Cedarberg Workshop - Part Four - Salmanslaagte Rock Art

The last day of the conference dawned bright sunny and unbelievably hot!

View into the sandstone kloof where the walls are festooned
with rock art.

Salmanslaagte is found on the same farm as Travelers rest and until recently was open to the public. However cos of some idiots lighting illegal fires that threaten the vegetation and animals its now been closed to the public. However we were given special permission to visit the site. 

Approach to Salmanslaagte

The sandstones of the Cedarberg weather to form rockshelters and caves easily.

Ben for scale in a rockshelter  at Salmanslaagte

And many of these shelters were used for rock painting. Likewise many of the excavated shelters and caves have paintings on the walls. Salmanslaagte is situated in a sandstone kloof with large rock walls on either side and many overhangs and shelters. However Salmans' is most famous for a particular panel. 

Inside Salmanslaagte

Closeup of panel

More of Salmans'

The upper pictures above show a panel with four woman in a row. You will see how their arms are raised, hands close together and fingers splayed, this panel is interpreted as women dancing and clapping. Cool. Now look more closely at the yellow part of the image, the women are superimposed over a giant elephant! See the trunk going down between the 2 women on the right? and the front legs below the group of people under the women? This picture indicates that it was painted at different times, on different occasions and possibly by different people. Suggesting a continual use of the shelter over a (long?) period of time. 

Tourists!

Hunter. See the bow? Also note the intrusion of a
 black fungus along the body of the figure
(speckled areas)

These images are currently impossible to date. The black ones like above are made with manganese not charcoal (charcoal can be dated like at Chavet in France, but not manganese). 
Rock art both in the Cedarberg and in other parts of the country tends to contain repetitive themes like men, women, hunting and many strange shapes.

The phoentician ship

Closeup of the Phoenician ship - lower right

There are many legends that suggest that early civilisations might have circumnavigated Africa much earlier than recorded history suggests (thus far there is absolutely no evidence of this). These legends indicate that the sea faring traders, the Phoenicians (who occupied what is now Turkey) might have been the people responsible. So when researchers first found and described this rock art panel in Salmanslaagte they jokingly called this a phoenician ship, a name thats kinda stuck. In truth, no one knows what these symbols are or what they mean. 

Found near Salmans', see the boat?

The interpretation of the meaning of rock art images and their importance and possible meaning to the people that created the rock art is a matter for much debate especially those strange shapes I mentioned. David Lewis-Williams bases his interpretations on shamanistic practices of modern day San hunter-gatherer groups. He suggests that these paintings were created by shamans (or the equivalent thereof) probably after ingestion of hallucinogens and that many of the themes represent spiritual concepts. He refers to the strange shapes as transcendentals. Over the last 20 or more years this thinking has come to dominate rock art interpretations. 
Certainly there are many similarities between San traditions and images in ancient rock art and curiously there are no images of mundane, day-to-day, activities depicted in ancient rock art. However it is completly impossible to test any interpretations. Many agnostics to the Lewis-William school argue that some paintings clearly have very litteral meanings and that the shamanistic view point is being used too restrictively. 
We sat in the cool of that shelter (many people still feeling quite fragile from the night before) for a long time discussing these questions.

Discussing the meaning of rock art

In due course we returned to camp to complete the last few presentations. The conference finished off with Peter Gardenfors from Lund discussing the question of cognition. Cognition referrers (in this context) to modern human thinking. It encompasses things like cooperation, communication, planning, etc. And when you get down to it, this is the bedrock question around which archaeology is based. Lithic analysis of how stone tools were made, interpreting the meaning of painting, looking at what people were eating. It all come back to the same basic questions: When and how and why did we become essentially human? 
It was easily one of the most fascinating talks of the conference but I must have been over 40C in that room, the aircons have given up the dust so I took in a lot less than I would like to have had. It was so hot in fact that my laptop kept crashing. I was using it to try to finish those diagrams for the publication I mentioned in a previous post. PS that publication will be appearing sometime in this month and they are using one of those figures for the cover of the magazine! How rad!

Archaeologist snare! Foolproof! 100% guaranteed to work!
Step 1) Put out bag of rocks
Step 2) Wait!

The only way to cool down after a long conference.

Next week we will discuss the journey home with a stopover at Diepkloof Rock Shelter.

Cedarburg Workshop - Part Three - Mertenhof Rock Shelter

Cedarberg adventures continued...

