Earlier Stone Age artefacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Fri Jul 25, 2014, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Earlier Stone Age artefacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa
July 25th, 2014

Excavations at an archaeological site at Kathu in the Northern Cape province of South America have provided tens of thousands of Earlier Stone Age artefacts, including items such as hand axes. These artefacts were unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa and the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa.

The archaeologists’ research on the Kathu Townlands site, one of the richest early prehistoric archaeological sites in South America, was published in the journal PLOS ONE on 24th July 2014. It has been estimated that the site is between 700,000 and one million years old.



Steven James Walker from the Department of Archaeology at UCT, lead author of the journal paper, says: “The site is amazing and it is threatened. We’ve been working well with developers as well as the South African Heritage Resources Agency to preserve it, but the town of Kathu is rapidly expanding around the site. It might get cut off on all sides by development and this would be regrettable.”

Today, Kathu functions as a major mining centre. Walker says that archaeologists are presented with the unique challenge, finding strategies to work cooperatively with developers, because the extensive prehistoric site is located in the middle of a zone of intensive development.

More:
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2014/07/earlier-stone-age-artefacts-found-in-northern-cape-of-south-africa/104329

[theHandpuppet]

1. Amazing

Thanks much for posting this.