Pretoria Radiocarbon Dates III

Abstract

This list contains 14C dates pertaining to the Stone Age in southern Africa and covers the region from Zambia in the north to Natal and the northern Cape Province in South Africa. The southern and southwestern Cape Province are not included. Descriptions are based on information supplied by the submitters.

Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern africa: Marine shells and ostrich eggshell

“…The absence now of OES beads from Umhlatuzana (Kaplan,-1990) and Shongweni South Cave (Vogel et al, 1986) may indicate disruption of the mechanisms that had introduced OES beads to this area before 2000 B.P. On the other hand, contact with areas in which OES was available /s indicated farther south and in the Drakensberg foothills (Cable, 1984;Cable et aL, 1980).…”

High-precision AMS 14 C chronology for Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada

“…Early incremental radiocarbon work in known-age tree-ring sequences revealed that the radiocarbon production in the atmosphere is not constant (Stuiver and Quay, 1981) and that calibration is required to compare radiocarbon dates and develop coherent chronological sequences. Tree-ringbased calibration first became available in the early 1960s (e.g., Satterthwaite and Ralph, 1960;Suess, 1967), but the coverage was spotty and internationally accepted curves were not available until the late 1980s (Vogel et al, 1986). Wider access to calibration via the Internet (e.g., OxCal: Bronk Ramsey, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2009aCALIB: Stuiver andReimer, 1986, 1993;Stuiver et al, 2005;BCal: Buck et al, 1996, 1999CalPal: Danzeglocke et al, 2007;Weninger et al, 2007) since the 1990s has made calibration routine, and international efforts to improve and extend the tree-ring calibration curve continue to this day (Reimer et al, 2013).…”

The chronology of the introduction of pastoralism to the Cape, South Africa

“…The horn core itself, however, is only 370k40 b.p. (Pta-2230) (Vogel & Visser 1981). At Wonderwerk Cave, in the northern Cape, sheep hair was recovered from several units, extending as far down as the lowest sub-unit of layer 3a (Humphreys & Thackeray 1983).…”

“…The available information, however, is that sheep first appear in Layer 5, at 1120+85 b.p. (GaK-4335) (Parkington 1977;1981;Klein & Cruz-Uribe 1987). The nearby Tortoise Cave has approximately two dozen fragments of sheep bone associated with results of c. 1600 b.p.…”