Nicholas J. Conard and Andrew W. Kandel The economics and settlement dynamics of the later Holocene inhabitants of near coastal environments in the West Coast National Park (South Africa) 1 Introduction Recent years have seen lively debate on the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and herders in the Western Cape. Smith et al. (1991) stress the distinct nature of these economic and cultural systems, and thereby argue that herders, accompanied by sheep and using pot- tery, first entered the Western Cape about two thousand years ago. Sadr (2004) has coun- tered that the distinction between hunter-gatherers and herders is less clear-cut. He sug- gests that sheep herding could have arrived without a major migration of people, and that there was considerable interaction between both cultural groups. The various points of view and archaeological background to this debate have been summarized in recent pub- lications (e.g., Sadr et al. 2003; Sadr 2004; Parkington & Hall in press), and this question is discussed in reports on pottery (e.g., Sadr & Smith 1991; Sampson & Sadr 1999), fauna (e.g., Klein & Cruz-Uribe 1989; Smith 1998; Webley 2002), human skeletal data (e.g., Pfeiffer & Sealy 2005), stable isotopic research (e.g., Sealy & van der Merwe 1987) and other lines of reasoning. 1 We have profited from discussions and correspondence with many colleagues in South Africa and abroad. Graham Avery, Margaret Avery, Simon Hall, John Parkington, Cedric Poggenpoel, Richard Redding, Karim Sadr, Judy Sealy, Andy Smith, Brian Stewart, Deano Stynder, Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Margarethe Uerpmann, Steph Woodborne and Royden Yates in particular have always been available for discussion and been generous in sharing their ideas and data. We thank our col- leagues in the geosciences, particularly John Compton, Peter Felix-Henningsen, Markus Fuchs and Dave Roberts. We are particularly indebted to Peter Felix-Henningsen for his work in developing a general stratigraphic system for the Geelbek Dunes. The West Coast National Park, South African Heritage Resources Agency and Heritage Western Cape have been supportive of our research. The Iziko South African Museum has over the course of many years provided equipment, laboratory and storage space. We are grateful to the Iziko staff, especially Graham Avery and Royden Yates, for their generous scientific and logistical assistance. N. J. Conard thanks Judy Sealy and John Parkington for their invitation to teach as a visiting professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town in 2005. The first draft of this paper dates to that period. This work has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant CO-226/5-5). Finally we thank the many students from the Universities of Tübingen and Cape Town who contributed to the fieldwork at Geelbek. From: Hans-Peter Wotzka (ed.), Grundlegungen. Beiträge zur europäischen und afrikanischen Archäologie für Manfred K. H. Eggert (Tübingen: Francke, 2006) 329 – 355.