Sibudu cave

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Sibudu cave

View over the excavation area inside the cave

View over the excavation area inside the cave
Location: KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa
Geographic
location: 		29 ° 31 '21.5 "  S , 31 ° 5' 9.2"  E Coordinates: 29 ° 31 '21.5 "  S , 31 ° 5' 9.2"  E
Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal)
Sibudu cave
Particularities: Archaeological site
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Stone utensils from the Sibudu cave

The Sibudu Cave ( English : Sibudu cave ) is an abri , known since the 1960s, in a sandstone formation , around 15 meters above the Tongati River in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa , around 40 kilometers north of Durban . It is an important archaeological site that was inhabited by humans ( Homo sapiens ) at least 77,000 years ago - in the so-called Middle Stone Age .

According to a journal article in Antiquity were in the cave in a 64,000 years old soil layer references to the use of arrow and bow discovered that - should the interpretation be correct - would be the oldest evidence for this hunting technique.

exploration

The cave has a floor area of ​​approximately 55 x 19 meters. From 1998 - the beginning of systematic research - the excavation manager was Lyn Wadley from the Witwatersrand University , and in 2011 Nicholas Conard ( University of Tübingen ) took over this task.

Numerous successive settlement layers could be identified, which prove repeated use in the period between 77,000 and 38,000 years ago. Thousands of stone tools (some with adhesions of vegetable glue and wood) and worked bones were uncovered from these layers of different ages, up to eight meters below today's level . Two layers of the find could be assigned to the so-called “ Still Bay Industry ” (72,000 - 71,000 years old) and the Howieson's Poort Industry (65,000 to 60,000 years old) due to the nature of the discovered tools . Among other things, various fireplaces, numerous charred bones of small and large mammals as well as at least 15 layers of deposits that were centimeter-thick with grass (the oldest 77,000 years old) and whose surface consisted of leaves of the "Cape Quince" Cryptocarya woodii were discovered, whose essential oils are poisonous to insects and their larvae.

Remnants of red ocher and strings of pearls from the shells of sea snails were also found. On a 49,000 years old tee was ocher dust, mixed with casein from milk proven - a combination that is interpreted as a means for coloring the skin.

Archaeological experiments with gum arabic , ocher and other substances available in the Stone Age (which had been detected in traces in the cave) produced detailed insights into the work steps involved in the production of glue and gave impetus to far-reaching considerations about the cognitive abilities of the earlier cave dwellers. The large number of scattered bones led to the assumption that other hunting techniques - snares and traps - could have been used in addition to bow and arrow.

In 2015, numerous researchers repeatedly protested against plans by the local government to designate a large residential and industrial area in the immediate vicinity of the cave, as the excavation sites were not adequately secured against unwanted visitors.

See also

literature

  • Nicholas J. Conard, Viola C. Schmid, Manuel Will: Sibudu and the cultural evolution of modern man . In: Archeology in Germany . 2/2015, pp. 12-17
  • Lyn Wadley and Zenobia Jacobs: Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal: Background to the excavations of Middle Stone Age and Iron Age occupations. In: South African Journal of Science. Volume 100, 2004, pp. 145–151, full text PDF , (431 kB)
  • Manuel Will, Gregor D. Bader, Nicholas J. Conard: Characterizing the Late Pleistocene MSA Lithic Technology of Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa . In: PLoS ONE. Volume 9, No. 5, 2014: e98359, DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0098359
  • Sylvain Soriano et al .: The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort at Sibudu and Blombos: Understanding Middle Stone Age Technologies. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 10, No. 7, 2015: e0131127, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0131127
  • Nicholas J. Conard et al .: Examining the Causes and Consequences of Short-Term Behavioral Change during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 10, No. 6, 2015: e0130001, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0130001

Web links

Commons : Sibudu Cave  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Balter: South African Cave Slowly Shares Secrets of Human Culture. In: Science . Volume 332, No. 6035, 2011, pp. 1260-1261, doi : 10.1126 / science.332.6035.1260
  2. ↑ Marlize Lombard, Laurel Phillipson: Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In: Antiquity. Volume 84, No. 325, 2010, pp. 635-648
  3. ^ Lyn Wadley: Announcing a Still Bay industry at Sibudu Cave, South Africa. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 52, No. 6, 2007, pp. 681-689, doi : 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2007.01.002
  4. ^ Lyn Wadley: The Howieson's Poort Industry of Sibudu Cave. In: South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series. Volume 10, 2008, pp. 122-132.
  5. ^ Lyn Wadley et al .: Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa. In: Science. Volume 334, No. 6061, 2011, pp. 1388–1391, DOI: 10.1126 / science.1213317
    As early as 77,000 years ago, people lived and slept on medicinal plants. On: idw-online.de from December 8, 2011
  6. ↑ Lyn Wadley: Cemented ash as a receptacle or work surface for ocher powder production at Sibudu, South Africa, 58,000 years ago. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 37, No. 10, 2010, pp. 2397-2406, doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2010.04.012
  7. ^ Paola Villa et al .: A Milk and Ocher Paint Mixture Used 49,000 Years Ago at Sibudu, South Africa. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 10, No. 6, 2015: e0131273, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0131273
  8. ↑ Lyn Wadley: Putting ocher to the test: replication studies of adhesives did may have been used for hafting tools in the Middle Stone Age. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 49, No. 5, 2005, pp. 587-601, doi : 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2005.06.007
  9. ↑ Lyn Wadley, Tamaryn Hodgskiss, Michael Grant: Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa. In: PNAS . Volume 106, No. 24, 2009, pp. 9590-9594, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0900957106
  10. ↑ Thomas Wynn: Hafted spears and the archeology of mind. In: PNAS. Volume 106, No. 24, 2009, pp. 9544-9545, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0904369106 full text
  11. ↑ Lyn Wadley: Were snares and traps used in the Middle Stone Age and does it matter? A review and a case study from Sibudu, South Africa. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 58, No. 2, 2010, pp. 179-192, doi : 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.10.004
  12. ↑ Michael Balter: Development threatens home of early humans. In: Science. Volume 349, No. 6243, 2015, pp. 11–12, doi: 10.1126 / science.349.6243.11