrows, coating the tips with the venom of snakes and poisonous plants, and hunted antelope. It appears that they conducted religious ceremonies in preparation for a hunt, with a shaman entering a trance and his experiences recorded in rock art. The Eland is often represented and seems to have been a recurring theme in their mysticism.
Musical instruments were also made by the San, and European explorers testified to their skill in playing them. Men also gathered the favourite San delicacy - wild honey.
The Khoekhoe
The name 'Khoekhoe' means 'men of men'. Their herds of sheep and cattle gave them a stable, balanced diet and they lived in larger groups than the San.
Clan groups, descended from a common ancestor, lived with their chief in kraals where they kept their herds. They made their small homes of reed mats covered with animal skins. An elephant's ear served as a door.
Clans were identified with a particular territory, but were semi-nomadic, moving whenever grazing land became depleted. The territories were not rigid and overlapped. The chiefs of several clans recognised a paramount Chief and were loosely associated under him as a 'tribe'.
Thus the Khoekhoe had a much larger, more complex and hierarchical society than the San.
European records of the sixteenth century show that there were several Khoekhoe tribes living around the region of modern Cape Town, and there was occasional warfare between them.
Interestingly, the tribe around Table Bay, the Goringhaikona, had no herds and lived on seafood that they found along the coast.
Bookmarks