Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T15:59:41.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2017

Michaela Ecker Open the ORCID record for Michaela Ecker [Opens in a new window] ,
James Brink ,
Michael Chazan ,
Liora Kolska Horwitz  and
Julia A Lee-Thorp
Michaela Ecker*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
James Brink
Affiliation:
Florisbad Quaternary Research Department, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Michael Chazan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Liora Kolska Horwitz
Affiliation:
National Natural History Collections, Faculty of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Julia A Lee-Thorp
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Wonderwerk Cave has yielded one of the longest and most complete Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) records for the arid interior of South Africa. This paper presents the results of a new radiocarbon dating program for Excavation 1 that is explored within a Bayesian model of all existing Wonderwerk Cave radiocarbon (14C) dates for the Holocene. The proposed model, using Phases within an OxCal Sequence model, provides robust age estimates for changes in the technological and paleoenvironmental record at the site. The more precise dates allow a comparison of the timing of climate shifts across the interior of southern Africa and begin to allow us to identify whether hiatuses in human occupation, or cultural shifts, are synchronous across broader areas of the subcontinent, or not.

Keywords

AMS datingBayesian modelingLater Stone Ageradiocarbonsouthern African archaeology
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 1067 - 1086
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Avery, DM. 1981. Holocene microfaunal faunas from the northern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 77:265–273.Google Scholar
Bamford, M. 2015. Charcoal from pre-Holocene stratum 5, Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Changing climates, ecosystems and environments within arid Southern Africa and adjoining regions. Palaeoecology of Africa 33:153–174.Google Scholar
Beaumont, PB. 1990. Wonderwerk Cave. In: Beaumont PB, Morris D, editors. Guide to the Archaeological Sites in the Northern Cape. Kimberley, South Africa: McGregor Museum. p 101–134.Google Scholar
Beaumont, PB. 2004. Wonderwerk Cave. In: Morris D, Beaumont PB, editors. Archaeology in the Northern Cape: Some Key Sites. Kimberley: McGregor Museum. p 31–36.Google Scholar
Beaumont, PB, Vogel, JC. 2006. On a timescale for the past million years of human history in central South Africa. South African Journal of Science 102:217–228.Google Scholar
Beaumont, PB, Vogel, JC. 1984. Spatial patterning of the ceramic Later Stone Age in the northern Cape province, South Africa. Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today 80:95.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M. 2010. Methods and code for “classical” age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quaternary Geochronology 5(5):512–518.Google Scholar
Bousman, CB, Mauldin, R, Zoppi, U, Higham, T, Scott, L, Brink, J. 2016. The quest for evidence of domestic stock at Blydefontein Rock Shelter. Southern African Humanities 28:39–60.Google Scholar
Bradfield, J, Thackeray, F, Morris, D. 2014. An experimental investigation in to the origin of incised lines on a 4000-year-old engraving from Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province. South African Archaeological Bulletin 69(199):72–79.Google Scholar
Brink, JS, Lee-Thorp, J. 1992. The feeding niche of an extinct springbok, Antidorcas bondi (Antilopini, Bovidae), and its palaeoenvironmental meaning. South African Journal of Science 88(4):227–229.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Higham, T, Ditchfield, P, Ramsey, CB. 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52(1):103–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–1045.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2013. OxCal 4.2. URL: <http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk>..>Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Leach, P. 2004. Towards high-precision AMS: progress and limitations. Radiocarbon 46(1):17–24.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, M, Lee, S, Nakagawa, T, Staff, RA. 2010. Developments in the calibration and modeling of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 52(3):953–961.Google Scholar
