title: Newly discovered fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, uranium-series ages, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Swartkrans cave, South Africa.
abstract: We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000+/-1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. Recovered fauna from the two underlying deposits-including, prominently, the dental remains of Paranthropus (Australopithecus) robustus from the uppermost layer (Talus Cone Deposit)-indicate a significantly older, late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age for these units. The lowest unit (LB East Extension) is inferred to be an eastward extension of the well-known Lower Bank of Member 1, the earliest surviving infill represented at the site. The date acquired from the speleothem also sets the maximum age of a rich Middle Stone Age lithic assemblage.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Morris B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: Travis Rayne
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Pickering
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pickering
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Brain
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.forename: Jason L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Heaton
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D013019:South Africa; D013910:Thorium / Q000032:analysis; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014501:Uranium / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D014501:Uranium; D013910:Thorium