Grave VIa at Oakhurst Shelter: Reporting on a 5000-year-old mistaken identity and associated grave-goods

Abstract

Almost a century ago, Goodwin excavated Grave VIa at Oakhurst Shelter that later became known as one of the most intriguing Later Stone Age burials in southern Africa. At the time, and in subsequent discussions, it was thought that a man was buried with a bored stone and a grindstone – objects usually seen as women’s things. We now know that the person was buried ~5000 years ago during the mid-Holocene, and that recent genetic work revealed their biological identity as that of a woman. This report reconciles the woman’s bioarchaeological information with a photographic record of her grave goods, most of which have never been published before. It highlights how throughout its long curational history, originally well-contextualised items are now scattered, with some no longer traceable. Alongside the items I was able to record over a three-year period, I provide a list of ‘still missing’ items in the hope that it will lead to their re-location. Brief interpretations of some aspects of the grave goods (such as the bored stone with fish vertebrae, the quartz artefacts, and the ochre and paint paraphernalia) serve to highlight the uniqueness of this grave, and its potential to inform on the woman and the possible worldview of the people who lived at Oakhurst Shelter during the mid-Holocene.