South Africa; Grassland Biome; Middle & Later Stone Age; hunter-gatherer behaviours; palaeoenvironment; rock art; lithic technology
Abstract :
[en] Rose Cottage Cave is widely recognised as a key sequence for the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age in the southern African central interior, with its unique palaeoenvironmental and chronocultural archive spanning a semi-continuous record from the Late Pleistocene to the 19th century. Building on important previous research, new excavations will extend our knowledge concerning technological systems, landscape use, human-environment interactions, as well as site formation and the linkages between these parameters in a regional context. Here we report on preliminary insights from the recent fieldwork and provide an overview of future directions.
Disciplines :
Archaeology
Author, co-author :
Schmid, Viola C.
Wadley, Lyn
Brandl, Michael
Guillemard, Iris
Rhodes, Sara E.
Taipale, Noora ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Unités de recherche interfacultaires > Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine (AAP) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > TraceoLab ; F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
Witelson, David M.
Börner, Mario
Cnuts, Dries ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Unités de recherche interfacultaires > Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine (AAP) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > TraceoLab
Hodgskiss, Tammy
Murungi, May
Nigst, Philip R.
Porraz, Guillaume
Puech, Elysandre
Rots, Veerle ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Unités de recherche interfacultaires > Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine (AAP) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > TraceoLab ; F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
Allott, L.F. 2000. Spatial analysis of YD layer at Rose Cottage Cave near Ladybrand, South Africa. Unpublished Master’s dissertation. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Avery, D.M. 1997. Micromammals and the Holocene environment of Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 93: 445–448.
Bataille, G. & Conard, N.J. 2018. Burin-core technology in Aurignacian horizons IIIa and IV of Hohle Fels Cave (Southwestern Germany). Quartär 65: 7–49.
Beaumont, P.B. 1978. Border Cave. Unpublished Master’s dissertation. Cape Town: University of Cape Town.
Brandl, M., Martinez, M.M., Hauzenberger, C., Filzmoser, P., Nymoen P. & Mehler, N. 2018. A multi-technique analytical approach to sourcing Scandinavian flint: Provenance of ballast flint from the shipwreck “Leirvigen 1”, Norway. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0200647.
Breuil, H. 1944. Sea animals amongst the prehistoric rock paintings of Ladybrand. South African Journal of Science 41: 353–360.
Brou, L. & Le Brun-Ricalens, F. 2006. Burins carénes et busqués: des nucléus à lamelles. L’apport des remontages du gisement de Thèmes (Yonne). In: Araujo Igreja, M., Bracco, J-P. & Le Brun-Ricalens, F. (eds) Burins préhistoriques: formes, fonctionnements, fonctions. Actes de la table ronde internationale organisée du 3 au 5 mars 2003 à la Maison Méditeranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Université d’Aix-en-Provence. ArchéoLogiques 2: 225–238. Luxembourg: Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art.
Buisson, D. 1991. Le Périgordien du Blot (Cerzat, Haute-Loire): note préliminaire. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française 88: 104–108.
Collins, J.A., Carr, A.S., Schefuß, E., Boom, A. & Sealy, J. 2017. Investigation of organic matter and biomarkers from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa: Insights into Middle Stone Age site usage and palaeoclimate. Journal of Archaeological Science 85: 51–65.
Courty, M.A., Goldberg, P. & Macphail, R. 1989. Soils and Micromorphology in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dewar, G., Zastrow, J., Arthur, C. & Mitchell, P. 2024. A zooarchaeological perspective on late Pleistocene/early Holocene human behaviour in the Maloti-Drakensberg region, southern Africa: the view from Ha Makotoko and Ntloana Tšoana rock-shelters, Lesotho. Quaternary Science Advances 13: 100170.
Esteban, I., Marean, C.W., Fisher, E.C., Karkanas, P., Cabanes, D. & Albert, R.M. 2018. Phytoliths as an indicator of early modern humans plant gathering strategies, fire fuel and site occupation intensity during the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point 5–6 (South coast, South Africa). PLoS ONE 13: e0198558.
Esterhuysen, A.B. 1996. Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from Pleistocene to present: an analysis of charcoal from sites in the Eastern Free State and Lesotho. Unpublished Master’s dissertation. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Gibson, N.E., Wadley, L. & Williamson, B.S. 2004. Microscopic residues as evidence of hafting on backed tools from the 60 000 to 68 000 year-old Howiesons Poort layers of Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. Southern African Humanities 16: 1–11.
Guillemard, I. 2024. Exploring Wilton microlithic technologies: New analyses from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews 333: 108679.
Harper, P.T. 1994. The Middle Stone Age sequence at Rose Cottage Cave: the search for continuity and discontinuity. Unpublished Master’s dissertation. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Harper, P.T. 1997. The Middle Stone Age sequences at Rose Cottage Cave: a search for continuity and discontinuity. South African Journal of Science 93: 470–475.