Brook, GA, Scott, L, Railsback, LB, Goddard, EA. 2010. A 35ka pollen and isotope record of environmental change along the southern margin of the Kalahari from a stalagmite and animal dung deposits in Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Journal of Arid Environments 74:870–884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, AJ, Verhagen, BT. 1985. Two Antidorcas bondi individuals from the Late Stone Age site of Kruger Cave 35/83, Olifantsnek, Rustenburg District, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 81(2).Google Scholar
Butzer, KW, Stuckenrath, R, Bruzewicz, AJ, Helgren, DM. 1978. Late Cenozoic paleoclimates of the Ghaap Escarpment, Kalahari margin, South Africa. Quaternary Research 10:310–339.Google Scholar
Butzer, KW, Fock, GJ, Scott, L, Stuckenrath, R. 1979a. Dating and context of rock engravings in Southern Africa. Science 203:1201–1214.Google Scholar
Butzer, KW, Stuckenrath, R, Vogel, JC. 1979b. The geo-archaeological sequence of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Society of Africanist Archaeologists Meeting Calgary Abstracts.Google Scholar
Chazan, M. 2015. Technological trends in the Acheulean of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. African Archaeological Review 32:701–728.Google Scholar
Cooke, CK. 1979. Excavations at Diana’s Vow Rock Shelter, Makoni District, Zimbabwe, Rhodesia. National Museums and Monuments.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1984a. The Later Stone Age of Southernmost Africa. British Archaeological Reports 213. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, J. 1984b. Later Stone Age people and their descendants in southern Africa. In: Klein RG, editor. Southern African Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments. Rotterdam: Balkema. p 221–328.Google Scholar
Dee, M, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2000. Refinement of graphite target production at ORAU. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1):449–453.Google Scholar
Ecker, M. 2016. Two million years of environmental change: a case study from Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape, South Africa [PhD thesis]. Oxford: University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Faith, JT. 2014. Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa. Earth-Science Reviews 128:105–121.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Hua, Q, Blackwell, PG, Niu, M, Buck, CE, Guilderson, TP, Heaton, TJ, Palmer, JG, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Turney, CSM, Zimmerman, SRH. 2013. SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000yearscal.BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1889–1903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwitz, LK, Chazan, M. 2015. Past and present at Wonderwerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). African Archaeological Review 32(4):595–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, AJB, Thackeray, AI. 1983. Ghaap and Gariep. Later Stone Age studies in the Northern Cape. South African Archaeological Society Monograph 2.Google Scholar
Inskeep, RR. 1987. Nelson Bay Cave, Cape Province, South Africa. The Holocene Levels. British Archaeological Reports International Series 357:266–270.Google Scholar
Jerardino, A, Fort, J, Isern, N, Rondelli, B. 2014. Cultural diffusion was the main driving mechanism of the Neolithic transition in southern Africa. PLoS ONE 9(12):e113672. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.011367.Google Scholar
Klein, RG. 1984. Later Stone Age faunal samples from Heuningneskrans Shelter (Transvaal) and Leopard’s Hill Cave (Zambia). South African Archaeological Bulletin 39:109–116.Google Scholar
Levine, A, Stanish, C. 2014. The importance of multiple 14C dates from significant archaeological contexts. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21:824–836.Google Scholar
Lee-Thorp, JA, Ecker, M. 2015. Holocene environmental change at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa: Insights from stable light isotopes in ostrich egg shell. African Archaeological Review 32(4):793–811.Google Scholar
Loftus, E, Sealy, J, Lee-Thorp, J. 2016. New radiocarbon dates and Bayesian models for Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1: implications for the South African Later Stone Age sequence. Radiocarbon 58(2):365–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombard, M, Wadley, L, Deacon, J, Wurz, S, Parsons, I, Mohapi, M, Swart, J, Mitchell, P. 2012. South African and Lesotho Stone Age sequence updated (I). South African Archaeological Bulletin 67:123–144.Google Scholar
Macken, AC, Staff, RA, Reed, EH. 2013. Bayesian age-depth modelling of Late Quaternary deposits from Wet and Blanche Caves, Naracoorte, South Australia: a framework for comparative faunal analyses. Quaternary Geochronology 17:26–43.Google Scholar
