Elands Bay Cave is located near the mouth of the Verlorenvlei estuary on the Atlantic coast of South Africa's Western Cape Province.

Parkington frequently used methods of comparing various characteristics in his findings in order to highlight phases of transformations at Elands Bay Cave.

Parkington, Cartwright, Cowling, Baxter, and Meadows (2000), analyzed wood charcoal and pollen data from Elands Bay Cave to explain the environmental change.

Woodborne, Hart, & Parkington (1995) researched seal bones to construct the timing and the duration of hunter-gatherer coastal journeys.

Orton (2006) examined raw materials to produce a lithic sequence for the Later Stone Age in Elands Bay Cave.

Lastly, Matthews (1999) used taphonomy and previous research by Peter Andrews to understand the formation and interpretation of micromammals at Elands Bay Cave.

Testing of faunal remains, bones, and wood charcoals provided evidence of wetter conditions in the terminal Pleistocene.

[4] More recent environmental conditions near Elands Bay Cave are characteristic of mild weather with an approximated 200–250 mm per year of rainfall occurring every winter.

[4] Elands Bay Cave is in close proximity (approximately 3 kilometers) to a rich intertidal environment supporting numerous shellfish species, sea birds, kelp beds, and marine mammals.

Transitions from the last glaciation to the Holocene had a significant impact on the type of vegetation and wildlife that could be supported along the southern coast.

[1] Cartwright and Parkington (1997) excavated 6,700 fragments of wood charcoal that were retrieved through dry sieving large soil samples of 39 collections.

Excavation of wood charcoal and pollen in the cave suggests that last glacial maximum had wetter conditions with lush forests and Afromontane elements 20,000 years ago.

[7] The micromammal specimens were recovered using 12mm and 3mm sieves, however, the researchers comment that this mesh size was likely too large to account for smaller faunal remains.

[7] Understanding the taphonomic processes that contributed to the deposition of the micromammal remains at Elands Bay Cave is important because it has identified a number of predators likely responsible for the accumulation of faunal material.

Observations and excavations were done in Elands Bay Cave in order to properly identify species of fish bones with accurate representation in specific levels.

[8] Between 8000 and 6000 years ago, the rise in sea level eventually resulted in the present location of Elands Bay Cave now on the coast.

[8] These findings supported the conclusion that due to the close proximity to the coast, fishing activities were the dominant subsistence strategy practiced by the people who occupied Elands Bay Cave.

[1] There are 60 radiocarbon dates that represent activity during the Holocene, a large part of the terminal Pleistocene, and also the last glacial maximum.

[9] Stratigraphy dating and the Middle Stone Age artifacts are at the base, then ashy loam's before 20,000 years ago BP, lastly topped with shell middens.

In the terminal Pleistocene, approximately 16,000 to 8,000 years ago, ostrich egg shells and animal bones were introduced to the cave.

[6] Elands Bay Cave is perceived as the central site because it includes the largest sample sizes and covers more time spans.

The research that has been done in the cave concludes that people lived there around 4,400 to 3,000 years ago and that hunting and gathering activities persisted until the 17th century AD.

Through carbon isotope testing, upper level dating of seal bones were found to not be consistent with findings of human remains at the same time.

[4] It is revealed that the moisture in the soil has been deteriorating from at least 4,000 years ago; other observations conclude similar findings because of evidence from pollen and faunal remains from the same epochs.

It was found that the study of taphonomy was important because it allowed researchers to distinguish the factors responsible for the collection and establishment of habits and behaviors of different species.

Fish species within the faunal assemblage recovered from Elands Bay Cave increased over time and represent both estuary and marine varieties.

[8] Shellfish remains discovered after 4,000 BP indicate an increase in marine resource exploitation and represents a shift away from mammals as the dietary staple.

[14] The shells that were found had not reached full adulthood within the cave, which leads archaeologists to believe that they were an essential part of their diet.

Since there are no signs of transitions even with the vast diverse archeologically evidence of faunal and artifact remains, it suggests to some that people did live there for a long time not just occasionally.

Changing behavior, creating culture, and emergence of new systems need to still be studied in depth in order to gain a greater sense of the historical Elands Bay Cave community.