213 Chapter in African Archaeology. A Critical Introduction. Edited by Ann B Stahl. Oxford: Blackwell. Due to be appear August 2004 UK, September US, but with the publication date shown as 2005. A Late Pleistocene Archive of Life at the Coast, Klasies River H. J. Deacon and Sarah Wurz . The Late Pleistocene began 125,000 years ago (ky) (Martinson et al. 1987) when the world was as warm or warmer than the present and sea levels were within a few meters of those of today. It was the Last Interglacial and polar ice caps were at a minimum. Warmer oceans meant higher evaporation and generally more precipitation on land. In Africa at that time environments were productive and populations expanded, leaving traces of this expansion in the numbers of Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites (Deacon 2001). However, climates are subject to long-term changes due to orbital forcing and, following a number of oscillations that are best represented in the marine oxygen isotope record (Chapter 4), global climates changed from an interglacial to a glacial mode some 60 ky. Glacials marked by high-latitude ice sheets were registered by increased aridity in African latitudes. With aridity came lower soil moisture levels, reduced productivity of ecosystems, and the contraction of MSA populations in the most affected zones (Deacon and Thackeray 1984; Szabo et al. 1995). This explains why the build up of over 20 m of occupation deposits in the lee of a cliff on the southernmost coast of the African continent near the mouth of the Klasies River (Figure 5.1) ceased some 60 ky. However, the well-stratified deposits and their contents are a valuable archaeological archive of MSA life at the coast during the favorable times of the first half of the Late Pleistocene. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the information gained and the issues raised by the extended investigation of this archive. [Figure 5.1] Klasies River main site (34.06ºS, 24.24ºE) has become an icon for the MSA. Its coastal setting is breathtaking and the layers contain impressive finds. There are abundant stone artifacts and hearth features. Middens of shellfish and the remains of other marine animals show early evidence of the systematic use of foods from the sea. Terrestrial animals, mainly bovids, are well represented and there are rare finds of fragmentary human remains. Reading an archaeological archive depends on accumulating a diverse range of information. Stratigraphy provides essential information on how the deposits formed and their relative age. But estimating the age of Late Pleistocene deposits is potentially problematic (Chapter 4); biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy are used in conjunction with and as a check on age estimates in providing a temporal framework for the archive. It is within this framework that the contents of the main site deposits can be analyzed. As this chapter shows, the long sequence of deposits lends itself to charting changing artifact styles and the turnover of animal species with the rise and fall of sea levels. The main site archive has generated or contributed to debates on broader issues in archaeology and paleontology. The results of faunal studies on Klasies River materials have been central to debates on distinguishing hunting and scavenging in the archaeological record. In addition the faunal studies have raised questions on how the intensity of resource exploitation may relate to the cognitive skills of prehistoric hunters. The Klasies River archive initiated the