Excavation of buried Late Acheulean (Mid-Quaternary) land surfaces at Duinefontein 2, Western Cape Province, South Africa

doi:10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00202-9

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volume 30, Issue 5, May 2003, Pages 559-575

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00202-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Duinefontein 2 (DFT2) preserves at least two buried land surfaces within a 10-m thick dune plume on the Atlantic Coast of South Africa, about 35 km north of Cape Town. Optically stimulated luminescence dating indicates that the sands enclosing the upper surface accumulated around 270 ky ago, while the sands between the two surfaces were accumulating about 290 ky ago. Excavation so far has focused on the upper buried surface, which is now exposed over 480 m². Historically, there was no body of fresh water nearby, and the surrounding vegetation was a variant of the regional fine-leafed shrub or fynbos. Pedogenic alteration of the sands and bones of water-loving mammals and amphibians indicate, however, that the bones and associated Acheulean artifacts accumulated near the edge of a large pond or marsh. In addition, the principal mammal species (buffalo, wildebeest, and kudu) imply a sharply different regional vegetation in which grass and broad-leafed bush were much more common. The artifacts are distributed across the upper buried surface in no apparent pattern, but the large mammal bones tend to occur as clusters of skulls, vertebrae, ribs, and other axial elements, often in near anatomical order. Limb bones are mostly missing, and the clusters appear to mark carcasses from which the limb bones were selectively removed. The bones rarely show marks from stone tools, but marks from carnivore teeth are common. Together with numerous hyena coprolites, the abundant tooth marks suggest that hyenas and perhaps other carnivores were largely responsible for carcass disarticulation. The human role appears to have been insignificant, which suggests that local Acheulean people obtained few large mammals, whether by hunting or scavenging. Among the small number of other Acheulean ‘carcass’ sites for which bone damage observations are available, the best-documented sites suggest the same limited human ability to acquire large mammals, but many additional sites will be necessary to determine if this was the Acheulean norm. Greatly expanded excavation of the lower buried surface at DFT2 can provide an additional, high-quality data point.

Section snippets

History of discovery and excavation

Duinefontein 2 (DFT2) is a fossiliferous, multilayer Acheulean site stratified within a 10-m thick dune plume on the property of the Koeberg Nature Reserve, adjacent to the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, about 35 km north of Cape Town, South Africa (Fig. 1;comptd;;center;stack;;;;;6;;;;;width> ). The plume covers an area of roughly 2.5 km²immediately adjacent to the Atlantic coast, and its deflated surface has provided wind-and-sand-scoured artifacts andanimal bones since at least 1956 [13]. In

Geomorphic/sedimentologic context

The surficial deposits at DFT2 are fine white drift sands that rest non-conformably on red (iron-stained) sands below. The paleosurfaces that we call Horizons 2 and 3 are sealed within the red sands (Fig. 1, top). Over the eastern half of the excavation, the red sands are capped by a sheet of calcrete that grows thicker and more continuous in the upslope (eastern) direction. In 2001, the excavations encountered a second similar calcrete buried within the red sands immediately above Horizon 3.

Geochronology

In theory, the DFT2 calcretes could be dated by Uranium (U)-series disequilibrium, the sands by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and the animal teeth by electron spin resonance (ESR). In practice, ESR is precluded, partly because it works best on isolated teeth (H.P. Schwarcz, personal communication), while the DFT2 teeth remain almost entirely in jaws. Even more important, ESR depends on a reliable estimate of the annual radiation dose after burial, and the local dose must have varied

Paleoenvironment

So far, the DFT2 sediments and the fauna provide the only bases for environmental reconstruction. The sediments are too coarse to preserve pollen, but in continuing research, we hope to explore the possibility that hyena coprolites retain some. Horizon 2 has produced nearly 50 complete coprolites (Fig. 2;comptd;;center;stack;;;;;6;;;;;width> ) and scores ofsmall fragments. The fauna that accompanies Acheulean artifacts at Elandsfontein Main suggests broadly the same kind of vegetation we infer

Artifacts and features

The artifacts from Horizon 2 include a classicAcheulean handaxe, two broken handaxes, cores,retouched and unretouched flakes, chunks and chips (debris), and hammerstones (Table 4; illustrations in Ref. [23]). Silcrete and quartz, both of which are available within 10 km of the site, were the principal raw materials. So far, we have found no refits, even though flakes that could be from the same core sometimes occur within a meter of each other and we have refitted bones found up to 3 m apart.

