A GIS Analysis of the Zeekoe Valley Stone Age Archaeological Record in South Africa

Abstract

The conversion of the Zeekoe Valley Archaeological Project survey data to a GIS format allows rapid and accurate analysis of this large hunter-gatherer database. During the 16-month survey 13,866 prehistoric Stone Age sites were recorded and plotted on aerial photographs. These site locations and archaeological data can now be analysed in a manner never possible before the conversion. The distribution and abundance of sites spanning over ~700,000 years of occupation demonstrates how human hunting and gathering societies organized themselves spatially on an African landscape. These results show how these different groups positioned themselves in different locations especially in relation to water sources in the semi-desert Karoo. These distributions show flexible patterns of spatial organization through the prehistoric past.