Blombos Cave, South Africa

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The site was found by Christopher Henshilwood in 1991. Initial excavations were with Peter Nilssen & Cedric Poggenpoel and later with various colleagues and students from South Africa and Norway.

Under Prof. Henshilwood's direction the cave has been excavated in 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005. Further excavations are planned for 2007and 2008.

The LSA deposits are less than 2 000 years old, not as deep as the Middle Stone Age, and are more massively bedded and undistorted. In addition, burned layers tend to be thicker and several appear to preserve their original hearth-like structures. In the MSA levels the matrix is composed mainly of aeolian, marine-derived dune sand, blown in through the cave entrance and is intercalated with marine shell, decomposed humic materials and limestone, and wind-borne halites. Ground waters rich in calcium carbonate ( CaCO3) percolate through the cave roof and walls creating an environment suited to the preservation of bone and shell, particularly near hearths and ash deposits. Carbonised partings represent occupation horizons and separate major units. The MSA deposits undulate considerably from the back to front of the cave due to subsidence that produces a ‘wrapping effect’ over the rock falls and occasional slump faults into gaps between rocks.

MSA phases
Sterile yellow dune sand 10 – 60 cm thick named BBC Hiatus blew into the unoccupied cave during lowered sea levels about 70 000 years ago. Shortly afterwards the cave entrance was blocked by a > 40 m dune. It is likely that the cave only re-opened after the mid-Holocene (c. 5000 - 3000 years ago) when high sea levels eroded the base of this dune 30 m below the cave causing the dune at the entrance to subside. BBC Hiatus separates the LSA and MSA across > 95% of the excavated area and provides visible evidence that the LSA occupation did not disturb the underlying MSA deposits . (see 16 below for more information).

The five uppermost layers below BBC hiatus are assigned to the M1 phase. Small basin-shaped ash and carbon hearths are common in this phase. Carbonised sand and organic ‘partings’ of a few millimetres thick act as visual markers for the separation of discrete occupation layers. M1 phase lithics are typified by Still Bay type bifacial foliate points. More than 39 Nassarius kraussianus shell beads, 2 slabs of engraved ochre, a few bone tools and an engraved bone came from this phase.
Four layers typified by carbonised deposits, large hearths and shellfish comprise the M2 level. Few bifacials were recovered in the M2 phase. Shaped bone tools, possibly awls and bone projectile points, came mainly from the CFA/CFB/CFC layers in M2. Two Nassarius kraussianus shell beads were found in M2.

Dominant in the M3 phase are shellfish deposits and a high density of ochre pieces; the M3 lithic assemblage is currently being analysed by Dr. Paola Villa and Dr. Marie Soressi.

Dr. Zenobia Jacobs recovering dosimeters at Blombos Cave

Dating

Directly dating MSA sites older than about 40,000 years is problematic because they are beyond the range of radiocarbon (C14) dating. Optically stimulated dating of the BBC hiatus aeolian dune by the multiple grain technique yielded a depositional age of 69 ± 5 ka and 70 ± 5 ka using synthetic aliquots (Henshilwood et al. 2002: Jacobs et al., 2003a, b; Jacobs et al, 2006). Thermoluminescence dates were obtained for five burnt lithic samples from the M1 phase. The mean age for the lithic samples is 77 ± 6 ka (Tribolo et al, 2006). An OSL age of 72.7±3.1 ka was obtained for the M1 phase. Dates for the M2 phase using the OSL method indicate a range of 84.6±5.8 ka to 76.8±3.1 ka (Jacobs et al, 2006). Using single aliquots an age of c. 98 ka was obtained for the top of the M3 phase (Jacobs et al, 2006) and an age of 143.2±5.5 ka for a lower M3 layer. The stratigraphic integrity of artefacts recovered from these levels has been demonstrated with minimal movement of artefacts between the MSA phases and none between the LSA and MSA levels (Henshilwood, 2005; Jacobs et al, 2006).

Other dating methods, that have yielded similar ages for the BBC MSA are electron spin resonance (ESR) (Heather Jones, Masters Thesis, McMasters University, Toronto, Canada) and amino acid racemisation (AAR) (Prof. Alison Brooks, in press, George Washington University, Washington, USA). Dates for the MSA levels using the uranium-series method are currently being processed by Prof. Stein-Erik Lauritzen at the University of Bergen, Norway.

M1

Blombos Cave Readings

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed Journals & Books

In Press

Henshilwood, C.S. (in press). Fully symbolic sapiens behaviour: Innovation in the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa. In: Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins and Dispersal of Modern Humans., (eds. C. Stringer & P. Mellars). MacDonald Institute Research Monograph series; Cambridge, University of Cambridge Press.

Henshilwood, C.S. (In press). The origins of symbolism, spirituality & shamans: exploring Middle Stone Age material culture in South Africa. In Becoming human: innovation in material and spiritual cultures (ed. C. Renfrew). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
d’Errico, F. & Henshilwood, C. (in press). Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution.

Published
21. Henshilwood, C.S. 2006. Modern humans and symbolic behaviour: Evidence from Blombos Cave, South Africa. In Origins (ed. G. Blundell). Cape Town: Double Storey: 78-83.

