Newly discovered fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, uranium-series ages, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa

We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000 ± 1,980 years old, the first tightly constraine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of human evolution 2009-12, Vol.57 (6), p.688-696
Main Authors: Sutton, Morris B., Pickering, Travis Rayne, Pickering, Robyn, Brain, C.K., Clarke, Ronald J., Heaton, Jason L., Kuman, Kathleen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Animals
Archaeological research
Archaeology
Australopithecines
Excavations
Fauna
Forensic anthropology
Fossils
Hominidae - anatomy & histology
Human evolution
Human paleontology
Human remains
Methodology and general studies
Middle Stone Age archaeology
Palaeolithic and epipalaeolithic
Paleoanthropology
Paranthropus ( Australopithecus) robustus
Pleistocene
Prehistory and protohistory
Radiometric Dating
Site formation
South Africa
Southern and East Africa
Thorium - analysis
Tooth - anatomy & histology
U-Th disequilibrium dating
Uranium - analysis
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Summary:We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000 ± 1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. Recovered fauna from the two underlying deposits—including, prominently, the dental remains of Paranthropus ( Australopithecus) robustus from the uppermost layer (Talus Cone Deposit)—indicate a significantly older, late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age for these units. The lowest unit (LB East Extension) is inferred to be an eastward extension of the well-known Lower Bank of Member 1, the earliest surviving infill represented at the site. The date acquired from the speleothem also sets the maximum age of a rich Middle Stone Age lithic assemblage.
ISSN:0047-2484
1095-8606
DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.05.014