On the way to Mertenhof

Remember I said my roommate was angry with me? Well here's how she let me know. Ok so as I said last week we were all meeting up at one of the chalets (the one all her friends were staying in) in order to drive to the venue each morning for breakfast. On the first day I do what is normal. Knock on her bedroom door, see that she is up, and chat a bit as we walk together to the meeting point. On the second day I am still getting ready when I hear the chalet door open and shut. I go out my room to find that she has just buggered off without so much as a good morning! What the heck? When I do make it to the meeting point it becomes clear she is shunning me! I am thinking you've got to be kidding me! How can anyone sulk this much over such a little thing? 
When I later try to talk to her about it in a nice way (maybe she is not a morning person, maybe Im over-reacting) she is all bubbly and aplogises for her behaviour the night before but continues to shun me! I really hate this kind of 2-faced behaviour! If you have a problem with me than come out and say so!

Anyway! By day 2 (Sunday) the Cedarberg had turned into a furnace. In the morning we undertook an excursion to Mertenhof Cave. On the way we stopped to admire the views. 

Compare this picture looking south at the Cedarberg
with the previous pictures looking north

What you can (not) see from these pictures is how the sandstones of the Cedarberg give way to the shales of the karoo. The importance of this point is in the availability of caves and rock shelters as well as material for making stone tools on the landscape. It partially explains why there is much more evidence for early man in the Cedarberg than in the Karoo.

Our (fearless) leader for the day's excursion was Alex Mackay, a postdoctoral fellow at UCT.

Alex Mackay pointing out the geology

John Parkington, adding his two cents in! Im starting to think that there
 isnt an archaeological site in the Western Cape that John has not worked on!

Our second stop on the way to the site was once again on the side of the road. From here we could see two caves in the valley yonder. Can you spot them?

The 2 dark spots on the rocks just above the bushes
 in the foreground.

The cave on the left is called Klipfonteinrand first identified (as having archaeological remains) many years ago and excavated by John it was recently re-excavated by Alex. 

Klipfonteinrand - Closeup

With so little time available for exploring we could not go to Klipfonteinrand as well, which is a pity.

I can certainly think of worse places to live than
this! Farm house at Mertenhof (team stays here
during excavations)

 We finally continued our journey, crossing into the Bedouw Valley to a farm called Mertenhof. Alex recently identified and excavated a new rock shelter on the farm to which he gave the same name.

Hiking up to Mertenhof

We parked the cars near the farm house and then hiked up to the shelter. Many people were in sandals, they would rather a snake bite or a busted ankle than the heat.

Simone giving us a pose 

The approach to Mertenhof

Many of these shelters have tricky or difficult approaches with climbing to get to them, maybe for safety purposes?

Can you feel the heat?

Entering the shelter.

Alex and his excavation team had only finished and closed up the shelter about 3 weeks before this visit. Excavations have to be protected between excursions. This is to preserve the material that is in the pits and has not been removed. It is also to preserve the vertical walls of the pits, to stop them slumping back into the deposit. This requires a lot of sandbags!

This is what a closed but active archaeological excavation looks like, all sandbags and tarpaulin.

This excavation needs to be particularly well covered as baboons are active in the area and a baboon in the pit can cause a tremendous amount of damage!

opening up the hole

View into the deposit

The deposits at Mertenhof cover a period from colonial times into the middle stone age.

Closeup of the deposit. The lables mark stratigraphic units
 or layers in the deposits. It helps the excavators and scientists orientate themselves.

It was amusing really. When we arrived at the site Alex rattled off the details of the middle stone age Mertenhof at the speed of light. It was only after we asked him to slow down and give us more details that we learned about the later parts of the deposit, including at least 2 later stone age burials! It was quite clear where his interests lay. Funny how one-tract-minded we can be.

Rock art on the shelter walls.

Tash showing us what dirty work archaeology it!

After lots of archaeology and bit of peace and tranquility it was time to pack up the excavation and head home. Messy, messy work which Tash can attest to!

The day's talks started with Alex and Alex (Mackay and Sumner, who is also a postdoc at UCT) showing us their work in Cedarberg. In the afternoon we had a fauna session which consisted of my supervisor and all his other students presenting their efforts at using different animals to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment. I was expressly told, when I asked my supervisor if I needed to present anything that I have no data and therefore was not allowed. I still find this instruction a little bogus as some of those that presented had no more to say than I do. Oh well its not like I was offering! 

