Hunter Gatherers

Drakensbergs South Africa.   A complete set of hunter gatherers tools and weapons was found intact with carrying bags in a cave near here in the 1930s. The owner might have been one of the last survivors of this way of life apart from the Kalahari bushmen, who are under increasing pressure. The completeness, simplicity, sophistication and effectiveness of all these tools and weapons still surprises those who have studied them. Many of the tools have changed very little since prehistoric times. "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Bone needles, fish hooks, bows, arrowheads, axeheads, spears and spear launchers similar to those made 20 000 years ago. Now that is sustainable technology.

Vast middens of sea shells, almost blocking up the entrance to caves, can be found on the coast where for millenia the Koi San lived sustainably by fishing and gathering food from the seashore and rock pools at low tide.