Newly discovered fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, uranium-series ages, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Swartkrans cave, South Africa.
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.
Sutton
Morris B
MB
Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Pickering
Travis Rayne
TR
Pickering
Robyn
R
Brain
C K
CK
Clarke
Ronald J
RJ
Heaton
Jason L
JL
Kuman
Kathleen
K
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
D014501:Uranium; D013910:Thorium