The place beyond the trees
Renewed excavations of the Middle Stone Age deposits at Olieboomspoort in the Waterberg Mountains of the South African Savanna Biome
Bibliographic Data
Olieboomspoort is one of the few rock shelters in the vast interior of southern Africa documenting pulses of occupation from the Acheulean until the end of the Later Stone Age. Revil Mason excavated the site in 1954 and attributed the large Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblage to his middle phase of the so-called Pietersburg Industry. Recent work at the site has focused on the Holocene layers, but little is known about the earlier phases of shelter use. Here, we provide some background to the shelter, give a history of past research and present initial results following renewed fieldwork at the site. The MSA deposits contain abundant lithic artefacts and ochre, and we present an initial description of these cultural remains. Palynological analysis reveals limited potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, but some faunal remains indicate open grasslands. We dated two equid teeth that provided highly consistent combined U-series-ESR estimates, resulting in a mean age of 150 ± 14 ka (1σ). Even when considering potential sources of uncertainty such as variations in water-intake, these fossils can securely be dated to Marine Isotopic Stage 6. Our reappraisal of site formation processes highlights the fact that the archaeological assemblage is strongly time-averaged. We discuss these different results in the context of a recently rekindled interest in the so-called Pietersburg Industry
Archaeology · Biology · Biome · Ecosystem · Excavation · Geography · Later Stone Age · Middle Stone Age · Pleistocene · Stone Age · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology · Geology
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Ochre use at Olieboomspoort, South Africa
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Blade production ∼500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa
New radiometric ages for the Fauresmith industry from Kathu Pan, southern Africa
Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Cave 1, South Africa
The context, form and significance of the MSA engraved ostrich eggshell collection from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa
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Possible shell beads from the Middle Stone Age layers of Sibudu Cave, South Africa
Ochre in the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa
Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa
Groningen Radiocarbon Dates X
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Chronostratigraphy, Site Formation, and Palaeoenvironmental Context of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Occupations at Grassridge Rock Shelter (Eastern Cape, South Africa)
Those marvellous millennia
Border Cave revisited
The revolution that wasn't
Radiometric dating of the Earlier Stone Age sequence in Excavation I at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa
On the age of Border Cave 5 human mandible
Plant taphonomy, flora exploitation and palaeoenvironments at the Middle Stone Age site of Mwulu's Cave (Limpopo, South Africa)
The use of OSL dating in unstructured sands
Revisiting Mwulu's Cave
The effects of climatic change on settlement in eastern Lesotho during the middle and later stone age
The Stone Age Prehistory of Southern Africa
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |