Radiometric dating of the Earlier Stone Age sequence in Excavation I at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa: preliminary results

Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa

“…and reanalyzed the archaeological record of the site (24,25). Details on the archaeological, lithological, and chronological stratigraphy of excavation 1 are given in SI Text and illustrated in Figs.…”

Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis

“…A large horizontal phreatic tube cave, more than 100 metres long, this site contains Pleistocene sediments to a depth of more than 5 metres (Beaumont and Vogel 2006;Chazan et al 2008;Beaumont 2011;Berna et al 2012). The artefact assemblages here extend from the Later Stone Age possibly as far back as the Oldowan, with the Acheulean well represented through deeper levels.…”

“…The direct association with Acheulean, the repeated nature of burning and the association with bone are all important points. The dating is perhaps the least secure part of the evidence, since a possible reversed interval in the upper sequence (Chazan et al 2008) has not been confirmed (Matmon et al 2012), placing the main emphasis on cosmogenic nuclide dates. Although these support the early age, they are each presented with very large statistical errors, being of the order 1.09 0.2 Ma (Matmon et al 2012) allowing the outside possibility of a later date.…”

A 35ka pollen and isotope record of environmental change along the southern margin of the Kalahari from a stalagmite and animal dung deposits in Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

“…Wonderwerk is an important archaeological site that was used as far back as the Oldowan (ca. 1.8 Ma) (Chazan et al 2008). It contains evidence of fire use at 1 Ma and it appears that grasses were brought into the cave to create a bedding surface around 400 ka ago (Beaumont and Vogel, 2006).…”