| Abstrakt: |
The Cradle of HumankindWorld Heritage Site (CoHWHS), Gauteng Province, South Africa, preserves a remarkable palaeontological and archaeological record. Since the 1950s, stone tool assemblages have been excavated from well-known cave sites in this region, offering valuable insight into the behavioural and cognitive capabilities of early human ancestors. Modern research perspectives draw on a wealth of information to understand taphonomic, site formation, and technological aspects of these assemblages, and to interpret their significance in human evolution. At a point when high-resolution spatial data can be captured at sites in the Cradle region, reviewing the history of how current interpretive models of archaeological assemblages have developed is important for forging future directions in research. This history highlights the evolution of classification and analytical trends that have led to current multidisciplinary approaches to archaeology in southern Africa. It also illuminates the fact there has been a narrow focus on palaeoanthropological cave systems, with less information derived from archaeological assemblages found on the landscape above. As such, cave sites in the Cradle have provided perspectives on the Earlier Stone Age, while the Middle and Later Stone Ages have unfortunately been under-represented. Future directions in research should focus on increasing chronological, environmental and spatial resolution of the archaeological record in this region, which requires the collation of a wide array of data from cave and open-air sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