Hodgskiss, T. & Wadley, L. 2017. How people used ochre at Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa: sixty thousand years of evidence from the Middle Stone Age. PLoS ONE 12: e0176317.
Hogg, A.G., Heaton, T.J., Hua, Q., Palmer, J.G., Turney, C.S.M., Southon, J., Bayliss, A., Blackwell, P.G., Boswijk, G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Pearson, C., Petchey, F., Reimer, P., Reimer, R. & Wacker, L. 2020. SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–55,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 62: 759–778.
Igreja, M. & Pesesse, D. 2006. Entre modalités techniques et objectifs fonctionnels: les burins de l’unité OP10 de la Vigne Brun (Villerest, Loire, France). In: Araujo Igreja, M., Bracco, J-P. & Le Brun-Ricalens, F. (eds) Burins préhistoriques: formes, fonctionnements, fonctions. Actes de la table ronde internationale organisée du 3 au 5 mars 2003 à la Maison Méditeranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Université d’Aix-en-Provence. ArchéoLogiques 2: 165–196. Luxembourg: Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art.
Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G., Galbraith, R.F., Deacon, H.J., Grün, R., Mackay, A., Mitchell, P., Vogelsang, R. & Wadley, L. 2008. Ages for the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa: implications for human behavior and dispersal. Science 322: 733–735.
Klaric, L. 2006. Des armatures aux burins: des critères de distinction techniques et culturels à partir des productions lamellaires de quelques sites du Gravettien moyen et récent (France). In: Araujo Igreja, M., Bracco, J-P. & Le Brun-Ricalens, F. (eds) Burins préhistoriques: formes, fonctionnements, fonctions. Actes de la table ronde internationale organisée du 3 au 5 mars 2003 à la Maison Méditeranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Université d’Aix-en-Provence. ArchéoLogiques 2: 199–224. Luxembourg: Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art.
Klaric, L., Bertran, P., Dumarçay, G. & Liard, M. 2018. A long and winding road: towards a palethnographic interpretation of the middle-Gravettian site of la Picardie (Indre-et-Loire, France). Quaternary International 498: 51–68.
Klaric, L., Guillermin, P. & Aubry, T. 2009. Des armatures variées et des modes de production variable. Réflexions à partir de quelques exemples issus du Gravettien d’Europe occidentale (France, Portugal, Allemagne). Gallia Préhistoire 51: 113–154.
Kloos, P. 2014. ‘Geoarchaeological Investigations of Sediment Peels from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa’. Unpublished Master’s dissertation. Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen.
Le Brun-Ricalens, F. & Brou, L. 2012. Kielkratzer und Kielstichel: Werkzeug vs. Lamellenkern. In: Floss, H. (ed.) Steinartefakte. Vom Altpaläolithikum bis in die Neuzeit: 341–356. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag.
Lennox, S. & Wadley, L. 2022. Middle Stone Age wood use in Rose Cottage Cave South Africa: evidence from charcoal identifications. Quaternary International 611–612: 102–114.
Loftus, E., Pargeter, J., Mackay, A., Stewart, B.A. & Mitchell, P. 2019. Late Pleistocene human occupation in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of southern Africa: new radiocarbon dates from Rose Cottage Cave and inter-site comparisons. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 56: 101117.
Malan, B.D. 1942. The Middle Stone Age of the upper Caledon River Valley: the Modderpoort Culture: Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 29: 113–127.
Malan, B.D. 1952. The final phase of the Middle Stone Age in South Africa. In: Proceedings of the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Nairobi, 1947: 188–194. New York: Philosophical Library.
Mitchell, P. & Steinberg, J.M. 1992. Ntloana Tsoana: a Middle Stone Age sequence from western Lesotho. South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 26–33.
Ouzman, S. 1995. The fish, the shaman and the peregrination: San rock paintings of mormyrid fish as religious and social metaphors. Southern African Field Archaeology 4: 3–17.
Ouzman, S., 1997. Hidden in the common gaze: collective and idiosyncratic rock paintings at Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa: introduction. Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum: Researches of the National Museum 13(6): 226–255.
Ouzman, S. & Wadley, L. 1997. A history in paint and stone from Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. Antiquity 71: 386–404.
Patalano, R., Arthur, C., Carleton, W.C., Challis, S., Dewar, G., Gayantha, K., Gleixner, G., Ilgner, J., Lucas, M., Marzo, S., Mokhachane, R., Pazan, K., Spurite, D., Morley, M.W., Parker, A., Mitchell, P., Stewart, B.A. & Roberts P. 2023. Ecological stability of Late Pleistocene-toHolocene Lesotho, southern Africa, facilitated human upland habitation. Communications Earth & Environment 4: 1–12.
