Global InformationBorder Cave information
| Border Cave, South Africa | |
|---|---|
| Border Cave | |
  Border Cave, South Africa Border Cave in South Africa | |
| Length | 48 kilometres (30 mi) |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 27°01′30″S 31°59′20″E / 27.0249°S 31.9889°E |
Border Cave is an archaeological site located in the western Lebombo Mountains in Kwazulu-Natal. The rock shelter has one of the longest archaeological records in southern Africa, which spans from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age.[1]
The west-facing cave is located about 100 m below the crest of the Lebombo mountain range.[2] The variable rates of weathering of the Lebombo's Jurassic rocks led to the cave's formation.[2][3]
Researchers have excavated at Border Cave since 1934. In chronological order, excavations occurred in 1934 (Raymond Dart), 1940 (W.E. Horton, non-scientific), 1941–1942 (Cooke, Malan and Wells),[4] 1970–1975, and 1987 (Peter Beaumont). Lucinda Backwell and colleagues reopened the site in 2015, and are currently excavating and analyzing more archaeological materials.[5] Researchers have used a combination of carbon-14 dating, amino acid racemisation, luminescence, and electron spin resonance to date the site's oldest deposits to ~250,000 years before present.[6] Border Cave's remains include human remains, lithics, bone tools, botanical remains (i.e. grass bedding) and animal bones.[7][8][4]
Border Cave's long occupational sequence makes the site an important location for studying prehistoric hunter-gatherer behavior and the causes and timing of the Middle to Later Stone Age transition.[9] The site's human remains have led to debates on the timing of modern human origins in southern Africa.[1][10] Some of the cave's other artifacts (i.e. bone points) have also played into researchers' debates on the origins of hunter-gatherer cultural adaptations and the appropriateness of ethnographic analogy in interpreting the archaeological record.[11]
- ^ a b Backwell, Lucinda; Wadley, Lyn; d’Errico, Francesco; Banks, William E.; Peña, Paloma de la; Stratford, Dominic; Sievers, Christine; Laue, Ghilraen; Vilane, Bawinile; Clark, Jamie; Tribolo, Chantal; Beaudet, Amélie; Jashashvili, Tea; Carlson, Kristian J.; Lennox, Sandra (2022-09-01). "Border Cave: A 227,000-year-old archive from the southern African interior". Quaternary Science Reviews. 291: 107597. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107597. ISSN 0277-3791. S2CID 250154060.
- ^ a b Butzer, K.W.; Beaumont, P.B.; Vogel, J.C. (1978). "Lithostratigraphy of Border Cave, KwaZulu, South Africa: a Middle Stone Age sequence beginning c. 195,000 b.p." Journal of Archaeological Science. 5 (4): 317–341. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(78)90052-3. ISSN 0305-4403.
- ^ Riley, T.R.; Millar, I.L.; Watkeys, M.K.; Curtis, M.L.; Leat, P.T.; Klausen, M.B.; Fanning, C.M. (2004). "U–Pb zircon (SHRIMP) ages for the Lebombo rhyolites, South Africa: refining the duration of Karoo volcanism". Journal of the Geological Society. 161 (4): 547–550. doi:10.1144/0016-764903-181. ISSN 0016-7649. S2CID 129916780.
- ^ a b Cooke, H. B. S.; Malan, B. D.; Wells, L. H. (1945). "3. Fossil Man in the Lebombo Mountains, South Africa: The 'Border Cave,' Ingwavuma District, Zululand". Man. 45: 6–13. doi:10.2307/2793006. JSTOR 2793006.
- ^ Backwell, Lucinda R.; 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, Lyn (2018-08-18). "New Excavations at Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". Journal of Field Archaeology. 43 (6): 417–436. doi:10.1080/00934690.2018.1504544. ISSN 0093-4690. S2CID 133659154.
- ^ Tribolo, Chantal; Mercier, Norbert; Dumottay, Charles; Cantin, Nadia; Banks, William E.; Stratford, Dominic; de la peña, Paloma; Backwell, Lucinda; Wadley, Lyn; Francesco d’Errico (2022). "Luminescence dating at Border Cave: attempts, questions, and new results". Quaternary Science Reviews. 296: 107787. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107787. S2CID 252795092.
- ^ de la Peña, Paloma; Colino, Fernando; Francesco d’Errico; Wadley, Lyn; Banks, William E.; Stratford, Dominic; Backwell, Lucinda (2022). "Lithic technological and spatial analysis of the final Pleistocene at Border Cave, South Africa". Quaternary Science Reviews. 296: 107802. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107802. S2CID 253039014.
- ^ Klein, Richard G. (1977). "The Mammalian Fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age (Later Pleistocene) Levels of Border Cave, Natal Province, South Africa". The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 32 (125): 14–27. doi:10.2307/3887843. JSTOR 3887843.
- ^ Bader, Gregor D.; Mabuza, Ayanda; Price Williams, David; Will, Manuel (2022). "Rethinking the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in southern Africa – A perspective from the highveld of Eswatini". Quaternary Science Reviews. 286: 107540. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107540. ISSN 0277-3791. S2CID 248837927.
- ^ Beaudet, Amélie; Francesco d’Errico; Backwell, Lucinda; Wadley, Lyn; Zipfel, Bernhard; de la Peña, Paloma; Reyes-Centeno, Hugo (2022). "A reappraisal of the Border Cave 1 cranium (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)". Quaternary Science Reviews. 282: 107452. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107452. S2CID 247637899.
- ^ d’Errico, Francesco; Backwell, Lucinda; Villa, Paola; Degano, Ilaria; Lucejko, Jeannette J.; Bamford, Marion K.; Higham, Thomas F. G.; Colombini, Maria Perla; Beaumont, Peter B. (2012). "Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (33): 13214–13219. doi:10.1073/pnas.1204213109. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3421171. PMID 22847420.