TY - JOUR
T1 - The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone Age sediments at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa)
AU - Marean, Curtis
AU - Bar-Matthews, Miryam
AU - Fisher, Erich
AU - Goldberg, Paul
AU - Herries, Andy
AU - Karkanas, Panagiotis
AU - Nilssen, Peter J.
AU - Thompson, Erin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the SAHRA for providing a permit (No. 80/99/04/01/51) to conduct test excavations at the selected sites and HWC for providing subsequent excavation permits. We extend sincere thanks to the Mossel Bay community, and in particular we thank the staff of the Diaz Museum Complex, the Mossel Bay Municipality, Pinnacle Point Developments, and Cape Nature Conservation. We extend a very special thanks to our field and laboratory crew for their outstanding dedication and hard work, as well as specialists for their analyses presented in this report. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF): Division for Social Sciences and Humanities (DSSH; South Africa) towards this research is hereby acknowledged (grant # 15/1/3/17/0053 to Nilssen). Opinions expressed in this document and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF: DSSH. The majority of this research was funded by the National Science Foundation (USA; grants # BCS-9912465, BCS-0130713, and BCS-0524087 to Marean), funding from the Huxleys, the Hyde Family Foundation, the Institute for Human Origins, and Arizona State University.
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (PP13B) has provided the earliest archaeological evidence for the exploitation of marine shellfish, along with very early evidence for use and modification of pigments and the production of bladelets, all dated to approximately 164 ka (Marean et al., 2007). This makes PP13B a key site in studies of the origins of modern humans, one of a handful of sites in Africa dating to Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6), and the only site on the coast of South Africa with human occupation confidently dated to MIS 6. Along with this MIS 6 occupation there are rich archaeological sediments dated to MIS 5, and together these sediments are differentially preserved in three different areas of the cave. The sediments represent a complex palimpsest of geogenic, biogenic, and anthropogenic input and alteration that are described and interpreted through the use of a variety of macrostratigraphic, micromorphologic, and geochemical techniques. Three independent dating techniques allow us to constrain the age range of these sediments and together provide the stratigraphic context for the analyses of the material that follow in this special issue.
AB - Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (PP13B) has provided the earliest archaeological evidence for the exploitation of marine shellfish, along with very early evidence for use and modification of pigments and the production of bladelets, all dated to approximately 164 ka (Marean et al., 2007). This makes PP13B a key site in studies of the origins of modern humans, one of a handful of sites in Africa dating to Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6), and the only site on the coast of South Africa with human occupation confidently dated to MIS 6. Along with this MIS 6 occupation there are rich archaeological sediments dated to MIS 5, and together these sediments are differentially preserved in three different areas of the cave. The sediments represent a complex palimpsest of geogenic, biogenic, and anthropogenic input and alteration that are described and interpreted through the use of a variety of macrostratigraphic, micromorphologic, and geochemical techniques. Three independent dating techniques allow us to constrain the age range of these sediments and together provide the stratigraphic context for the analyses of the material that follow in this special issue.
KW - Origins of modern humans
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 20934084
AN - SCOPUS:77957687475
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 59
SP - 234
EP - 255
JO - Journal of human evolution
JF - Journal of human evolution
IS - 3-4
ER -