Science and Technology Production
New Excavations at Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Article
Authorship:
Backwell, Lucinda Ruth ; d'Errico, Francesco ; Banks, William E. ; de la Peña, Paloma ; Sievers, Christine ; Stratford, Dominic ; Lennox, Sandra J. ; Wojcieszak, Marine ; Bordy, Emese M. ; Bradfield, Justin ; Wadley, LynDate:
2018Publishing House and Editing Place:
Taylor and Francis Ltd.Magazine:
Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 43 (pp. 417-436) - ISSN 0093-4690Taylor and Francis Ltd.
ISSN:
0093-4690Summary
New excavations at Border Cave use high-resolution techniques, including FT-IR, for sediment samples and thin sections of micromorphology blocks from stratigraphy. These show that sediments have different moisture regimes, both spatially and chronologically. The site preserves desiccated grass bedding in multiple layers and they, along with seeds, rhizomes, and charcoal, provide a profile of palaeo-vegetation through time. A bushveld vegetation community is implied before 100,000 years ago. The density of lithics varies considerably through time, with high frequencies occurring before 100,000 years ago where a putative MSA 1/Pietersburg Industry was recovered. The highest percentage frequencies of blades and blade fragments were found here. In Members 1 BS and 1 WA, called Early Later Stone Age by Beaumont, we recovered large flakes from multifacial cores. Local rhyolite was the most common rock used for making stone tools, but siliceous minerals were popular in the upper members.Key Words
LITHIC INDUSTRYLATER STONE AGEGEOARCHAEOLOGYARCHAEOBOTANICAL REMAINSMIDDLE STONE AGE