New Excavations at Umhlatuzana Rockshelter, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a Stratigraphic and Taphonomic Evaluation
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
New Excavations at Umhlatuzana Rockshelter, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a Stratigraphic and Taphonomic Evaluation Irini Sifogeorgaki & Victor Klinkenberg & Irene Esteban & May Murungi & Andrew S. Carr & Valentijn B. van den Brink & Gerrit L. Dusseldorp Accepted: 2 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Umhlatuzana rockshelter has an occupation sequence spanning the last 70,000 years. It is one of the few sites with deposits covering the Middle to Later Stone Age transition (~40,000–30,000 years BP) in southern Africa. Comprehending the site’s depositional history and occupation sequence is thus important for the broader understanding of the development of Homo sapiens’ behavior. The rockshelter was first excavated in the 1980s by Jonathan Kaplan. He suggested that the integrity of the late Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age sediments was compromised by large-scale sediment movement. In 2018, we initiated a high-resolution I. Sifogeorgaki (*) : V. Klinkenberg : G. L. Dusseldorp Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] I. Esteban : M. Murungi Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa I. Esteban African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa A. S. Carr School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK V. B. van den Brink VUhbs Archeologie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands G. L. Dusseldorp Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
geoarchaeological study of the site to clarify the site formation processes. Here, we present the results of the excavation and propose a revised stratigraphic division of the Pleistocene sequence based on field observations, sedimentological (particle size) analyses, and cluster analysis. The taphonomy of the site is assessed through phytolith and geochemical (pH, loss on ignition, stable carbon isotope) analyses. The results indicate a consistent sedimentological environment characterized by in situ weathering. The analysis of the pieceplotted finds demonstrates semihorizontal layering of archaeologically dense zones and more sterile ones. There was no indication of large-scale postdepositional sediment movement. We show that the low-density archaeological horizons in the upper part of the Pleistocene sequence are best explained by the changing patterns of sedimentation rate. Résumé L’abri sous-roche d’Umhlatuzana contient une séquence d’habitation enjambant les 70,000 dernières années. Le site est. un des rares exemples d’occupation couvrant la transition du « Middle Stone Age » à « Later Stone Age » dans l’Afrique du Sud. Une bonne compréhension des processus de formation du site est. donc importante pour l’étude du développement d’Homo sapiens. Le site a été fouillé pour la première fois dans les années 1980 par Jonathan Kaplan; il a suggéré que l’intégrité des gisement archéologiques du « Middle Stone Age » et de la tra
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