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Archeology, Environment, and Chronology of the Early Middle Stone Age Component of Wonderwerk Cave

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Abstract

Although the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa, associated with major cultural innovation including aspects of symbolic behavior and the development of complex hunting tools, has been the focus of intensive research, well-documented contexts for the early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) are rare. Here, we present archeological and ecological data on the EMSA occupation of Wonderwerk Cave excavated by Peter Beaumont, along with the results of luminescence dating of associated sediments to ca. 240–150 kyr, overlapping with the timing of the first known modern humans. The lithic assemblage shows a shift to prepared core flake production but lacks complex hunting equipment characteristic of the later MSA. Although ocher is present, there is no evidence of ornaments or incised objects. Multiproxy paleoclimate data from Wonderwerk Cave demonstrate that the EMSA occupation occurred under significantly wetter environmental conditions than the current semiarid regime. The Wonderwerk Cave EMSA provides strong support for the argument that critical aspects of the MSA archeological record developed long after the first appearance of modern humans.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. David Morris and the staff of the McGregor Museum (Kimberley) for their partnership and support. We also thank Manuel Will and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and insightful comments. Field work at Wonderwerk Cave is undertaken under permit issued by SAHRA.

Funding

Research at Wonderwerk Cave is supported by grants from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to MC and FB and from the Paleontological Scientific Trust (PAST).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S2, Canada

    Michael Chazan

  2. Institute of Evolutionary Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Michael Chazan

  3. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Education Building 9635, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    Francesco Berna

  4. Florisbad Research Station, National Museum Bloemfontein, POB 266, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa

    James Brink & Sharon Holt

  5. Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6, Kiel, Germany

    Michaela Ecker

  6. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3TG, UK

    Michaela Ecker & Julia Lee Thorp

  7. Geological Survey of Israel, 32 Yeshayahu Leibowitz Street, 9692100, Jerusalem, Israel

    Naomi Porat

  8. National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University, Berman Building, E. Safra-Givat Ram Campus, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel

    Liora Kolska Horwitz

Authors
  1. Michael Chazan
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  2. Francesco Berna
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  3. James Brink
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  4. Michaela Ecker
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  5. Sharon Holt
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  6. Naomi Porat
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  7. Julia Lee Thorp
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  8. Liora Kolska Horwitz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Chazan.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

It is with great sadness that we record the loss of our colleague James Brink whose contributions to this project and to the prehistory of southern Africa were immensurable.

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Chazan, M., Berna, F., Brink, J. et al. Archeology, Environment, and Chronology of the Early Middle Stone Age Component of Wonderwerk Cave. J Paleo Arch 3, 302–335 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-020-00051-8

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