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

• 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
• ISSN: 0047-2484; 1095-8606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.05.014

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.