| Sibudu Cave | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal |
| Coordinates | 29°31′21.5″S 31°05′09.2″E / 29.522639°S 31.085889°E |
| Official name | Sibhudu Cave |
| Part of | The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa |
| Criteria | Cultural: iii, iv, v |
| Inscription | 2024 (46th Session) |
Sibudu Cave is a rock shelter in a sandstone cliff in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.[1] It is an important Middle Stone Age site occupied, with some gaps, from 77000 years ago to 38000 years ago.
Evidence of some of the earliest examples of modern human technology has been found in the shelter (although the earliest known spears date back 400000 years). The evidence in the shelter includes the earliest bone arrow (61000 years old),[2][3] and the earliest stone arrows (64,000 years old),[4][5] the earliest needle (61000 years old),[2] the earliest use of heat-treated mixed compound gluing (61000 years ago),[2] and an example of the use of bedding (77000 years ago) which for a while was the oldest known example (an older example from 200000 years ago was recently discovered at Border Cave, South Africa).[6]
The use of glues and bedding are of particular interest, because the complexity of their creation and processing has been presented as evidence of continuity between early human cognition and that of modern humans.[6][7][8]
In 2024, the Sibudu Cave became a part of the World Heritage Site of Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa.[9]
- ^ Wadley, L; Jacobs, Z (2004). "Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal: Background to the excavations of middle stone age and iron age occupations". South African Journal of Science. 100: 145–151. hdl:10204/527.
- ^ a b c Backwell, L; d'Errico, F; Wadley, L (2008). "Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa". Journal of Archaeological Science. 35 (6): 1566–1580. Bibcode:2008JArSc..35.1566B. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.006.
- ^ Backwell, L; Bradfield, J; Carlson, KJ; Jashashvili, T; Wadley, L; d'Errico, F (2018). "The antiquity of bow-and-arrow technology: evidence from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave". Journal of Archaeological Science. 92 (362): 289–303. doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.11. hdl:11336/81248.
- ^ Lombard M, Phillips L (2010). "Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". Antiquity. 84 (325): 635–648. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00100134. S2CID 162438490.
- ^ Lombard M (2011). "Quartz-tipped arrows older than 60 ka: further use-trace evidence from Sibudu, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa". Journal of Archaeological Science. 38 (8): 1918–1930. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.04.001.
- ^ a b Wadley L, Sievers C, Bamford M, Goldberg P, Berna F, Miller C. (2011). Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa. Science 9 December 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6061 pp. 1388–1391. An older example is now known: Lyn Wadley; et al. (14 August 2020). "Fire and grass-bedding construction 200 thousand years ago at Border Cave, South Africa". Science. 369 (6505): 863–866. Bibcode:2020Sci...369..863W. doi:10.1126/science.abc7239. PMID 32792402. S2CID 221113832.
- ^ Wadley, L; Hodgskiss, T; Grant, M (2009). "Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106 (24): 9590–9594. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900957106. PMC 2700998. PMID 19433786.
- ^ Wynn, T (2009). "Hafted spears and the archaeology of mind". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106 (24): 9544–9545. Bibcode:2009PNAS..106.9544W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904369106. PMC 2701010. PMID 19506246.
- ^ "The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 1 August 2024.