Mind the clivias! Investigating the Palmiet Gwalagwala cliff.

Evidence of man’s use of the Palmiet was found prior to our visit and housed at the Bergtheil Museum, Westville. These clues to the past provide a window into not only the technology people in the area used to procure food for survival, but also how food was processed. The clues include stone scrapers from the Middle Stone Age, that is 40 000 to 130 000 years before present. At this time man, as a hunter-gatherer, used spears as his main weapon. Residents on the banks of the river had discovered bored stones linked to the Late Stone Age, dated approximately 20 000 years before present. Written and photographic evidence depicts demonstrations by early San/Bushmen in the Cape, which reveal that these bored stones were used as weights on digging sticks to help break hard soil when digging for roots and bulbs to eat or use as medicine.