20. Henshilwood, C. S. & Marean, C. W. 2006. Remodelling the origins of modern human behaviour. In : The Human Genome and Africa Part One: History and Archaeology. (ed. H. Soodyall). Human Sciences Research Council.
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19. Tribolo, C., Mercier, N., Selo, M., Joron, J-L., Reyss, J-L., Henshilwood, C., Sealy, J. & Yates, R. 2006. TL dating of burnt lithics from Blombos Cave (South Africa): further evidence for the antiquity of modern human behaviour. Archaeometry, 48 (2): 341–357. if you want to receive a reprint click on the number nearby 19

18. Jacobs, Z. Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G. & Henshilwood, C.S. 2006.. Extending the chronology of deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa, back to 140 ka using optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz. Journal of Human Evolution 51: 255-273
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17. Henshilwood, C.S. & d’Errico, F. 2005. Being modern in the Middle Stone Age: Individuals and innovation. In: The Individual hominid in context: Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts. (eds. C. Gamble & M. Porr).Routledge (Taylor Francis): 244-264
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16. Henshilwood, C. S. 2005. Stratigraphic integrity of the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave. In From Tools to Symbols. From Early Hominids to Modern Humans. (eds. F. d’Errico & L. Backwell). Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press: 441-458.
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15. d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk. K. 2005. Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: Evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution 48:3-24.
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14. Henshilwood, C.S. 2004. The Origins of Modern Human Behaviour: Exploring the African evidence. In Combining the Past and the Present: Archaeological perspectives on society. (eds. T. Oestigaard, N. Anfinset and T. Saetersdal). BAR International Series 1210: 95-106.
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13. Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., Jacobs, Z. 2004. Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science, 384:404.
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12. Henshilwood, C.S. & Marean, C.W. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour: A review and critique of models and test implications. Current Anthropology 44 (5): 627-651
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11. d’Errico F., Henshilwood C., Lawson G., Vanhaeren M., Soressi M., Bresson F., Tillier A.M., Maureille B., Nowell A., Backwell L., Lakarra J.A., Julien M. 2003. The search for the origin of symbolism, music and language: a multidisciplinary endeavour. Journal of World Prehistory, 17 (1): 1-70.
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10. Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. & Wintle, A.G. 2002. Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science 295:1278-1280.
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9. Grine, F.E. & Henshilwood, C.S. 2002. Additional Human Remains from Blombos Cave, South Africa: (1999-2000 excavations). Journal of Human Evolution 42: 293-302.
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8. Henshilwood, C.S., Sealy, J.C., Yates, R.J., Cruz-Uribe, K., Goldberg, P., Grine, F.E., , Klein, R.G., Poggenpoel, C., van Niekerk, K.L., Watts, I. 2001a. Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992 – 1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(5): 421-448.
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7. Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F.E., Marean, C.W., Milo, R.G., Yates, R. 2001b. An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution 41:631-678.
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6. d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., & Nilssen, P. 2001. An engraved bone fragment from ca. 75 kyr Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origin of symbolism . Antiquity. 75, 309-18.
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5. Grine, F.E., Henshilwood, C.S. & Sealy, J.C. 2000. Human remains from Blombos Cave, South Africa: (1997-1998 excavations). Journal of Human Evolution, 37: 755-765. if you want to receive a reprint click on the number nearby 5 5a

4. Henshilwood, C.S. 1997 Identifying the collector: Evidence for human consumption of the Cape dune mole-rat, Bathyergus suillus, from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:659-662.
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3. Henshilwood, C.S. & Sealy, J.C. 1997. Bone artefacts from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa. Current Anthropology 38(5):890-895.
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2. Henshilwood, C. S. 1996. A revised chronology for the arrival of pastoralism in southernmost Africa: new evidence of sheep at ca. 2000 b.p. from Blombos Cave, South Africa. Antiquity 70:945-949.
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1. Henshilwood, C.S., Nilssen, P. & Parkington, J. 1994. Mussel drying and food storage in the Late Holocene, sw Cape, South Africa. Journal of Field Archaeology 21:103-109.
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List of Blombos Cave publications

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Journal articles on Blombos Cave dating

Jacobs, Z., A. G. Wintle, & G. A. T. Duller. 2003a. Optical Dating of Dune Sand from Blombos Cave, South Africa: I—Multiple Grain Data. Journal of Human Evolution 44:599–612.
Not available

Jacobs, Z., G. A. T. Duller, & A. G. Wintle. 2003b. Optical dating of dune sand from Blombos Cave, South Africa: II – single grain data. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 613-25.
Not available

Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. & Wintle, A.G. 2002. Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science 295:1278-1280.
if you want to receive a reprint click on the number nearby 10

Tribolo, C., Mercier, N., Selo, M., Joron, J-L., Reyss, J-L., Henshilwood, C., Sealy, J. & Yates, R. 2006. TL dating of burnt lithics from Blombos Cave (South Africa): further evidence for the antiquity of modern human behaviour. Archaeometry, 48 (2): 341–357. if you want to receive a reprint click on the number nearby 19

Jacobs, Z. Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G. & Henshilwood, C.S. 2006.. Extending the chronology of deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa, back to 140 ka using optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz. Journal of Human Evolution 51: 255-273. if you want to receive a reprint click on the number nearby 18

Jacobs, Z., Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G. 2006. Interpretation of single grain De distributions and calculation of De. Radiation Measurements 41: 264–277.
.Not available

Jacobs, Z., Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G. 2006. Evaluation of SAR procedures for De determination using single aliquots of quartz from two archaeological sites in South Africa. Radiation Measurements 41 (2006) 520 – 533.
Not available