That evening, with most people having already presented, including the student group I was with, the result was a pretty big party. There were some seriously blurry eyes the next morning! As to my roommate, our morning routine now became to not talk to each other! She has continued to give me the cold shoulder, even after we got back to Cape Town! I think on reflection that I may have made some remarks that she took offence to (like winding her up about not coming on some of the outings. I dont believe in missing outings cos one is too tired, hot, bored, jaded or overworked. That is the kind of attitude that misses out on life. This post would have been very short and uninteresting if I had missed out on the excursion just to finish my work or catch-up on sleep!). 

To be continued...

Rising Star Expedition and Graduation

We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news!

Mike, Aurora and me after graduation! Mike and Aurora are in red robes and silly hats cos they are PhD graduates

I returned to Joburg for a few days this week in order to attend the graduation event for my Masters degree. Now this is the third (and will not even be the last) graduation I have attended. And part of you kinda thinks do I really need to go through this whole thing again? But I must say it really is worth it. It does feel so good to walk up on stage and get your certificate. The other plus side was that there were many people from my old department, many of my friends that were graduating at the same event, so in the end it was the best graduation that I have ever attended! After the event, everyone including the head of the department went for drinks in the local pub. Tonight Mike is throwing a party to celebrate, a costume party with a 1990's theme. Should be interesting!

In other news, yesterday Aurora and I went to go see the excavations at the new rising star site that has been plastered all over the web and the news. If you have not been following then go to the National Geographic website for more info. To give you give you the short version. Local cavers (spelunkers) were exploring in a cave when they found what they thought were bones. They showed pictures of the remains to a local palaeontologist who recognised their potential importance. Thus Rising Star was born.

Looking through excavated sediments for small bones

 
Arriving in an empty field where a couple of ponies are grazing you will find a surprising security contingent and a tented emcampment. You may even find a couple archaeologists sitting in the shade having a lunchtime beer and talking.

Rising Star Camp

 
Take a wander up the hill, past outcrops of dolomitic rocks and you will find the command center (a larger tent) sitting next to the entrance to the cave. In there you will find banks of computers showing live camera feeds from inside the cave and others showing digital scanns and projections of the underground site. And most importantly, you will find presiding over his dominion, the modern "Indiana Jones" of archaeology Prof L.R. Berger!

The command center and the cave entrance

You have to hand it to him, there is a man that knows how to publicise palaeoanthropology and archaeology, how to bring them to the people. You may not like his methods, but you have to admire his style!

The entrance to the cave

 In the science tent we were introduced to the 600+ remains recovered from the site so far. Of particular interest  is the fact that with the exception of a couple of owl bones and some small rodent incisors all 600 remains are from hominids. As to which hominid, it is unclear at this stage. 

I dont envy these guys, it was sweltering inside the tent!

  The almost complete lack of faunal (animal) remains is extremely curious. Rising star is positioned close to other famous localities like Swartkrans, Sterkfontein and Kromdraai, all of which are rich in fauna. Indeed its impossible at this time to guess at the processes that could have accumulated so many hominid remains in such a deep cave without accumulating anything else. By the way Rising star has produced more hominids in two weeks than Sterkfontein has produced in over 50 years of excavations!

Safes bulging with fossils! How cool?

 
Many different individuals are represented by the bones, ranging from old to young. The recovery of a 'population' together on one site, is both almost unheard of and extremely exciting. It can fundamentally affect our understanding of the species represented by the deposit. 

Some postcranial remains. There is much dentition and even parts of the cranium have been discovered!

 
One of the biggest difficulties  facing the site is dating. And it is currently impossible to even estimate the date of the site.

It was good fun to go see this exciting new development in palaeonanthropology and I look forward to the results of the work with interest. 

Anyway we will return to normal programming shortly...

Cedarburg Workshop - Part Two - Hollow Rock Shelter

Continuing with our Cedarberg Exploration...

On our way to Hollow Rock Shelter

Every morning during the conference the group ( of 30+ archaeologists) would first go out on a quick trip to visit a local archaeological site of some significance, we would then be back and covered in sweat by 11am to start the morning talks, followed by lunch followed by a nap - aka the afternoon talks- in almost 40°C heat it was nearly impossible to stay awake sometimes. We had an evening talk after dinner on only the first day. Thereafter time was our own.