Pienaar, M., Woodborne, S. & Wadley, L. 2008. Optically stimulated luminescence dating at Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 104(1): 65–70.
Plug, I. & Engela, R. 1992. The macrofaunal remains from recent excavations at Rose Cottage Cave, Orange Free State. South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 16–25.
Porraz, G., Texier, P-J., Archer, W., Piboule, M., Brugal, J-P. & Tribolo, C. 2013. Technological successions in the Middle Stone Age sequence of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(9): 3376–3400.
Roberts, P., Lee-Thorp, J.A., Mitchell, P. & Arthur, C. 2013. Stable carbon isotopic evidence for climate change across the late Pleistocene to early Holocene from Lesotho, southern Africa. Journal of Quaternary Science 28: 360–369.
Soriano, S., Villa, P. & Wadley, L. 2007. Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(5): 681–703.
Stoops, G. 2021. Guidelines for Analysis and Description of Soil and Regolith Thin Sections. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Valladas, H., Wadley, L., Mercier, N., Froget, L., Tribolo, C., Reyss, J.L. & Joron, J.L. 2005. Thermoluminescence Dating on burnt lithics from Middle Stone Age layers at Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 101: 169–74.
Van Hoepen, E.C.N. 1932. Die Mosselbaaise Kultuur. Argeologiese Navorsing van die Nasionale Museum Bloemfontein 1: 27–54.
Van Riet Lowe, C. 1931. A Rare Point from Sheppard Island. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 20: 57–58.
Villa, P. & Lenoir, M. 2006. Hunting weapons of the Middle Stone Age and the Middle Palaeolithic: spear points from Sibudu, Rose Cottage and Bouheben. Southern African Humanities 18: 89–122.
Vogel, J.C. & Marais, M. 1971. Pretoria radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 13(2): 378–394.
Wadley, L. 1991. Rose Cottage Cave: background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125–130.
Wadley, L. 1996. The Robberg Industry of Rose Cottage Cave, eastern Free State: the technology, spatial patterns and environment. South African Archaeological Bulletin 51(164): 64–74.
Wadley, L. 1997. Rose Cottage Cave: archaeological work 1987 to 1997. South African Journal of Science 93: 439–44.
Wadley, L. 2000. The Wilton and pre-ceramic post-classic Wilton Industries at Rose Cottage Cave and their context in the South African sequence. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 90–106.
Wadley, L. 2004. Late Middle Stone Age spatial patterns in Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. In: Conard, N.J. (ed.) Settlement Dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age II: 23–36. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag.
Wadley, L. 2006. The use of space in the Late Middle Stone Age of Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. In: Hovers, E. & Kuhn, S.L. (eds) Transitions Before the Transition: Evolution and Stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology: 279–294. Boston: Springer.
Wadley, L. 2023. Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J. & Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: 1653–1662. Cham: Springer.
Wadley, L. & Harper, P.T. 1989. Rose Cottage Cave revisited: Malan’s Middle Stone Age collection. South African Archaeological Bulletin 44: 23–32.
Wadley, L. & Vogel, J. 1991. Recent dates from Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 87: 605–608.
Watts, I. 1998. The origin of symbolic culture: the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa and Khoisan ethnography. Unpublished PhD thesis. London: University College, London.
Wells, L.H., Cooke, H.B.S. & Malan, B.D. 1942. The associated fauna and culture of the Vlakkraal Thermal Springs. O.F.S. Introduction. II. The Stone Age Industry. III. The Faunal Remains. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 29: 203–233.
Williamson, B.S. 1997. Down the microscope and beyond: microscopy and molecular studies of stone tool residues and bone samples from Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 93: 458–464.
Williamson, B.S. 2000a. Prehistoric stone tool residue analysis from Rose Cottage Cave and other southern African sites. Unpublished PhD thesis. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Williamson, B.S. 2000b. Direct testing of rock painting pigments for traces of haemoglobin at Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 755–762.
Witelson, D.M. 2023. Theatres of Imagery: A Performance Theory Approach to Rock Art Research. Oxford: BAR Publishing.
Woodborne, S. 1999. Dating the Middle Stone Age in South Africa (National Research Foundation Final Report No. 15/1/3/2/00231). Pretoria.
Woodborne, S. & Vogel, J.C. 1997. Luminescence dating at Rose Cottage Cave: a progress report. South African Journal of Science 93: 476–478.
Wroth, K., Tribolo, C., Bousman, C.B., Horwitz, L.K., Rossouw, L., Miller, C.E. & Toffolo, M.B. 2022. Human occupation of the semi-arid grasslands of South Africa during MIS4: new archaeological and paleoecological evidence from Lovedale, Free State. Quaternary Science Reviews 283: 107455.