Mitchell, P. 2013. Southern African hunter-gatherers of the last 25,000 Years. In: Mitchell P, Lane PJ, editors. The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, P, Barham, LS. 2008. The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Orlando, L, Metcalf, JL, Alberdi, MT, Orlando, L, Metcalf, JL, Alberdi, MT, Telles-Antunes, M, Bonjean, D, Otte, M, Martin, F, Eisenmann, V, Mashkour, M, Morello, F, Prado, JL. 2009. Revising the recent evolutionary history of equids using ancient DNA. PNAS 106(51):21754–21759.Google Scholar
Orton, J. 2012. Late Holocene archaeology in Namaqualand, South Africa: hunter-gatherers and herders in a semi-arid environment [DPhil thesis]. Oxford: University of Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orton, J, Mitchell, P, Klein, RG, Steele, T, Horsburgh, KA. 2013. An early date for cattle from Namaqualand, South Africa: implications for the origins of herding in southern Africa. Antiquity 87:108–120.Google Scholar
Parkington, J. 2006. Shorelines, Strandlopers and Shell Middens. Cape Town: Krakadouw Trust.Google Scholar
Parsons, I. 2006. Later Stone Age socio-economic variability during the last 2000 years in the Northern Cape, South Africa [PhD thesis]. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Plug, I, Engela, R. 1992. The macrofaunal remains from recent excavations at Rose Cottage Cave, Orange Free State. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 47(155):16–25.Google Scholar
Rutherford, MC. 1997. Categorization of biomes. In: Cowling RM, Richardson DM, editors. Vegetation of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p 91–98.Google Scholar
Sadr, K, Sampson, CG. 2006. Through thick and thin: early pottery in southern Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 4(2):235–252.Google Scholar
Sampson, CG. 1974. The Stone Age Archaeology of Southern Africa. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, G. 2010. Chronology and dynamics of Later Stone Age herders in the upper Seacow River valley, South Africa. Journal of Arid Environments 74:842–848.Google Scholar
Scott, L, Lee-Thorp, JA. 2004. Holocene climatic trends and rhythms in southern Africa. In: Batterbee R, Gasse F, editors. Past Climatic Variability through Europe and Africa. Netherlands: Springer. p 691–699.Google Scholar
Scott, L, Thackeray, JF. 2015. Palynology of Holocene deposits in Excavation 1 at Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape (South Africa). African Archaeological Review 32(4):839–855.Google Scholar
Thackeray, AI. 1981. The Holocene cultural sequence in the northern Cape Province, South Africa [PhD thesis]. New Haven (CT): Yale University.Google Scholar
Thackeray, JF. 1984. Man, animals and extinctions: the analysis of Holocene faunal remains from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa [PhD thesis]. New Haven (CT): Yale University.Google Scholar
Thackeray, JF. 2013. The principle of “sympathetic magic” in the context of hunting, trance and Southern African rock art. The Digging Stick 30(1):1–4.Google Scholar
Thackeray, JF. 2015. Faunal remains from Holocene deposits, Excavation 1, Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. African Archaeological Review 32(4):729–750.Google Scholar
Thackeray, JF, Lee-Thorp, JA. 1992. Isotopic analysis of equid teeth from Wonderwerk Cave, northern Cape Province, South Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 99:141–150.Google Scholar
Thackeray, AI, Thackeray, JF, Beaumont, PB, Vogel, JC. 1981. Dated rock engravings from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Science 214:64–67.Google Scholar
van Zinderen Bakker, EM. 1982. Pollen analytical studies of the Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Pollen et Spores 24:235–250.Google Scholar
Vogel, JC, Fuls, A, Visser, E. 1986. Pretoria radiocarbon dates III. Radiocarbon 28(3):1133–1172.Google Scholar
Wadley, L. 1987. Later Stone Age hunters and gatherers of the southern Transvaal: social and ecological interpretation. British Archaeological Reports 25.Google Scholar
Wadley, L. 1992. Rose Cottage Cave: the Later Stone Age levels with European and Iron Age artifacts. The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 8–12.Google Scholar
Wadley, L. 2000. The Wilton and pre-ceramic post-classic Wilton industries at Rose Cottage Cave and their context in the South African sequence. The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 90–106.Google Scholar
Wendt, WE. 1976. “Art Mobilier” from the Apollo 11 Cave, South West Africa: Africa’s oldest dated works of art. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 31(121/122):5–11.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ecker supplementary material

Ecker supplementary material 1

Download Ecker supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 20.9 KB