View across the farm on which Traveller's Rest is located

I will pause here to say that all these pictures (except from the last day) are courtesy of my office mate Emily, who is just back from England. Emily was in the final hair-tearing-out stages of finishing her Masters when I arrived in Cape Town. She has now started a PhD in Cambridge but is back here for a few months collecting data and doing her field work in the Cedarburg, nice for some. I realised sitting at my computer on the day of departure (sending off funding applications) that I had forgotten my camera! When I moaned about this Emily kindly loaned me one of her brand new cameras that she had gotten specifically for field work. Without her this blog would be a lot shorter and more boring!

The entrance to Hollow Rock Shelter. Emily (okay half of Emily)
 is on the left taking a picture with her other camera.

Day 1 (Saturday) saw us take a short drive followed by something of a boulder-strewn scrambled up a mountain to an archaeological locality called Hollow Rock Shelter.

The shelter is hidden under one the big boulders
 on the top of the hill

Boulder scramble

Almost there!

 As you can see from the images the shelter is a hollow space below a massive boulder with several runnels and entrances.

Looking through the entrance into the shelter

 A person has to craw to enter the space and its only 2 m at its highest point.

Close quarters inside the shelter

 In the 'roof' slightly to one side is a natural chimney, below which charcoal remains from ancient fires were discovered during excavations. 

The chimney

Taking a picture of someone taking a picture, but it
gives you an idea of  the relative position of the
 chimney over the fire pit (area where charcoal was recovered).

Hollow Rock Shelter was first discovered in the early 1990's. It was excavated by Lars Larson, among others. Lars himself was there to tell us about the site along with John Parkington, the head of the UCT archaeology department, who also played a role in the discovery and analysis of this site.

Lars Larson

 Hollow Rock Shelter is a Middle Stone Age site dated to around 80 000 - 72 000 years before present.

Nick Conard, Emily and Jess admiring some
 lithics (stone tools) in the shelter

The shelter contains numerous  projectile points and bifaces (stone tools) from the Still Bay Industry (The middle stone age can be broken into a number of archaeological 'industries' defined on a mixture of stone tools and other artifacts. These industries represent both a transition in time as well as a general sophistication of artifacts). 

Stone tools found in the shelter (I may get killed for saying
 this but I still think they are dreadfully dull!)

Stone tools found inside the shelter were better made than stone tools that were found on the rocky apron outside the cave entrance and Lars suggested that this might be the result of a teaching area. That the 'master' would sit inside the shelter and the students would practice outside.

Lithics found scattered on the hill top

Exploring the area around the shelter, there are many stone tools from early man scattered all around the rocks here. It became a standing joke cos I would be checking out the view and kept sitting on artifacts not noticing they were there! (Who cares about stone tools anyway?).

Typical archaeologists looking at the ground!

Enthusiasts even found time for a little rock climbing.

Jason showing us how its done!

A willing pupil

In time we returned to camp to start the first day's talks. 
The morning's talks were given by the Tubingen (Germany) contingent lead by Nick Conard on sites like Geelbek, Anyskop and Hoedjiespunt.

Some members of the German group and Cuan (UCT with the hat)
who happened to be in the wrong photo at the wrong time!

After lunch was a series of extremely fascinating  talks on Diepkloof Rock Shelter (pictures of this to follow) and Elands Bay Cave. Which were presented by the French and the remaining German contingents. 

Nap Time - Watching presentations and then having discussion sessions
afterwards. It was fascinating but often hard to stay awake in the heat.

Here is Guillaume Porraz (eye candy) telling us about Diepkloof 

My other office mate Katharine then had a give an evening talk before we could all relax and take it easy.

Archaeology students doing what we do best
(thats me on the right)

The adventures didnt end there though. Having retired early the night before I was now ready to stay up late talking rubbish (archaeology). The person I was sharing a chalet with (who will remain nameless in case she ever discovers this blog) went to bed earlier than me. When I eventually got back to my chalet it was to find that she had, for reasons that I will never be able to fathom, locked the door to the chalet - I was now locked out. This is a problem. So I start pounding on the door. After a good long while there is finally stirring from inside. This person snaps open the door, glares at me and proceeds to explain to me very angrily that she was sleeping (as in, how dare I wake her up!). I am thinking No-sh*t-Sherlock I would never have guessed that! Having said her piece she then stalks off back to bed, leaving me still standing on the doorstep. In her defense I dont think she was even properly awake, but what an attitude! Fortunately I was merry enough at this point to think all this rather funny. She apparently did not, as she continued to sulk with me for the rest of the trip apparently over waking her up in the middle of the night! When it was her own fault! Sigh some people! Soo all in all a great first day!
To be continued...