STONE AGE DISCOVERIES NEAR UITENHAGE
Chipped rock tools, wood among finds
SAMPLES of ancient wood believed to have historical importance on a global scale have been uncovered at an archaeological dig site near Uitenhage.
The wood, estimated to be at least 300 000 years old, is the latest discovery by archaeologists from various universities around the world.
This includes La Trobe University and the University of Adelaide, both in Australia, as well as Wits University and the University of Cape Town.
The team also worked with colleagues from Grahamstown’s Albany Museum and Cape Town’s Iziko Museum.
In November, the team uncovered various stone tools, presumed to be from the Early and Middle Stone Age, while digging at Amanzi Springs.
The well-preserved tree stumps found earlier this month earmarked the site as only one of two places in Africa where stone tools and wood were found together.
The other site is Kalambo Falls in Zambia.
Project leader professor Andy Herries, of Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said the find was extremely rare.
“We’re still not sure how [the wood and the stone tools] are associated, because in archaeology we deal with 10% of what was once there.
“But we suddenly have a shot at finding something to tell about the missing part [after the Middle Stone Age],” he said.
The Middle Stone Age is characterised by stone tools, but there is no clear evidence yet of these tools being mounted on wood.
“What we want is to show an actual interaction between the wood and the stone,” he said.
“This could be in the form of residue on the stone tools to show they were used to cut wood, or that the wood was worked and shaped into a tool.
“If we are very lucky, we’ll find [a stone tool] half [placed] on wood – which is unlikely, but this setting gives us the potential to find it,” Herries said.
The site has already delivered a wealth of artefacts, including Acheulean hand axes and cleavers.
These stone tools, between 300 000 and 1.8 million years old, are characterised by oval or pear-shaped hand axes and cleavers. Smaller tools for specific tasks associated with the Middle Stone Age were also uncovered by Ray Inskeep and Hilary Deacon during a previous dig at the same site in the 1960s.
“We’re very lucky because Deacon was incredibly thorough,” Herries said.
“We’ve used [the] original notes and photos for 3D plotting [of his excavation] and dug just a bit deeper than the sterile layers he found.
“Some of the tools we’ve found are still sharp and fresh, as if they were used just yesterday.
“I can’t stress how rare it is to find tools [from different periods] layered in sequence like this.”
Wits archaeologist Dr Matt Caruana said the team hoped to date the site, and the artefacts found there, to raise its scientific significance.
“We’re starting to understand the behaviour [of our predecessors] – not just what is left behind, but why and how tools were made.
“That is the insight we are hoping to gain,” Caruana said.
With the excavation concluded last week, the next step would be to date sediment samples.
Herries said new dating methods were constantly being developed, and he hoped the process would be quicker than the seven years taken up by the finds from Kalambo Falls.
If we are very lucky, we’ll find [a stone tool] half [placed] on wood