The

The nature and meaning of the bone-and-artifact association

We have just noted that with one exception, artifacts appear to be more or less randomly distributed across the Horizon 2 surface. Patterning in the distribution of bones is far more obvious. The principal ungulates tend to be represented by clusters of skull bones, vertebrae, ribs, and other axial elements, often in near-anatomical order (Fig. 5;comptd;;center;stack;;;;;6;;;;;width> ). Limb bones, which bore the majority of edible meat, marrow, and grease on each animal, are dissociated and

Variation in species abundance across the Horizon 2 surface and in species mortality patterns

Clusters of buffalo bones tend to concentrate on the downslope (western) portion of the Horizon 2 exposure, closer to what must have been the margin of the ancient pond. Among the common ungulates present, buffalo were surely the most water-dependent, and the positioning of the clusters suggests that they represent individuals who died as they drank or wallowed. The dentitions show that the animals were mainly older (post-reproductive) adults (Fig. 7;comptd;;center;stack;;;;;6;;;;;width> ), who

Skeletal part representation

Bone fragmentation at DFT2 is minimal, and most bones are identifiable to both skeletal part and species. This stands in stark contrast to the situation at most regional archeological sites, where fragmentation isalways much greater. Most bones at these sites cannot be confidently assigned to skeletal part, and bones that can be are often impossible to separate among closely related species of similar size. The problem of species identification is particularly acute for fragmentary bovid

Median tortoise size

Based strictly on the number of identifiable bones, the single most abundant species in DFT2 Horizon 2 is the angulate tortoise (Chersina angulata). The bones include limb elements, occasional complete or nearly complete shells, and thousands of shell (carapace and plastron) fragments widely scattered across the ancient surface. The fragments tend to be sharp-edged, and we attribute their breakage and scatter mainly to large ungulate trampling and kicking. The fragments are useful for defining

Summary and conclusions

DF2 preserves at least two buried land surfaces, each of which existed for perhaps a few centuries in the interval between roughly 500,000 and 250,000 years ago. Excavation so far has focused on the upper surface (‘Horizon 2’), because the lower one lies mainly below the water table. Future work will focus on the lower surface (‘Horizon 3’) where it emerges above the water table on the upslope margin of the excavation. The sediments and fauna show that animal bones andassociated Late Acheulean

Acknowledgements

This material is based on the work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9601021, on additional financial support from the LeakeyFoundation, and on logistical and laboratory support from the South African Museum, Iziko Museums of Cape Town. We thank Gert Greef, ConservationManager, ESKOM Nuclear Sites, for permission and encouragement to excavate, and Teresa Steele and Tim Weaver for helpful comments on the draft.

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Another issue is that some sites referred to the late Acheulean may be transitional. For example, Duinefontein 2 in the Western Cape, South Africa, has two horizons with OSL results of ca. 270 and 290 ka, with fauna supporting an age range of 250–300 ka (Klein et al., 1999; Cruz-Uribe et al., 2003). However, the diagnostic Acheulean types published for this site are limited to one complete and two broken handaxes and some handaxe trimming flakes, and so the assemblage may be transitional.
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Excavation of buried Late Acheulean (Mid-Quaternary) land surfaces at Duinefontein 2, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Section snippets

History of discovery and excavation

Geomorphic/sedimentologic context

Geochronology

Paleoenvironment

Artifacts and features

The nature and meaning of the bone-and-artifact association

Variation in species abundance across the Horizon 2 surface and in species mortality patterns

Skeletal part representation

Median tortoise size

Summary and conclusions

Acknowledgements

Journal of Human Evolution

Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris

Journal of Archaeological Science

Quaternary Research

Journal of Human Evolution

Journal of Archaeological Science

Quaternary Research

Journal of Human Evolution

Journal of Human Evolution

Journal of Human Evolution

Journal of Archaeological Science

Some features distinguishing hominid and otheroccurrences at Elandsfontein, southwestern Cape Province

Paleoecology of Africa

Systematic pigment use in the Middle Pleistocene of South-Central Africa

Current Anthropology

Faunal Remains from Klasies River Mouth

The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy

Palynology and palaeo-environment of Pleistocene hyaena coprolites from an open-air site at Oyster Bay, eastern Cape coast, South Africa

South African Journal of Science

Glacial cycles: jive talking

Nature

The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity

Journal of World Prehistory

Report on stone artefacts from Duinefontein 2, Melkbosstrand

South African Archaeological Bulletin

Acheulean sites and stratigraphy in Iberia andthe Maghreb

The Melkbos site: an Upper Pleistocene fossil occurrence in the South-Western Cape Province

Annals of the South African Museum

The late Cenozoic Carnivora of the southwestern Cape Province

Annals of the South African Museum