The Middle Stone Age Fish Fauna from the Klasies River main site, South Africa

The fish bone sample reported here was excavated between 1984 and 1988 from the Late Pleistocene main site at Klasies River. At least 82 species from 47 fish families were identified. The majority of the assemblage is made up of vertebrae of small fish of the size class ranging from 15 to 25 cm in total length. Some 78% of the fish identified to species or genus level are intertidal or estuarine fishes. The involvement of humans as opposed to birds or other animals in creating the fish bone accumulations in the Klasies River deposits was investigated, and the possible contribution of humans to this accumulation was found to be more significant than previously supposed.