Strathalan Cave revisited: Stone Age networks and environments at the foot of the Drakensberg, South Africa

Abstract

The broader Drakensberg is an important region for understanding population dynamics and adaptation between the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Here, we announce our campaign to re-excavate Strathalan Cave in the northeastern Cape of South Africa. Strathalan Cave sits at the foothills of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg at the edge of the Great Escarpment of southern Africa. Well-known for its organic preservation, the site is important for understanding the archaeology of the region. People have occupied Strathalan Cave intermittently from ca. 29 000 years ago (ka), so exploring occupational patterns at sites such as these is a valuable means of understanding Stone Age behaviour during glacial Marine Isotope Stage 2 (ca. 29-14 ka). In this paper, we provide the first detailed description of the geological, geomorphological, sedimentary and environmental context of Strathalan Cave and review previous studies conducted on the site and region. We also introduce the goals of our re-excavation project and present a detailed map of the three cavities that make up the Strathalan Cave complex as part of a new, comprehensive, spatial control system established on site. Given the remarkable preservation of organic materials, Strathalan Cave may provide an important and rare source of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data for this period. Future work at Strathalan will likely contribute to our understanding of the links between settlement patterns and environmental change. This is especially important given that Strathalan sits at the juncture between different environmental and geographic regions.